Assembly Report for January 6, 2009

CLAMAN’S FIRST STAFF APPOINTMENTS: After becoming Acting Mayor in a brief ceremony on Saturday, Matt Claman took little time before naming key executives to a new team at city hall.

Private public relations consultant Patty Ginsburg will be Claman’s chief of staff. Ginsburg, will oversee the operations of the mayor’s office, develop and communicate policy to departments and the public, and coordinate municipal agencies. Ginsburg started her career as a reporter for the Peninsula Times Tribune in California. Ginsburg previously worked as the marketing director for Municipal Light & Power, vice president of public relations for Northwest Strategies and public information director for Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council. She holds a bachelor’s in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Former Alaska District Court Judge Nancy Nolan is Claman’s senior policy adviser. She has practiced both criminal and civil law, and worked as an assistant attorney general. She worked as an attorney in private practice and as a committing magistrate. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Colorado and holds a law degree from the University of California, Davis.

Marge Larsen, a former director of American Lung Association will be Claman’s special assistant. Larsen worked as director of communications for the Lung Association from 2001 – 2003 and later as executive director from 2005 – 2008. She is active in the Anchorage Downtown Rotary and serves on the Anchorage Air Quality Advisory Board. Larsen holds a bachelor’s of liberal arts from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

EAGLE RIVER GROUP WANTS TO WRENCH TAX CAP DOWN WITH A NEWINITIATIVE: 16 Eagle River residents on December 31, 2008 applied to the Municipal Clerk for an Initiative petition that would cut municipal spending by $16M in next year’s municipal budget. If approved at the April 4, 2009 election, the measure would further limit city property tax increases by changing the way earnings received from city utilities are considered in calculating revenues the city may collect under its Tax Cap which voters first enacted in 1983. Led by Eagle River residents Neil Nichols and Jay Gracey, petitioners are members of the Municipal Taxpayers’ League who want “to win back for taxpayers what was taken from us in 2003" by then Mayor Mark Begich. The group targets an ordinance sponsored by Begich and approved by the Assembly in 2003 which clarified municipal law by allowing the city to treat utility profits “outside” of the voter approved tax cap even though previous mayors had regarded utility payments under the cap, thereby limiting municipal spending. If approved by voters, the initiative would reduce property tax revenues available to the city in 2010 by $16M and require spending cuts, according to City Manager Mike Abbott.

When asked to identify budget cuts that he would support in order to meet the more stringent tax cap he has proposed, Nichols identified $30,000 he claims the City’s health department pays to distribute condoms “in the downtown”. Nichols would not identify other cuts he would make and instead expressed his “full confidence in Dan Sullivan to navigate those waters.” Sullivan is a former Assemblyman from West Anchorage and candidate for mayor in the April, 2009 election.

“Growth and diversity [in the city’s] revenue stream” and reduced labor costs through “managed competition” between workers providing city services are also goals of Nichols’ organization. The group’s website is http://www.mtlanc.org/

The Municipal Clerk and Municipal Attorney have ten days or until January 10, 2009 to check signatures and determine legal sufficiency of the petition. If approved, sponsors will have until the end of February to obtain some 8500 signatures from voters needed to place the measure before voters on April 7th.

MARK TO MATT: ENJOY! A first read of outgoing mayor Mark Begich’s Transition Report he left in acting Mayor Matt Claman’s in box only hints at some of the issues Claman and his ten Assembly colleges will wrestle over during coming months. Most of the 76 page report recounts the accomplishments of several dozen municipal agencies over the past six years in what most Anchorage residents regard as successful administration. And yet, curiously omitted from an otherwise upbeat assessment of the Begich years were any real discussion of the new Museum expansion, the Town Square makeover, the E St Corridor, the Mountain View revitalization, property tax relief for homeowners, streamlined procedures for property assessment appeals,creation of the Cooperative Services Authority.

Items Begich said were left on the table include: Title 21 Rewrite project. Originally scheduled for completion in 2004, Begich says the last portions of the new code will go to the Assembly in Spring, 2009. AWWU is anxiously waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court of Alaska on an appeal filed by the mayor from a decision of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) changing the method the city uses for collecting utility service assessments in lieu of property taxes. The city lost the case before the RCA and on appeal to the Superior court, if the City cannot win a reversal in the Supreme Court, the potential liability for the MOA is $26M. The ongoing problem of public inebriates remain a significant issue in Anchorage.

