In a memo to members of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Clerk Johni Blankenship has determined that Jan. 9, 2023 is the earliest date that the borough could hold a special election to fill the remaining portion of outgoing Mayor Charlie Pierce’s term.
The matter will be on the agenda for Sept. 20, when the Assembly’s Policies and Procedures Committee takes it up, starting at 3 pm.
Blankenship recommends the special election be called for during the regular Assembly meeting on Oct. 25, and said that election will require $250,000, an amount she would like the Assembly to approve during the Oct. 11 regular meeting.
The filing period for the interim term would be Oct. 31-Nov. 14.
The Kenai Borough Assembly voted last week to name former borough Mayor Mike Navarre as the temporary mayor starting Oct. 1, after Pierce has stepped down to focus on his run for governor. Pierce’s last day is Sept. 30.
Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola has been given a plum seat by Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the House Natural Resources Committee.
The committee, chaired by Arizona radical Democrat Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, is where legislation that pertains to Alaska’s vast lands and resources is considered, and is also where bills and issues pertaining to Native concerns often are heard or originate. The Natural Resources Committee also deals with fisheries and climate change. In years past, Alaska Congressman Don Young, a Republican, had chaired the committee and was serving on the committee when he died March 18, 2022. Peltola will be the committee’s most junior member.
Peltola, a Democrat, ran on issues such as the right to abortion and the importance of healthy fish stocks. On the committee, Peltola will be soon be assigned to subcommittees and she will have just 10 working days between this past Tuesday and the Nov. 8 general election, when she will face three opponents on the general election ballot for the two-year seat.
With so much on the line for Democrats in Congress, who face the very real prospect of being in the minority in January, observers expect that Speaker Pelosi will look for other plum positions or even some favorable legislation to give Peltola, who is a Democrat representing a Republican-leaning state.
Peltola did a Facebook video with Speaker Pelosi earlier this week, as she gets introduced around to the national Democratic machine. Peltola will attend a candidate forum at Southeast Conference on Thursday by video. Sarah Palin will also attend by video. Nick Begich is at Southeast Conference and will attend in person.
The Anchorage Assembly has had an increasingly obvious habit of cutting out portions of its official meetings on its YouTube channel that it doesn’t want the public to see. The technician who operates the audio and video recording of the meeting has found ways to delete key portions of the public process. But on Tuesday, it went further, simply cutting the public comments altogether at the end of the meeting.
The Assembly was close to the scheduled end for the regular meeting, and only two people had stepped up to the public podium to make their views known during the final audience participation period. One of them was Irene Quednow, who is often present at Anchorage Assembly meetings, and who often uses her three minutes at the microphone to discuss Assembly behavior.
The actual video, as chopped by the Assembly, eliminating audience participation from the public record.
Quednow’s and the one other person’s comments were cut by the video technician, and a day after the meeting ended, the cut portion had not been restored. Quednow sent Must Read Alaska her notes detailing what the public watching on line was not allowed to see or hear:
Quednow told the Assembly that, in spite of what Assemblymen Chris Constant, Forrest Dunbar, and Felix Rivera had said during the meeting, the Golden Lion hotel, purchased by the former mayor, is not being condemned by the mayor or his staff. It is being condemned by the State of Alaska Department of Transportation, which has for years been planning to take property at the corner of 36th Avenue and New Seward Highway to improve the traffic flow. The eminent domain process was outlined in a letter from DOT to the mayor recently, and had also been sent in writing to previous interim mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson.
Quednow also had some issues with the Assembly’s statements and characterizations of the mayor’s proposed navigation center for the homeless.
“The navigation center would have been in operation last fall if the Assembly would not have thrown a monkey wrench into it every step of the way. The Assembly whittled down the number of beds and now complains that there are not enough beds. Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance said we need a public hearing on this item, yet when the Assembly was discussing the purchase of the Golden Lion and the other three buildings it authorized buying, it physically shut out the public from commenting by closing the chambers. So don’t lecture us about needing a public hearing now,” Quednow’s notes said. The Assembly shut the Assembly Chamber down to the public in 2020 when it was making several controversial decisions that concerned major purchases of properties that would be used as homeless shelters.
