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ASSEMBLY Human resources Committee
THE CITY AND BOROUGH OF JUNEAU, ALASKA
MINUTES
June 30 2014 5:30 PM Assembly Chambers
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Chair Jesse Kiehl called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
Committee members present: Jesse Kiehl, Loren Jones, Kate Troll, and Jerry Nankervis (telephonic)
Absent: None.
Staff present: Deputy Clerk Beth McEwen, City Attorney Amy Mead, Deputy City Manager Rob Steedle, Municipal Clerk Laurie Sica, CDD Director Hal Hart, CDD Senior Planner Beth McKibben, JPD Lt. Kris Sell, and Sgt. Krag Campbell. |
| | | | | | | | | | | Ms. McEwen noted the following two items found in the red folder: 1) An application from Amy Skilbred for the Juneau Commission on Sustainability, and 2) an email sent to all the Assemblymembers earlier that day from Tom Boutin regarding Ordinance 2014-08. |
| | | | | | | | | | | A. | Minutes - May 19, 2014 Assembly Human Resources Committee Regular Meeting | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | Mr. Kiehl said he submitted a few grammatical corrections to the Clerk. Hearing no objection, the minutes of the May 19, 2014 Human Resources Committee meeting were approved as corrected. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | (Not to exceed a total of 10 minutes nor more than 2 minutes for any individual). | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 1. | Historic Resources Advisory Committee - Annual Report & Appointments | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | The HRC members received the annual report of the Historic Resources Advisory Committee (HRAC) in the meeting packets. There was no one present from the HRAC to present additional information.
Mr. Nankervis said that he couldn't differentiate the colors in the map attached to the Ordinance 2013-01 and asked if anyone could explain that. He asked if a color copy of the map could be forwarded to them for additional review. Staff will forward color copies to the members following the meeting.
MOTION by Mr. Jones to recommend the Assembly reappoint Gerald Gotschall, Myra Gilliam, and Shauna McMahon to terms on the Historic Resources Advisory Committee expiring June 30, 2017 and to appoint Michael Tripp and Sorrel Goodwin to terms on the HRAC expiring June 30, 2016. Hearing no objection, the motion carried.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | 2. | Juneau Commission on Aging - Annual Report & Appointments | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | The HRC members received the annual report of the Juneau Commission on Aging (JCOA) in the meeting packets. JCOA Chair MaryAnn VandeCastle was present to elaborate on the information provided in the annual report.
She said there was some confusion in a recent article in the Juneau Empire that made it sound as though Alaska has the fewest percentage of seniors in the country. She said what was missing from the article was the fact that we have the fastest growing senior population in the country. She said the senior population is growing fast with an artificial bulge coming up due to a lot of 'baby boomers' who came up to Alaska in the 1970's and 1980's. She said that approximately 10 years from now, 1 in 4 Juneau residents will be age 60 or over. Right now, 1 in 4 Juneauites are in the 19 or younger age group. She said in light of all that we invest in the community in young people right now, we need to be thinking along those lines for investing in seniors. She would like to keep that before the Assembly and the JCOA would be happy to give a presentation about of that information anytime.
Ms. Troll mentioned that they had received a presentation from Sioux Douglas regarding the Senior Assisted Living Needs Assessment and she asked Ms. VandeCastle if the Commission on Aging has heard any more about the status of that project. Ms. VandeCastle said the study is due to be completed by August. It is being managed by the Juneau Economic Development Council with the majority of the funding for the study coming from CBJ with some funding coming from the Mental Health Trust Authority and also some funding from the organization that Sioux Douglas represents. She said it is moving quickly and will be done by the end of summer and they will have a report on exactly what type of facility the Juneau population can support. They are having a public meeting on July 23 at Centennial Hall with public participation. They have done a lot of one on one interviews, a phone survey, and some other outreach.
MOTION by Mr. Jones to recommend the Assembly reappoint MaryAnn VandeCastle to the Juneau Commission on Aging to a term expiring June 30, 2017. Hearing no objection, the motion carried.
