It’s not uncommon to see deer swimming from one island to another in Southeast Alaska. But last week Alaska Wildlife Troopers out of Ketchikan discovered two Sitka blacktail deer far from shore and evidently quite exhausted, having overestimated their long-distance swimming abilities. One of the deer approached the Troopers’ boat and swam right to the swim step to ask for a lift.
The troopers loaded the shivering deer onto their boat and gave the animals a lift to the next island, where they released them onto the beach.
According to the wildlife trooper narrating the reel, the troopers were in the middle of Clarence Strait, which separates Prince of Wales Island on the west side, from Revillagigedo Island and Annette Island, on the east side, when they discovered the deer four miles from the nearest shore.
The Case of the Dog-Paddling Deer made for some of the best law enforcement recruiting video in America. Watch it here:
See the video at the Alaska State Troopers’ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/reel/859897198716008?mibextid=kcDB8O
As war breaks out in Gaza after the attack by Hamas on Israel, the president of the free world didn’t want Americans to forget about George Floyd on his birthday — George Floyd, the domestic violence perpetrator, drug user, and thief, who died during an arrest in Minneapolis in 2020, after using counterfeit money at a local store.
President Joe Biden issued a statement celebrating the life of Floyd.
“George Floyd should be alive. He should be celebrating his 50th birthday with his young daughter Gianna, family, and friends. He deserved so much more,” Biden said in his statement.
“Today, we join his family to honor his life and legacy. And we remember the tragedy and injustice of his death that sparked one of the largest civil rights movements in our nation’s history and inspired the world,” Biden said.
Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd served eight jail terms on various charges, including drug possession, theft, and trespass. For instance, Floyd was convicted of possessing half a gram of crack cocaine in 2004
“George Floyd’s murder exposed for many what Black and Brown communities have long known and experienced — that our nation has never fully lived up to its highest ideal of fair and impartial justice for all under the law,” Biden said.
“A year and a half ago, Kamala and I stood with the family of George Floyd, civil rights leaders, and law enforcement officials, and I signed an executive order, which applies key elements of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to federal law enforcement. This order bans chokeholds, restricts no-knock warrants, establishes a database for police misconduct, and directs other measures to advance effective and accountable policing that increases public safety. It is putting federal law enforcement on the path to becoming the gold standard of effectiveness and accountability,” Biden said.
Derek Chauvin, a 20-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, was convicted in the murder of Floyd, after his chokehold resulted in Floyd’s death.
“My order also directs the use of federal tools to support similar reforms in state and local agencies. Across our Administration, we have made significant progress in fulfilling the requirements of my executive order, making policing safer and rebuilding trust in American communities,” Biden said.
Since Biden became president, crime has soared in cities across the nation, in part because of the Biden border policy, which has allowed millions of undocumented criminals to enter the United States.
In the nation’s major cities, homicides were 42.6% higher in 2022 compared to 2019, according to the America First Policy Institute. In the past year, robbery has increased by 13%, larceny by 20%, motor vehicle thefts by 21%, and residential and nonresidential burglaries by 6% and 8%, respectively.
But Biden was not focused on stopping crime. He was focused on police reform.
“But we know that implementing real and lasting change at the state and local levels requires Congress to act. I will continue to do everything in my power to fight for police accountability and urge Congress to pass meaningful police reform and send it to my desk. I will sign it,” he said.
On Thursday, the Anchorage Police Department received reports of a bomb threat at Mears Middle School. An adult male who allegedly made the threat had left the school by the time police arrived. He was found and arrested down the road from the school.
The suspect, 43-year-old Matthew Geitz, was charged with making a terroristic threat. He is detained at the Anchorage Jail. No bomb was ever located at the school.
The Anchorage Police Department is working with the Anchorage School District and the investigation is ongoing. Geitz has had a number of protective orders against him, according to his Alaska court record.
On Friday, an Anchorage Police Department School resource officer responded to Stellar Secondary School concerning a weapons-related threat made on social media against the school by a student.The officer contacted the student, who was taken into custody.
It was ultimately determined there were no weapons brought to the school, nor did the student take any additional steps after making the threat to hurt anyone. Charges for the student were forwarded to the Division of Juvenile Justice.