Quednow also said the Assembly has not been fiscally responsible or professional about providing information to the public.
“I have stood before you and asked for an operation budget and renovation cost for the Golden Lion numerous times and yet that documentation was never provided. The same with the Alaska Club purchase,” Quednow said, noting that the Assembly never provided those documents to the public. “You were going to purchase the Alaska Club for around $7 million, then for the ‘bargain price’ of $5.4 million when it was assessed the whole time at no more that $2.3 million. You also misled the public about how much the Sullivan Arena and the other hotels cost to operate, and yet you have the audacity to say we need fiscal responsibility.”
Quednow also talked about the Assembly’s attention to the suicide problem. Quednow said that in December of 2020, she stood at the podium and read a letter written by a high school student begging the school board to open up school again because they had had two suicides of high school students by then.
“There were many others that testified to the drastic increase in suicides. And yet most of you sat here and communicated to us in one form or another that we are spreading misinformation,” Quednow reminded the Assembly.
“For those of the public that were not here or watching let me remind you of who the assembly members were that said that: Kameron Perez-Verdia, Felix Rivera, Suzanne LaFrance, Christopher Constant, Meg Zaletel, Pete Petersen, Austin Quinn-Davidson, and Forrest Dunbar. Two years later the CDC is acknowledging what was apparent to everyone who wanted to see. So do not believe them when they say they care for people who commit suicide.”
The second person who approached the microphone for her three minutes was also cut from the video feed and Must Read Alaska has no way to contact her for her summary of comments.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans, including hundreds of Alaskans, sent their comments to the Department of Education about the reinterpretation of the laws protecting women and girls in sports, and made sure their comments arrived before the comment period ended on Monday. Now, the Department of Education has apparently ditched more than 160,000 of those comments, and says that the loss was due to a clerical error.
The Department of Education is proposing new regulatory interpretations of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in school athletic programs based on gender. The Biden Administration is seeking to include mandates that require schools to allow gender-confused males to use locker rooms and bathrooms previously reserved for girls, and vice versa. The new regulations may mean mandates on hiring and forced use of a person’s “preferred pronoun,” such as “he,” “she” or “they/them.” The rule would ban “all forms of sex discrimination, including discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The Education Department had last week logged over 349,000 comments, but by Friday, the number mysteriously had dropped to 184,009, a loss of over 160,000.
Politicoreported Tuesday that the Regulations.gov website tracking the number of submitted comments had logged over 349,000 comments about Education Secretary Miguel Cardona’s proposed Title IX rule overhaul. But by Friday, three days later, the total number of comments had dropped to 184,009—a decrease of more than 160,000 comments.
According to Politico, the reason for the drop in the number of comments is due to a “clerical error.” The explanation from the department is that comments unrelated to the proposed regulation boosted the number of comments by about 200,000.
Alaska State Sen. Shelley Hughes was one of the thousands who gathered hundreds public comments in advance of the deadline.
“The fact that the number of public comments decreased by 200,000 overnight – mysteriously vanished – is extremely disconcerting. How on earth will we be able to trust the tally of the pros and cons? We won’t,” she said. “On a proposed rule of such keen national interest – one that will literally impact millions of girls and women if implemented – the Biden administration needs to reopen the comment period. “
If the decreased submissions were due to a “clerical error” as they claim, “Biden should have nothing to hide and will reopen the public comment period,” Hughes said. “If he doesn’t, we can conclude Biden doesn’t want us to know where Americans stand on girls losing spots on sports teams and what we think about girls being forced to undress and share locker room showers with biological males present. We’ll conclude he has already made up his mind and our voices don’t matter.”
Hughes continued, “If that’s the case, we’ll see you in court, Mr. President. No way, no how will we stand by and let you decimate Title IX and harm our daughters, granddaughters, sisters and nieces.”
Catherine Lhamon, the Education Department’s civil rights chief, indicated to Politico that it’s unlikely the agency will extend its comment period on its proposed Title IX rule despite GOP lawmakers requesting an extension.
