Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Assembly Report for January 29, 2008

ON THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF HITLER’S RISE TO POWER: Not satisfied with the Assembly’s 8-3 vote which killed a similar proposal he made on September 11, 2007, Assembly member Paul Bauer chose the date of the 75th anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s rise to power to introduce another measure that would draw Anchorage police (and local taxpayers) into a national war on illegal immigration. With the help of fellow conservative Dan Sullivan, Bauer sought to introduce AO 2008- 23 which would place an "advisory proposition" on illegal immigration before voters at the April 1, 2008 regular election. Bauer’s newest proposal would have asked voters to "advise" whether Anchorage police should "be empowered by [the] Anchorage municipal code to verify immigration status during routine traffic stops and criminal law detention". The ordinance also would have asked voters to advise on whether Anchorage shall "negotiate and enter into an agreement with federal Immigration Control Enforcement to train and deputize Anchorage police officers as agents in the enforcement of federal immigration laws". Bauer’s proposition would have effectively encouraged the Assembly to funding local enforcement of federal immigration at additional expense to local property owners.

Only Assembly member Dan Sullivan joined Mr. Bauer in introducing the new ballot proposition. Lacking a third sponsor, Bauer’s ordinance was declared dead (for now at least) under Assembly rules and no public hearing will be held.

REFUSE RATES REVISED: By a vote of 10-1, the Assembly approved a modified proposal made by the Solid Waste Services Department to raise commercial rates for refuse collection, leaving intact monthly rates for residential services. Set out in AO 2007-145S), the new rate schedule focuses on commercial rates and fees charged at the municipal landfill and transfer station. Fees charged for secured pickup loads will be raised from $10.00 to $15 at the transfer station and at the landfill from $10.00 to $15/load. A complex schedule of revised charges governing commercial containers is set out on pages 3-4 of AO 2008-146(S) as amended.

MAT CLAMAN AND DAN SULLIVAN OPENING THE DOOR ON SINGLE MEMBER ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS: Introduced Tuesday night by West Anchorage’s Matt Claman and Dan Sullivan, AO 2008-25 would ask voters in the April 1, 2008 election to re write the Home Rule Charter by providing that terms of Assembly members would be three years, regardless of whether they are elected from single member or multi member districts. The Charter currently requires terms of three years unless all members represent single member districts, in which case terms of Assembly members are two years. Approval of the Claman-Sullivan amendment would make it easier to convince the Assembly to later carve out eleven single member districts, an action that could take place as early as next year.

While Claman recognizes that the charter amendment he and Sullivan have offered would remove the major impediment to implementing single member districting, he adamantly denies he is not in favor of actually using single member districts. He is concerned that the current system of multi member districts might draw a legal challenge under federal election laws at some point in the future and apparently favors three rather than two year terms for Assembly members under any districting plan. Neither assemblyman has pointed to any real public enthusiasm for the measure, except Claman's spectulation over potential legal challegnes to the Assembly's current plan and orders from the Republican party whispered quietly to his new West Anchorage collegue.

Eight votes are required to send the issue to the voters. Only Assembly members Tesche, Traini, and Selkregg are known to oppose it, making its chances of passage in April excellent, once Republican money is brought to the table. A public hearing on the Claman-Sullivan proposition is scheduled for February 12, 2008.

$2M POOLS PACKAGE HEADED TO VOTERS: The Assembly on Tuesday approved a $2M ballot proposition it will send to voters at the April, 2008 election to finance needed repairs in five local swimming pools. Sale of $2M in local bonds is conditioned on receipt of a matching grant from the state of Alaska of an additional $2M, for a total package of$4M. To justify the required state match, sponsors point to the constitutional requirement that the State provide for a system of public education and that many pool users in Anchorage come from rural areas, particularly the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Pools included in the bond package include Bartlett, Dimond, East, Service, and West high schools. The pools package was authored by Dick Traini and Allan Tesche.

