Assembly Report for February 26, 2008

SO WHAT’S HAPPENED TO OUR LITTLE TOWN: Broadcast earlier today on radio station KUDO 1080, a private backroom conversation between Assembly Chair Dan Coffey and Eagle River Assemblyman Bill Star rattled Anchorage with a rare earful of local politics at its very worst. On the recording, the two politicians are heard boasting, cursing their enemies, and cackling like roosters over their political victories. The recording lasts three and a half minutes, much of it laced with profanity. KUDO didn’t not say how it got the recording, but only that it was apparently left by Coffey or Starr by mistake on someone’s answering machine on February 12th by one of the two. Here’s what they said:

Seconds into the recording, Coffey brags about his success in collecting campaign contributions for candidates in the April assembly election. "Oh, we’re really cranking," he boasts to Starr, "I took $1500 in for Sherri Jackson" in her race for an open Assembly seat in West Anchorage, apparently giving the money to an intermediary "Sully" in order "to give it to her." Coffey then reveals how he took another $1250 to Assembly member Dick Traini, is also a candidate in the same city election. Under state law, limits on individual campaign contributions are $500 and it is unclear whether Coffey or Sullivan are registered with the Alaska Public Offices Commission to collect money for the Jackson or Traini. "Sully" is a nickname for West Anchorage Assemblyman Dan Sullivan who is retiring from the Assembly in April and a well known Jackson supporter.
Coffey reveals what could prove to be a troubling link between the money he is collecting for candidates and their votes on the Assembly: "I’m doling it out 250 at a crack," Coffey brags, and if "you didn’t vote right last week, you don’t get your second 250". To Starr, Coffey’s words were "Just what I want[ed] to hear". Starr reaffirms his personal creed to Coffey: "You go my way or the freeway, you know".

Starr then reports on his failure to win an endorsement from APDEA, a union that represents Anchorage’s police officers. After hearing that the union decided not to declare a position in Starr’s bid for re-election, Starr tells Coffey of his plans to tell "those sons-of bitches to XXXX themselves." Angrily, he says that " if you ain’t for me you must be against me" Starr explains how he then called Police Chief Rob Heun "right after that" to say that "if the rank and file thinks I’m not there for them, than you need to correct them.". Pressing his point, Starr tells Heun he will withdraw his support for the police department’s plan to build a police shooting park close to a Chugiak neighborhood. Starr’s threat to Chief Heun is clear: Get the "rank and file"of APD behind him in his bid for reelection or else APD’s new shooting range will go (in Coffey’s words "down in the mud flats and up your ass".

To hear the actual recording and read a transcript go to KUDO’s website at: http://www.kudo1080.com/ You will hear lots of "adult" language between the Coffey and Starr.

ASSEMBLY ORDERS FANTASIES TO OPEN NEW STRIP CLUB ON 5TH AVE, TAXPAYERS TO PAY MORE FOR POLICE PROTECTION: By a vote of 8-3, Assembly "conservatives" late Tuesday night overrode a mayoral veto and voted to allow a 5th Ave. strip club to sell alcohol in what is now Anchorage’s newest hot spot for adult entertainment.

Fantasies is located on Alaska’s busiest highway across from Merril Field. At downtown's doorstep, Fantasies is within easy walking distance of another bar, an adult toy store, a teen age strip club, two restaurants that serve beer and wine, and a even a busy motel. Thousands of visitors who see Anchorage for the first time as they drive into town on 5th Ave, will see that the "Big Wild Life" starts at Fantasies. The only adults who won't be served at Fantasies are military personnel at Elmendorf and Ft. Richardson whose base commanders have declared the Club "off limits" in order to protect their personal safety. While Mayor Begich built a new museum and a convention center downtown; the Anchorage Assembly voted itself a new red light district.

Voting to over ride the mayor’s veto and to permit Fantasies to expand its bar business were assembly members Dick Traini, Paul Bauer, Bill Starr, Chris Birch, Debbie Ossiander, Dan Sullivan, Jennifer Johnston, and Dan Coffey. Coffey is a former lobbyist for the liquor industry and in the past represented Fantasies in connection with modification of its liquor lisense at its 5th Ave. location. The assembly did not address any potential conflict of interest on his part in the present application by people he says are former clients.

Police Chief Rob Heun warned Assembly members of the obvious: add a new hard liquor bar to Anchorage’s newest hotspot and APD will be called to the building to handle an increasing number of crimes and calls for service. The chief’s warning went unheeded by eight assembly members, nearly all of them who have campaigned on “law and order” platforms and courted the support of police unions. These eight fiscal conservatives and “budget watchdogs” also disregarded date submitted by the City’s Chief Fiscal officer showing that police services provided to Fantasies currently cost taxpayers over $80,000 per year. With the expanded bar, however, the cost of additional police protection to taxpayers will rise to $169,000 per year.

Assembly “conservatives” also ignored a warning by Municipal Attorney Jim Reeves that the Assembly’s action not only allowed Fantasies to sell alcohol in its strip club, but because of a legal flaw in its wording actually requires Fantasies to operate a strip club on the site featuring adult entertainment. Rushing again to award a valuable city permit to the Hartmanns, Anchorage is now the only city in the United States to actually require a landowner as a matter of public policy to operate an adult strip club on her property. How assembly members Starr, Birch, Traini, and Bauer can explain their vote to require a strip club at this location and more cost to taxpayers is not known. All four of these assembly members are up for re election in the upcoming municipal election.

ASSEMBLY URGES STATE TO GET TOUGH ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING, COMMERCIAL SEX EXPLOITATION: Only hours awarding a new liquor license to allow Ancchorage's hotest strip club to expand its bar operation, the Anchorage unaminoulsy passed AR 2008-31, supporting passage of Sentate Bill 157, "An Act Relating to Human Trafficking and prostitution" in the 25th Legislature of the State of Alaska."