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Anchorage computer system’s flaws cost millions

Suzanne Downing
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9
Anchorage computer system’s flaws cost millions

IT CAN’T CALCULATE UNION CONTRACTS PROPERLY

The Anchorage municipality’s business software system, SAP, has by now cost taxpayers in Alaska’s largest city more than $90 million — most of it under the watch of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz. He promised to fix it if he became mayor, but the problems are compounding, according to a report that is under wraps at City Hall.

SAP has been problem-ridden for years, but now word is leaking about yet another problem.

The Cliff Notes explanation: The SAP computer system doesn’t understand all the different union contracts and how they pertain to worker overtime.

Over the years, the various union contracts have become so complex that it is all but impossible to properly compute pay. Even the old software, PeopleSoft, had trouble with it.

The public employee unions have no incentive to simplify the negotiated rules, and the programming in the new SAP software didn’t come with those complicated contracts pre-loaded.

Since SAP is managed by out-of-state contractors, they also have no incentive to fix it. They’re making bank.

Normally, an employee would get paid a certain amount based on straight time, and another rate based on overtime. But the unions have their own “if-then” logic rules based on seniority and on what days the overtime was accrued, as well as the time of day it is accrued.

Built into the union contracts are steep penalties against the employer for any payroll miscalculations. The union contracts specify that if payroll is miscalculated, huge awards go to the affected workers. These are not small bonuses, but extremely generous ones.

It appears that a major swath of the municipal employee sector has had their pay and benefits miscalculated by the SAP system, and they are due thousands of dollars per employee in penalties, with some employees looking at as much as $40,000 or so in awards — not for work performed, but simply because a minor miscalculation by the SAP system led to penalties piling up day after day.

The fire union contract charges $50 a day for every day an error has not been corrected. AMEA employees are awarded a $60 daily penalty, and there are over 500 of those employees. Several of the municipal employee unions have filed grievances over the more than 1,000 adjustment requests.

Note: We’re hoping some enterprising news organization will have the staff resources to get their hands on the report, which is a matter of concern to property taxpayers. Must Read Alaska will get around to submitting a public records request eventually.

A Walker video ad that works; Dunleavy ad focuses on expert fish filleting

Suzanne Downing
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1
A Walker video ad that works; Dunleavy ad focuses on expert fish filleting

Gov. Bill Walker has struggled with his video campaign messages since launching them in May. They’ve been off-putting in different ways. None has been tone perfect.

His first video, showing him shoveling snow endlessly, focused on making fun of his critics. They were clowns, in his eyes.

His second video was spooky dark and gloomy, with a gangster vibe. His third effort was a video about a football game, but used rugby shots from the Bush Company rugby team playing in Anchorage. Awkward to include the strip-club’s rugby club.

The fourth, for Fathers Day, was a copycat video of a now-famous campaign ad from Texas. It was derivative at best.

But this week, he has an ad that actually nails it: In it, Bill Walker and his brother are shown as two working-class carpenters, coffee mugs in hand, as they travel around the state in a pickup truck that has a cracked windshield and they put up his campaign signs together. His brother narrates about their hard-scrabble upbringing, and how Bill Walker is just a carpenter-laborer who loves the state and the campaign is a family affair.

The argument is a stretch, because although Walker is handy with tools, he’s a multi-millionaire with income properties around the state and a home in Hawaii. But this is about messaging, and the message is that he is a real Alaskan:

 

WHAT ABOUT THE DUNLEAVY AD?

While Walker was sandbagging campaign signs along the roadways, the Dunleavy for Alaska camp has gone in a different direction, and rather than a drill, they bring a salmon to the message fight — and no candidate in sight.

The ad for Dunleavy shows you how to properly fillet a fresh-caught red salmon — one that you might catch on the Kenai this weekend, for example. The Facebook ad that rolled out Thursday evening stars radio talk show host Rick Rydell, who is a well-known fisherman, with a gleaming salmon, a work table, and a sharp knife. A river is the backdrop.