Mr. Jones noted that Marie Darlin did not submit an application for reappointment but he wanted to acknowledge her for all her service. He said he was sure she would continue to make her views known to the Assembly as the need arose. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 3. | Juneau Commission on Sustainability - Annual Report & Appointments | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Juneau Commission on Sustainability Chair Lisa Wiessler presented a follow-up to the annual report found in the packet. She explained that the commission is currently in its seventh year and it continues to evolve. The commission has eleven members with a diverse representation from the community.
Some of their duties include education and outreach and advising the Assembly on policies and programs that promote sustainability. During the past year, in terms of education and outreach, they have been updating and refining a website that they developed the prior year. Key topics they have worked on this past year and hope to work on during the next year include:
- Electric Vehicle Charging Stations;
- The Energy Plan proposed through the Climate Action Plan has been put on hold due to budget constraints;
- Discussions with the contractors for the Juneau Economic Development Plan;
- Energy and sustainability recommendations for the new Valley Public Library;
- Solid waste issues; and
- Beginning to review the Sustainability section of the Comprehensive Plan for when it is next updated.
Mr. Jones noted that the Docks and Harbors Board received a presentation about an electrical car charging station possibly being located at the Douglas boat harbor area and the board decided they did not wish to get involved with a station that may tie up parking spaces. Ms. McKibben explained that the electric vehicle initiative is being captained by the Juneau Economic Development Council in one of their energy cluster groups and is being funded in part through a grant. CBJ Engineering staff and the JCOS have reviewed where they wanted to locate the electric vehicle charging station that CBJ is sponsoring with their portion of the grant. Ms. McKibben explained that her understanding is that the charging station CBJ will be sponsoring will be located in the Marine Park parking garage. She said another one will be installed at the new Valley Library and that the Eaglecrest Board has indicated that they would like to have one located up at Eaglecrest. She said that she didn't know if the other charging station they were hoping to have in Douglas by the harbor has found a home yet. Mr. Jones said he thought there was another one planned to be out the road by Tee Harbor area. Ms. Troll said that due to the available funding and cost equation per station, the overall number of sites had to be reduced.
Mr. Nankervis asked if the commission had received any response to their recommendations for the new Valley Library. Ms. McKibben said that some changes were made to the design to make it more energy efficient, partly as a result of the JCOS' recommendations.
Ms. Troll said she felt it is still important to find funding for the energy plan and asked if there had been any follow-up discussion with the new owners of AEL&P as to whether they would be willing to be a business partner helping to sponsor the energy development plan. Ms. Weissler said she is not aware of any such discussions.
MOTION
by Mr. Jones to recommend the Assembly appoint Clint Gundelfinger and reappoint Amy Skilbred and Lisa Weissler to the Juneau Commission on Sustainability to terms beginning immediately and expiring June 30, 2017. Hearing no objection, the motion carried. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 4. | Personnel Board - Appointment | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | There was one management seat open on the Personnel Board for a vacant term expiring January 31, 2016. There were two applications received from Nancy Sutch and Kenneth Southerland.
MOTION by Ms. Troll to recommend the Assembly appoint Nancy Sutch to the open management seat on the Personnel Board to a term expiring January 31, 2016. Hearing no objection, the motion carried. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 5. | Resolution 2689 A Resolution Amending the Juneau Local Emergency Planning Committee Membership and Bylaws and Repealing Resolution 2135. | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | The packet contained a memo from Ms. McEwen outlining the main changes to the resolution and bylaws. Mr. Jones, the Assemblymember serving on the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) noted that the major change is the addition of a seat to the committee for a member representing Juneau's vulnerable populations. He said there was a lot of discussion at the LEPC meetings and they all agreed to this proposal but wanted to be sure the definition of vulnerable populations was an expanded version beyond just persons with disabilities. He explained this is a process by which it came first to the HRC, it will then go to the LEPC for approval at its July 9 meeting then to the Assembly for its approval and finally on to the State Emergency Response Commission for final approval.
