*integrity of our elections and municipal Government.
*dealing with Budget, housing, homeless,Economy (Tourism), city services(snow removal),and education.
*With years of dealing with these issues, little progress has been made in improving our city.
*It is time for new thinking for old problems.
*It is time to give back to our city.
Our Elections Municipal elections are supposed to be non-partisan,
but they follow party lines. This means the people elected are for the party
and not the individuals. Elections were moved to the
spring to increase voter turnout. But it
has reduced voter turnout because it seems that most conservatives are not
interested in local assembly elections and fail to vote in the spring. So why haven’t we moved the municipal
elections back to the fall? Because spring
elections give an advantage to the progressive Democratic Party. So why was the municipal election changed to a
mail in ballot extended out over two weeks?
Because it was supposed to increase voter turnout just like moving
elections to the spring. For this, we
have acquired a large expensive building for the extended election. This adds to the expense of the election and
I feel like it opens to door to question the integrity of our election by increasing
the ability to commit election fraud. In
addition to the expense, I have heard questions about voter ballot harvesting and
adding ballots to the election. Cameras
were installed, but cameras were not directed toward the ballot storage
area. Other people had concerns about
the cameras being operated only during business hours while the facility was
accessible for 24 hours a day. But does
it really increase voter turnout? The
answer is yes. It turns out that it also
increases the Democrats advantage in the election. So in a nonpartisan
election, we have two items that seem to increase the progressive Democratic
Party power. Elections should be above
reproach, but there are questions and that is a problem. In a time when funds are dwindling, we are
spending a lot on elections when they could be conducted in conjunction with
the state and federal elections. As a
candidate, I dislike the spring elections for two reasons. The first one is that it makes the city go
through two election cycles every year and most people hate election
advertising and politicians coming to their door. The second reason is that I am self-employed
and I receive my tax documents after my APOC paper work is due. This causes me to guess on some of my
finances and creates more work because I have to update the original documents
after I receive the correct tax information and also requires additional work
for APOC. I have a small business so it is not too difficult, but if I ran a
large business it could deter me from running for office just because of
timing. So I ask the people to demand
that the elections be moved back to the fall to release us from the additional
political intrusions on our lives, to make it fair for all candidates, to
increase voter turnout, to reduce the election costs, and to return integrity
to our elections once more.
Our Government
I would like to
start by saying our government is supposed to be a government for the people by
the people. I feel the attitude in the
municipal government is the people are here to support the government and the
government does not have to follow the laws, the charter, the state
constitution, or the federal constitution.
The 907 Initiative has strong allegations about the Mayor and some of
them seem very justified and I believe action is being taken. But I have serious questions about the Anchorage
Assembly. The alcohol tax should have
needed 60% to pass. The fact that the
Assembly lead by Forest Dunbar convinced people you could just change the
Charter just this one time was wrong.
The bottom line is that you need a 60% vote to raise taxes and we did it
with less. The will of the people was
violated and no one did anything about it.
Then when Berkowitz resigned, there should have been a special election,
but we did not have one. Another major
concern is how many assembly members have direct or indirect interests with
people getting paid to help the homeless?
This is a serious conflict of interest and should have
consequences. We should be helping the
homeless, not making a new industry to promote their growth at the expense of
the tax payers. It also bothers me that
people working two or more jobs in the service industry during COVID had to
make due with an unemployment check while some city workers were allowed to
stay home, not work from home, but to stay home and collect their pay. This feels like fraud to me. Our elected officials swore an oath and part
of their duties is to protect our funds.
Then for them to buy hotels and give them to nonprofit organizations also
seems like fraud to me. Now the city is giving
vouchers to homeless people to stay in the hotels that were already purchased
by the tax payers and it seems like money laundering. There has been a massive transfer of income
from the city to nonprofit organizations at the expense of the tax payer without
significant improvement. In the last
three years, we have spent $161 million on the homeless and the major change
was we started with 3,000 and now we have 3,700. One of the main jobs of the Assembly is to
listen to the people they represent. I
should not have to read about people getting arrested at assembly meetings because
they want their voice to be heard. But perhaps
my biggest complaint is the way the Assembly changes the charter to get around the
60% vote requirement to raise taxes.
They say they may have followed the letter of the part of the law, but
they failed to follow the intent and scope of the of the law. I have heard that the 60% required to approve new taxes was ruled unconstitutional by a judge, but I believe that it is covered by the constitution and a judge does not have the power to usurp the will of the voters. But who will listen to our complaints? Not the governor, I tried. What agency will make the mayor and assembly
follow the law? Below is the assembly
oath of office. THE ANCHORAGE ASSEMBLY ORDAINS:Section 1:
That AMC Subsection 1.35.01OA is hereby amended to read as follows:A. Oath of
office. The principal executive personnel and members of boards and commissions
set forth in subsection B of this section shall take and subscribe to the following
oath of office upon undertaking the duties of office:"I
solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United
States, the Constitution of the State of Alaska, [AND] the Charter of Anchorage.
and the Anchorage Municipal Code, and that I will faithfully perform the duties
of to the best of my ability."
The Anchorage Assembly swore an oath to follow the charter and has failed to do so at the expense of the tax payers.
Homeless On the way to the Make It Monday Forum I was thinking about
the homeless problem. I lived in Alaska
before the oil money and paid state income taxes. Back then, the churches and fraternal organizations
took care of the homeless with some donations from local businesses. There was not a lot of homeless and many of
them returned to be productive in the community or moved on to other
locations. So why do we have such a
problem now? I think back to then, and
realize there was no incentive to be homeless back then. Now it seems like there is a big ad out that
says come to Anchorage for the best job ever, free housing, free food, free clothing,
free healthcare, work the hours that you want, vacation anytime, no penalty for
shoplifting or auto theft, and plenty of free time to get in to mischief, just
apply at Anchorage city hall or one of the satellite organizations. Charity should come from the heart, not from
the point of the gun of a tax collector.
I would feel better about the situation if I saw positive improvement,
but I see the municipality sacrificing homeless lives to justify more money in
the budget. The spice incident was used
to bond more ambulances with crews. The
20 or so individuals that die on the roads or in tents are used to justify
buying hotels and paying people to fix them and run the hotels. When you give someone something for free, it
destroys their self-respect and then they respect nothing. Right now we try to force help on people and
they reject it. In all the meetings that
I have attended, the poster child of the organization requesting money all had
the same story. They woke up frozen to
the ground or in their own urine or vomit and realized if they didn’t get help
they would die. It is time to stop
enabling people so they can realize they need help. Our constitutions basically say that we the
people should benefit from our industry.
So we should demand something for our tax money. If someone is capable of living in the woods
year around then they should be able to work.
Right now I see 3,700 that are capable of fixing trails, working in
parks, cleaning streets and sidewalks, picking up trash, tending the flowers in
the summer, raking leaves in the fall, and moving snow in the winter. It is time to get involved in the community. It is time to stop the give-away and return
to commerce by requesting service for benefits.
Stop enabling people and give them a hand up not a hand out and make
sure that they can read. Demand this of
the mayor and assembly.
