Patrick Flynn's Blog

The next meeting of the Assembly’s Port committee will take place on Tuesday, August 10, from 10 am to noon at City Hall in the first floor conference room (suite 155).  The agenda will be as follows:

1. Updated project schedule:

a. Port/ICRC/MARAD update on project timeline and projected effects on Port users.

b. Army Corps of Engineers comments related to dredging.

c. Port user comments.

2. Review and discussion of project budget distributed at June 10 meeting.

3. Synopsis of port-related discussions at the recent joint work session of the Anchorage & Mat-Su Assemblies (this item may go first).

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We begin today’s post with a word that nicely summarizes the administration’s continued efforts to warp Anchorage’s ethics code; pettifoggery.  Here’s how Webster’s defines it:

pet·ti·fog·ger, noun

Etymology: probably from petty + obsolete English fogger pettifogger

Date: 1576

1 : a lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable

2 : one given to quibbling over trifles

— pet·ti·fog·ging, adjective or noun

— pet·ti·fog·gery, noun

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While getting North Slope natural gas isn’t really within the purview of the Anchorage Assembly, ensuring our community has sufficient gas for heating homes and keeping the lights on is important to all of us.  In that spirit I offer a guest commentary, in the form of a letter to the president of the newly-created Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, Dan Fauske, from local financial consultant David Gottstein:

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For only the second time during my tenure on the Assembly, this afternoon we conducted a joint work session with our colleagues on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly.  The meeting, which was open to the public, occurred at a very nice B&B off Fairview Loop Road (just a little southeast of Wasilla).  And, since a neighbor called today to say he couldn’t make the meeting but was interested in a report of the proceedings, here’s a quick synopsis of what we discussed:

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Many years ago a friend observed parallels between the legislative process and elephants mating; most of the activity occurs above the average person’s head, there’s a great deal of blaring and other noise, and it generally takes 22 months to produce tangible results.  I suppose it was his way of explaining the difficulties of governance (and I apologize if any elephants are offended by the comparison).

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It’s hard to decide on the most appropriate response to a recent column authored by Jim Minnery, president of the Alaska Family Council.  Minnery, a hard-right field marshal in the never-ending culture wars that consume far more energy than their lack of appreciable societal change merits, evokes Billy Joel’s song “Honesty” in complaining his political opponents are (surprise) employing rhetoric they feel will most effectively make their case regarding ballot measure 2.  This from the guy whose acolytes employed, shall we say, somewhat inaccurate rhetoric during last summer’s equal rights debate.

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Visitors to Anchorage often comment on the remarkable array of public facilities our community enjoys.  Be it parks, the airport or venues like the Dena’ina Convention Center and Sullivan Arena, I don’t know of any similarly sized city that enjoys such a terrific collection of public opportunities.  But, to paraphrase an old saying, with great opportunity comes the potential for great conflict.

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Camp abatement.  It’s not a new summer opportunity for your kids, instead it’s the surprisingly complicated issue of how our community deals with camps established by our homeless population on municipal lands.  As background information, last year the Assembly approved an ordinance that allowed for the Anchorage Police Department to post notices at illegal camp sites and for eviction (removal) to commence 12 hours later.  But that’s not how the law has been employed.

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As you may have read backers of ballot measure 1, the so-called anti-corruption initiative, recently announced a cessation of their campaign.  That hasn’t stopped foes of the initiative, who refer to it as a gag law, from continuing their campaign.  In fact, a friend of mine associated with coalition opposing ballot measure 1 sent me an invitation to a fundraiser & education event taking place on Thursday, June 17, at 5 pm in the Snow Goose restaurant, and asked that I make mention of it on my blog.  So, mission accomplished.

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As promised, the Port committee’s June 10 meeting focused on dredging (underwater excavation) issues and featured an extensive presentation from local representatives of the US Army Corps of Engineers.  We covered a lot of ground, and here are some highlights:

• Anchorage’s port is one of the only, if not the only, ports where the Corps is permitted to dredge right up to the dock face where ships berth.  In other locations the Corps dredges shipping channels but not ship berths, and the anomaly appears to stem from the port’s former status as an Army port.
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