Former Alaska House member Liz Snyder, a Democrat who represented a portion of midtown Anchorage from 2021 until 2022, and then moved back to her home state of Florida, has some explaining to do to the Alaska Public Offices Commission about why she used campaign money to pay her husband a “thank you gift” for services rendered on her campaign.
According to a formal complaint filed by civic activist Jay McDonald, Snyder and her husband, Sam Snyder, converted campaign contributions into personal income during her first run for office in 2018, eight years after she moved to the state and began her political activism. She also fudged the reporting requirements for campaign debts that she owed.
In the 2018 campaign cycle, Snyder used her husband Sam as her campaign treasurer. Sam is an environmental activist who worked for a salmon-focused nonprofit while in Alaska, and is a director at True Blue Strategies, a political consultancy. Upon filing her first campaign registration on April 4, 2018, Liz indicated her Sam as the treasurer, and he remained so until the end of the 2018 cycle.
Liz Snyder narrowly lost in 2018, to Republican Rep. Lance Pruitt, (and she narrowly won by 11 votes against him in 2020 and served part of one term before moving back to Florida.)
Liz Snyder’s first 30-day campaign disclosure covering the reporting period from Feb. 2 through July 20, 2018 indicates that the report was filed by herself.
Liz’s first 7-day campaign disclosure, covering the reporting period from July 20 through Aug. 11, 2018 indicates that it was filed by Samuel Snyder.” There was no payment to Sam logged on this report, nor was there a debt to Sam logged on this report. This became an important point in the complaint.
Liz Snyder’s next two campaign disclosures covering the reporting period from Aug. 12 2018 through Oct. 27, 2018, filed by Liz Snyder, again with no payment or debt to Sam, her husband and treasurer.
Liz Snyder’s final “year end” campaign disclosure covering the reporting period from Oct. 28, 2018 through Feb. 1, 2019 indicates that it was filed by Samuel Snyder.
In that report, on Dec. 4, 2018, check #157 for $2,000 was listed as an expenditure for “Sam Snyder (APOC Consulting), NA.” The explanation for the expenditure was, “Thank You Gift for APOC Support.”
It’s important to note that this expenditure is logged as a check to Samuel Snyder, and not a check to “SDS Consulting” which is the corporation owned by Sam.
Around this same period of time, an independent expenditure group named “[Mark] Begich for Alaska” was created, and it used SDS Consulting. In its first filing, the group recorded a debt of $5,500 on Aug. 29, 2018 to “SDS Consulting (Sam Snyder)” for “APOC Compliance and Filing Support.”
This group’s later filings show that the debt of $5,500 to “SDS Consulting (Samuel Snyder)” was paid in full on Nov. 5, 2018 with check #90 along with the description “APOC Filing Support – Clears debt from 9/24.”
This shows that Sam Snyder was providing these kinds of services for a fee.
According to Alaska Administrative code 2AAC 50.321. (a)(6), there are reporting requirements for “expenditures that are incurred but not paid.” At the time that an expenditure is incurred it becomes mandatory to report it.
Subsequent APOC rulings have further clarified that even if a candidate does not know what the debt amount is going to be, the candidate is required to report the estimated debt amount and tie it to the initial date it was incurred.
The way that Jay McDonald sees it, if Liz Snyder hired Samuel Snyder for the purpose of APOC Consulting and filing, she is required by 2AAC 50.321. (a)(6) to report the terms of that agreement at the date that agreement began.
Because Sam Snyder began filing her APOC reports on July 21, 2018, McDonald says it is reasonable to assume that their agreement began at some undisclosed point in that period and the agreed upon or projected debt should have been reported at that time.
But instead, no debts or payments were recorded to Samuel Snyder until the final year end report.
McDonald said that he cited reports filed by “[Mark] Begich for Alaska” in his complaint document because it proves that Sam Snyder provided this service professionally, that he knew that the requirement to report the debt for his service exists, and that he filed this debt correctly in that instance with Mark Begich’s group.
“If Samuel Snyder provided a legitimate and legal service to Liz Snyder it was never disclosed as a debt and Liz Snyder is in violation of 2AAC 50.321. (a)(6),” McDonald wrote in his complaint.
One of the problems McDonald pointed out is that Liz Snyder appeared to be actually paying Sam Snyder, but calling it a “thank you gift,” something that is not an approved expenditure to a close family member who shares the same household.
