Stop the Sunset at the Anchorage Assembly Meeting Tonight
He’s at it again.
Mayor Dan Sullivan has found a new way to stifle the voices of Anchorage residents, and keep them from making all those pesky suggestions and complaints – you know, “citizen participation.” Apathy and disconnection is far more appealing to the current administration.
But, tomorrow, there is a public hearing in which you, dear Anchorage resident, may make your voice heard anyway. The mayor has decided to trim the fat, and cut, or sunset many of the city’s volunteer boards and commissions. The city admits that this has nothing to do with saving money. So why put some on the chopping block, and enact sunset clauses for others that mean the demise of boards and commissions unless a friendly Assembly happens to be in place to continue them?
Ask yourself this – if you were a dastardly mayor, (see above) and you were trying to get rid of a board or commission and you were hoping for and counting on some day having an Assembly that did your bidding, what would you do?
(Jeopardy music)
Exactly. You’d make their existence dependent on an Assembly vote. You’d make it so it would take action to keep them alive. You wouldn’t ever have to worry about actively killing them, because you’d know at some point, they’d just fade away.
Sunset is the gateway to extinction.
So, what boards and commissions face the Sullivan phase-out?
Port Commission – A regulatory/adjudicatory commission that advises on rules and regulations relating to the operation of the terminal/transportation facilities at the port.
Can’t have citizen oversight on THAT boondoggle, can we? Nope. All those minutes of meetings of the commission that are currently available online because of open meetings law? They’ll be gone. >poof< And that means you and I won’t be able to get that information, because there will be no commission talking about it.
The Board of Building Regulation Examiners and Appeals – A regulatory/adjudicatory board that serves as a quasi-judicial board for appeals of decisions of the Building Official; reviews building codes.
We all learned from a former Wasilla mayor… (wait a minute, the name will come to me) that building codes are just a pain in the neck. Just because we live in a seismic zone doesn’t mean we need to go off half-cocked and start having input about structures and keeping them up.
The Emergency Medical Services Board – A regulatory/adjudicatory board that certifies and recertifies qualified intensive care paramedics; establishes standing medical orders for paramedics and emergency medical technicians; serves as liaison with the emergency medical community.
Don’t get sick.
The Transportation Commission – A regulatory/adjudicatory commission that advises on rules and regulations relating to the operation of the terminal/transportation facilities at the port.
Port? What port? Nothing to see here… Go about your business.
The Urban Design Commission – A program advisory commission that reviews street and roadway landscape improvement projects; advises on urban design matters.
With the Mayor and his henchman Dan Coffey doing their best to dismantle Title 21 after years of citizen input, it certainly doesn’t make sense to have this commission. That would just mean more people they had to (airquotes) “listen to.”
The ADA Board – makes sure that Anchorage is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Federal law? FEDeral law? We certainly don’t need anyone making sure that we follow the rules of some foreign government in Washington D.C. that bosses us around.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board – Socialist
The Libraries Advisory Board – Double Socialist
The Animal Control Appeals Board – Too Warm & Fuzzy
The Municipal Women’s Commission and The Youth Advisory Commission – The Mayor obviously believes in the old protocol of “women and children first” only he’s not talking about lifeboats – he’s talking about throwing them overboard.
The mayor’s proposal would combine two high-profile boards into one — the city Budget Advisory Commission, which reviews the city spending plan, and the School Budget Advisory Commission, which makes recommendations on the school district budget.
Huh. That’s weird. As of this posting, about 12 hours before the meeting, a certain Mr. Adam Trombley is listed as being on The Budget Advisory Commission. In case you were wondering, it is the same Adam Trombley who currently SITS ON THE ASSEMBLY.A complete list of the boards and commissions that are on the chopping block, or are due to face sunset provisions, or are merged together in a hinky way with current Assembly members sitting on the board, can be found HERE.
So, what can you do?
The best thing is to attend the Assembly meeting in person tonight in the Loussac Library’s Assembly chambers. You’ll want to be there at 6pm, after which testimony will be taken. You don’t have to say much, but stand up and be counted.
If you can’t make it, then email the Assembly at wwmas@muni.org. That email address will get your comment to all Assembly members. This is one of those times when the Assembly hasn’t heard from constituents. So, if you want them to have your back and ensure that the citizenry can participate in our government, you need to tell them so!
Tell them that boards and commissions provide a chance for residents to lend their expertise to the city, and make it a safer, more attractive and livable city by supporting quality standards in a variety of areas.
Tell them not to sunset these boards, because sunsetting implies that by a time certain, they have outlived their usefulness. Let the Assembly have to take action to kill a board, not take action just to keep it alive. If there is not an Assembly in place that can understand and appreciate the importance of these boards, or if there is a nefarious purposes for getting rid of them, they go away and we lose a vital citizen link to city government.
The meetings of these boards (like the Port Commission) are public, and come under public meetings law so the minutes are on line. Getting rid of these boards means less citizen input, less oversight, less accessibility to information from the likes of you and me. And of course, that’s what they want – less transparency.
Let’s not let them have it.
We must—keep—Sullied—slime—from—going—-anywhere. Stop the spread of filth.
Ditto..and yes..I wondered if the site was..targeted.
Odd, seems like the site went down sometime soon after 10:29 alaska time and has been out most of the day. On a day when short notice of an important local political event was posted. Even as I write that event is taking place so it is by now too late to participate. Further to that it appears that the problem, from the modest diagnostic interpretation I could make from here was not one of the mudflats server itself being down, but rather a glitch in its DNS server, which is easily accomplished by a small scale DDOS attack aimed specifically at the primary name server.