Mr. Jones said he did have one question about Ms. McEwen's recommendation for changing the ten day notice to three days for holding a special meeting. He said he thought with such a large group that getting everyone together on quick notice is hard and would suggest that the LEPC itself look at that recommendation and decide whether or not they wish to change it from ten days to three days.
Mr. Nankervis said he agrees with many of the housekeeping changes such as the name change but does not agree with adding another representative on this committee. He served on the committee for approximately ten years. He said it is a very large committee and is so large that it had to go to Bartlett Regional Hospital to use one of their rooms. He said often, the larger a group is the less work actually gets done. He pointed to the committee's charge found on Page 4, Section 5 Purpose: Review and revise the Emergency Response Plan; hazards which threaten; identification of agencies for responding; collect, manage and provide access; study and make recommendations on transportation routes; coordinate with appropriate agencies; work with companies, make recommendations on the safest locations for storage and trans-shipments.
He said in looking at all the groups represented under page 2, section 4, they already have all the groups represented and anyone is eligible to serve in a public seat or community group seats if they wish to have additional representation. He said in the time he served on the committee, he did not recall a time at which all the seats were filled and often there was no one representing the media or public groups attending the meetings. He said he would rather not add additional seats but rather, when the community group or public seats are open, that would be the opportunity for those interested individuals to apply to serve.
Mr. Jones said he has served with the committee for the past 6-9 months and in his experience, the attendance has been much better and just about every meeting, someone from every group is present. He said every meeting he has attended two members (primary and alternate) from the media have been in attendance. He said in over half the meetings, they have had members who fit the definition of vulnerable populations attend, not as voting members but as attendees. He said he would maintain his support and feels that participation has changed substantially since the time Mr. Nankervis served on the committee.
Mr. Kiehl said Mr. Jones' experience tracked closely with his own year of service on the LEPC. He said the first two items under the purpose, specifically Section 5(b)(1) and 5(b)(2) identifying all hazards and the various agencies and their procedures for responding to protect people, property...specifically could benefit from representation of vulnerable populations. He said in his year of service on the LEPC, there were a number of good contributions received from folks advocating for persons with disabilities pointing out situations where people aren't able to hear emergency alerts if they aren't able to hear or other issues specific to vulnerable populations. He said he found those contributions to be beneficial to his service on the LEPC.
MOTION by Mr. Jones that the Human Resources Committee approve forwarding the resolution and bylaws to the Assembly and ask that the LEPC review this at its July 9 meeting and if they have any recommended changes, that they be forwarded to the Assembly. Hearing no objection, the motion carried. | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 1. | Ordinance 2014-08 An Ordinance Amending Title 20 of the City and Borough Code to Provide for the Regulation of Secondhand Dealers and Providing for a Penalty. | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | Mr. Kiehl noted that Ordinance 2014-08 would amend Title 20 of the CBJ Code relating to Second Hand Dealers. He invited Lt. Kris Sell and Sgt. Krag Campbell to come forward to speak to the proposed ordinance.
Lt. Sell explained that many years ago, pawnshops began to fall under State laws that required them to abide by certain regulations that made it more difficult to fence stolen property through pawnshops. Pawnshops had to keep certain records, those records had to be provided to the police department, there were waiting periods if someone brought property to a pawn shop to give officers a chance to find out if something had been reported stolen and could check the pawnshops for that. Recently, they have had more second hand stores come into Juneau which have become some of the favorites of the criminal milieu to dispose of stolen property.
Lt. Sell gave examples of cases that brought them to introduce this ordinance change. The main issues included the short time in which a burglary can occur, the perpetrator sells the stolen items, and gets their drug fix, and the second hand store can turn around and sell the item right away making it very difficult for the police to investigate and retrieve the stolen items to try to make a victim whole again.
She said this ordinance is an attempt to level the playing field between the pawn shops and the second hand stores and have them abide by similar requirements and give investigators a chance to get to stolen property before it's quickly liquidated and moved out of town.