Just plain curious were several other entries in the Begich Report: In the coldest, darkest days of winter, and when mayoral candidate Shiela Sellkregg warns of a potentially disastrous natural gas shortage in Anchorage, ML&P’s Jim Posey cheerfully checks “N/A” for “Issues
Requiring Immediate Attention” in the Report. Very proud of the $700M hoard he has assembled for the Port of Anchorage expansion, Port Director Bill Sheffield needs some personnel changes there and instructs Claman that he “will need to be supportive of any staff/reclassification changes the Port makes” for the project to succeed. Emphasis added.. According to the City’s Emergency Services Director, Kevin Spillars, the single issue requiring his department’s “immediate attention” in his is a Charter amendment “with special emphasis on lines of succession.” City Attorney Jim Reeves boasts that “In the current administration, the Municipal Attorney has been treated (and . . . by Assembly members and the legal community) as a legal professional rather than as the Mayor’s political confidante or tactician..” Finally, virtually every department head argues for more money, personnel, equipment, and facilities. So it is no wonder the Report also notes the City has had six controllers in the past five years and six OMB directors since Begich took office.

To read the Begich Transition Report, go to the City’s website at http://www.muni.org and click on 2009 Begich Administration Transition Report.

HE’S BACK: DAN COFFEY IS THE NEW VICE CHAIR. Supported by a secret ballot of eight of his colleagues, Mid Town Assembly member Dan Coffey returned to a leadership position of the Anchorage Assembly Tuesday night as West Anchorage’s Harriet Drummond became Chair.

In his second term on the Assembly, Coffey brings considerable experience to his new position as vice chair. He held that position for two years previously in 2005-7 and served as chair from 2007-8. Coffey’s previous tenure in leadership positions was controversial: In September, 2005 he and then Assembly Chair Anna Fairclough closed the Assembly office and fired staffers Elvi Gray Jackson and Mike Guiterrez. Coffey almost lost his seat to Gray Jackson in 2007 amid charges of conflicts of interest. Both Grey Jackson and Gutierrez were elected to the Assembly in April, 2008 and are now in their first term on the body.

Coffey’s one year term as Chair between 2007-8 was marked by release of a tape recording he inadvertently made of a candid conversation with Eagle River Assembly member Bill Starr in which Coffey boasted of collecting and then “doling out” campaign contributions in the Spring, 2008 election. A complaint was filed by APOC staff against Coffey last spring and only recently dismissed by the full Commission.

Previously vice chair, Drummond became Chair once former Chair Matt Claman became Acting Mayor over the weekend.

ASSEMBLY CLARIFIES VOTING REQUIREMENTS FOR LEADERSHIP CHANGES: With little fanfare on Tuesday night, the Assembly clarified voting requirements for replacing its chair or vice chair as it was required to do once Assembly member Matt Claman became Acting Mayor. AO 2008-131 provides that six affirmative votes of Assembly members are required to replace the body’s chair or vice chair at mid term. Passage of the ordinance ends a controversy which surfaced last month when rumors circulated in Anchorage that some Assembly members wanted to replace West Anchorage’s Matt Claman as Assembly Chair before he became Acting Mayor following the election of Mark Begich to the U. S. Senate.

Mid-Town Assembly member Elvi Gray-Jackson did not vote on AO 2008- 131 as she was out of town.

Assembly Report for December 17, 2008

ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP COUP IS AVOIDED, HARRIET DRUMMOND IS NEW VICE CHAIR BY A VOTE OF 6-5: Continuing the meeting of December 16, 2008, the Assembly one day later elected West Anchorage Assembly member Harriet Drummond the new vice chair of the Assembly. She replaces Sheila Selkregg who resigned her position earlier this week in order to devote more time to her campaign for mayor in the Spring, 2009 election. Selkregg remains a member of the Assembly. The Assembly split 6-5 along traditional idealogical lines.

