Last week I heard through the grapevine that Greg Jones, who serves as Executive Director of the Office of Community Planning and Development, had tendered his resignation. Following our Friday work session I sought him out and confirmed the bad news – he’s on his way out.
Like all Alaskans I was deeply saddened to learn of Monday’s plane crash that claimed five lives and injured four others. Many residents of the Last Frontier, myself included, fly throughout Alaska in aircraft large and small so each accident reminds us of the risks we accept as part of our lives. That doesn’t make the loss of life easier to bear.
Despite what you may have experienced recently, it is summer so I’m going to take a few days and enjoy it. Once I’m back, and recovered (breaks can be hard work) I’ll get more information posted. In the meantime, enjoy your break from my missives!
Regards,
Patrick
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:
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.
Here we go, another set of generally disjointed topics jumbled together and called a blog entry…
Thanks to all those who participated in the third edition of Assembly insider baseball! Amongst the many great guesses the results ended up in a three-way tie between a member of the fourth estate, a former municipal employee and someone required to follow Assembly activities far too closely. They all nailed seven of the 12 questions. Here’s the inside scoop: (more…)
It’s been over a week since the Assembly received a report from the Department of Law addressing some of the issues regarding the life insurance policy benefiting former Mayor George Sullivan’s trust. We’ve also received an advisory opinion from the Board of Ethics concluding that current Mayor Dan Sullivan erred in not disclosing his position as trustee, something that was not made known until after Assembly action on disbursal of the funds in question. And at our next meeting we’ll take up Harriet Drummond’s proposal to seek external legal advice on the matter.
In Alaska discussions about economic development almost always revolve around natural resources – oil & gas, timber, mining, tourism, fishing and the like. As someone who grew up as our state transformed from among the poorest to among the richest in the United States I can certainly understand why. After all, if something has worked for more than 30 years and provided tremendous benefits to our state why change course?
Today I have two exciting developments to announce. First, the web gremlins inform me that e-mail notification of new blog postings is again working (presuming I remember to click the right box, we’ll test that with this post). Second, and more importantly, it’s time for our third installment of Assembly insider baseball!
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