Ms. Troll said there was an email received from a concerned citizen that was trying to make the linkage that this ordinance would result in the registration of firearms and she said she did not see that jump but asked if staff could comment on that. Lt. Sell said that is not their intent, they have no reason to try to create a registry for firearms and it is not something they are going to require people to do. She did say that firearms do have serial numbers on them which can be a good way to link them to a theft.
Sgt. Campbell said it is not any new information that is being required. When someone sells a firearm to a second hand store, they have to give their name, show ID, and give that information; what this ordinance is doing is asking that they hold it for 30 days for investigative purposes and to transmit the information to JPD electronically in a timely manner. Mr. Kiehl asked if this ordinance proposes collecting additional information beyond what is already required now under state law or if it is the same information but transmitted differently. Sgt. Campbell said it is the same information. As it is right now, second hand stores have to keep a log book with all the information that is required by state law. It is open for the police to go there to look at it. The only new things this ordinance is requiring is that they hold it for a certain amount of time and send it to JPD electronically. He also said the one additional thing the ordinance requires are photographs, not for firearms but for jewelery. He said for jewelery is very important to have photographs because a 10 carat diamond ring can be a hundred different things. If there is a photograph, it is easy to determine whether it is the item in question. Lt. Sell said that digital photographs are easy to transport and are cheep to make and they have found that people who are burglary victims are able to easily identify their property and know it when they see it rather than from a general description.
Mr. Nankervis asked if this ordinance is specifically to address a second hand dealer or if they are looking at the intinerant buy/sell gold merchants who come in and ship it out of town. He asked what specific groups of businesses they are trying to address with this ordinance. Sgt. Campbell said this ordinance would also apply to those merchants who come to town, set up shop for a short period of time and leave town with the items that they purchased. They would have to send those reports to the police department. Mr. Nankervis then asked if it would also apply to jewelery stores such as the Jewel Box. Sgt. Campbell said that it would apply if they are in fact purchasing and reselling jewelery. Mr. Nankervis asked if it would also apply to a firearms sales as well if a gun dealer buys and sell used guns. Sgt. Campbell answered that it would apply.
Mr. Nankervis and Sgt. Campbell discussed the evidentiary hold process and the sections of the ordinance that applied to evidentiary holds vs. search and seizure issues. They discussed the types of items more likely to be stolen and pawned which included electronics, jewelery, firearms, coins, and other items of value.
Mr. Kiehl pointed out that there had been some confusion as to the process for this ordinance. He said there were two items on process to note:
1) While the ordinance was introduced at the last regular Assembly meeting, it was scheduled to go to the HRC for review at its June 30 meeting so wasn't to be on the Assembly agenda for public hearing nor Assembly action until the first regular meeting in July after it passes out of the Human Resources Committee; and
2) In general Assembly Standing Committees do not take public testimony on agenda items but he did invite Ms. Angela Hull, owner of Aardvark Armory, to come and address the HRC on this ordinance.
Ms. Angela Hull said she and her husband own a small firearms business in their home. She said they are huge supporters of law enforcement and try to do everything by the rules. They have put their store together in a membership/fellowship type model because they do not want a criminal element in their home or store. She said that some things about the ordinance make her concerned. Their business does take second hand firearms occasionally, although not often. The conditions upon which they take them are 1) if they know the person, and 2) if they or someone they know is looking for that specific type of firearm. She explained that the problem with the 30 day hold on firearms sales is that anyone can go on the internet and order a firearm without having to wait that 30 day period. She explained that there are a ton of internet sites that legally sale firearms, ship them to businesses like Ms. Hull's that hold a Federal Firearms License (FFL) and the purchaser would come to her business to have that background check run. Since they are purchasing the firearm off the internet and not from her business, she misses out on the profit from the sale of the firearm.