Election of Drummond to the Assembly's second highest position is particularly relevant to the current changes sweeping through Alaska: When current mayor Mark Begich leaves Anchorage to assume his duties as a United States Senator in early January, 2009, the office of Acting Mayor immediately passes to the chair of the Anchorage Assembly, currently Mr Claman. Without further action by the Assembly, Ms. Drummond will then become Chair and serve in that capacity until after the April 4, 2009 election.

Election of progressive Harriet Drummond as the Assembly's vice chair may put to rest rumors that some assembly members, including progressives who regained control of the body in April, 2009 were planning to remove Claman from his position as chair. If taken before Begich leaves for Washington, that action would effectively hand the position of Acting Mayor to another member such as Dan Coffey who has led Assembly conservatives in the past. Because the Assembly took no action this week on AO 2008-131 which would reduce the number of members required to elect a new chair at mid term from 8 to 6, it now appears unlikely further changes in Assembly leadership will be made before Sen. elect Begich leaves for Washington in January.

Assembly Report for December 16, 2008

DICK CHENEY LOOKING FOR WORK HERE? Eagle River Assemblyman Bill Starr has a new resolution before the Anchorage Assembly suggesting that the city manager to hire a bear hunter to protect Eagle River residents from bear attacks. Called a "wildlife safety specialist" the new hire would "manage nuisance and dangerous bears". As no real qualifications are set for the job, even vice president Dick Cheney could apply. The resolution does not say how much Cheney or a more qualified person would be paid.

Starr's Resolution also asks the State Board of Game to open up portions of the Hillside and Eagle River to seasonal bear hunting. Local gunshops who have already seen sales of firearms and ammunition skyrocket since the presidential election (Anchorage Daily News, November 10, 2008) can only rejoice Anchorage is opened up for bear hunting. A public hearing will be held on the resolution.

Although the Assembly on Tuesday night did not reach Starr;s resolution and it is still scheduled for a continuation meeting tomorrow night, Starr said late Tuesday he will move to postpone the matter until a meeting sometime in January, 2009.

The resolution is AR 2008-253 and can be found muni.org on the Assembly/Clerk portion of the City's web site. Written by Kyle Hopkins, an excellent article about the resolution appeared on page 1 of the December 16th edition of the Daily News.

SELKREGG RESIGNS AS VICE CHAIR; ASSEMBLY MAY FILL POSITION AT CONTINUATION MEETING TOMORROW NIGHT: Keeping a promise she says was made months ago to other assembly members who elected her Vice Chair last spring, Assembly member Sheila Selkregg last night resigned her position as Vice Chair in order to devote concentrate on her campaign for Mayor. Selkreggs’s action set off a brief firefight among assembly members over the timing of a decision by the body to fill that position. Ultimately, the body voted to take up her replacement at a continuation meeting to complete the December 16th agenda at 5:00 p.m.

POLICE, FIREFIGHTERS PACK THE HOUSE; ASSEMBLY APPROVES 5 YEAR POLICE CONTRACT : Hundreds of police officers and firefighters packed the Assembly Chambers on Tuesday night to urge the body to approve contracts with their unions for five years or until 2013. After waiting patiently for hours in a line which snaked to the rear entrance of the Assembly chambers, several dozen people were able to testify before the Assembly by vote of 6-4 approved the new contract. Assembly member Dan Coffey was absent due to an illness in his family.

Eagle River Assembly member Bill Starr, who led the opposition to the police contract with a barrage of legal objections, argument, and at times, thinly veiled hostility to the administration of Mayor Mark Begich, tried to abstain from voting on the entire contract. Assembly Chair Matt Claman simply overruled Starr and recorded his action as a “No” vote.

Public Hearing and action on the Firefighters’ contract was continued to a meeting beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 17th in the Assembly chambers at the Loussac Library.

Negotiated with the municipal administration, the two contracts appear to follow inflation and provide a 3 percent wage increase in 2009 and annual inflation-related hikes ranging from a minimum of 2.9 percent to a 4.5 percent maximum from 2010 through 2013.

The unions and City negotiators overcame several hurdles in bringing these agreements forward: service retirements, dwindling retirement accounts for uniformed members and the need to maintain competitive wage sales to lure recruits to the City naturally fueled wage demands. A worsening national economy, the local tax cap, and perpetual concern over real property taxes presented their own challenges to negotiators.