Statute “very clearly and in plain terms states that ‘campaign contributions held by a candidate or group may not be converted to personal income of the candidate.’ If Liz Snyder and Samuel Snyder filed their 2018 taxes jointly as a married couple, then Liz Snyder claimed $2,000 from her campaign as personal income. There is no exemption to this statute that invalidates this statute which applies to how Liz Snyder converted her campaign funds into personal income. Liz Snyder violated AS Sec 15.13.112(b)(2) even if she were paying Samuel Snyder for services rendered,” McDonald said in his complaint.
“Statements that Liz Snyder made in public further complicate matters. In public posts she made to Facebook Liz Snyder claims that she paid Samuel Snyder $7 per hour. $2,000 divided by $7 per hour comes out to 285.7142857 hours of labor from Samuel Snyder. The year end report that the check to Samuel Snyder was paid on began 10/28/2018 and the payment to Samuel Snyder was on 12/04/2018, 38 days later. That would come out to just over 7.5 hours of paid labor every single day with no breaks in that period, which is unlikely,” McDonald said.
“Furthermore, 2 AAC 50.384(a) required that Liz Snyder disbursed all campaign funds no later than 02/01/2019. According to the year end report filed by Liz Snyder, her final campaign funds were not disbursed until 07/19/2019, which is 5 months and 18 days past the statutory deadline,” he wrote in his complaint.
The Snyders have since left the state. In August of 2022, while Liz Snyder was still taking a check from the state government as a legislator, Sam Snyder bought a home in St. Augustine, Fla., for $575,000. Liz did not run for reelection, but ended up back where she came from, still taking a check from the State of Alaska. Her term actually ended in January, 2022.
McDonald paid a process server to serve the Snyders at their home close to the beach in St. Augustine, Fla.
McDonald earlier this year filed a complaint against another newcomer-lawmaker, the radical Democrat Rep. Jennie Armstrong. in that complaint, Armstrong started trying to raise money to pay down her debt to campaign lawyer Scott Kendall, although she had never disclosed the debt personally or in her campaign reports.
The estimated fine for the Armstrong could be as high as $385,000, according to calculations assessed by APOC staff.
Seattle-based REI will cut 275 retail jobs, including 19 in Washington state and an unknown number in Alaska, where REI has a store in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks.
The cuts come at a time when, one by one, REI stores have unionized over the last year. In February, the company, run as a nonprofit, laid off 8% of its workforce, and this round of layoffs will eliminate 2% of the jobs, for a total of 10% downsizing this year alone.
The company is changing its brick-and-mortar business model, said Mary-Farrell Tarbox, REI vice president of stores, in an email to to employees Thursday. It will hire seasonal workers and part-timers as a part of the change — jobs that offer 16 to 24 hours per week.
“Our current operating model for stores is more than a decade old,” Tarbox wrote. “There are many areas that are out of date and no longer serving our employees or REI’s mission and business.”
The “Lead” role in stores was chosen for cuts, according to the Tarbox email, as it is “the most inconsistently used role across the fleet and [we] are retiring it effective immediately.”
United Food and Commercial Workers Union has been organizing in several of the stores, making demands of a company that is, by its actions, struggling to compete. New York, Berkeley, Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, Durham, N.C., Maple Grove, Minn., and Bellingham stores are now unionized.
The REI Union wrote that the union will be pursuing legal recourse because the company is required by law to negotiate with the union any major layoffs. It’s unclear if 2% of the workforce will be seen as a major layoff by the courts, but litigation appears on the horizon.
The REI union wrote, “instead of honoring the expertise their most veteran employees bring to the Co-op, REI made the callous decision to lay off tenured staff even while they are still hiring new staff at lower wage rates. REI executives are sacrificing their most loyal employees to cut labor costs– a decision that not only betrays the values the co-op was founded on but eliminates years of expertise that REI customers have come to rely on when they shop.”
With unionization on the march at REI, the union management doesn’t seem to connect their actions with the company’s management decisions. Instead, the union has been heralding its organizing victories:
The REI Union has written extensively about its unionizing efforts, but appears to not understand the consequences for workers.
“But let us be clear: because we unionized in SoHo, these layoffs are *illegal.* REI has a legal obligation to negotiate with their unionized workers over ANY restructuring plan. REI has broken the law by unilaterally implementing these changes in the eight unionized stores,” the union wrote on social media.