Supporters say the new interpretation will ensure greater equality in employment for LGBT workers. Critics have warned that it could mean new mandates on hiring, accommodations and compulsive use of “preferred pronouns.”
The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night showed it was dealing in bad faith all along with the Bronson Administration regarding the homeless plan that it was negotiating for a year.
In August of 2021, the Assembly and Mayor Bronson appointed their top negotiators to be part of a mediated process to develop a plan, which was approved. The sides were far apart, with the leftist Assembly wanting to proceed with former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’ plan, and Mayor Dave Bronson forging a new direction, as tackling homelessness was one of the issues he ran on.
Retired Admiral Tom Barrett was the mediator. That hammered-out plan included a navigation center that was important to Bronson, and some other things that were important to the Leftist Assembly majority. The navigation center was the hub of the agreement, however, as it would reach some of the most hard-to-help people in Anchorage, those who don’t work out in traditional congregate shelters and who need a lot of services.
Navigation centers are buildings that are transition centers for homeless and provide a number of services, including referrals to drug and alcohol treatment. Navigation centers are “low-barrier, service-enriched shelter targeting high-needs adults experiencing homelessness who are living in encampments, and who have acute behavioral health issues that may prevent them from staying in regular congregate shelters,” according to a description of a similar center in Seattle. The location for the navigation center in Anchorage is near the Elmore and Tudor Road intersection.
The Assembly had even appropriated a $9 million start for the project to get it under way.
But on Tuesday night, the Assembly reneged on the plan that its negotiation team had approved, saying it would not approve a payment to Roger Hickel Contracting, which has already started work on the site, including the pouring of some of the footings that will support a steel structure that will be covered with industrial-level building fabric.
The Assembly on Tuesday decided to delay the decision on the payment to late October, forcing the project to be put on hold and driving up the costs. Concrete cannot be poured below freezing without a tent, and by delaying the project, the Assembly has increased the expected construction cost by as much as 30%.
The truth is, the Assembly majority never intended to let that part of the negotiated plan go forward.
But the contract was in place and work has proceeded on schedule — a schedule provided to the Assembly in May.
Roger Hickel Construction will not get stiffed on the bill. However, Hickel may have to send a demand letter or even sue the city for the money to get paid for the work done. And Hickel may not wish to continue on the project, if payment is going to be held up by the Assembly time and again.
Hickel Construction was also given $2.0 million for the building itself, which is currently under construction out of state. The steel is ready for shipment on Oct. 8, and with the concrete completely poured and cured by then, and the plan given to the Assembly was that the building would be up and ready by Nov. 23. The groundwork and utilities are already done, and the fixtures have been shipped.
But progress has come to a halt because of Tuesday’s refusal by the Assembly, which gave specious reasons that are unsupported by facts, to approve payment for work completed.
The negotiated agreement was a four-point plan. So far, the Sockeye Inn was purchased and is now housing 83 medically fragile individuals, people who used to hang around the streets in wheelchairs and on walkers. The city and philanthropic partners provided funds to purchase the Guest House (bought by the First Presbyterian LLC), which will house workers who can’t afford housing. The Rasmuson Foundation and other philanthropic partners have matched the Assembly’s $6 million appropriation with $6 million, and $6 million in funds have been transferred to the Alaska Community Foundation, which was to serve as the clearinghouse for the public/nonprofit/private partnership, which included Weidner Apartment Homes.
On Tuesday night, Assemblyman Felix Rivera said that the delay was needed because he wanted to look at alternative sites. He said he didn’t know anything about the schedule. He said the Mayor’s Office has not informed the Assembly of anything.
Observers of the Assembly’s behavior over the past year predicted the Assembly would do this in the end — delay the navigation center to the point where it was not feasible, and then try to impeach the mayor for something unrelated. Over the summer, the Assembly put in place an ordinance that will allow it to remove the mayor at any time, for any reason.
