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Where Juneau Assembly candidates stand on CBJ’s budget, cruise tourism limits and homelessness
All eight candidates weigh in on economic, other issues at forum hosted by the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
With suggestions ranging from boosting cruise tourism revenue to sending the homeless to other countries, eight Juneau Assembly candidates seeking three available seats made their cases to local business leaders during a forum Thursday hosted by the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce.
The hour-long forum gave all eight candidates one minute apiece to answer questions about balancing the city’s budget, imposing limits on cruise ship tourism and addressing homelessness. Additional questions specific to each of the three races were subsequently directed to those candidates.
See also: Assembly, school board candidates get first chance to distinguish themselves at downtown forum
Another forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Juneau, featuring Assembly and Juneau Board of Education candidates, is scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the KTOO Studios. It will be broadcast live by KTOO as well as livestreamed.
Juneau’s municipal election, which features three tax-related ballot propositions in addition to the candidate races, is Oct. 6. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to residents Sept. 18, with drop boxes also scheduled to be open starting that day.
Below are the candidates’ full answers to the three questions asked of all of them at the Chamber forum. The order of the candidates was determined by first grouping them by race and then listing in the order they were seated during the forum.
Assembly Areawide
Paul Kelly
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "I think there is one thing I learned from going through the budget this last year is there is no one simple cut that's going to solve all of our problems. But if we had to look at a couple I'd want to make sure that we are protecting our affordable housing fund by temporarily doing a moratorium on issuing grants and just focus on loans, money that we get back to keep it sustainable. While public-private partnerships aren't ideal as far as keeping our recreation facilities open, as somebody who uses them, whose family uses them I think that would be preferable to seeing them close or seeing their hours reduced. As far as revenue source, I think foregone revenue — there's still options there. I think we could potentially increase the sales tax cap or eliminate it."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "There's a lot about cruise ship tourism that doesn't bother me personally, but I've talked to a lot of constituents about helicopter noise, about ambulances being delayed going to Thane, about crowds downtown, about whale watching boats crowding the harbors, tourists on the trails, and when I co-sponsored the ordinance to codify the five-ship limit I heard emails from people saying that five ships was too many and I also heard people saying that five ships was not enough. So I support creating a standing visitor industry task force to advise the Assembly and gather data. It would be chosen by the Assembly. That would help people feel more represented. It would help us deal with more with day-to-day issues. That could evaluate our capacity both in ships and passengers using a data-driven approach, starting with the five-ship limit that we have in place. And I support starting codifying the five-ship limit as a good beginning point to the conversation."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "I put in a lot of personal time, taking vacation hours away from work to work with an informal task force over the winter. We came up with a band-aid solution of keeping the warming shelter open year-round so that people had a place to sleep at night and the police could again enforce our no-camping ordinances. There's still many things for us to improve. We still have no place fr people to go during the day, and we have people getting arrested for petty crimes and building a record, but they're not getting the services that they need to change their situation. Both the Assembly and our nonprofits should be involved in changing them. The Housing and Homelessness Coalition is how our nonprofits and government agencies have coordinated in the past. It's a group of overworked, but motivated volunteers, nonprofit and faith leaders, and first responders. This year, following up on our work from the informal task force, Assembly Member (Maureen) Hall and I have become involved in reforming this group to become more effective and redefining their mission."