In a response to other social conditions, such as out-of-control shoplifting and other crime, REI decided to close its store in the Pearl District of Portland, a location that last year recorded the highest number of break-ins and thefts in the past 20 years, despite adding security. That store will close in February, which will also add to the downsizing of the REI footprint.
REI has more than 16,000 employees are 181 locations in 41 states plus the District of Columbia.
More than two-thirds of active duty service members are within the overweight or obese ranges of the body mass index, otherwise known as BMI, according to American Security Projectreport released this week.
The report found that:
68% of active-duty service members are overweight or obese. “Obesity is the leading disqualifier of military applicants and a primary contributor to in-service injuries and medical discharges,” the report says.
Military obesity across the active duty has more than doubled over 10 years, from 10.4% in 2012 to 21.6% in 2022. Eating disorders increased by about 79% between 2017 and 2021.
Despite being a chronic disease with several FDA-approved treatment options, antiquated body composition policies and stigma prevent effective treatment of obesity within the Armed Forces, the report says. Recently, there has been a push to stop using the body mass index as the standard for military fitness, and this report appears to support that.
The removal of body mass statistics from military recruitment and disability reports used by Department of Defense stakeholders and Congress “resulted in incomplete and misleading conclusions. This data is needed to identify at-risk populations and design effective, evidence-based interventions.”
Data from the Department of Defense, which is calculated using the person’s age, height, and weight, shows fatness has doubled in 10 years. During the same period, more than half of young Americans are obese and being too fat is now the top reason people are disqualified from joining the military.
The report makes these recommendations:
The Defense Health Agency should promote and enforce awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of obesity as a chronic disease across the armed services.
Body composition and military appearance regulations should be wholly reviewed and brought in line with evidence-based research. Policies allowing commanders to arbitrarily assign or exempt obese service members from medical intervention should be rescinded.
All services should seek to close the gap between high recordings of obese BMI during military health and fitness evaluations and low obesity diagnosis and treatment rates.
All service members with obesity should be referred to a credentialed obesity physician, registered dietitian, or bariatric physician for accurate diagnosis and treatment.
Military reports on disqualifications, disability, and medical discharge should include BMI data until overweight and obesity diagnoses reflect real obesity rates of the force. Body mass data should be reintroduced within annualized reports evaluating recruitment, retention, and retirement trends.
The Defense Health Agency should significantly improve frequency of military obesity reports or broaden the pool of researchers and academics who can access military weight data.
“The growing prevalence of obesity in service members reduces the readiness of the all-volunteer military, but it isn’t a moral failing; it’s a health crisis. Framing obesity as an issue of insufficient willpower or discipline prevents soldiers from seeking and receiving treatment, makes commanders and healthcare workers less inclined to intervene, and worsens health outcomes across the services,” the report notes.
According to the study, obesity varies across services with the Air Force having a reported obesity rate of 11%, while the Navy has a reported rate of 27%. Active Component men are twice as likely to have obesity as Active Component women.
Pacific Islanders have the greatest risk of obesity, with 41% obese, while Asian-descent personnel have the lowest, at 14%. Enlisted personnel, including combat support (military police/intelligence), combat arms (infantry/artillery), and combat service support (transport/maintenance), are 7% more likely to experience obesity than officers, according to the report.
The author, Courtney Manning, is a National Security Research Fellow at the American Security Project, leading ASP’s research on military recruitment and readiness, strategic competition with China, and emerging technology risks. She holds a master’s degree in international security policy from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Denver Korbel School.
U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola released statements after the U.S. Department of the Interior released its long-delayed draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Ambler Access Project
“This road is guaranteed under federal law and will facilitate access to crucial supplies of copper, cobalt, gallium, germanium, and other minerals that our nation currently imports from abroad. This is particularly important as China cuts off exports of gallium and germanium, cobalt is produced through modern-day slavery in the DRC, and some of our best analysts are forecasting shortages of copper within a decade,” said Murkowski. “Given the clear terms of the law and the strategic importance of this project, you would expect the Biden administration to prioritize its approval with reasonable mitigation measures for subsistence. You would also expect them to recognize that Alaska has repeatedly demonstrated that subsistence rights can safely co-exist with road infrastructure. My team and I will review this document closely, but based on what Interior released today, it does not appear they have undertaken the serious, credible analysis that we expected and deserved.”
