Last year, the Juneau Police Department launched the “Year of Kindness” initiative to encourage people to commit acts of kindness on a daily basis. The experiment wrapped up with a community party on New Year’s Eve with food, music, and Native dancing.
The Juneau crime rate didn’t drop in 2017, kindness notwithstanding.
This year, the police are instituting a new program: Officers will be wearing body cameras.
The Year of Kindness challenge followed a period when crime had skyrocketed in Juneau. In 2016, there had been a 28 percent jump in property crime. Burglary was up 60 percent.
Crime statistics for 2017 will be released later this month, but in the meantime, Juneau is also coping with a shortage of police officers and an explosion of homelessness and drug abuse.
Five sworn officers of JPD have the body cameras already, which attach magnetically to their uniforms. All officers will be wearing them before the end of the year, according to Police Chief Ed Mercer.
The last Juneau Police Chief, Bryce Johnson, told the Chamber of Commerce in July that property crimes were rising and that SB 91 was to blame for a lot of the problem. SB 91 is the criminal justice reform bill that is widely blamed for the increase in burglaries and thefts.
“If it’s not bolted down or locked up, someone is going to steal it,” he said.
OUR EYEBROW-RAISED COLUMNIST WONDERS ABOUT THE AFL-CIO’S END GAME
By ART CHANCE SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
As I read Charles Wohlforth’s piece in the Anchorage Daily News about Alaska Psychiatric Institute being an unsafe place to work, I felt a twinge of regret to see the passing of my legacy.
The last time communists — excuse me, Democrats — ran State government, Mark Boyer, Gov. Tony Knowles’ first commissioner of Administration, swaggered — or waddled — into our office and announced that he’d campaigned with the unions for the commissioner’s job and had promised them he would fire us all and replace us with people acceptable to the unions.
I said, “Let us know how that turns out” and walked out, but you can only work for people you hate for so long. I put my affairs in order and went to work for the Legislature with Commissioner Boyer’s misery as my main mission.
A few years later Boyer was gone and they hired me back to end the misery and fix the mess they’d made.
I had two charges: End the State’s embarrassing and expensive string of arbitration losses and, in the words of my new commissioner, “Get ASEA out of my buildings and off my back.”
ASEA — the Alaska State Employees Association — in those days was into guerilla theater. Their stock-in-trade was mau-mauing State managers.
Even before Wohlforth, they had ready access to the Democrats’ propaganda organ, the Anchorage Daily News. They would start with something in “The Ear.”
Art Chance
Then there’d be an article posing as news about a “poll” they’d done about how unhappy the employees at the division of widget-making were.
Then, there would be a poll about how terrible those loyal, dedicated employees thought the supervisors and managers of the department of widget making were, and how unfair and uncaring the State was.
Sometimes it would come to singing songs and carrying signs outside the offices of the department of widget-making or even outside the supervisor of widget-making’s house.
Those were the days when the State’s primary labor relations manual became Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”
As Wohlforth’s screed in the ADN last week demonstrates, ASEA is back in the State’s buildings and back on a manager’s back; it’s been almost 20 years, but they’re fully in charge again.
Now, I’m not arguing about that woman’s claim to have been injured at API. To keep body and soul together and pay for college, I once worked in a mental institution. I have a very nice scar above my left eye from the head of a push broom in a pillow case that a recently admitted drunk in detox swung at me.
We carried hypodermic needles with 1200 mg of Thorazine in our shirt pockets; beat the hell out of having to beat hell out of them, or have them beat hell out of you.
It isn’t an easy way to make a living and nobody should do it very long. I stayed at it long enough to become a supervisor. When my new hires first came on they talked about helping people; after a few months they talked about euthanasia.
What I don’t get is why ASEA is doing it. They own the government. Vince Beltrami, president of the AFL-CIO installed the Walker Administration and ASEA’s Jim Duncan is his second in command and largest single source of dues income. ASEA can get anything it wants from the Administration.
The woman at issue has Workers’ Comp and ASEA health insurance. The State almost never controverts Workers’ Comp claims. If there are inordinate safety risks at API, the commissioner of Labor is the former union rep for the union that represents the DOSH investigators. ASEA represents the support staff, and even the supervisors are in an AFL-CIO union.