Good luck Anchoragites.
I noticed that the site was unavailable today also…
Double ditto with cream and sugar on top.
Save me a seat, I will be there*~~~
I went, I saw, I did not speak.
atleast I had my butt in a seat:)
There was A LOT of testimony, very good..assembly voted to mull it over for 120 days.. Ms. Drummond was outstanding…I miss Mike.
Is there a phone tree or email tree warning? Are you going to have to count on people reading Mudflats? I’m down here in Kenai, so probably can’t do much, but if there’s something we from outside of the city can do, let us know.
hope?
During the equal rights ordinance hearing some time ago, at least half of the people testifying against it were from Mat-Su on the theory that they did business in Anchorage so had a vested interest in continuing to permit discrimination. I think people in Kenai (or Mat-Su or Barrow or….) who occasionally do business in Anchorage have a vested interest in a liveable city with functioning boards and commissions so when they come visit the city is well run based on community input.
So send an e-mail
Wow. That’s simply breathtaking hubris!
I hope that many Anchorage citizens show up and make it clear that this is NOT acceptable.
How much longer before he’s ousted? Good luck getting rid of him. There has to be a trained cat that can do a better job of mayor than this fool.
The people of Anchorage have a chance to stop Mayor Sullivan’s rampage and grab for power.
Will they take that chance and stop him in his tracks?
Mayor Sullivan is betting on the average person’s apathy, laziness or ignorance. He thinks he can do what he wants whenever he wants to whomever he wants because so few are paying attention.
It will be up to the people as to whether or not Mayor Sullivan and his cronies have their way with the city.
Do the people of Anchorage have what it takes to defend themselves and their city from this ruthless and greedy man?
AKM is sounding the alarm. Who will rush to the defense of the city and its people?
All it takes is for enough warm bodies to show up to convince the Mayor that he is being watched and the people are not liking what they are seeing him do.
If the get rid of Emergency Medical Services Board that means Slipstream will vanish into thin air and be lost forever. Oh my god,the humanity of it all. Help save Slip,for the love of all men and women. Please do your civic duty.The ‘Flats would never be the same if we lose this one.
Oh noes!
that’s ok slip… youse can come to California, we have idiots who get stuck on mountains here too…!! plenty of work for you to do here..
you mean, like, he’ll slip away?
Being a resident of the east village in NYC, I have experience in a livable part of a livable city. Everything I require is within walking distance, including public transit for trips outside my little shtetl.
Anchorage residents, show up and be counted! Your city is depending on you, since it can’t depend on its mayor.
I understand why most people would say they don’t want to serve on one of these commissions. It takes a lot of time, for very little public recognition. You get blamed when something goes wrong. You get ignored (by the general public) 99% of the time when the commission is running smoothly and making good recommendations. And some of the minutia they deal with is just plain dull. But there are many people thrilled to sit on these commissions. They act professionally, generally setting personal interests and personal politics aside to do what is best for the people of Anchorage.
They feel a sense of pride in helping make Anchorage a better place.
So no one is asking you to take time from your busy day to serve on one of these boards and commissions. All I ask is you try to find some time to help protect them so your neighbors can serve on them. Go to one Assembly Meeting. Tonight at 6. Or if you can’t do that, send one e-mail to the address in the post.
Just ten minutes of your time and you too can feel that sense of pride in helping make Anchorage a better place.
Well, I’m convinced – 🙂
Ya know..I keep getting a visual..of sorts about Anchorage. It is of an entire ..Dog Team..of strange and transformer type puppet-dogs..made up to look like regular living/breathing dog team members. They get bred in the dark of night..and float up to the city streets..and the light of day…much as slime..collects upon standing ponds..fetid and unhealthy. The portion of the educated public..is still too busy..to do more than look, notice and feel the pain..of all of this. They are trying to educate themselves while earning a living in the area..mindful of what can..and cannot be said..where..within the power structures. So..the visual..for how many people hold opposing viewpoints, clutching their college degrees, and world travel..and interest in improving this earth..is of 3..immature Ravens..rich with their..genetic promise..but ..ignored by..the curr. power structures. So then..see the total citizenry..Of that fair city..in times gone by..in its actual strength..and now. Once standing tall..clean..proud. Now..bent and subverted. Little Ravens..will emerge..grow..and things which subvert the citys health..will fall by the wayside. Look around you..and see who are the faux dogs..and who..the Ravens. The balence in the educated..seems ..not yet..to match the Puppeteers.
I guess it had to happen one day. Rethuglicans piss and moan about how little experience Obama had before he ran for Potus. He was,afterall,a lowly community organizer.This is the antithesis of a community organizer-a commu7nity dis-organizer-with the dis being towards the citizens of Anchorage. If you as Anchorage-ites don’t like being dis-respected by nut jobs,I hope you stand up to Bully Sullivan and let the sob have it. Like Leenie 17,I too,would love to visit Anchorage and other places in Alaska. My problem is I am allergic to brown shirted thugs.
So, how much longer do you have to put up with this piece of slime running your city? Anchorage folks really, really, REALLY need to get behind ONE very strong Democratic mayoral candidate for the next election so you can take this idiot out before he completely destroys your beautiful city.
Hey, people, I want to live there someday…please don’t let it fall apart before I get there!