She said another problem she has with the ordinance is the requirement to report to CBJ, or anyone else, what she paid for something and how much profit she made on it. She said this ordinance is overreaching, overstepping, and is binding other people who do have legitimate businesses who may or may not have second hand items in their stores. She said that they have so many regulations that they already have to deal with as FFL businesses that to add another level of reporting is a problem. She said if this passes as it is written now, she will no longer do business in second hand firearms, she is not a pawn shop and does not choose to be regulated as one, she has a guns and ammunitions store.
Ms. Troll asked Ms. Hull what changes she would propose to the ordinance to make it acceptable to her business. Ms. Hull said for her business, she would like to see firearms exempted from the ordinance. She said if they want to turn people into pawn shops, turn them into pawn shops and then let people decide how they wish to run their businesses. She said if this passes the way it is, she will stop taking in second hand firearms but that will just take one more step away from a gun being sold with any kind of tracking. It is not illegal for people to sell guns to one another; it is done all the time over the internet. She said here in Juneau, there are two Facebook pages that people sell guns on all the time and it is not transferred through a registered dealer; it is legal for them to sell it between themselves.
Mr. Kiehl asked the City Attorney about the log books and the electronic reporting if they would be considered public records since the government is requiring an individual to keep them and report them to the police department. Ms. Mead said she hasn't looked at that question specifically but her gut instinct would be that it is not due to one of the reasons Ms. Hull just cited. She said that is going into what a business' practices are that is not envisioned by the Public Records Act but that she would need to research it to be sure. Mr. Kiehl asked if it was possible to make the ordinance explicitly that they are not. Ms. Mead said that other municipalities make explicit statements about things that they exempt from the Public Records Act in their code and we may be able to do that.
Mr. Nankervis asked about the requirements for pawn shop reporting and the thirty day hold piece specifically. Ms. Mead said that everything that is in this ordinance with the exception of the digital photograph requirement is lifted from state law with respect to pawn shops. Everything we are requiring as far as reporting requirements is already required of pawn shops. Mr. Nankervis said he likes the idea of this ordinance but not necessarily this first attempt at getting there.
Mr. Kiehl asked Lt. Sell and Sgt. Campbell to explain the steps and time lines involved with the online reporting system. Sgt. Campbell said that when someone comes in and sells an item to a second hand store or pawn shop, the shop, using a point of sale system which is saved in a digital format, sends a document to the online system that JPD will be utilizing. The point of sale system saves the document into an electronic format, uploads/emails it to the JPD program. Lt. Sell said that is the system they are currently using for pawn shops. Mr. Kiehl said that leads him to ask the businesses, Ms. Hull specifically with her business' small size, if they generally have a point of sale system. Ms. Hull said she does but not all businesses do. Mr. Kiehl said he is thinking of at least one retailer in town who he is certain does not. Ms. Hull said a lot of them do not but it has become easier and easier as technology has expanded to end up with a point of sale system but many of those are just a credit card transaction such as the Square and it would take quite a bit more work and effort to do more than just a credit card swipe. Mr. Kiehl asked Sgt. Campbell if their system had the capacity for a business to manually enter the information. Sgt. Campbell said it would need to be saved electronically so it could be transferred, it could be a Word document or Notepad such that it is something that can be transferred from computer A to computer B.
Ms. Hull said another section of the ordinance that she wished to address was on page 4 pertaining to employees. She said she doesn't employ anyone other than her husband but she could never hire someone who is a felon but saying that they could not hire someone who had a misdemeanor that involved dishonesty pushes it too far and is overreaching into her business. She said she agrees with the felony aspect but would hope that as a business owner, it would be up to her discretion as to who she could or could not hire. Mr. Jones said he finds it hard to reconcile that. He said he has served on boards of non-profits where there are so many restrictions on who you can hire if you deal with children or adults, or bookkeepers and you are going to loose your bonding insurance if that bookkeeper has some charge of dishonesty in the past. He said he does not see that being an intrusion for anyone dealing in pawn shop issues or anything else similar. Ms. Hull said her business is not a pawn shop. Mr. Jones said that is another concern that he has is if pawn shops get regulated, suddenly there are four pawnshops and twenty-five second hand stores and the twenty-five second hand stores are not regulated because they aren't pawnshops. He said we are doing a disservice to the community if we are regulating one and not the other, but if people are going to do something dishonest, they are going to find a way around it anyway, so he is struggling with this issue.