According to the City, the new fire contract will increase the Fire Department budget from $22.7 million to $29.7 million during the five year term. The police contract would add $29.2 million to $38.2 million to the Department’s budget during the same five years. While much ballyhoo is made in the tabloids about the size of these contracts, the increased costs they represent is a relatively tiny percentage of the more that $2.6 Billion that will be spent for all general government operations during those same five years.

ASSEMBLY DEFERS ACTION ON PROPOSED FREEZE ON NEW MUNICIPAL HIRES, “NON CRITCICAL” CONTRACTS: The Assembly wisely deferred until January 20, 2009 action on a proposed wage freeze and embargo “non critical contracts” proposed on Tuesday night. Resolution AR 2008-333 would freeze all new hiring by the City until April, 2009 unless related to “community health and safety.” Similarly, all ”non critical contracts” of any amount would be embargoed for five months. Critical terms are not defined in the resolution, a process for determining if proposed exceptions apply and criteria for determining if “adequate funding” exists to support expenditures are not spelled out in the resolution. When members learned its sponsor had not first examined practical impacts with the municipal administration and had not reviewed the resolution with the Assembly’s own Budget and Finance committee, action on the matter was quickly postponed until January 20, 2009. The resolution is authored by sponsored by Assembly members Selkregg, Ossiander, and Drummond. A delay in action on the resolution and a referral to the Assembly’s own Budget and Audit Committee might give sponsor Sheila Selkregg a chance to better understand just how hiring and contract freezes imposed by a legislative body impact the day to day functions of city government. Selkregg is a candidate for Mayor in the April, 2009 municipal election.

Action on a related resolution also sponsored by Ms Selkregg was postponed until January, 2009. AR 2008 to give the Assembly’s budget Committee and the mayor a chance to review the matter. AR 2008-334 would require certain monthly financial reports be given to the Assembly. The month delay gives Ms. Selkregg time to review city financial reports already available through the Administration and the Assembly’s own budget committee.

NO ACTION ON ORDINANCE, RUMORED LEADERSHIP CHANGE; An agenda clogged with other matters and a room packed with persons testifying on union contracts prevented the Assembly from taking action on AO 2008-131. The ordinance would allow six members of the body to replace its Chair at any time. Under current law as understood by the municipal attorney, eight votes are required to make the change at mid term and some advance notice to the incumbent chair may be required.

The Assembly chair automatically becomes Acting Mayor if a vacancy occurs in the office of Mayor. That change will occur when current mayor Mark Begich leaves for Washington, D.C. t as Alaska’s newest U. S. Senator.

City Hall insiders report a bitter feud has erupted between East Anchorage Assembly member and mayoral candidate Sheila Sellkreg and Assembly Chair Matt Claman who is an undecided candidate in the same election. Selkregg says she and Claman both promised members who supported their election to leadership positions last April to resign as Chair or Vice Chair should they decide to seek the city’s highest office. The purpose of this agreement was to “level the playing field” between mayoral candidates, none of whom would have the advantage of running for that office while serving as Acting Mayor. Claman says he is not bound by the agreement because it was conditioned on him making a decision to run for Mayor by October of 2009. Because he has not yet decided to seek that office, Claman says he is no longer bound by that Agreement and intends to serve as Acting Mayor. He reserves the right to decide whether to announce his candidacy until late February, 2009.

Because the Assembly did not reach AO 2008-131 before its clock ran out on Tuesday night, conservative members who are rumored to favor removal of Matt Claman from his position as Chair took no action. The proposed ordinance will be among the last items taken up by the body tomorrow night at the Loussac Library at 5:00 pm to complete its December 16th agenda.

Assembly Report for April 15, 2008

TESCHE MADE IT OUT OF ALASKA: “My work there is done” said former Assemblyman Allan Tesche who was recently spotted on a beach Outside. Neither Tesche nor his wife Pamela would say exactly where they were ended up after he left the Anchorage Assembly last week, except that the air is warm there and house plants are grown outdoors.

Tesche was elected three times to represent the downtown district on the Anchorage Assembly and served since April 1999. He was elected vice chair for two years and at various times headed the Assembly’s Finance, and Public Safety, and Elections Committees.