It appears that the Assembly has no intention of allowing the navigation center to proceed this winter or ever. And if it does, the cost of constructing the building will most certainly explode. The Mayor’s Office will now have to figure out what to do with the building that is being constructed and is nearly ready to ship.
Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson today announced that Alexis Johnson will move to the Anchorage Health Department to lead the administration’s efforts relating to serving our homeless population as the Municipality of Anchorage homeless coordinator.
Bronson named Adam Trombley, who was previously the director of Community Development, as his new chief of staff. Lance Wilber, director of Public Works, has been named the new director of Community Development to lead all Public Works and Building Services departments.
“Homelessness in Anchorage is one of my administration’s top priorities,”Bronson said. “the operational nucleus to address this issue is being moved from City Hall to the Anchorage Health Department, which currently has a dedicated team focused on successful outcomes. Alexis has the compassion, dedication, and commitment to work and partner with the Anchorage Assembly and community partners to truly help our city’s most vulnerable get connected to the treatment, services, and permanent housing they need to succeed.”
“Adam Trombley and Lance Wilber are dedicated public servants here in Anchorage,” Bronson said. “Their knowledge, hard work, professionalism, and commitment to work with community partners and diverse workgroups across the municipality and state are well documented and respected. I look forward with my team working with the Anchorage Assembly on important issues to make our great city even greater.”
Johnson, Trombley, and Wilber will start in their new roles immediately.
The Anchorage Assembly voted against the funding of Mayor Dave Bronson’s navigation center for the homeless, which was the hub of his plan to deal with the hundreds of homeless people in Anchorage. The amount requested was $4.9 million for a contract with Roger Hickel Contracting to begin work on the project, which has a total cost is $13.3 million for the project. The Assembly voted to take up the item in late October, which means the construction will not be done this year.
A navigation center is a type of one-stop-shop that includes some housing, but also referral services and social workers to get people who are living on the streets back into a productive life.
For a year and a half the Assembly has prevented the mayor from building the center, and with winter approaching, the Assembly has delayed it once again.
Assemblyman Felix Rivera said the city “needs to focus 100% on the immediate need in front of us.”
Rivera also said the Golden Lion Hotel must instead be utilized as intended by the previous mayor, who resigned in disgrace. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz wanted the hotel to be used for drug treatment.
The leftist Assembly members during the meeting expressed anger and disbelief that the State Department of Transportation has said it will likely claim the parking lot of the Golden Lion Hotel for the reconstruction of the intersection at the corner of 36th Avenue and New Seward Highway. Nevertheless, Rivera wanted a firm commitment from the mayor that he would put a drug treatment center at the Golden Lion. Neighbors in the area have objected to that plan.
Rivera also indicated that the money would be funneled to the Rasmuson Foundation, which would use it to purchase a building. Rivera said that the public would know what was going on in 45 days. The Assembly has given the Rasmuson Foundation $12 million with no specific deliverables.
Assemblyman Chris Constant was especially aggravated at the Transportation Department letter that described the need for eminent domain.
Rivera pointe out that the costs of the navigation center “have continued to balloon and the schedule continues to shift.” He said the Assembly needs more definitive answers to his questions “before we spend unknown millions of dollars.” Rivera also wanted to look at other sites for the navigation center. Currently, the mayor has chosen a site at Elmore and Tudor Road. Conservatives on the Assembly pointed out that the foot-dragging of the Assembly has been the reason why costs have climbed.
Lance Wilbur, the director of Public Works for Anchorage, said the Assembly has been briefed continuously on the project and that nothing about it should be a surprise to the appropriating body.
The leftist majority of the Anchorage Assembly has denied the mayor’s pick for the new Anchorage municipal attorney. Mario Bird, a conservative appointed by Mayor Dave Bronson, was not confirmed by the Assembly, which gave no real reason. No matters were brought up during the committee process earlier this month that would have indicated Bird’s confirmation was in trouble.
The vote was 8-4, with the leftist members voting against Bird; Assemblyman Pete Petersen broke away from the leftist majority to vote for Bird’s confirmation.