Mr. Kiehl asked the officers about the previous discussion about logging the amount paid for an item. He asked what the law enforcement need for that information was. Sgt. Campbell explained how they would use that information; if Joe Criminal went to a second hand store and sold an item for $200, he is committing a crime by defrauding that second hand store business owner out of $200. The police department, in the course of its investigation, will identify that item, seize it, and now the second hand store is out the $200 and the item. Ms. Troll asked if pawn shops are currently complying with that provision. Sgt. Campbell said that is correct and that another reason they need to know the dollar amount is due to the fact that depending on the amount of money involved sets the crime at a higher or lower category, under $50 is a misdemeanor, over $50 is an A misdemeanor, and over $500 makes it a felony.
Mr. Kiehl asked Mr. Nankervis if he had any additional comments. Mr. Nankervis said he agreed with Ms. Hull that it should be up to the business as to who they wish to hire. He said he understands what is trying to be accomplished with the ordinance but that he has a number of things that he does not agree with and would like to see tweaked more. He gave the example of Ms. Hull's business and businesses such as the Jewel Box that only intermittently purchase second hand items and the 30 day requirement to hold them before they are allowed to be sold. His concern is trying to catch those who are doing things wrong while at the same time not harming the businesses that are trying to do things right.
Mr. Kiehl asked Sgt. Campbell to comment on the concern about the restrictions on employment. Sgt. Campbell said that language was specifically copied straight from the state statutes for pawn shops. Pawn shops cannot employ people who have committed crimes of dishonesty. He said they have seen it in some of the second hand stores where the people who had previously been defrauding them, are now working for them a month later. You need people who are generally going to be honest people taking in property, required to keep records of it, and handing out the money for it. Lt. Sell said that since they have seen that in Juneau, when you see someone who JPD has confirmed and told the business owner that yes, that individual has sold them stolen property and the business owner hires them as an employee, it embeds them into the criminal milieu and makes the business part of a criminal franchise. She said the intent is to stop second hand stores from doing that when actually a second hand store is more appropriate for stolen property than a pawn shop because someone who is pawning stolen property is never going to come and get it back. The concept behind the pawn shop is that they are given a small amount of money on loan for an item and they will redeem that but they have found that people who have stolen property do that.
Mr. Nankervis noted that the difference from a pawn shop and these other business is that a pawn shop is holding property with the expectation that the owner will be coming back to redeem the item.
Mr. Jones asked if there were any other Alaskan communities that had incorporated pawn shop statutes into their codes for second hand stores. He also asked if the state has recently revised any of the pawn shop laws at the state level if they have been looking at writing any rules related to the second hand stores. Sgt. Campbell said when they began to look at this, he inquired if other communities have been having similar issues and while Anchorage has quite a number of pawn shops, this has not been a problem in Anchorage. Mr. Kiehl said his memory was that the state laws have not been revised since they were originally adopted approximately 5 years ago.
Ms. Troll said her sense is that this is an ordinance we need to move on but that it may need some additional work. She said there is a need that should be addressed and while the ordinance tries to take pawn shop laws and apply them to second hand stores, this may not be the fit that they thought it was. She said she would like to consider this again at another committee meeting with the hopes that Mr. Nankervis and others will have some proposed amendments at that time. She said she thinks there is an important need that the police department is trying to address so she doesn't want to see it put on the back burner but that she would like to see it scheduled for additional meetings.
Mr. Kiehl asked the clerk for the HRC meeting schedule. Ms. McEwen explained that the July 21 regular HRC meeting was bumped due to an appeal hearing. The next regular HRC meeting was scheduled for August 11 with two special HRC meetings scheduled for July 10 and July 17 for the Full Assembly to do enterprize board interviews. Mr. Kiehl will coordinate with the Clerk's office to schedule a special HRC meeting in July on this.