He wrote countless pieces of legislation addressing issues as varied as design standards for Big Box Stores, a ban on smoking in restaurants and public places, several Charter revisions dealing with elections and municipal budgets, dog parks, resolution of the Simonian Little League controversy, economic development and neighborhood planning, including a new Downtown Comprehensive plan.

Tesche introduced many new words and phrases into the Assembly’s lexicon, including the terms “bloviate”, “trifurcate” and most recently, “butt dialing”. He once used Assembly member Debbie Ossiander’s last name as a noun to describe a “sticky, gaseous swamp of questions asked only to confuse other assembly members and to stop good legislation.” He branded Assembly conservatives as “Troglidites” and dismissed their colleagues as “furry little friends.” In turn, he was vilified by the Wuerch Administration as a “Communist” and named by Assembly chair Dan Coffey as the “meanest, nastiest, most rotten Assembly member ever.” He was a gut fighter for the left.

Although he loved to talk to reporters, Tesche denied was a “media hog” or that on slow days he simply made up stuff for the evening news. He poked fun at former mayors by holding press conferences in a “media center” put together in the Assembly office festooned with its own blue curtain, an oval Assembly seal and flags. In 2005 he teamed up with Aaron Selbig for a weekly radio show on KUDO 1080 where he scorched Assembly conservatives and argued incessantly with callers. You can still call 569-1080 during Aarons’s show if you have something to say.

Tesche did not leave quietly as his term ended. In February, 2008 Assembly Chair Dan Coffey carelessly “butt dialed” a cell phone recording to the Tesche home of a saucy conversation between Coffey and Assemblyman Bill Starr. On tape, the pair bantered about Coffey’s role as a “bag man” for political contributions and Starr’s own attempt to shake down the Chief of Police for union endorsement in his re election. The recording became the focus of an APOC investigation after which Starr was fined for unlawful fundraising. The recording was also mentioned in a vigorous write-in campaign by Eagle River resident Janet Brand who came within a handful of votes of actually unhorsing Starr in the April 1, 2008 election. Also disclosed in the recording, Coffey’s questionable fundraising activities impacted election bids by long term Assemblyman Dick Traini in the midtown district and by Sherri Jackson in West Anchorage. Both lost their elections and were replaced by progressives who stripped Coffey of his chairmanship and restored a more progressive role for the Assembly in local politics.

The Tesche Report was posted promptly after Assembly meetings to 1,600 readers from May 31, 2005 to this final edition. Leaving the Assembly is probably the only thing Tesche did during the past three years which endeared him to the remaining conservatives on the Anchorage Assembly.

Assembly Report for March 25, 2008

PARKS MAINTENANCE ORDINANCE KILLED: Voting along traditional party lines, Assembly conservatives tanked a proposal by Mayor Begich and Allan Tesche and Sheila Sellkregg to create parks “Legacy Fund” that would attract public and private contributions for parks maintenance in Anchorage. Only Matt Claman and Dick Traini joined the sponsors of AO 2008-39 which would have allowed the Anchorage Parks Foundation to receive donations from private and public sources for maintaining the approximately 15,000 acres of public parkland and over 300 miles of improved trails throughout Anchorage. South Anchorage conservative Chris Birch told assembly members there is no need for a special fund dedicated to parks maintenance, and others objected to creation of another private “bureaucracy” to maintain parks and trials. In a particularly mean spirited way, Eagle River’s two assembly members ganged up on the ordinance and urged fellow Republicans to kill the measure because it would somehow allow the Anchorage Parks Service area to better maintain its own parks and trails differently than those are maintained in Eagle River-Chugiak and that change is somehow offensive to the two Assembly members. Ignoring the recommendations of their own parks boards which had recommended approval of the Legacy Ordinance and of the City Attorney, these two shortsighted Eagle River representatives effectively denied Anchorage residents the use of a lucrative new way of maintaining parks and trails in this community.

$737M 2008-9 SCHOOL BUDGET APPROVED: With little fanfare, the Assembly unanimously approved a 2008-9 budget for the Anchorage School District totaling some $736,769,943 for the fiscal year beginning in midsummer, 2008. Of that amount, $217.6M will come from local property taxes, the rest from a combination of state and federal aid. The new budget is 5.46% higher than the prior years, representing a restrained increase in spending, largely due to state and federal mandates and special education.