Rydell makes quick work of the salmon in less than two minutes. It’s not bloody, but it’s a one-of-a-kind campaign video that says, in essence, “We’re pretty sure you want to be fishing right now and this is how you save as much protein as you can.”

https://youtu.be/rDS9v19HI_c

 

It may be the first campaign video in Alaska history that has nothing to do with elections, and everything to do with “how to hack” the Alaska way of life that Alaskans cherish. And avoid those pin bones.

One of the best Facebook comments on the Dunleavy fish fillet video was the searing observation, “Walker’s video was How to fillet a PFD in half.”

That may have been the most accurate slice of all.

State’s ‘change agent’ has best temp job ever: Drive awareness

Suzanne Downing
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5
State’s ‘change agent’ has best temp job ever: Drive awareness

DETAILS: MAKES $95K TO PROMOTE ‘STAKEHOLDER CHANGE MANAGEMENT’

Must Read Alaska asked the State of Alaska for details about the hiring of the Innovation Stakeholder Change Manager. Here are the answers provided to our request about the circumstances surrounding the hiring of the former executive director of the Marquette, Michigan Chamber of Commerce to drive systemic change in the bureaucracy of the State of Alaska:

Jason Schneider was hired May 11, 2018. However, he had resigned his job in Marquette, Michigan in February and told reporters he was not able to discuss his new position that he had accepted out of state. His official start date, however, was in May.

Schneider was hired by the Chief Information Officer, Bill Vajda, in the Office of Information Technology, which is in the Department of Administration. The governor’s Chief of Staff Scott Kendall approved the hire.

Schneider reports to Ryan Mitchell-Colgan in the Office of Information Technology.

According to the state, his position is temporary and exempt and thus was not required to be posted. He earns $95,420 a year at Range 21C. From his own social media postings, the job description was still being negotiated in March.

Vajda, who hired him, is the former city manager for Marquette, Michigan. Vajda is the State of Alaska’s first Chief Information Officer, in charge of consolidating the state’s information technology functions into a single entity.

Schneider’s job description currently reads:

“The Innovation Stakeholder Change Manager position works under the Portfolio, Planning and Policy (P3) section and will focus on stakeholder change management across all agencies, promoting innovation. The goal is new and improved communications, metrics, business models and/or processes. P3’s focus is to prepare the critical infrastructure and mapping for OIT, creating and implementing organizational goals. The position will work with the Chief Technology Officers on technology requirements and work with stakeholders to drive awareness, proficiency and adoption of innovation processes and platforms. The position is critical to OIT to meet its goals of operational performance and management and implementation of service levels commitments and key performance indicators.”

Shhh! Governor hires ‘Innovation Stakeholder Change Manager’ in secret

MEANWHILE, ANNUAL DEFICIT

In 2016, Gov. Bill Walker instituted a hiring and travel freeze, but that was quietly forgotten after a few months. Three years after he took office, Walker still has a $700 million annual deficit, balanced  with money was used from the Constitutional Budget Reserve. In addition to hiring a Senior Climate Change Advisor, he has beefed up the Department of Health and Social Services due to the crush of applicants that have swamped the department since he expanded Medicaid to able-bodied adults of working age.

Today, there are 220 jobs advertised with the State of Alaska.

Elections Division: No ‘Vote by Mail’ for Anchorage in state elections

Suzanne Downing
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4
Elections Division: No ‘Vote by Mail’ for Anchorage in state elections

The Anchorage League of Women Voters asked the State to allow Anchorage voters to use the municipality’s new vote by mail system in the General Election in November, as muni voters did in the April 3 municipal election. The League had sent a resolution in May to the Division of Elections Policy Work Group, making the request.

The Division of Elections’ answer is “no.”

The explanation given is that to change the existing precinct-based system for state elections would require legislation to significantly modify Alaska State Statutes.  such as AS 15.20.800. Voting by mail. (a) “The director may conduct an election by mail if it is held at a time other than when the general, party primary, or municipal election is held.”