Thus ends the abbreviated term of the second city attorney for Mayor Bronson; Patrick Bergt, who was appointed at the beginning of Bronson’s term, left earlier this year. The Municipal Law Department is once again without a lead attorney.
The Christian-based legal group that defended the Downtown Hope Center in Anchorage against the intrusion by a drunk transgender has been labeled a hate group by a senior official of the U.S. Justice Department. And that didn’t sit well with two Republican members of the U.S. Senate.
“Alliance Defending Freedom is one of the nation’s foremost champions of religious liberty and the constitutional rights of all Americans,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal. “It’s appalling that a Department of Justice staffer would consider this mission hateful. I’m proud to stand with ADF in its fight for religious liberty. Attorney General Merrick Garland must ensure that the DOJ faithfully executes justice for all, and he should investigate this incident.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the Justice Department official’s comment “outrageous” and slammed the agency’s credibility, The Signal reported.
“A DOJ lawyer slandering honest, law-abiding Americans as members of a ‘hate group’ simply because of their Christian faith is outrageous,” Rubio told The Daily Signal. “Attorney General Garland promised to uphold the rule of law without fear or favor. The credibility of his department continues to shatter.”
The comments that denigrated the Alliance Defending Freedom were made by Eric P. Bruskin, assistant director of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. The context of the comment was in response to a social media post by Jason Weida, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, who is now a state health official in Florida. Weida had shared he was “honored to speak with Matt Sharp at Alliance Defending Freedom about the work we’re doing in Florida to protect kids from experimental medical interventions and to defend parental rights, all thanks to the leadership of Governor DeSantis.”
Bruskin wrote in response, “Jason, this is a hate group. You’re speaking at a conference for a hate group. Are these the beliefs you hold? If so, then it’s time we end our professional association.”
Alliance Defending Freedom has taken on some of the most high profile cases in the culture wars of recent years. Wikipedia says the group “is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that supports restricting rights and protections for LGBTQ people; expanding Christian practices within public schools and in government and preventing access to abortion.” In fact, the group supports the rights of people to practice their religious beliefs and supports the humanity of the yet-to-be born.
Recent victories for the group include the US Supreme Court decision Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta in 2021, in which the ADF argued that non-profits should not be required to disclose the identities of their donors on California state tax returns. The court struck down the disclosure law as unconstitutional.
In 2008, in Coorod vs. the State of Alaska, an Alaska court ruled that a property tax exemption for religious schools does not violate either the state or federal constitution. Several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, filed suit after the state’s legislature determined that “the residence of an educator in a private religious or parochial school” qualifies as “property used exclusively for religious purposes. The Superior Court for the State of Alaska in the Third Judicial Circuit at Anchorage determined that such tax exemptions are not illegally improper, as Alliance Defending Freedom had explained.
In 2019, Anchorage officials dropped a complaint filed with the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission against the faith-based women’s shelter Downtown Hope Center. The city agreed with Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys to make the court’s temporary order against the city permanent.
The complaint came from an inebriated man who the Downtown Hope Center referred to a hospital to get the care he needed for visible injuries that had come during a fight, and the faith-based group paid for his taxi ride to the hospital. The man later filed a complaint that the center didn’t let him stay at the center, where the group gives shelter to abused and homeless women.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit on the center’s behalf.
“Many of the women Downtown Hope Center serves have suffered rape, physical abuse, and domestic violence. They shouldn’t be forced to sleep or disrobe in the same room as a man. Abused women need a safe place to stay, but incredibly, some Anchorage officials are trying to take that place away.” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker.
“All Americans should be free to live out their faith and serve their neighbors—especially homeless women who have suffered sexual abuse or domestic violence—without being targeted or harassed by the government,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson at the time. “This is the right outcome. Downtown Hope Center serves everyone, but women deserve a safe place to stay overnight. No woman—particularly not an abuse survivor—should be forced to sleep or disrobe next to a man.”
In The Downtown Soup Kitchen dba Downtown Hope Center v. Municipality of Anchorage, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska issued an order saying Anchorage’s public accommodation law doesn’t apply to the center’s women’s shelter.