James McCants
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "I think the mindset that's coming across that I’d like to dispel is it seems like some folks want to manage scarcity and I think we should be looking at promoting abundance. For the five-meter target — I was in the Army — for the five-meter target if we're looking at simply just next year's budget — I don’t know what that number is, somewhere underneath the $10 million range — if we're going to try to forego this whole 1% sales tax I think the easy solution, which it may not work, but the easy solution is where can we come up with those funds? We all know and we talk about all day about the gondola project. But right now, the city owes Goldbelt $10 million. We all know they're working on (their) project over there. So the easy five-meter target: let's just go talk to Goldbelt and say, ‘Can you point out on the map of the CBJ property in West Douglas a $20 million piece of parcel that will get you back for the 10 million (and) you write a $10 million check for the rest of it?’ I’ve also said that in the current fiscal problem that we have everything's on the table. I think selling concession for the two cruise ship docks is on the table, as well as Auke Bay for the commercial part. So those are just the simple ones."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "The first thing is how this is how this is being stated. So when I ask the average person (about) five cruise ship limits they're thinking of downtown. A conversation I have with someone else is ‘I wouldn't necessarily say I'm pro six ships downtown or seven ships downtown,’ so I understand where people are coming from. But when people hear five ships and when people talk about five ships most people are thinking downtown. The problem is that's not what's on the table. What they're referring to is Goldbelt. So essentially, as I said last time, you're going to run a situation where you're going to have if everyone builds the cruise ship docks that they want — meaning the two there over on West Douglas by Goldbelt, and we'll have the additional one by Huna Totem — we’ll have seven docks, but five cruise ships can only be here. As I said at the last meeting we had in here is there will be a day where CBJ gets business at two of their two cruise ship docks (and) let's say three cruise ship docks downtown get their business. You have a private business now that's literally being illegal for them to engage in business. As I've said before, that surely does sound like an economic system other than capitalism to me."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "I did work for Capital Transit, I've actually been the bus driver to go out there at 6 o'clock in the morning to go pick these folks up from (the) warming shelter. And I got to be completely honest, my sympathy level for some of those folks is extremely low. One morning I went in there and the gentleman was pushing his girlfriend because it's cots in there. The staff said, ‘Please, no violence.’ And I went up and got him in his face and I think I put my arm around his shoulder, and I'm like, ‘Hey, buddy, you want to push somebody this morning?’ So again, my sympathy levels are extremely low driving that bunch over to the Glory Hall. The only thing I think is a solution — and again, if these folks want some charity, I'm happy to provide that charity — but the amount of cost and the issues that is associated with that, I think some of them’s just going to have to get out of town. I mentioned last time I worked by the Mexico border, south of San Diego. I got Mexican health insurance for $100 a month. If you've been outside these borders you'd realize how much we're getting screwed on healthcare costs. I'm more than happy to help these folks, but trying to do that here in Juneau with limited resources and the funds we have just ain't going to work. So. I'm happy to send them overseas and bring them back if we can."
Brad Sapp
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "I believe the city missed the message on the vote last time around. I believe that the people in Juneau basically were trying to send the message to stop wasting our money. Pie-in-the-sky projects, throwing our money at different things that didn't end up with a return. The shortfall, I know we have to have projections to look ahead and plan, but when it comes to cuts and where we're going to make cuts we need to work with actual numbers. The projections for this year were obviously off as revenues are up, so we need to look at actual numbers. And as far as cuts go, I don't believe in one particular part of the government taking the cut. I believe it to be a shared burden. Everything should be looked at with regard to cuts."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "I fully support the tour industry. It's one of our three industries in Juneau. Basically, we've got tourism, mining and government — and a little bit of fishing. Tourism accounts for about 25% of our revenue and about 20% of our workforce. I don't support capping it. I don't support limiting it. I support encouraging it. I support nurturing it and growing it. We saw what we did when we killed the logging industry. So now we're going to try to kill the tour industry and we'll be left with what? Government and some mining, and I guess we'll go against the mining then. I fully support tourism."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "We keep calling it homeless. It's really a drug problem. The people that aren't housed right now aren't housed by choice and their choice is drugs over owning a home. I think what we need to do is to offer some type of rehabilitation and if they don't take it, we need to empower law enforcement to do their job. And then we need to have judges that uphold the work that the police do with regard to the drug addiction problem that we have in Juneau. As far as affordability goes, if the city got up off of some of the land and allowed for private development to meet the needs of the people here in Juneau, supply and demand would take control and ease the cost of housing."
Assembly District 2
David Morris
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "I will support the necessities of fire, police, roads, recreation and our schools. I think recreation is very important because it's for our families, our mental and physical health, it binds the community together as a whole. I think we need to get onto the deferred maintenance, and we need to stop doing the grants, and we need to look at the nonprofit sales tax, and we need to start new housing because we're having an influx of people coming in and new housing will generate that income that we need that we're lacking."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "I believe that the limit we have now is correct because we already have trouble down Thane Road, and if they build the port out in North Douglas then we're going to have trouble with that road too. Until we get another crossing or another way down Thane Road I think we're at our max right now. The current level brings enough revenue and if it was spent wisely it would take care of our necessary services. But I would like to say that the current head tax needs to be renegotiated so that more of it can be used to power the docks, to help with the pollution that we have in downtown, the sewer plants which they all use — the treatment plants — and road maintenance."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "The homeless issue I agree is a drug abuse and mental illness issue, and it also comes by lack of housing — a lack of available housing that is affordable. We need to research available federal grants available for mental illness and drug addiction, and also look at other cities where the homeless issue is being resolved like Portland. And there are nonprofits that work well with the homeless population, so the housing programs for homeless can be turned over to the local nonprofits to meet them where they are at, and then the city is not burdened with that extra thing. But I believe we should keep the warming shelter open. It is a place, especially in the winter."