Based on this and other state statutes, the Division of Elections said it will conduct the 2018 elections as “vote in person at a precinct voting location” with early and absentee voting opportunities still available, as usual.

Anchorage went to a mail-in ballot, plus had strategically placed drop boxes for those who wished to avoid the post office. In addition, there were a few in-person voting sites before and on Election Day, to help those who were uncomfortable with the mail-in process. The entire election timeframe took weeks to complete and doubled the cost of elections in Anchorage.

But absentee ballots have been the norm for years, and will continue to be used the Division said. It just requires a bit of extra work on the part of voters: They must apply for their ballots in advance. The deadlines for applying for an absentee ballot are:

Primary Election: August 11
General Election: October 27

Apply for your absentee ballot here.

League of Women Voters asks state to adopt mail-in ballot

Dunleavy campaign deals with crush of volunteers

Suzanne Downing
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2
Dick Randolph introduces Mike Dunleavy at a fundraiser this week.
Randolph is a volunteer co-chair of the Dunleavy for Governor campaign.

VOLUNTEERS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

So many volunteers, and only 61 days until Alaska’s Primary Election is in the rear view mirror. It’s already a busy time, but the fun has just started. There are parades, postcards, and phone-calling ahead. In other words, the volunteering season is here.

The Alaskans for Dunleavy campaign has added over 100 volunteers in the past week alone, bringing the total to 600 statewide, from Ketchikan to Kotzebue.

That information was revealed during a “Meet Mike” event held at the home of former Mayor Dan and Lynette Sullivan in Anchorage on Wednesday. Every day, more and more volunteers are signing up, said campaign manager Brett Huber. It’s evidence of the strength of the grassroots support for Dunleavy, he said, and for a primary campaign is nearly unheard of in Alaska politics.

Dunleavy said that the best way for people to volunteer is to go to the website, AlaskansforDunleavy.com, where there’s a signup box with various options, such as knocking on doors, being part of the digital response team, making phone calls, displaying a yard sign, or hosting an event at your home.

Is a 600-person volunteer army too much of a good thing? The challenge for any campaign is to keep people busy doing things they like to do, or at least don’t mind doing. But campaigns are not glamorous ventures — they require a lot of elbow grease and phone calls. Many of the volunteers in this year’s campaign cycle may not have ever been part of a political campaign before.

For political candidates interested in getting better at managing a volunteer army, Must Read Alaska recommends reading:

A Guide to Managing a Volunteer Workforce, in Harvard Business Review.

If you’re thinking about whether volunteering on a political campaign is right for you, MRAK recommends reading:

http://www.politicalcampaigningtips.com/helping-others-the-best-thing-you-can-do-for-your-political-career/

 

APB for Jason Premo

Suzanne Downing
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0
APB for Jason Premo

POLICE TO PREMO: ‘LET’S TALK’

Anchorage police say Jason Premo is a “person of interest” in the murder of Geoff Sorden, 48, who was shot during a fight in an apartment on the 6000 block of Austin Street on Monday. Another person was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound, but survived.

The deceased man, Sorden, and Premo had history. In 2010, they were both implicated in an armed robbery of a meth dealer on Seldon Road in Wasilla.

Premo received 10 years, and Sorden was sentenced for two years in the robbery of Jeffery Kowal, who was also sentenced  for meth possession and distribution. Kowal’s wife and toddler were in the home during the robbery.

By 2013, Premo was out of prison and on electronic monitoring.
In February, Premo was arrested for possession after police contacted him regarding fraudulent return of merchandise and was found to have methamphetamine. He was among 17 people arrested during a sting at the Walmart store on DeBarr Road, where police and store security worked together to beat back a rash of shoplifting and other crimes.
Premo is 41 years old, and is 5’9″ tall and 165 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

A correction of Dermot Cole’s Senate Bill 21 takedown

Suzanne Downing
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4
A correction of Dermot Cole’s Senate Bill 21 takedown
Sen. John Coghill

PRODUCTION IS UP, THANKS TO SB 21

BY SEN. JOHN COGHILL
SPECIAL TO MUST READ ALASKA

Respectfully, Dermot Cole made a number of incorrect statements in his printed June 16, 2018 News-Miner article.