“Here we go again. The Biden administration is reversing yet another fully completed Environmental Impact Statement—approved by the previous administration—on a critical Alaska project,” said Sullivan. “Our country is in the midst of one of the most dangerous periods since World War II. One of America’s greatest strengths over our adversaries is our energy and critical minerals. Remarkably, the Biden administration has sought to unilaterally disarm these strengths, including with today’s Ambler Road supplemental EIS, which sets up more hurdles to access one the biggest deposits of much-needed critical minerals in our country. Additionally, this supplemental EIS is almost certainly counter to ANILCA, which mandates that the Interior Secretary ‘shall’ grant an Ambler Road right-of-way not subject to judicial review. Finally, it is dishonest for the Biden administration to suggest that this project will become a public road, ignoring the fact that the application is for a private road, paid for with private funds. This is classic Biden administration: undermining American strengths in a very dangerous time, subverting the clear intent of federal law, and lying to Alaskans.”
“Projects in the Ambler mining district could create good-paying jobs for local communities while also developing an Alaska-based supply chain for the critical minerals our country needs to compete with China and create a cleaner energy grid,” said Peltola. “Those communities and local tribes must be adequately consulted. From my conversations with impacted communities, they want a private road, and I believe that a private road can find a balance between providing economic opportunities for the region while also protecting subsistence. I will continue to encourage the Interior Department to complete this process without further delays.”
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 guarantees a right-of-way across federal lands to provide access to the Ambler Mining District. Federal permitting for the AAP began in 2015 and included a rigorous environmental review and environmental and economic analysis. After holding 18 public meetings and considering over 3,000 unique public comments, in July 2020, the Secretaries of the Interior and Transportation signed a Record of Decision selecting the Northern Alignment as the approved route for the road. That same month, after holding 21 public meetings and reviewing over 21,000 public comments, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed a joint ROD choosing Alternative A as the preferred alternative; subsequently BLM and National Park Service issued a 50-year ROW permit for the AAP.
In February 2022, the Biden Administration sought a voluntary court remand to conduct an SEIS for the road. President Biden held a roundtable on “Securing Critical Minerals for a Future Made in America” on the very same day—failing to recognize that the Ambler Mining District is one of the nation’s best options to produce them, but foreshadowing his administration’s incoherence on this issue.
The court agreed to DOI’s remand request in May 2022, but placed conditions on it to ensure it would move forward expeditiously. In June 2023, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland testified to Congress that permitting would be completed by the end of the year, but just days later, the administration filed a court brief announcing a delay for a new ROD until mid-2024.
The Interior Department has set a 60-day public comment period from the date of the SEIS’ publication in the Federal Register, which is expected next week.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy joined 18 other governors in sending a letter to President Joe Biden expressing support for the State of Israel.
“The Hamas attack on Israel was not a land dispute. It was a terrorist attack on the outpost of democracy in the Middle East. As Americans, we must stand with those who share our values,” Dunleavy said on X/Twitter, referring to the attack on Israel by Iran-backed terrorists who killed as many as 1,300 people, in a highly coordinated operation on Saturday.
“We pledge our steadfast support to our ally Israel following the appalling attacks perpetrated against Israel’s sovereignty and innocent civilians on October 7, 2023,” wrote the governors to Biden. “We write today to make clear that our states absolutely condemn these heinous acts of terrorism led by Iran-backed Hamas and proudly stand Israel and the Jewish people.”
The governors, all Republican, wrote that “when the lives of American citizens hang in the balance, the American President must speak boldly and act decisively.”
“This type of international chaos and violence is a direct result of your administration’s appeasement-first foreign policy,” the letter said. “We call on you to project American strength by…clearly and unequivocally condemning these attacks and supporting Israel’s unquestioned right to respond and defend itself.”
Led by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, the other governors who signed the letter included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.
This is the story of how Alaska’s property tax assessment process has failed the Haines community.
This issue affects everyone. We all pay property tax either directly to the borough or through rent payments.
A wise man once told me that local government’s currency is the trust, respect, and goodwill of the people. I concur and believe it is unfortunate that the entire approach of the assessor’s office toward the people of Haines under Contract Assessor Michael Dahle’s guidance appears to be bankrupting the Haines Borough of the currency it once held from the people it serves.
