Posted by Shannyn Moore on February 24, 2013 · 9 Comments
I want to be a Republican and I want a time machine. Oh, I’m not going all Lindsey Holmes on you; I need a time machine to find the Grand Old Party. I have to thank Mayor Dan Sullivan for starting me on this quest. A few weeks ago, at five minutes until closing time, the mayor announced a plan to roll back more than four decades of labor policy in Anchorage. It wasn’t the first shot in his war on working men and women in our town — but this was the nuclear option. I take it as a…
Category Alaska, Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Police Department, Ethics, Headlines, Labor, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Public Safety, Rallies and Events, Republicans, Roll your eyes into it, Skulduggery, Strategery · Tags Alaska collective bargaining, Alaska labor, Alaska unions, Anchorage Assembly, Assembly Chair Ernie Hall, Assembly Jennifer Johnston, Mayor Dan Sullivan
Posted by Linda Kellen Biegel on February 22, 2013 · 6 Comments
Despite confusion from the Administration, Public Testimony on Anti-Worker Ordinance 37 is officially scheduled to start TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH sometime after 6:00 pm. This ordinance would freeze Muni employee pay and benefits forever, gut collective bargaining rights, and sets up “managed competition,” in which city employees would bid against private contractors for work. There has been conflicting information circulating about when public testimony is supposed to begin. Assembly Chair, Ernie Hall announced to a Working Group held last Friday between the Assembly and the unions that the testimony would begin on Wednesday, February 27th. Mayor Sullivan repeated that same announcement…
Category Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Police Department, Headlines, Labor, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage, Rallies and Events, Strategery, Vitamin Democracy · Tags Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Municipal Employees, Anchorage Ordinance 37, Assembly Chair Ernie Hall, Linda Kellen-Biegel, Mayor Dan Sullivan
Posted by Linda Kellen Biegel on November 15, 2012 · 9 Comments
It was a big night at Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly Meeting. The Anchorage School District Budget was passed, as was both the Municipal Operating Budget and the Municipal Capital Budget. However, I was there for the item that was slipped in towards the end. It was the first, last and only public meeting dedicated to Municipal Reapportionment…another word for Redistricting. You may be surprised to hear that the Assembly has been working on Reapportionment at all. You are not alone. If you remember the gerrymandering farce known as the State Redistricting process, the public meetings went on for months before anything…
Category Alaska, Alaska Legislature, Anchorage Assembly, Bang it, Elections, Headlines, Law & Order, Municipality of Anchorage, Redistricting, Skulduggery, Strategery, Teabaggery · Tags Alaska, Anchorage Assembly, Assembly Chair Ernie Hall, Assemblyman Chris Birch, Assemblyman Dick Traini, Assemblyman Patrick Flynn, Dennis Wheeler, Linda Kellen-Biegel
Posted by Linda Kellen Biegel on July 17, 2012 · 17 Comments
I’ll admit it…I’m tired of the Anchorage Municipal Election of 2012. It’s a kind of migraine-inducing, bone-aching, paralysis-producing exhaustion that I’ve rarely experienced. I know that’s how I felt after our team of 10 qualified voters and fabulous volunteer observers worked their butts off on the hand recount. The team “observed” and went above and beyond to report the issues and the craziness that happened during this hand recount. However, they did not stop there. The Team also poured (and continues to pour) time and energy into further investigation of the election issues in general, going way-beyond their “job description”…
Category Alaska, Anchorage Assembly, Anchorage Mayoral Race, Baffle it, Bang it, Election 2012, Elections, Ethics, Headlines, LGBT, Mayor Dan Sullivan, Municipality of Anchorage · Tags Anchorage Municipal Election 2012, Assembly Chair Ernie Hall, ballot vault, election audit, Election Commission, Gwen Matthew, Linda Kellen-Biegel, Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones, Wendy Isbell