DAN COFFEY’S DOG POOP LAWS IN THE TOILET: Dan Coffey attended his son’s Little League game one night last year. He stepped into some dog poop on a baseball field and got mad: there ought to be an ordinance against this outrage, he claimed. For almost one year, the assembly and the public struggled with a series of ordinances authored by Mr. Coffey and West Anchorage Assembly member Matt Clamnan. Over a year, the Assembly held about six public hearings, heard hundreds of citizens and debated the issue for hours. Four of the ordinances, AO 2007-106, 106(S) and AO 2007-143 and 143(S) were back again before the Assembly Tuesday night and several dozen people again showed up, ready to testify. Dan has apparently calmed down a bit and his once soiled Italian loafers have dried in the crisp winter air. He ordered his pals on the Assembly to postpone the ordinances indefinitely pending continued discussions between dog owners and parks users. The handle pulled, all four ordinances whooshed quietly to Pt. Woronzof.

LABOR RELATIONS ISSUES LOOM OVER NEW ASSEMBLY: A trio of measures introduced on Tuesday night suggest the Assembly will face several important labor issues shortly after the new Assembly is seated on April 15, 2008. Introduced last night and set for public hearing on April 15 is a one year wage and retirement opener with IBEW, and a similar contract with Operators' Local 302. Also introduced and set for public hearing on April 29 is AO2008-47 relating to service pay Mayor Begich has long targeted for elimination and which proved controversial last year.

“POCKET SHOTS” COMING TO ANCHORAGE? Tampa, Florida is the home of three well known professional sports teams: the Tampa Bay Bucs who play at Raymond James Stadium, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who play at Tropicana Field, and the Tampa Bay Lightning who skate at the Ice Palace. Tampa is also a party town known for a huge winter blowout parade known as Gasparellia which sort of resembles New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebration. It was only a matter of time before Tampa’s robust alcohol industry figured out a way to avoid stringent rules forbidding bottles or cans used to import beer and alcohol into these public events and sports venues with a new product sold in local faucets across the Tampa Bay: the Pocket Shot. This container is a small plastic pouch containing 50 ml of hard liquor, usually whisky, rum or vodka, about four inches high and town inches wide. Using flexible plastic, the pocket shot can be concealed on the person on a Tampa concert goer with ease and immune from metal detectors or body pat downs used to detect glass bottles. The “pocket shot” sells for about $1.99.

Assembly Report for March 18, 2008

TRAIN WRECK IN MIDTOWN: Long term Assembly member Dick Traini's campaign for re election jumped the tracks yesterday afternoon when the superior court ruled he is ineligible to seek a fourth consecutive term under "term limits imposed by the Home Rule Charter. The Charter limits terms of assembly members to three consecutive terms but does not say whether the terms served must be full terms or, in Trani's case, include the remaining year of his predecessor's term Traini was elected to complete in 2001. The court's ruling effectively ends Traini's bid for re election at the April 1, 2008 municipal election, leaving only one qualified candidate, Elvi Grey-Jackson, on the ballot.

Central to arguments made in favor of Traini's candidacy were two prior instances in which candidates for municipal office were apparently allowed to run for a fourth consecutive term where each had completed only a portion of their predecessors' terms. The court apparently gave little weight to those actions because neither had been challenged or adjudicated in court, giving rise to some sort of precedent current officials could rely on.

City Clerk Barbara Guenstein, who was named defendant in the lawsuit for technical reasons and who is represented by the Municipal Attorney, has announced she will file an immediate appeal with the Supreme Court of Alaska and ask for an expedited ruling before the April 1, 2008 municipal election. Details on the implementation of the court's order, should it be affirmed by the Supreme Court, are not yet known.

The news of the court's decision could not come at a worse time for the Traini campaign: Dick's re election bid got off to a slow start in Midtown, with his opponent, Elvi Grey Jackson raising ten times the money he received in campaign contributions reported as of January 1st. Moreover, Trani's name was mentioned as a recipient of campaign cash "doled out" by Assembly chair Dan Coffey who himself faces charges filed by the Alaska Public Officies Commission that the money was collected and distributed unlawfully.