Significant changes were implemented to Haines assessments for 2023. This is not news to property owners because the change is obvious with increases in assessments and tax bills. The increases are the result of a new mass appraisal methodology that combines the cost method with some market comparison data. This combination creates an exotic hybrid valuation model that ignores actual market sales conditions for property in Haines adding speculative costs to replace existing structures.
The inevitable result of using this valuation model is a significantly inflated valuation of property for many parcels. This is due to costs to replace existing structures using factors that include modern building codes and architectural standards with current costs of construction materials using professional building contractors and other inflationary factors.
This approach by its very nature is regressive, shifting a disproportionate tax burden to middle and lower-valued properties owned and rented by those in our community that can least afford it. Buildings that are 20 years or older with functional obsolescence and homebuilt structures are particularly impacted. The injustice that has been created by this regressive taxation scheme will then compound year after year.
It is not a coincidence that we are experiencing the same chaos that brought lawsuits against the City and Borough of Juneau in 2021. Borough Manager, Annette Kreitzer should have known better when she recommended that Dahle be retained as a contract assessor.
Dahle’s Alaska certification as an assessor expired in 2006 according to Heather Windsor, Certification Board Committee Member, of the Alaska Association of Assessing Officers. His appraiser accreditation in the State of Washington is listed as “suspended” by the Washington Department of Revenue. That is “suspended,” not expired.
The injustices that are occurring in Haines this year under the direction of Contract Assessor Dahle are systemic and not isolated occurrences. A total of 227 appeals have been filed by Haines residents. Instead of receiving serious inquiries and site visits in response to their appeals many appellants are receiving threatening emails saying that the assessment will be increased if relief is pursued to the Board of Equalization.
One homeowner received a threat from the Assessor’s Office that his assessments would be increased if he refused to drop his appeals. The appellant continued forward with his appeals and ninety minutes before the deadline for his packet to be submitted for the BOE hearing he received a notification via email that all four properties would be increased. The building value for two of the properties increased over 33%. Even a vacant lot went up $10,000.
You can hear the appellant’s BOE testimony yourself from the Haines BOE hearing on October 11, 2023, starting at 26 minutes and 10 seconds (26:10) at the below link:
An open letter was recently published in Haines detailing a personal account of the property owner’s experience when the property owner appealed the assessment on their modest property in the Mosquito Lake area of Haines Borough. In preparation for the BOE hearing the property owners obtained a certified appraisal with a value of $620,000 which was supported by the testimony of a local real estate salesperson with 26 years of experience in Haines.
Contract Assessor Dahle responded with a recommendation to the BOE to increase the assessment up to $1.1 Million. That is correct, after seeing the appraisal the Assessor’s office adjusted the value up, not down.
During the hearing Haines BOE members expressed their belief that the appellant met the burden of proof beyond a preponderance of evidence. Their deliberations were interrupted in advance of the vote by Haines Mayor Doug Olerud to discourage finding in the appellant’s favor out of fear that it would set a precedent. Olerud was not a member of the BOE but was acting as chair. His non-voting role should have prevented him from entering the deliberation.
Apparently, the ability of a property owner to succeed on appeal was unacceptable to the mayor regardless of the overwhelming evidence. All BOE members fell in line with the mayor’s direction. The final decision was $818,700 because it was a number presented by the assessor at one point and seemed like a compromise between the $1.1 Million recommended increase and the appraisal of $620,000.
Similar cases have also become publicly known, including a local small business owner and two other heartbreaking appeals that were heard at the Board of Equalization (BOE) meeting on October 5, 2023. Many other residents have dropped their appeals due to the threat of their property assessments being increased further if they pursued justice to the BOE.
In testimony during the Oct. 5 BOE meeting, one of our neighbors spoke about how difficult it has been to disparage her single mother’s accomplishment and expose the defects of their homebuilt house. She was forced to display the substandard conditions of her abode on the record and in public. This is something that should have been resolved in a private meeting with the assessor where the less fortunate among us have an opportunity to be treated respectfully and with dignity.
You can hear the recording yourself at the following link:
These types of situations can cause people to feel bullied and helpless that can create a sense of desperation and hopelessness to the point of suicide. Alaska has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. Haines itself has endured the loss of too many of our friends and neighbors that have taken their own lives in recent years out of a sense of the hopelessness they endured.