The department of Health and Social Services at one time had a bad reputation for retaliating against employees who cause trouble, but that pretty much ended when they lost their independent human resources and labor relations authority back in the Murkowski Administration. They have more independence now, but their human resources head is a former State labor relations hand, who knows the law and the game.
So just what is ASEA’s game? They don’t need a grievance procedure or a newspaper article; they have everybody who is anybody in the Administration on speed dial.
Sometimes these things are nothing more than a shakedown: “Give us some money and we’ll leave you alone.” But this doesn’t seem like a good time to be asking the Legislature for a budget increase.
Or, maybe the Walker Administration has reached the point in only three years that it took the Knowles Administration six years to figure out; it is hard to run an organization and stay friends with the unions, especially when they think they own you.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon. He only writes for Must Read Alaska when he’s banned from posting on Facebook. Chance coined the phrase “hermaphrodite Administration” to describe a governor who is simultaneously a Republican and a Democrat. This was a grave insult to hermaphrodites, but he has not apologized.
The people you support says a lot about your perspective. Our current Anchorage mayor HOSTED a fundraiser [for] Maria Cantwell— the US Senator who offered an amendment to strip ANWR out of the Tax Bill.
Let that sink in— the mayor of the largest city in Alaska is an ENTHUSIASTIC supporter of one of the most rabidly anti-development members of Congress.
So Mr. Mayor — what’s YOUR plan for the economic recovery of Anchorage and Alaska if you support Alaskans being blocked from accessing our natural resources?
MUST READ ALASKA FACT-CHECKED: Yes, Berkowitz did host a fundraiser for Maria Cantwell, opponent of Alaska ANWR 1002 area development and he allowed his name to be included in support of her.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of what is arguably the most historic year in modern American history. We’ll be reading and watching videos about the social unrest, the war in Vietnam, and the anti-war, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism movement that swept the globe.
Here are just a few of the anniversaries that will be noted by history buffs as the year unfolds. Not noted here is a multitude of other important battles and events in the Vietnam War and the associated growing unrest among American college students, much of which was encouraged by a growing communist movement in America.
JAN. 21: The 50th anniversary of the siege at the Khe Sanh Combat Base, during which the 26th Marine Regiment was encircled by tens of thousands of North Vietnamese fighters. The Marines went through their ammunition and supplies quickly and stayed alive with air drops supported by the U.S. Army and Air Force. In the end, 205 U.S. Marines were killed, 1,668 were wounded and as many as 15,000 enemy fighters were killed. Once the siege ended, 1,600 North Vietnamese bodies were found just outside the base. The seige lasted until July. 11, 1968, when the base was finally closed and evacuated. Read more about this amazing battle at Wikipedia.
JAN. 23: North Korea captured the USS Pueblo, a surveillance ship. This heightened Cold War tensions in the region, coming just 15 years after the Korean War. The Navy ship had been monitoring the North Korean military from the channel between Korea and Japan. The 82 members of the crew who survived being captured were starved and tortured, but were forced to say during a news conference that they were treated kindly. They snuck in comments that showed they were being forced into those statements and extended their middle fingers to show what they really thought. When the North Koreans eventually discovered what the sailors had done, they beat them severely.
JAN. 30: North Vietnam launched what became known as the Tet Offensive. It was the beginning of the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Some 85,000 North Vietnamese fighters attacked 36 targets in South Vietnam, taking the U.S. and South Vietnamese by surprise. More about this event is written by Mark Bowden (author of Blackhawk Down) in Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam.
JAN. 31: Viet Cong attack the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.
MAR. 13: An oil discovery at Prudhoe Bay is confirmed by Humble Oil, (which later became part of Exxon) and Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO).
MAR. 16: Mai Lai Massacre, American troops killed Vietnamese civilians in Mai Lai, but the event is not known until November, 1969, and it fuels public sentiment against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
MAR. 18: Congress repeals the “Gold Standard,” the requirement for a gold reserve to back all U.S. currency.
APR. 4: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee as he stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel. James Earl Ray was arrested on June 8 for the assassination.