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| | | | | | | | | | | | 2. | "Juneau Votes" Presentation | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | carolyn Brown representing the League of Women Voters (LWV) gave a presentation on the newest community group called "Juneau Votes." She said this began a number of months ago when the LWV met with Library Director Robert Barr about doing something for the LWV at the public libraries. She said they took them into another direction in which Mr. Barr had a passion for voting, voter issues, getting an informed citizenry which is exactly what the LWV has been working on for the past 100 years. They brainstormed on how the LWV could work with the Juneau Public Library systems and they came up with the idea of Juneau Votes which is to be a collaboration of many community groups. They hope it may go into perpetuity but to begin with, they would like to see it go from now until November 6, 2014 at minimum. They have some outlines for things they would like to do to increase participatory democracy in our community which would increase voter registrations, voter address change, participation in the elections and informed decision making.
Juneau Public Libraries Electronic Services and Community Outreach Librarian Andi Hirsh has been instrumental in coordinating this efforts. Ms. Hirsh explained that Juneau Votes is a non-partisan, collaborative community project and their goal is to increase voter registration, voter information, and voter turnout in Juneau. Juneau, just like the rest of the nation, has had decreasing voter turnout for the past couple of decades. They hope that civic participation, especially on a local level is extremely important to having a strong, functioning, and vibrant democracy. In the Juneau Votes charter, they are looking at increasing voter turnout in the upcoming state primary, general, and municipal elections. The general population of Juneau has been slowly increasing, however voter registrations have not been increasing so Juneau Votes is hoping to take a multi-pronged approach. They have 20+ voter registrars as well as all the Juneau Public Libraries where people can register to vote, update their address, do a name change, etc. They will be out in the community at events such as the 4th of July parade, booths for registrations as well as other areas around the community.
Another key piece they would like to address is providing information to voters. They distributed copies to each of the HRC members of the handouts from the group which includes a half sheet of paper with all the voting dates, locations, and issues on the ballots using neutral language so people are made aware of when and where they can vote and also get more information. She said they will also be having panel discussions on Senate Bill 21 (Primary Ballot Issue #1 re: Oil Taxes), Candidate Forums and other sorts of community events that will allow people to become informed voters and hopefully go out and vote. She explained that there is concept in advertising called effective frequency which states that a person has to see the same information multiple times, whether it is 3, 6, or 12 times before they look at the information and register it for themselves so their group is hoping to provide that frequent message to the community in advance of the upcoming elections.
Ms. Troll thanked them for their efforts and said she hopes that their efforts are successful. She also said they found it interesting when they were looking at voter turnout numbers that there seemed to be a higher turnout of voters when there was an advisory question on the ballot. She said if the group has any suggestions for the Assembly on a possible advisory vote question to forward that on. She said recruiting people to run for office is sometimes a difficulty so she was wondering if information about that was part of the charge of Juneau Votes or not to talk up the value of public service.
Ms. Hirsh stressed that every member of Juneau Votes has a deep belief that this is important, but they have not discussed that particular issue as a group yet. Ms. Brown said it is very much a part of the League of Women Voters to get people involved and there is a statement that says "We will not make any progress until we turn little d [democracy] into Big D [Democracy]." She said, what is little d? It is us at the local level and if there can be an effective power with what they are doing locally, whether it is voter registration or getting people to vote or getting more people involved, then that becomes Big D which has exponential power at the state and national levels.
Ms. Hirsh also added that the next meeting of Juneau Votes will be held on Thursday, July 3 at the Juneau Public Library at 5pm and they are open to any individuals or groups who would like to come and participate.
Mr. Kiehl thanked them for their efforts and presenting the information to the committee. | |
| | | | | | | | | | V. | COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS |
| | | | | | | | | | | There being no further business to come before the committee, the meeting was adjourned at 6:45p.m.
Respectfully submitted this 11th day of August 2014.
Beth McEwen
Deputy Clerk |
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