This is not a joke or a game to the people who have suffered the indignities that has occurred this year from “city hall.”
We are better than this and our government must be held accountable by the people they serve!
The systemic pattern of threatening property owners with additional increases if appellants continue their appeal to the Board of Equalization will not stop if we consent with silence. We must stand up and speak out to ensure the government is held accountable.
I do not fault the current assembly that are serving as BOE members. They have been thoughtful and genuinely appear to want to make the right decision. But during their deliberations they have been pressured by Mayor Olerud to side with the Contract Assessor despite statements and overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
But I do fault a failure by our State and local government to establish checks and balances on the heavy hand of government against the public they serve.
Calls to the State Assessor’s office to expose process errors and Contract Assessor Dahle’s threats to increase assessments if appellants refused to drop their appeal resulted in a BOE retraining that occurred on Sept. 21. During the retraining, State Assessor Joseph Caissie encouraged the BOE to support the Assessor’s opinion.
Caissie’s argument was that even if the model the assessor is using consistently established assessments at 150% or even up to 200% of full and true market value that was okay if there is “uniformity.” In Mr. Caissie’s words, the job of the assembly is not to reduce assessments to market value, but instead “the job of the assembly (is) to set the mill rate lower.”
Hear the State Assessor’s words of advice to the Haines BOE on this link for the full context of his argument during the training.
Unfortunately, the argument that it would be fair and equitable to uphold assessments to more than full and true market value based on the new hybrid valuation method instituted by Dahle in Haines this year fails to hold water for several reasons.
State of Alaska Statute 29.45.110 requires property to be assessed at its “full and true value as of January 1 of the assessment year…the estimated price that the property would bring in an open market and under the then prevailing market conditions in a sale between a willing seller and a willing buyer both conversant with the property and with prevailing general price levels.” Use of a cost methodology that creates significantly inflated valuation of property fails to meet that mandated assessment valuation.
The regressive nature of the mass appraisal with the exotic hybrid cost methodology disproportionately burdens owners of middle and lower-valued properties.
Inflating property assessment beyond “full and true value” circumvents the will of the people that live in communities, like Haines, that have enacted millage cap rates to limit the taxation on property.
What is the root cause of the problem that is occurring this year? It all started eleven months ago when Borough Manager, Annette Kreitzer committed our government to contract with Dahle. It appears she committed to Dahle without seeking proposals from other contract assessors. Kreitzer then went to the assembly on December 13, 2022, for a procurement resolution to reward Dahle with a long-term contract paid by you and me, the taxpayers of Haines.
Dahle previously worked for CBJ in the assessor’s office and was at the center of the chaos in 2021 that occurred when commercial properties received increased assessments to 150% regardless of the area they were located or how the Covid-19 shutdowns affected their industry.
Multiple property owners sued CBJ in Superior Court with the intention of elevating to the Supreme Court if necessary. CBJ struck a compromise with the appellants that included the municipality enacting an ordinance that required the assessor’s office to work within state and nationally recognized guidelines.
CBJ Ordinance 2022-21(b) adopted December 12, 2022
During this time, a Juneau appellant watched Dahle perform at a BOE hearing in June of 2022. I was informed that during the hearing Dahle publicly disparaged professionals that provide evidence contrary to his assessments and referred to certified appraisers as “hired guns”. The appellant told me he expected Dahle to be present for his appeal to the BOE. However, Dahle was noticeably absent, and it was announced that he was suddenly “retired.”
A few short months later Dahle was then invited into our community and offered a contract to work for the Haines Borough by Kreitzer, who is also from Juneau.
Once Kreitzer had Dahle under contract significant changes to assessments were undertaken by putting into place the new regressive methodology. The people were not provided with transparency or an opportunity for public comment about the potential for unintended consequences.
What we did receive was a propaganda campaign from borough officials selling the merits of the change as being “fair and equitable” in public statements to KHNS, CVN, and on the record in public meetings.
The Haines Borough also officially acknowledged the change in methodology in the FY24 adopted budget. In the “Manager’s Memo” section of the final FY24 Budget Kreitzer documented the following:
“We are continuing with a contract assessor in FY24, as he assists in training staff, and continuing the move toward mass appraisal, which will ensure more fairness and equity in property valuations in the coming years.”