DAN SULLIVAN'S VERSION OF CLEAN ELECTIONS: An ordinance proposed by departing West Anchorage Assemblyman Tuesday night would prohibit campaign contributions from individuals and business "engaged in ongoing business that requires ratification and approval by the Assembly and School Board". AO 2008-43 would effectively prevent virtually anybody associated with a labor union who represents municipal employees from contributing to candidates for the Assembly or school board. This ordinance effectively ends the role of organized labor in municipal and school board elections. Included also are owners and operators of businesses that sell goods and services to the municipality and businesses that are engaged in certain land transactions with the municipality.

Curiously, Sullivan's ordinance does not cover or restrict contributions from businessmen, whose daily activities are regulated by the municipality such as land developers, small business owners who are a frequent source of campaign contributions to municipal campaigns. The ordinance is also rather vague as to what constitutes "current municipal business" that would trigger its prohibitions.

Citing the Board's slow progress on a recent ethics ordinance, the Assembly voted 6-5 not to refer Sullivan's proposal to the city's Board of Ethics for review and comment before public hearing. Instead, AO 2008-43 will be reviewed by the Assembly's own "Ethics Committee" which is, of course, chaired by Dan Sullivan.

A public hearing on Mr. Sullivan's ordinance is scheduled for April 15, 2008, after Assembly members elected in the April 1, 2998 city election take office. Although he won't get to vote on the ordinance because he is leaving the Assembly, as an announced candidate for mayor, Sullivan will gain some advantage over other candidates who could no longer count on financial support from city unions in local elections.

CLEAN ELECTIONS RESOLUTION STALLS, AGAIN: Assembly members once again delayed action on AR 2007-300, a rather simple resolution that would support an initiative measure adopting a system of public funding for state elections. Seemingly unaffected by recent revelations that two or three of its own members are involved in various shenanigans with campaign donations to local races, Assembly voted 10-1 to delay action on the measure until April 15th. Only Allan Tesche dissented.

CATCH A FALLING STARR: Despite all of the media attention and controversy over disclosure of the infamous Coffey-Starr recording that was "butt dialed" by mistake to Allan Tesche on February 12, 2008, absolutely nothing public has been said by either Dan Coffey or Bill Starr about the substance of what the tape revealed. With their own words Coffey bragged about his success as a bag man rounding up campaign contributions to keep his conservative pals on the Assembly and "doling out" the money to ensure members voted his way. Starr, agreeing with Coffey's brand of city politics countered with his own astounding story: a recent effort to shake down the Chief of Police for an endorsement from the "rank and file" police officers for his campaign in exchanges for his continued support of the location of a police shooting range in an Eagle River neighborhood that is costing him support from within his district. Not one word. Not even a single letter of explanation, apology, or a mea culpa that Republicans are getting famous for has been offered by the pair to explain their actions to the public they are supposed to serve. If Richard Nixon could stonewall as well as Dan Coffey or Bill Starr, he'd still be president.

Begich announces and the taxis begin to roll in the television ad war

SENATOR MARK BEGICH: GET USED TO IT: Surprising no one, Mayor Mark Begich yesterday annouced he is forming an "exploratory comittee" in what now appears to be an almost certain bid for the United States Senate later this year. Filed with the Federal Election's Commission, paperwork creating the creating the "Alaskans for Begich Exploratoy Committee which allows Begich to begin raising millions of dollars necessary to defeat incumbent Senator Ted Stevens, now 84 years old. To see the Committe's web site and preview what Mayor Begich will say duirng the next eight months, go to: http://www.begich.com/

COMING SOON ON YOUR TELEVISION: Go to the Utube link listed below for a sneak preview of a spicy ad which will run soon on local television in the 2008 version of the Taxicab Wars. Prepared by a goup of drivers, operators and holders of taxicab permits, the spot raises issues voters will hear lots about before voting on the April 1, 2008. The issue is whether to repeal municipal limits on the number of taxi cab permits available to operators and open the industry to semi regulated competition. Currently, the city limits the number of permits available to taxi cab operators; as a result, taxi permits are valuable investments and the means by which several hundred are employed are employed in the industry. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i-ogp_GS_I