MAY 13: After French Communists and French Socialists formed an electoral alliance in February, Paris riots begin, where more than one million students, Communists and Socialists took to the streets to protest capitalism, American imperialism, and traditional institutions. At one point during the unrest, President Charles de Gaulle fled the country for a few hours.
JUNE 5: Robert Kennedy, who was a candidate for president, was shot and killed by an assassin at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after he had given a campaign address in the ballroom. He underwent brain surgery, but died 26 hours after the attack. He was 42.
AUG. 5-8: The Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Fla. nominates Richard Nixon for President and Spiro Agnew for Vice President. He goes on to defeat Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat, and George Wallace, the Independent.
AUG. 26-29: The Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. President Lyndon B. Johnson had earlier announced he would not run for re-election. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine were nominated for president and vice president.
NOV.6: What became the longest student-led strike in United States history began at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley.
DECEMBER, 1968: Mao Zedong’s brand of communism continued to expand in China with the “Down to the Countryside Movement“. For the next decade, 17 million young “intellectuals” living in cities were ordered to go to the countryside to work in farming collectives. The term “intellectuals” applied to middle school graduates, or “educated” who were sent away from their homes to be “rusticated.”
DEC. 11: After the death of Sen. Bob Bartlett, Alaska Gov. Wally Hickel appointed Ted Stevens to fill his position in the U.S. Senate.
DEC. 24: Apollo 8 was the first manned space craft to orbit the moon. Among the memories of that event were the first photos taken of Earth from deep space, including “Earthrise.” The mission was part of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the book, A Man on the Moon, author Andrew Chaikin said the astronauts received thousands of telegrams after returning, but the one that stood out from the others simply said: “You saved 1968.”
WHAT BIG EVENTS DID WE MISS?
What events of 1968 did you find important in an historical sense? Led Zeppelin’s first American concert? The Gun Control Act of 1968? Your comments and additions are welcome below.
As the final hours close on fundraising for candidates during 2017, gubernatorial candidates, as well as state House and Senate candidates, have been dialing for dollars. It’s tedious work but every little bit helps.
The campaign of Gov. Bill Walker has gone the extra mile, leaning on the credibility of First Lady Donna Walker, who penned this letter to supporters for broadcast on the final day of 2017:
“I have been an eyewitness to the daily leadership Bill Walker and Byron Mallott have provided the state these past three years.
“I’ve witnessed their courage, in the face of an unprecedented deficit, as they made prudent, not popular, decisions to preserve dividend payouts for future generations and reduce state government to the size it was a decade ago.
“I have also witnessed many Alaskans thanking them for saving lives through Medicaid expansion, for working together as no governor or lieutenant governor has done in recent memory, and for appointing a cabinet and judges who are representative of our diverse communities and populations.
“As they seek re-election, I am also witnessing the overwhelming support they are receiving and the donations that are pouring in.
“Tonight at midnight, the final donations will be collected for 2017. Please stand up and be counted as Alaskans unite to make history again and re-elect the only independent governing team in the country – the team that will continue to show courage, leadership, true grit and devoted allegiance to putting Alaskan values first.
“My thanks and best wishes to you in the New Year, ~ Donna”
Word on the street is that fundraising for Walker/Mallott has been robust, particularly his most recent fundraiser at the home of former Gov. Bill Sheffield, where he is said to have raised $80,000. Much of his support is coming from Democrats, unions, and Native health consortium executives whose salaries more than doubled as a result of Medicaid expansion.
Candidates can receive no more than $500 from any individual during the calendar year that ends tonight. On Jan. 1, the cycle starts again, with donations to state campaigns limited to $500 for 2018.
According to the Washington, D.C. news organization, Politico, the Alaska governor’s race in 2018 makes the top 10 list of most interesting gubernatorial races in 2018.
Illinois, New Mexico, and Maine hold the top three spots, with Illinois expected to be one of the most expensive gubernatorial races in that state’s history.
