Assembly Report for December 18, 2007

ASSEMBLY CONSERVATIVES TAKE CITY UNIONS TO THE WOODSHED (AGAIN): A resolution passed Tuesday means more trouble ahead for city unions. Sponsored by Dan Coffey, AR 2007-283(S) requires freshman Bill Starr’s Budget and Finance Committee to explore the concept of "managed competition" with various departments of the municipality with "a view toward developing pilot programs to promote efficient and effective services." Explained by Jennifer Johnston and Dan Coffey, "managed competition"is a new buzzword popular with assembly conservatives for "privatization" or outsourcing jobs normally performed by public employees. Under "managed competition", city workers would compete with the private sector for their jobs. At a work session last Friday, Chris Birch chortled his approval of the concept and said his company would ship work normally done by Alaskans to India where wages are half of those paid in the United States. Coffey’s resolution also requires the Assembly to "review its policy with regard to labor agreements" by March 31, 2008 - an ominous signal to several unions scheduled to begin contract negotiations with the administration this year. Only assembly members Tesche and Traini opposed the resolution.

Passage of AR 2007-283(S) comes on the heals of the Assembly’s rejection on November 27, 2007 of a five year labor contract for 117 city transit and refuse workers negotiated by the mayor and Teamsters Local 959. The contract had drawn intense fire from Assembly conservatives Chris Birch, Dan Coffey, and Dan Sullivan for its modest wage increases, and arbitration provisions. Curiously, union leaders made no real effort to support these employees on November 27th before this merry band of assembly conservatives and their private consultant took turns in the woodshed on what had once been Alaska’s most powerful labor union.

Announcing his candidacy for mayor on December 19th, Dan Sullivan leads the pack of union bashers on the Assembly: Climbing on to the bandwagon of public safety which he labels "job 1" for the city, Sullivan promises a crackdown on panhandling and minor offenses. To cut city spending, Sullivan told the Daily News on December 20th "the place to start is personnel costs such as city labor contracts".

ONCE AGAIN, ASSEMBLY REJECTS CHARTER CHANGE TO REQUIRE A 50% VOTE IN MAYORAL ELECTIONS: Assembly members on Tuesday rejected a charter amendment proposed by Dan Sullivan to ask voters to require a run off in elections for the office of mayor if no candidate receives 50% of the vote. Although seven conservative assembly members voted in lockstep for AO 2007-152, the charter amendment fell short of the eight votes necessary to send the proposition to the voters next spring. Assembly members Traini, Tesche, Selkregg, and Claaman voted against the measure.

The Charter amendment proposed by Sullivan would have changed voting requirements for the April, 2009 mayoral election and, any special election taking place in 2008 if a vacancy in that office occurs before the regular mayoral election.. Mr. Sullivan recently filed a letter of intent with APOC to run for municipal office and is widely known to be running to replace mayor Mark Begich. Curiously, Sullivan’s apparent conflict of interest in the ballot proposition he sponsored was not disclosed to or addressed by the Assembly on Tuesday night. Sullivan chairs both the Assembly’s ethics and elections committees.

A CRACK IN THE WALL: ASSEMBLY CONSERVATIVES RESCIND PATRIOT ACT RESOLUTION, WHICH HAD SUPPORTED THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, THE US CONSTITUTION AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS: Goosestepping behind West Anchorage’s Dan Sullivan, Assembly conservatives on Tuesday rescinded an assembly resolution approved four years ago (AR 2003-223) which had supported President Bush’s global war on terror and the US Constitution while objecting to provisions of the so called "Patriot Act" enacted by Congress. Now rescinded in its entirety, the 2003 resolution had condemned "all acts of terrorism wherever occurring" and reaffirmed the Assembly’s "support of the government of the United States in its campaign against terrorism" and affirmed the assembly’s commitment that the campaign "not be waged at the expense of essential civil rights and liberties of citizens of this country contained in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights". Voting to repeal the 2003 resolution were Dan Sullivan, Dan Coffey, Debbie Ossiander, Chris Birch, Paul Bauer, Bill Starr, and Dick Traini.

Repeal of AR 2003-223 may reflect some disillusionment by assembly conservatives with their President’s prolonged occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of a world wide war on terror. What cannot be readily understood, however, is their apparent repudiation of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights in rescinding, but not amending AR 2003-223 Tuesday night. The oath of office each of these assembly members took required them to "support and defend" the Constitution of the United States.

ACTION ON SWS REFUSE RATE INCREASE POSTPONED UNTIL JANUARY 8TH: By a vote of 6-5, Assembly members postponed for two months action on AO 2007-146 which would allow the City’s Solid Waste Services Utility to raise collection and landfill rates. Under the ordinance, single family residential rates of $16.35/month would increase to $18.00/month. So called "tipping fees" charged at the waste transfer or disposal facility would increase from $10.00 to $15.00/load.. Amendments proposed by the administration on Tuesday night included a requirement that an ordinance providing for curbside recycling be presented to the Assembly, a separate ordinance providing for variable rates, based on volumes, for residential customers served by SWS and third ordinance providing for an additional charge at the Central Transfer Facility by commercial customers. Before January 8th, Assembly chair Dan Coffey announced plans to hire a utility consultant to advise the Assembly on the rate increase recommended by the Mayor.