$100M BOND PACKAGE INTRODUCED: Contours of the 2008 bond package emerged Tuesday night as the Assembly introduced a package of ballot propositions asking voters to approve sale of $100.6M in general obligation bonds at the April 1, 2008 regular election. Included in the package are 34.3M for reconstruction of Chester Valley Elementary School, the Girdwood K-8 School and Sand Lake Elementary School. $9.4M is proposed for district wide facilities renovation, $$44.8M for roads, $6.9M for facilities renovation including the Sullivan Arena . . . $$3.6M for Fire capital improvements, and $1.6M for public safety and transportation improvements. Public hearings on the bond propositions are scheduled for February 12, 2008.

LOOSE DOG REPORTED AT 9TH AND E: Mayoral candidate Dan Sullivan touched off a new controversy with the Begich administration Tuesday night by proposing to sever $8.2M in road bonds for Mayor Begich’s E Street Corridor project from the city’s $100M road bond package. Sullivan would place those bonds in their own ballot measure to be voted on separately by voters. Sullivan would not answer questions about his action on Tuesday and instead promised to meet with interested groups such as the Anchorage Downtown Partnership before a public hearing on on February 12, 2008. Passage of Sullivan’s ordinance along with an amendment he offered to strip the E St. Bonds from the larger road bond package, would likely reduce the chance voters would approve the E St. bonds at the April 1, 2008 city wide election.

17 Comments:

At 9:52 AM, Blogger Just_Me said...

Mr. Tesche,

I guess you believe Hitler wasn't such a bad guy after all, what
he did compares to such a trivial thing as checking for proof of being a U.S. citizen?

Well, I certainly was wrong about those 12 million dead that his Third Reich created, 6 million of which were Jews and 1.5 million children.

Why don't you clowns on the left try using another comparison of those on the right besides Hitler?
Unless you are really a big a screwball as you look, you know the comparison is totally out of line making you a DUMB ASS!

I certainly wish I could send you back in time and drop you right in the middle of a death camp. I'd try my best to keep from dropping you in a "shower".
Maybe you would get a clue!

You are pathetic!

 
At 2:34 PM, Blogger jake said...

Sir

I understand you have strong feelings concerning the recent immigration debate here in Anchorage. While I respect your opinions, I must take issue with your reference to Adolph Hitler. I lost many relatives in the Holocaust. I don't have to tell you about the more than 12 million people who were murdered because of their religion or race or sexual orientation.

My own relatives were killed simply for being Jewish. Parents killed in front of their children, families torn apart and sent to death camps, children ripped from their mothers' arms, brothers and sisters never to see each other again. My uncle was 15 when his father was killed before his eyes, his mother taken away by force, and he was seperated from his 10 brothers and sisters; only four siblings survived the camps.

You're use of such a horrifying event in human history to make your point in the illegal immigration debate is not only incredibly offensive, in that it trivializes the memories of those millions of innocent victims, but it severely weakens your argument to the point that I have no interest in hearing anything else you have to say on this or any other issue facing Anchorage.

Sir, I request that you remove the reference to Hitler from your site immediately and stick to the issue at hand. While I may not agree with your original point, you clearly have enough facts on your side to debate the subject without resorting to such offensive hyperbole.

Thank you.

Matt Regen
Anchorage

 
At 4:29 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law :

“Godwin's law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies)[1] is an adage formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990. The law states:[2][3]

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

Godwin's law is often cited in online discussions as a caution against the use of inflammatory rhetoric or exaggerated comparisons, and is often conflated with fallacious arguments of the reductio ad Hitlerum form.

The rule does not make any statement whether any particular reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be appropriate, but only asserts that one arising is increasingly probable. It is precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued[4] that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact. Although in one of its early forms Godwin's law referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions,[5] the law is now applied to any threaded online discussion: electronic mailing lists, message boards, chat rooms, and more recently blog comment threads and wiki talk pages.”

Pete Pritchard
Anchorage

 
At 6:13 PM, Blogger lew erhart said...

Hey Hitler came from the workers party on the "left". Any reverence to that beast in reference to your fellow assembly members is offensive and demands an apology. If you said it about me you would get a quick nap. I would gladly go to jail for holding you accountable.
lew e.

 
At 7:27 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Uncle Adolf wasn't a bad man He was just misunderstood, sometimes we need population control. thus we need to send back unregistered citizens. So I guess you should be thanked for the compliment.