The statement that “[o]il production in Alaska is lower now than it was when SB 21 was approved,” is both inaccurate and an inappropriate comparison.

Although SB 21 was approved in 2013, SB 21 didn’t actually start taking effect until Jan. 1, 2014.  See the Tax Division’s historical timeline here. 

That being the case, an accurate assessment of Senate Bill 21 (oil tax reform) can only start in 2014.

So, let’s look at that.

According to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas, the Trans Alaska Pipeline System throughput in 2014 was 512,827 barrels per day.

TAPSThroughputData

How does that compare to 2018?

The most accurate assessment of current Trans Alaska Pipeline throughput can be found in the upper right-hand corner of the  Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s website.  Alyeska was formed to design, build, maintain, and operate the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.

For 2018, as of June 20, 2018 at 3:23 PM, the average barrels produced per day was 540,763.

540,763 (2018) is more than 512,827 (2014). The difference is about 28,000 barrels per day.

540,763 is also more than Cole’s alleged 2013 figure of 532,000.

Contrary to what naysayers have stated, Senate Bill 21 has been a good step in the right direction.

How do we know?

There is evidence. Alaska has seen increased investment. Stable tax policy is one part of the equation. That overall equation has led to higher production projections. Those projections exist today but did not exist in years past.

That’s good news for everyone.

John Coghill is a state senator representing District B Fairbanks-North Pole.

Not so fast: Dermot Cole plays fast and loose with the facts.

 

Alaska’s Medicaid population explodes

Suzanne Downing
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6
Alaska’s Medicaid population explodes

APPLICATIONS LOST, NOT PROCESSED, REPORT SAYS

At this time in 2015, the State of Alaska had 9,175 applications for Medicaid that were considered “out of time frame.”

That meant the applications were backlogged for more than 30 days. Some applications went back a year, which meant low-income, children, elderly, and disabled Alaskans were suffering because they couldn’t get qualified for Medicaid.

Then along came the tsunami — the Obamacare Medicaid expansion population brought on by Gov. Bill Walker with a stroke of the pen, over the objections of a majority of legislators. By 2018, the backlog of applications had increased to 20,000.

As critics predicted, the new applicants of able-bodied adults who earn up to 38 percent more than the federally established poverty level are crowding out the truly sick and needy.

Complaints started coming in: Applications were lost; there was no way to get a response from the Division of Public Assistance. The State Ombudsman’s Office was receiving more than two complaints every working day — over 400 in a year from both the regular Medicaid recipients and the new applicants under expansion.

The office had been working with DPS on individual Alaskans’ cases to try to get them resolved, but saw no improvement.

In January of this year, the Ombudsman’s Office initiated an investigation. It did a deep dive into the processes and challenges at the Division of Public Assistance. It looked over the shoulders of workers who were trying their level best to determine eligibility in an enormously complicated system.

The office’s report, released in May, documents a systemic failure of the Department of Health and Social Services under the direction of Commissioner Valerie Davidson to roll out the Medicaid expansion program in a way that would not harm the existing non-expansion population.

The Ombudsman’s report shows an agency overwhelmed by the flood of Medicaid expansion applicants, with a 24 percent increase in applications since Gov. Bill Walker grew the program starting Sept. 1, 2015.

Read the Ombudsman’s Report here, with several examples of complaints directly related to Medicaid expansion burdens.

Although the agency has not been able to retain its key workforce in this program, with a 54 percent turnover in the eligibility specialists and office assistants at DPS year over year, the Legislature authorized another 20 positions to address the growing backlog. The department had asked for more than double that amount.