Malachi Thorington
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "It goes without saying that CBJ's core responsibilities it's to maintain infrastructure, keep our water running, our power flowing, our streets cleared. After that, unfortunately, recreation activities take a second tier and in the current configuration those are going to suffer budget cuts. An analysis of dollars spent to residents served is realistically the fairest way to make those kind of cuts should those be forced upon us. I would also be working with the Assembly to request a much more detailed breakdown of the city budget. What we've seen is a little on the obtuse side and I would much rather see something similar to an open checkbook policy that people could actually get into without having to FOI the city to try to get that information. I think we actually have a lot more at our disposal than we would otherwise like to have. I am in favor of the seasonal sales tax, as that is one of the few mechanisms that will actually tap into the seasonal industry rush that we all see around us six months of the year."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "At the moment, I do not think that locking in a five-ship limit will help because it will just raise red flags to the cruise ships to start developing their legal strategies against us. It has been demonstrated in the past. Instead, we need to start analyzing legal justifications for cruise passenger limits in various sectors of Juneau. These justifications should start at life, health, safety and infrastructure considerations, as these will be the most likely used by the cruise ship industry when we try to do any kind of pushback, and also lays the groundwork for Juneau's cruise industry and tourism industry going forward. Attempting to put restrictions on the cruise ships is not going to benefit Juneau and we will lose that battle when they engage."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "I've also been in Eugene (Oregon), and agree with Karla as far as some of the strategies that we could be using for getting homeless off the streets and getting them to more localized spaces where they are not laying in parking spaces ready to get run over. Beyond that the homeless support structure in Juneau has done an impressive job feeding and warming people over the years, but that does not solve the problem that only deals with a few of the symptoms of homelessness and we see that on a daily basis. Getting people that come to Juneau from outside communities — by Lemon Creek (Correctional Center), social services, what have you — that wind up stuck in our community, I really think we need to emphasize trying to get those people back to their communities where they have hopefully social systems that can help them regain their footing again. The one thing I've experienced and heard talk about is that law enforcement has a tough time in dealing with the few bad actors that really are the bad apples in the bunch that are repeat habitual offenders and we need to have mechanisms to deal with those specific individuals because they do detract dramatically from the resources we have."
Karla Hart
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "I'm going to focus on tourism — that's not surprising to many of you. On the revenue side I think that we should be doing permits on commercial tours and we should have a commercial tour tax, and do that in lieu of the 1% seasonal sales tax which requires all of the businesses across all the segments to readjust things every year when we're really trying to get the money from the cruise ship tourism industry with a seasonal sales tax. So let's just do a commercial tour sales tax and focus on that. On revenues, I would also suggest that the city make a really close look at some of the large potential taxpayers in Juneau who are not paying taxes, or not paying what they probably should be. (With) the South Franklin Dock and the AJ Docks, the AJ Dock is assessed at $5 million for their dock as best I can see and I can't find that South Franklin dock is really assessed at anything."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "I support right-sizing cruise tourism and what I mean by right-sizing is really looking from the ground up at what the appropriate size of the cruise tourism industry is for Juneau. If every young person in Juneau, every person in Juneau who wanted a seasonal job, how many tourists could we support if we had full employment for everybody who wanted a seasonal tourism job? Try to eliminate the massive number of non-resident tourism workforce that come into the community, put huge stress on our housing stock and basically take the money away for us. We could have a really strong tourism industry where the locals, all the locals, were welcoming the cruise industry if we right-sized it, Bar Harbor, Maine, showed us that we can legally limit cruise ship tourism. That went through a federal appeals court and was upheld. So we have the right, and we should do it properly and not just a random number."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "I think that what the city's been doing so far has been incrementally doing what it's supposed to do at the level that it can. The homeless issue in Juneau and across the United States — and even across Canada and the world — is a symptom of something much bigger going on I think. So no one solution is going to solve everything. I'm really intrigued with the village model that Eugene, Oregon, is using which allows you to have a small encampment of people in a controlled area and they somewhat self-regulate, but within some guidelines, and it seems to be an option for accommodating some more people in a cost-effective way that provides an alternative. Another model that I was able to visit when I was in Eugene was the Square One model where they're using a local land trust to build housing."
