Mid-Hillside and Hillside East Community Councils

Meeting Minutes
April 17, 2003

Call to order:

The meeting was called to order by President John Weddleton at 7 pm. Seven people attended this cozy meeting on a warm sunny evening welcoming the Easter weekend.

Mid Hillside Board Member present was John Weddleton.

Hillside East Board Member Present was Bjarne Holm.

Introductions:

President's Report: John Weddleton

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

Federation of Community Councils Report:

Legislative Teleconference:

Karen McCarthy for Con Bunde

Anchorage Assembly Report:

Dick Tremaine

* The Mayor's new budget revision would draw money from the reserve of the ATU trust, not from the body of the trust. His return to taxpayers would deplete most of the reserve. The million or so that would be drawn out would lower the spending cap by that amount.

Assemblyman Tremaine noted that this is a revision to the budget the Mayor offered in November and that the Assembly approved. This money was available then so there is reason to wonder why this was not presented previously.

* Municipal Light & Power has an agreement to pay the city 1.25% as revenue sharing and 1.25% as in lieu of taxes. The state has declared ML&P as "at risk" so it is not permitted to pay the revenue sharing portion. Assemblyman Tremaine questions the "at risk" assessment given that ML&P just spent $30million in cash to buy a generator.

* Waste Management proposal to serve all of Anchorage. WM has a franchise with the Regulatory Commission of AK. This would have to be abandoned if they worked a deal with MOA. There are 6-7 companies hauling commercial trash in Anchorage.

OLD BUSINESS: BYLAWS CHANGES

As we did not have a quorum, there was no discussion of this topic.

PRESENTATION: MUNICIPAL TAX ASSESSMENTS

Brent Schlostein attended to provide information and answer questions regarding the MOA's tax appraisals.

Accuracy and equity are the main goals in the appraising trade.

There are about 100,000 parcels in Anchorage. About 90,000 are taxable.

There are 36 appraisers with 16 doing commercial property and 20 doing residential appraisals.

Alaska is one of only three states that do not collect sales data to assist in appraisals. The assessors get about 35-40% of their voluntary requests for sales information returned. The returns are mostly for homes priced in the mid-range so the data on the high and lower end are less reliable. In 2002-2003 they increased the time they spent looking at high end homes.

Three and four-plexes went up dramatically this year. Brent said low interest rates and less investment alternatives with a poor stock market may be encouraging investment in these buildings. He does not think many of the purchases "pencil out" as good investments.

Alaska state law says they must inspect property on a "regular basis." In MOA it is supposed to be every six years, but they are running behind. Brent says that only once in his seven years have they met their goal.

This year they tweaked the value of property on the Hillside by adding $6,000 to account for the value of the septic system.

There has been some controversy over the extent of religious exemptions.

Leases at the airport are not really valued at market value. He feels the formula undervalues the leases.

About 2% of the appraisals are appealed by owners every year. The few appeals take up a large amount of the staff time.

The Board of Equalization has 9 regular and 10 alternates. It takes 5 for a quorum. They sit as representatives of the Assembly which is the ultimate board of equalization.

ANTENNAS AT NEAR POINT

Matt Moore from the Basher Community Council attended and requested that we make consider a resolution in opposition to a rezone in the Basher CC area that would allow an Antenna Farm at Near Point. As we did not have a quorum, we agreed to postpone this discussion until a later date. We also agreed that the person asking for the rezone should be allowed to make a presentation as well.

Meeting Adjourned at 9:00 pm