An emergency Anchorage Assembly meeting on homelessness concerns was scheduled, rescheduled, and rescheduled again by the Assembly leadership over the weekend. It finally took place midday Monday.
But Assembly leaders didn’t release the related documents — resolutions, lease agreements, operating agreements, and proposed ordinance changes — to the public until 20 minutes before the meeting began. With millions of dollars on the line, even the Assembly members and Mayor’s Office did not get the agenda and documents until the last minute.
It was an inauspicious start to a meeting that struggled to be serious, with most members calling into the meeting from their jobs rather than appearing in person for something that had been changed three times over three days.
Only Assembly President Suzanne LaFrance, and members Forrest Dunbar, Kevin Cross, and Pete Petersen were present in the room. The assemblyman who called for the meeting to be held in the first place — Felix Rivera — didn’t even show up at all. Instead, he sent in a statement that was read aloud by Chairwoman LaFrance.
LaFrance had no control of the meeting, and the motion to “lay on the table” all items under deliberation was postponed by hours of grandstanding by the progressive Assembly members who veered off topic. Assemblywoman Jamie Allard, who tried to call for an end to the out-of-order debating, was ignored by LaFrance.
Much of the Monday grandstanding was from members such as Dunbar, Constant, and Quinn Davidson, who badgered the mayor’s staff about whether the administration would ever use the Golden Lion Hotel, if the Assembly voted to make it legally possible.
Documents for the meeting can be found at this link.
Notably, Assemblyman Chris Constant had a meltdown, saying he was enraged at the mayor — and shaking — he was so mad. Yelling through the phone in a Shakespearean-like soliloquy, Constant said the mayor had not delivered a plan for dealing with the homeless. Assemblywoman Quinn Davidson, also calling in, said there was no plan.
Mayor Dave Bronson had, in fact, negotiated with the Assembly for a year and the Assembly has approved the negotiated plan, but has refused to fund it.
Subsequently, with delays created by the contrary Assembly, the mayor used Centennial Campground over the summer to provide camping spots for homeless people, get them out of the greenbelts and forested areas, where earlier in the summer a wildfire originated in a homeless encampment, raising concerns about public safety.
In the last couple of weeks, it appears the Assembly has spent over $30 million on homelessness response.
The mayor closed the Centennial Campground on Oct. 1 and helped over 100 people living there for free this summer move into the Sullivan Arena, where there are empty cots, blankets, and storage totes for them.
The remaining people at the campground are, so far, refusing to go to the Sullivan, but may change their minds as winter approaches. Nighttime temperatures in Anchorage are approaching 40 degrees.
The purpose of the meeting was to enter items into the agenda for Oct. 11 so the Assembly can rush through the legal process that involves paying for 50 or more homeless people to stay at the Alex Hotel on Spenard Blvd, the designation of the Golden Lion Hotel as an official emergency shelter, and some budget cleanup items related to using the Sullivan Arena as an emergency shelter. Millions of dollars are being discussed for this effort, which would only extend until the end of December.
Earlier, the Assembly was stymied in its efforts to push the Golden Lion, because the city lawyer pointed out that the Assembly had passed an ordinance in 2020 forbidding the use of the Golden Lion as a homeless shelter.
The issues will appear again on Oct. 11 at the Assembly’s regular meeting.
The Assembly is attempting a takeover of the homelessness response from the Mayor’s Office, and the meeting was one in a dozen meetings held lately to advance that agenda. The meeting went on for over two and a half hours but in the end nothing of substance was accomplished.