Joyce Niven
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "For increasing revenue I have a couple of things. I too would look at the nonprofit sales tax exemption and I'd also look at others to see if any more makes sense. Also, I want to close the loophole on the third-party excursions tax exemption. Skagway has taken this step and CBJ is waiting on their court outcome to decide whether or not to take action. So I would like to consider proceeding without waiting. For expenses, I always want to look for efficiencies. Every budget cycle we should be looking for efficiencies. But for specifics I would delay new projects starting, and focus on our deferred maintenance projects. The recent Assembly at a recent Assembly meeting they decided to not put forward new bond measures for additional deferred maintenance projects, but we need to get caught up on those. And so I want to focus on our deferred maintenance instead of working on new projects that are going to distract staff time for new things when we need to work on the old deferred maintenance."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "To summarize what I've heard when I've been talking to people this campaign is the current level is working for businesses, but not necessarily for the community. Business owners I have talked with really want the ship's limit to stay where it is, so that they can stay open year-round, but citizens say it's too much. To me it seems as if we have too many because we don't manage them properly, and I feel we just need to improve the management of our tourism and our infrastructure. Personally, I've spent a lot more time downtown this summer since I've been campaigning and it's really not as bad as I thought it was. So just coming from a Valley person who used to avoid downtown, it's really not that bad. Codifying the number of ships does not allow for flexibilities as ships get larger. So I do not support a five-ship limit, but I do support a passenger limit at the current level and I'm also curious to see what impact the Huna Totem dock will have before we make major changes."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "As a member of the Juneau Housing First Collaborative Board, I know that the Housing First project is working. The warming shelter and camping restrictions are helping. The difference is Housing First is permanent supportive housing, while the other two are temporary solutions. We need more permanent solutions and we need to focus on prevention. The city needs to partner with the local nonprofits who are experts in this area to find the funding needed for mental health and addiction assistance. We also need to prioritize childhood, early childhood education and assistance for struggling families."
Assembly District 1
Mila Cosgrove
Budget cuts/new revenues to balance the city’s finances: "From a budget standpoint, I think we need to do a better job of honing in on our budget, making sure we understand what that gap looks like. From a revenue standpoint, I favor looking continuing to look at foregone revenues. I am very interested in the nonprofit sales tax exemption that's currently working its way through the Assembly. It's a complex issue, but I think it's one that can be navigated effectively. It just seems to be fair to me. From the spending side, I favor looking at places where there are redundancies and places where we can perhaps look at public-private partnerships. I'm specifically interested to see if we can move that conversation forward at the pool because there are two, and there might be other options for running them. And finally I believe we really need to go back and ask the public where their priorities are, particularly if the initiatives on the ballot that are currently underway don't pass."
Imposing five-ship/passenger limits on cruise ships: "I think one of the issues is about the current level. I think we're at a reasonable level now, but I also feel that we're at the limit potentially of what the community will tolerate, and what our built-in natural environments can handle. So I don't favor increasing a ton. That said, I also don't favor codifying the five-ship limit. I think right now the agreement is working. I like the fact that it's at five ships, that it's capped at 16,000 passengers with 12,000 on Saturdays, and I feel like we need to look to see how is that working for us? I think if we don't trust the cruise ship companies to comply with that then we always have the ability to codify something in our back pocket. But I think there's value to having that collaborative working relationship with them. And from what I can see at the moment it's working."
Effectiveness of Juneau’s current homeless assistance measures and suggestions for new ones: "What's working well is part of the question. I love that CBJ has extended the warming shelter. I think it takes some pressure off of the dispersed camping issue we've been experiencing. I think having a central place for Assembly grants that are coordinated through the social services arena is good. (Juneau Community Foundation) works on that. The youth shelter for vulnerable teens and youth is really good, those folks are at risk on the streets. And I think in general people's understanding of the issue is expanding, and I hear a lot more compassion and knowledge in the general public than there was five years ago, and I think that's all been good. Public safety. We used to have a downtown officer. I know the police are short-staffed, but it's good to have somebody on the streets downtown who knows people personally. It helps keep issues at bay. Continuing to supplement the downtown core and build businesses is helpful. Strengthening partnerships with providers (and) crisis response is good."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
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