By WIN GRUENING
The Oct. 1 Juneau municipal election is shaping up as a referendum on changing the status quo. In the case of the school board, it’s about change that has already taken place. In the three assembly contests, including the mayor’s race, it’s about change that needs to happen.
Juneau School Board:
Besides filling three school board seats, Juneau voters will decide whether to recall school board president Deedie Sorensen and vice president Emil Mackey for leading a school consolidation plan effort, approved 5-2 by the board.
The petition targeting these two board members is ostensibly about last year’s district budget. But it is actually about a minority of aggrieved parents who couldn’t convince the board to keep both high schools open in the face of declining student counts and significant budget deficits.
Recall boosters say they wanted to “rebuild a climate of trust and cooperation between the community and the Board.” But they’ve run a campaign misrepresenting facts, smearing the school superintendent, and blaming current school board members for poor decision-making by past boards and administrators.
Firing school board members for having the courage to make controversial decisions will have a chilling effect on future board decision-making and will discourage potential candidates from running.
Both Mackey and Sorenson have mounted a strong defense. Voters can visit juneaurecall.com to weigh their arguments and then vote accordingly.
City and Borough of Juneau Assembly:
The Assembly ballot offers two candidates for mayor, two for the District 1 Assembly seat, and five for the District 2 Assembly seat. The only incumbent running is Beth Weldon, seeking her third term as Juneau’s mayor. Weldon is being challenged by Angela Rodell, the former CEO of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.
As with the school board, voters should ask themselves whether our incoming Assembly should consider needed change. In past op-eds, I chronicled the lack of transparency in Assembly decisions, the Assembly’s reluctance to recognize Juneau’s demographic trends and encourage economic development, their unending reasons for spending money (resulting in higher taxes), and their disregard for voter decisions.
Examples of these actions have been largely indefensible.
The idiosyncrasies of vote-by-mail elections were unilaterally imposed on Juneau residents by the Assembly with little public input. The cost to Juneau taxpayers mounts each year while problems of duplicate ballots (at least 600 this year) and rejected ballots (168 last year) remain and the promised increase in voter turnout has never materialized. Despite this, the Assembly has declined to consider any changes.
The Assembly’s obsessive effort to build an expensive new arts & culture center lacks economic justification. Without a financial feasibility study, the Assembly has squirreled away millions of dollars for the project despite funding being rejected by voters. Likewise, a failed attempt to build new city offices (twice rejected by voters) has resulted in millions of dollars appropriated and held hostage without voter approval.
The Assembly has presided over double-digit increases in property taxes courtesy of a contentious and contested assessment scheme that has never been fully explained.
The Assembly continues to drag its feet on approval of the Huna Totem dock proposal which will mitigate both cruise congestion and ship air emissions downtown. The potential $150 million private investment would provide needed employment and an economic boost to the community.
Greater urgency in addressing potential flooding after glacier outbursts in the last two years is paramount. It seems the ball was dropped after last year’s flood and now Juneau is playing catchup. So far, millions have been committed to studies but little in the way of utilization of local construction expertise or practical short-term help for Mendenhall Valley residents facing a potential catastrophe.
These examples may stem from naïve personal philosophies that fail to grasp how taxation and spending impact Juneau’s cost of living and discourage healthy community growth. Or they may be a result of Assembly members accepting city staff recommendations at face value without asking tough questions.
Regardless, if Juneau voters (and taxpayers) want to change the direction of the Assembly to ease the economic anxiety and sense of frustration felt by so many, this is their opportunity.
Nothing will change if you don’t vote for change.
After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.
Nothing will change because we don’t vote for change.
Excellent commentary.
Thank you.