Mid-Hillside and Hillside East Community Councils

Meeting Minutes

February 21, 2002

Call to order:

The meeting was called to order by President John Weddleton at 7 pm. Approximately 24 were in attendance. The O'Malley PTA joined us for the feature presentation. Board Members present were John Weddleton and Hillside East President Tom Newins.

Introductions:

President's Report: John Weddleton

Minutes of the previous meeting: Summarized in Monthly Meeting Notice.

Federation of Community Councils Report: John Weddleton reported on the FCC meeting of February 20, 2002.

Legislative Teleconference:

Available at the teleconference were Kim Ross for Senator John Cowdery and Karen McCarthy for Representative Con Bunde.

Con Bunde is supporting a bill to use some of the unrestricted earnings of the Permanent Fund to go directly to municipal governments. He has also worked on a bill to encourage retired teachers to come back to teach to help solve a teacher shortage. Regarding taxes, he supports a broad based tax plan.

John Cowdery is working on a bill to set a spending cap for state government. He is also working to stop an insurance industry habit of using credit records as part of the formula for determining insurance rates.

Anchorage Assembly Report:

Dick Tremaine and Janice Shamberg .

Janice gave an overview of the Assembly's busy meetings in the previous month. The Assembly approved for the ballot the bonds that we'll be voting on April 2. The Assembly also put on the ballot the tax increase for a potential new convention center.

The Assembly and Mayor may have put to rest the contentious issue of putting ballfields in Bicentennial Park. An amendment to the Park plan that would have allowed ballfields to be built in the Park was defeated 8-3. The Assembly approved 10-0 the Mayor's request to put a $1.6million bond on the April 2 ballot for purchase and construction of fields for the Simonian Little League at a site on Lore Road. Should that bond pass, the Little League will have the four fields they have desired and they'll have them by their 2004 deadline.

As always, this was a good opportunity to meet with our Assembly representatives to find out the full story on many issues beyond what was presented in the daily newspaper and local TV and radio.

PRESENTATION:

SCHOOL BONDS

School Board Member Rita Holthouse and ASD staff Debbie Bogard presented the school bonds we will vote on April 2.

There are two bonds this year. Proposition 5 is for School Renovations/Additions/Replacements for $52.125 million . Proposition 6 is for school Major Maintenance for $46.570 million. The major maintenance is for large projects that can't be funded out of the regular operating budget. The ASD wanted to keep the total under $100million. The work was split into two bonds so people would have a choice.

There is quite a lot that the School District wants to do with these bonds. For the details see http://www.asdk12.org/bonds/. A few points not obvious in the details are: The ASD has tried to add only projects that would most likely be finished within the next few years. About $53 million in ASD debt will be retired this year.

A few questions posed are:

Q: Why does the ASD not use Alaska contractors to design and build?
A: The process is competitive bid. Alaskan firms do win bids.

Q: Can't the ASD use the same floor plan and save lots on the design of new schools?
A: The design of the school depends on the site. There have been several elementary schools built with the same design. The design for the new Dimond High will be modified for use at the planned new high school in Eagle River.

Q: Why does Service High have two phases for "Design and Construction."
A: The work will be staggered so the school can remain open while work is done.

Q: Why can't students go to school on staggered shifts so the construction can be done more economically.
A: Students and parents would not support that.

Q: The information we're given on the bonds isn't enough for us to make a rational decision when we vote.
A: There was some discussion on this.. Kitte Miller, who is on the ASD capital improvement group shared her experience working with the ASD. She said it is a very complex process.

Q: How much is slated for O'Malley Elementary?
A: About $400,000 for roof drains, windows, fences and electric work.

Anchorage Road and Drainage Service Area Bonds and Parks and Recreation Bonds

Kathy Fontaine spoke on behalf of Anchorage Tomorrow, an APOC certified political action committee that works for passage of bonds usually related to road and water projects. She presented an overview of the projects on the bonds and a map showing the locations of most of the projects that would be on the bonds.

Proposition 3 is a $34.730million bond for Anchorage Roads and Drainage Service Area projects. Since our area is not on ARDSA, our property taxes will not go towards those bonds. There are over 50 projects on that bond. For details on these bonds see http://www.muni.org/omb/ombhomepage.cfm.

Proposition 2 is the large Parks and Recreation Bond for $8.93 million. The big projects in this bond are for repair of the "Ben Boeke 2" ice rink and the city's pools. There are over 20 other categories of projects on this bond. In our area are some vague projects for upgrades at trailheads and playgrounds.

ANCHORAGE CONVENTION CENTER

On April 2, we will be asked to approve an increase in the hotel bed tax from its current 8% to 12%. The increase is intended to pay for planning and developing a new convention center. Sharon Boling with "Anchorage Convention Center Yes" presented the broad plan for the convention center.

This is a complex issue. We'll be hearing a lot from both sides in the few weeks before the election.

Meeting Adjourned at 9:00 pm