Assembly Report for November 27, 2007

TRENCH WARFARE: ASSEMBLY AND THE MAYOR DIG IN ON 2008-9 OPERATING BUDGET: The administration of Mayor Mark Begich and assembly conservatives staked out their positions and then dug in on the 2008-8 general government operating budget Tuesday night. Almost two hours of frequently acrimonious debate yielded no budget deal and only resolved about six of almost three dozen amendments, mostly reductions, proposed by assembly members. The assembly voted to resume deliberations on the budget Thursday, November 29th starting at 6 p.m. but is not expected to reopen public hearings.

A handful of amendments the Assembly did pass reveal the deep divisions between assembly conservatives intent on budget cuts, any budget cuts, and Mayor Begich who has to make sense out of a confusing, and at times, contradictory legislative process. Several new positions in the Parks Department were eliminated along with some funding for youth employment in parks.

ASSEMBLY TANKS UNION CONTRACT FOR 117 MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES: The Assembly on Tuesday night by a vote of 6-5 refused to ratify a five year labor contract negotiated by the municipal administration and Teamsters Local 959 for 117 municipal employees who work in the transit and refuse departments. The contract drew fire Tuesday night from Assembly conservatives led by Chris Birch, Dan Coffey, and Dan Sullivan for its wage increases, arbitration provisions.

Negotiated for 117 municipal employees who work in transit and the refuse departments, the new contract would have lasted for five years and raised wages 2.9% for each during the first two years, with a limited CPI adjustment in the third year and wage re openers in the final two yeas of the contract. Service recognition pay would have been limited to those currently receiving that benefits and ultimately eliminated through attrition. Wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment for these employees will likely remain unchanged from contract the new agreement was negotiated to replace.

LOCAL ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAWS KILLED: A growing community uproar over Assembly member Paul Bauer’s proposal to direct APD to enforce federal immigration laws ended last night with a quick vote of 8-3 to postpone action on the ordinance indefinitely. Bauer’s proposal had angered ethnic groups Anchorage, including even moderates in Bridgebuilders. Municipal Attorney Jim Reeves and Assembly counsel Julia Tucker have each raised constitutional concerns about the ordinance. The Bauer draft won a raspberry from the Assembly’s own Public Safety Committee with voted 3-0 on November 14th to recommend a DO NOT PASS on the measure, and was opposed by the municipality’s Health and Human Services Commission. Only Paul Bauer, Dan Coffey, and Dan Sullivan voted against indefinite postponement of the ordinance.

NEW HALFWAY HOUSE ORDINANCE DELAYED: Originally scheduled for Tuesday night, a public hearings on Dan Coffey’s proposal (AO 2007-139) to relax zoning requirements for "community correctional residential centers" (neighborhood prisons) was postponed until December 11, 2007. The ordinance would would drop current restrictions on housing felons in these facilities and would shorten required separation between new and existing halfway from 1 mile to 1,00 feet. The ordinance would limit new CCRCs to thirty inmates. .Although the ordinance would apply to all halfway houses in business districts throughout the city, it is supported by a group which wants to locate a new facility in (where else) Mountain View.

COFFEY SIDESTEPS HIS DOG POOP ORDINANCE (AGAIN): The Assembly never reached AO 2007-106 sponsored by Dan Coffey which would ban dogs from all enclosed baseball fields within the municipality. Carefully protecting his expensive Gucci loafers from a messy issue that has dogged him in recent weeks, Coffey announced before Tuesday’s meting, that he is again postponing action on his dog poop ordinance until March 25, 2008. Hundreds of dog owners have waited patiently since September only to learn that action on the controversial measure had been postponed once again. Under this law, dogs would be banned from enclosed baseball fields regardless of whether a baseball game is actually in progress. Coffey’s ordinance would not repeal or modify existing laws which allow dogs to run off leash under voice control. Now set for action less than one week before spring elections, the measure will doubtless attract the attention of several dozen candidates running for assembly seats next April.

NO ACTION ON CHARTER AMENDMENT FOR MAYORAL RUN OFF ELECTIONS: The Assembly took no action on a ballot measure sponsored by Assemblyman Dan Sullivan to restore expensive run off elections in the race for mayor. Public hearings on AO 2007-152 will be rolled over until the December 11 th meeting. Because a charter change is required, eight votes of the Assembly are necessary to put the measure on the spring ballot.