 
At 8:45 PM, Blogger Neil said...

Al's right-on, as usual. By shining a light on the similarities between between Hitler, Sullivan and that other Prevo-loving a$$clown who hates brown people, Al has upheld the lesson learned from WWII Germany.

The worst thing the world's inhabitants could do when confronted with a politician who doesn't remember, or care to remember, the terrible suffering at the hands on Adolf Hitler, is ignore them. Some of you seem to think that this is preferable.

It's an ugly reality that we have to face, and ultimately correct at the polls. Two Assembly members support a policy that, if implemented, would treat one segment of society differently from the others based on (skin color? accent?). That is simply unamerican, and Mr. Tesche has called them on it. Now it is time to remove them from office for thinking nobody would notice.

 
At 9:12 PM, Blogger Gunnar said...

Mr. Tesche, that is an inordinately low swipe you took at a fellow assembly member. You should be ashamed of yourself. Are you all grown up yet ? Apparently not !

 
At 9:29 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Mr. Tesche, you are an idiot. I hate this proposal too, but to draw any inferences to Hitler is insane. Maybe you should come up with a better arguement than this one. How do you stay elected?

 
At 3:37 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Tesche is coming unglued methinks.

 
At 10:17 AM, Blogger Bastiat said...

Bauer's proposal is idiotic, but it isn't directly genocidal. Comparing political oponents to Hitler, bases on a date and German ancestry is actually pretty racist. These sorts of comments are very hurtful to families that lost relatives because of Nazism.

Mr. Tesche, you have made these sorts of insensitive comments in the past. You have show little understanding of how these comments hurt people and our community. You have more in common with Mr. Bauer than you think.

 
At 12:55 PM, Blogger DW said...

A.T., plainly put "you are a wierdo". Oh the trail of stupid comments you have left. Planning on running again?

 
At 7:24 AM, Blogger Alan said...

Is so good to see how many supporters Bauer has.Here are the requirements to become part of the support group.
1. Be mad at the world and complain about everything.
2. Be Aggressive and Violent.
3. Ignore the past let's keep making the same mistakes.
4. Make decisions and comments based on Emotions.
And be so ignorant.
I don't support Tesche but Don't you know how to read? He only mentions it was the same day he chose the date of the 75th anniversary of Adolph Hitler’s rise to power" he never said he is like him. Of course everyone wants to be offended. Get Real that is the beauty of this country Freedom of speech, but all this followers want to give their citizen rights when someone like Bauer introduces stupid measure. I feel bad for all that died during Hitler's regime and that is exactly why we should never forget what happens when someone thinks government should have all power and you have no constitutional rights as a citizen and humans should be profiled by race, religion or belief.

 
At 4:51 PM, Blogger Makabit Bat Guriel said...

Alan, he was comparing him to Hitler and you aren't smart enough to figure it out.
Also, what people have said on here is considered freedom of speech whether you like it or not.
Kewl, huh!

 
At 1:35 AM, Blogger Rocknak said...

Mr. Tesche,
You have again proven your lack of character and professionalism. Comparing elected officials, who were chosen by voters in this city, to Hitler is an ignorant and insulting! As far as I'm concerned anyone who would stoop this low should not be in public office!

 
At 1:48 AM, Blogger Rocknak said...

Does anyone remember Theresa Obermeyer?
Mr. Tesche seems to be as unstable as she was.
It's unbelievable that people actually vote for individuals like this!

 
At 5:36 PM, Blogger Makabit Bat Guriel said...

At least Obermeyer was entertaining. Tesche just sounds like one of those kids on the playground that always got his chops busted for acting like a punk.

 
At 7:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Teche wasn't comparing the immigration issue to Hitler, he was comparing it to Hitlers RISE in power...it takes baby steps to get to the point where your running a two front war(we got that), taking a civil liberties(this too) and exterminating people.

This is how fascist societies start,one is by pulling people over and asking them for "papers", mark my words...

So lets re-cap...Tesche was not comparing his article to Hitler, but WARNING us of what could happen if we DONT PAY ATTENTION to the laws being passed.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home