News from Patrick Flynn

This evening’s Assembly meeting should be mercifully brief as the only items to consider are on the consent agenda, meaning they are either relatively minor or  substantive matters are only for introduction with discussion and debate scheduled to occur at a future meeting.  And, after that, the Assembly essentially takes a hiatus until after the first of the year.  That doesn’t mean we won’t be working, and I have a couple projects that’ll keep me busy.

The first deals with a charter amendment slated for introduction tonight, but let me back up a bit.  As discussed previously, Assembly members sit on a variety of community organization boards as guests or ex-officio members.  Among those upon which I sit, along with Ernie Hall, is the Anchorage Community Development Authority.  ACDA is perhaps best known for its role in aiding development of municipal properties (e.g. the Glenn Square Mall in Mountain View and Northpointe Bluff on Government Hill) but also happens to manage the city’s downtown parking facilities, a function inherited when the Anchorage Parking Authority disbanded back in the 90’s.

Those who recall APA’s demise likely know that nowadays parking tickets can only be written by sworn police officers, even though ACDA handles all the administrative aspects (collecting the fines, coordinating court dates, etc.).  It’s a spectacularly inefficient use of police time, and tends to irritate both downtown merchants & customers when parking spots don’t rotate very frequently.  Customers can’t find parking spots, which frustrates them, and therefore are less likely to patronize downtown businesses, which concerns the business community.

With that in mind, at the request of the ACDA board Mr. Hall & I are sponsoring the aforementioned charter amendment that would allow the Assembly to assign responsibility for downtown parking enforcement to another municipal entity (the expectation is that ACDA would be that entity).  Note that they would only be able to enforce parking violations (not, for example, expired registration tags) and only in the downtown area (Ship Creek, to Gambell Street, to 10th Avenue to M Street).  In other words, no parking enforcers issuing citations for cars parked at Costco with studded tires on May 16 – those sorts of violations would remain within the purview of the police department.  So we’ll see where that goes.

The other matter that’ll keep me busy is our legislative program, where we offer policy and budgetary suggestions to the state legislature.  The mayor presented his draft earlier in the month and we’ll be gathering proposed amendments from all Assembly members in preparation for a Legislative Committee meeting on Wednesday, January 5, at 10 am.  From there we’ll likely develop an S version to present at a work session on Friday, January 7, so the whole thing can be approved at our January 11 meeting in time for the 2011 session, which begins January 18.

That’s all for today, and if I don’t happen to author another post in the near future, here’s wishing you and yours a joyous holiday season!

Regards,

Patrick