Here’s what Politico says about Alaska’s race:
7. Alaska — Independent Gov. Bill Walker is running for reelection.
Walker is an independent, which means he doesn’t enjoy the support of either the Republican Governors Association or the Democratic Governors Association. No Democrat has jumped into the race to challenge Walker from that side, although former Sen. Mark Begich’s name has been floated. On the Republican side, the RGA and a trio of declared GOP gubernatorial candidates — former state House Speaker Mike Chenault, businessman Scott Hawkins and former state Senate President Charlie Huggins — are eager to unseat Walker. The Alaska Republican primary is late, on Aug. 21, so the field could get bigger or change before then. But the bottom line is that Alaska is a reliably Republican state, and the GOP likes its odds against one of the more unusual governors in the country.
The report may have been written before Republican Sen. Mike Dunleavy rejoined the race in late December, after taking a few months off to deal with a health issue. And it also ignores Michael Sheldon, a Republican from Petersburg.
Alaska Republican candidates Mike Dunleavy, Charlie Huggins, Scott Hawkins, Mike Chenault and Michael Sheldon.
In Alaska, Republicans and Democrats have occupied the Governor’s Office in roughly equal measure, with five Democrats and seven Republicans.
Gov. Bill Walker in 2014 left the Republican Party to run as an undeclared candidate paired with Democrat Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. He had the full support and financial backing of the Alaska Democratic Party, which withdrew their candidate to ensure Walker’s victory.
Thirty-six governor’s seats are up for election in 2018. Thirty-three governorships are occupied by Republicans.
Unrelated to the Politico article, the University of Virginia’sLarry Sabato’s Crystal Ball puts the Alaska race in the toss-up category:
I’m closing out 2017 with gratitude — and a report to my readers.
Here are some fun stats about Must Read Alaska:
The web site had more than 562,000 individual visitors in 2017 and more than 5.1 million page views on stories. (We’re still counting through Sunday night).
Top cities for readership are, in order: Anchorage, Seattle, Wasilla, Fairview-Knik Arm, San Francisco, Juneau, Fairbanks, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
57 percent of readers are returning visitors. Thank you for returning!
More than 10,000 Alaskans receive the Monday Must Read Alaska newsletter (sign up at the right side of this page).
3,500 Alaskans also receive the Wednesday and Friday News Flashes in their email in-boxes.
33 percent of those emails get opened. (I appreciate everyone who passes the Newsletter and News Flashes along to their lists — those are very effective ways of sharing information).
TOP FIVE
The top five stories of 2017 on Must Read Alaska were:
Yes, keeping this all running is a lot of work, (and I don’t always get it right, according to some readers).
But many of you have helped me — you know who you are — and Must Read Alaska continues to improve, I am told. The notes, the financial support, the tips, and the corrections are all welcome.
I appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you for being patient during the site and newsletter remodel, the occasional server crashes, and when I can’t get to a story you think is important. Thank you for coming back.
With our great state and with so many solid citizens, together we will pull Alaska out of the economic doldrums. We must continue to believe in our sense of purpose as Alaskans to build a state that values individualism over collectivism, and enterprise over entitlement. We must continue to contain government to its fundamentals, and allow the free market to thrive.
With your support, I’ll continue to fight for common-sense conservatism in 2018.
What can yo do? You can help underwrite this site (see below). You can share stories on Facebook and Twitter. And you can pass along Must Read Alaska to your circle of friends.
Thank you for a great year. Happy New Year! Let’s crush it in 2018!
This month the City and Borough of Juneau staff asked the Assembly to appropriate an additional $250,000 to fund legal costs associated with defending a pending lawsuit initiated by the cruise line industry (CLIA).
This latest amount brings the total legal costs appropriated to almost $850,000 – approximately $300,000 from cruise line fees and the rest from sales taxes.
Ominously, the city’s Finance Director, Bob Bartholomew, recommended an additional $750,000 in sales tax revenue be set aside for future legal defense costs – bringing total expected legal costs to $1.6 million.
The city has passed on several opportunities to settle this litigation out of court. The issues involved have been a source of contention for years, but city officials haven’t been responsive to written requests by the industry to discuss an amicable solution.
Win Gruening
As a last resort, CLIA filed its lawsuit in April 2016 to bring resolution to the matter. Since then, attempts to negotiate an out-of-court agreement have been rejected by the city.