– Page 3 of the Manager’s (Page 5 of the FY24 Budget)
“As we move toward a mass appraisal system that will provide more uniformity and equity in assessments, this year individual property values increased by about 16% over previous years. As we continue down this path, it should result in fewer spikes in property assessments in the future.”
– Page 4 of the Manager’s Report (Page 6 of the FY24 Budget)
Alaska Statute 29.45.150 protects the public’s interests by requiring a municipality to take formal action by resolution or ordinance in advance of enacting a systematic reevaluation. By requiring formal action, a municipality is required to disclose the new approach and provide an opportunity for the public to weigh in with public comments prior to adopting the change.
Haines Borough failed to provide the public with an opportunity to learn about and provide public comments on the systematic proposed change as required by statute. A Haines resident has received a legal opinion letter which states in part that:
“The manner by which the Haines Borough has assessed real property within the Haines Borough deviates from procedural requirement set out in state law and the Haines Borough ordinances…Without corrective action by the Haines Borough to cure the improper adoption and application of the new assessment methodology and conformity with mandatory timelines for appeals, further action by the Haines Borough Board of Equalization regarding pending property tax appeals violates applicable legal principles.”
When assembly members were made aware of the requirements stated in AS 29.45.150 during public comments at the Sept. 26 assembly meeting, this issue was referred to the borough’s legal firm, Chandler, Falconer, Munson, and Cacciola. In response, the attorneys issued a 12-page letter explaining why in their opinion it was okay for the Haines Borough to have gone forward with a systematic assessment change without a resolution or act.
As a former assembly member, I have experience with the borough’s law firm and their ‘circle the wagons’ approach when public concerns are raised about borough actions and / or process issues. My suspicion has always been piqued when I read phrases like, “ambiguous,” “antiquated,” “alternative interpretation” in opinion letters from the borough attorneys.
Now that the public has called out our government for an alleged violation of Alaska Statute 29.45.150 which, the government is now claiming there has not been a systematic reevaluation. But the record speaks for itself. You can hear Dahle himself state that there is a plan to change to “a mass appraisal standpoint rather than an individual appraisal standpoint”. This was stated on the record during the December 13, 2022, Assembly Meeting. The recording is available at the link below and Dahle begins speaking at 57 minutes and 30 seconds into the recording (57:30).
Attorney Joe Geldhof from Juneau wrote the opinion quoted above for one of our appellants and is very familiar with the Haines Borough. It is my understanding that the last time he was willing to take on an issue with Haines Borough it resulted in the overturning of an election. The case resulted in Daymond Hoffman being seated as an assembly member despite the fact the Haines Borough claimed they did nothing wrong in the counting of the votes. He is not an attorney that puts forth frivolous arguments.
Between Chandler, Falconer, Munson, & Cacciola or Joe Geldhof, I would choose Geldhof hands down for truth and accuracy.
I am speaking out publicly on this issue because an injustice is occurring, and it needs to be corrected. Our government receives its authority from the people it serves. It is time that “we the people” regain control of our government through our elected representatives.
Please reach out to your elected officials and request them to make a commitment to reverse these injustices by becoming an advocate in support of legislative changes. We need to ensure there are codified protections for the people against the heavy hand of “city hall” to protect appellants rights against regressive and unjust property assessments and unlicensed contract assessors.
We can and must do better.
Haines resident Brenda Josephson has held elective office on the Haines Borough Assembly and Haines Borough School Board. She also served her community as a Haines Borough Planning Commissioner and Haines Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. She is licensed by the State of Alaska for real estate sales and is federally licensed tax professional authorized by the US Department of Treasury to practice as an Enrolled Agent before the Internal Revenue Service.
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this Open Letter to Haines is what I believe to be true and accurate after months of research. It became my mission to learn how it was possible that our assessments could go so far off the rails in just a few months after the loss of our longtime staff assessor. My journey on this road to discovery has not been alone and others have noteworthy details I have not shared.
Acknowledgement:
I want to thank the many people in Haines and throughout Alaska that are researchers, and professionals in real estate, contract assessments, appraisals, law, state government, and those who had personal experience as BOE appellants, some who pursued relief to the courts. These individuals, professionals, and business owners generously gave of their time to share knowledge and personal experience to help Haines avoid the challenges they personally witnessed and/or experienced.