The division now has the challenge of trying to prop up morale in the existing workforce, while hiring and training for dozens of unfilled or new positions, and answering the needs tens of thousands of Alaskans who are knocking on the door for an entitlement promised to them by the Walker Administration.

[Read: People starving because of Medicaid expansion]

Connecting the dots between Juneau’s economy and Juneau’s needs

Suzanne Downing
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2
Connecting the dots between Juneau’s economy and Juneau’s needs

By WIN GRUENING
SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

We don’t like talking about it much, but Juneau’s picturesque landscape has some scary bare spots we can’t seem to patch. Formerly full local malls remain half empty; our 121,000 square foot Walmart store building stands vacant; and most recently, the Capital City’s nationally renowned Perseverance Theatre is struggling financially.

Certainly, some of this is due to the demographic slump Juneau is experiencing as well as Alaska’s weak economic climate. Fewer jobs, declining population, reduced school enrollments, and lower state budgets, combined with rising crime rates, opioid abuse, and homelessness are just some of the fiscal challenges that Juneau must juggle going forward.

Our population decline, as in the rest of Southeast Alaska, is even more concerning as 2020 census and re-districting approaches. It’s quite possible, even likely, Juneau will need to draw population from neighboring towns to maintain its two State House seats, further reducing whatever clout we may have in garnering state funding for capital projects and other needs.

Win Gruening

We are fortunate to have the visitor and mining industries along with state employment (albeit declining) to help mitigate these trends.

Despite this, Juneau is shrinking – meaning it will be more and more difficult to spread the costs of government, education, public safety, social services, and our aging infrastructure over fewer and fewer people.

This trend isn’t just isolated to the private sector.  The Juneau School District is under extreme financial pressure with diminished enrollments and state revenues along with the burden of facilities that are under-utilized. The Juneau International Airport has been unable, up to now, to complete re-construction of the obsolete and aging north wing due to funding shortfalls.

One of Juneau’s most significant and critical pieces of infrastructure is our water and sewer system. Despite benefiting from last year’s generous sales tax allocations, it remains woefully under-funded.  Juneau has some of the highest water and sewer utility rates in the state, yet forecasts are that these rates will continue to rise dramatically.  CBJ’s own study recommended spending $75 million every 10 years to upgrade one-quarter of our water and sewer infrastructure so that it’s completely replaced within its 40-year lifespan.

Thus, many people are asking, “With a stagnant economy and declining population coupled with rising community financial needs, why would we add major new services and facilities that will likely increase taxes and/or decrease necessary services elsewhere?”

Currently under consideration are large funding requests towards a $32 million arts and culture center project (plus at least $10+ million for parking) and a $2.8 million annual outlay for a new Pre-K childcare program.  Also, being proposed is a new city hall atop the Main Street Parking Garage.

While these projects may be well-intentioned, under current economic circumstances, should they be considered a priority for city funding?  Won’t they either replace funding for other necessary projects or precipitate increases in municipal taxes?

If Juneau’s population was growing, our economy was robust and vibrant, and living-wage jobs were rising, these ideas might make sense and be worthy of consideration.  Under those conditions, tax revenues would be increasing and there would be more people willing and able to support new programs and facilities.

Ironically, projects that would actually expand our economy, such as the Lynn Canal Highway or re-writing the mining ordinance to attract new mining operations, receive no end of public scrutiny, fiscal analysis and serious pushback from those who view growth as detrimental to our quality of life.

Therefore, supporters of spending public money on the arts or preschool programs should have no objection to having their projects subject to equally rigorous examination.

In the interests of transparency, prior to any CBJ staff or Assembly action or community-wide vote on any of these initiatives, serious objective financial analysis must assure residents that funding (through debt or otherwise) won’t prevent other more essential projects from moving forward.

Further, forecast operations of proposed projects should be detailed enough to ensure they will not incur additional operational subsidies that would negatively affect future community priorities or cause an increase in our municipal taxes.

Only then, after all the dots are connected, can we truly make thoughtful and well-informed decisions.

Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is active in community affairs as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.

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