In a series of motions, the city’s legal team has attempted to change jurisdiction, delay court proceedings, and get the judge to rule prematurely on points of law. None of those motions were granted.
Now, the city may be facing a possible unfavorable court ruling far more damaging than any agreement that might have been reached. This could leave a huge hole in the city budget amounting to millions of dollars.
Aside from the financial implications of such a ruling, the adversarial position taken by the city may come back to haunt Juneau in any future dealings with the industry.
Framing the debate as David battling Goliath, some have claimed the industry’s intention is to invalidate the $5 marine passenger fee and $3 port development fee the city is now collecting, and that this must be defended. This presumably would jeopardize funding for existing port infrastructure (such as docks) used by the cruise lines.
Unfortunately, cruise line critics have mischaracterized the nature of the lawsuit and the basis for it. This, in turn, has fueled a misguided backlash against the industry – especially on social media platforms.
The fees being charged (commonly known as “head taxes”) are not at issue and the funding of port infrastructure has never been questioned. Clearly, it’s legal to charge such a fee. Other communities in various parts of the country including Alaska have done exactly that.
The CLIA lawsuit is challenging is how the fees are spent. Under Federal and State law, the fees are restricted to limited purposes. Their lawsuit states Juneau has over-reached by going far beyond the constitutional definition of permissible uses. It further recites the U. S. Constitution’s “Tonnage Clause” that limits port fees charged by governmental entities to only those that are “reasonable compensation for services rendered to, enjoyed by, and available to the vessels entering their ports …”
Examples of questionable items are a $10 million seawalk and 2.6-acre artificial island, general governmental operations of Juneau, transit bus services, wireless internet, civic beautification and park improvements, city street maintenance, airport and hospital expenses, among others.
The city manager points to a state audit as proof that passenger fee proceeds are being spent correctly, but that audit didn’t examine whether the ultimate use of the fees was constitutional.
Others have questioned why the industry can contest a fee that is paid by the passenger. It is generally not understood the fee is charged to each vessel but is determined by the number of passengers on board. If not paid by the vessel’s owner, according to city ordinance, the ship could be barred from the port.
After all this, it’s difficult to understand what the city staff legal team’s end game could possibly be.
The way city legal fees have been funded – partly by marine passenger fee proceeds and the rest through sales tax revenues – may be a clue. According to City Attorney Amy Mead, it’s hard to know whether using marine passenger fee revenue for this purpose is legal.
Is it possible that city officials do believe that some of the uses currently being funded through cruise line passenger fees may be unconstitutional, but are hoping enough will be ruled constitutional to justify the continuation of the lawsuit?
Official discussion of the litigation has largely been conducted in executive session. Therefore, the city’s legal strategy is publicly unknown. But, it would be troubling if the city’s legal defense team believed although the city may be violating the constitution it’s ok because it just isn’t as much as the industry is claiming.
If we eventually discover that theory is the best defense our city can muster, the public will rightfully wonder why we spent millions of dollars on lawyers instead of negotiating a settlement.
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.
It’s a sign of tough economic times in Alaska: The Iron Dog race has cancelled its ceremonial start on Fourth Avenue in downtown Anchorage.
Jim Wilke, president of the board, said the race itself will go on, starting at Big Lake on Feb. 18, but tough economic times has caused the race to pull back on the pre-race festivities. The ceremonial start was added in 2015 under former executive director Kevin Kastner.
“The downtown start was a fantastic addition to our race, but it was simply too expensive and complex to continue. We look forward to another great race as we celebrate 35 successful years of Iron Dog,” Wilke said in a statement. “We are finalizing plans for all our related support events and will release an updated schedule very soon.”
The ceremonial start featured the “Flying Iron” freestyle show, vintage snow machines, activities for kids, and a chance for people to meet the racers.
The Iron Dog race crosses the state of Alaska each February as teams take snow machiens from Anchorat to Nome and on to Fairbanks, over 2,000 miles of remote and rugged terrain. It is billed as the world’s toughest snowmobile race. 29 teams are signed up for the 35th annual event.
