Assembly Report for January 22, 2008

POOLS RELIEF PACKAGE MAKING PROGRESS: After hearing from pools users about the need to make major repairs to five local swimming pools, the Assembly on Tuesday worked on a $2M ballot proposition it intends to send to voters at the April, 2008 election to finance the repairs. Last minute tweaks to the ballot language with the help of bond counsel prevented the Assembly from approving the package on Tuesday night. Instead, bond counsel and city parks staff will spend another week preparing the proposition which the Assembly will act on in its meeting of January 29th.

The 2008 Pool Bond is unusual because sale of $2M in local bonds is expressly 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 unusual funding arrangement, sponsors of the measure 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.
The Assembly had earlier approved measures drafted by Mr. Traini and Tesche appropriating additional funds in 2007 and 2008 to keep pools open and to require the Parks Department to propose a new management and operations plan for community pools. Pools included in the repair package include Bartlett, Dimond, East, Service, and West high schools.

CHARTER AMENDMENT FOR SINGLE MEMBER DISTRICTS STALLS ON LANGUAGE PROBLEMS: Because of wording glitches in a proposed ordinance, the Assembly delayed for one week consideration of a charter amendment proposed by Dan Sullivan that would pave the way to creating eleven single member Assembly districts. Currently, the Assembly consists of eleven members who are paired in 5 two person districts and one ( the downtown area) single member district. Problems with the title of the ballot proposition and its wording prompted the Assembly to delay action on the measure for one week. Eight votes of the assembly are required to place the matter before the voters in the April, 2008 election.

The proposition would amend the Home Rule Charter by eliminating the current requirement that if single member districts are established, Assembly terms would be two rather than three years long. If voters agree to this change, according to Sullivan, it would make it easier to convince the Assembly to carve out eleven single member districts.

BUILDING, FIRE CODE REVISIONS POSTPONED UNTIL JANUARY 29th: The Assembly on Tuesday postponed until January 29,2008 action on AO 2007-174 which would adopt the newest versions of the uniform building, fire, plumbing, electrical, and life safety codes along with local amendments to those codes.