On Thursday night, Juneau voters had their first look at the complete field of candidates in the Oct. 3 municipal election.
Every candidate had a chance to make an impression on a standing-room-only crowd in the Assembly Chambers at City Hall at the annual League of Women Voters Candidate Forum. LWV President Chris Niemi said she thought this year’s crowd — some members of which had to listen to the forum from another room — was bigger than usual.
Though the topics were wide-ranging, the Assembly candidates all agreed that the city’s top priorities at the moment are rising homelessness, drug addiction, crime and the lack of available housing.
Another theme of both the evening candidate forum and the Chamber of Commerce forum at noon was the desire to work together to solve the issues. District 2 Assembly candidate Rob Edwardson used the same general opening statement for both forums, saying that the key to solving the major problems in town is collaboration.
“Many of the people in Juneau fear homelessness,” Edwardson said. “They fear the opioid addiction. They fear no available housing. The Juneau that my family came to love 27 years ago, Juneau overcame fear by working together, not by fearing each other.”
The seven City and Borough of Juneau Assembly candidates, who are competing for three spots, were all present both at the LWV forum and the Chamber of Commerce forum. Including opening and closing statements, each candidate answered 13 questions about topics taken from the audience, ranging from where they stand on the Juneau Access Road to whether they support re-expanding the senior sales tax exemption.
The question about the senior sales tax exemption brought about the most disagreement. As the result of a 2015 ordinance, the only items that are tax exempt for seniors are “essential items,” which include food and utilities.
[Seniors try to revive sales tax issue for fall election]
District 1 Assembly candidates Chuck Collins and Jesse Kiehl stand on opposite sides of the question, which was whether or not to reinstate the full sales tax exemption for seniors. Collins stated that the revenue from narrowing the exemption hasn’t been as high as city staff members predicted.
Kiehl cited numbers that the CBJ Finance Department has supplied that show that there was about $1.8 million worth of additional revenue in 2015 as a result of the narrowing of the exemption, which was on par with staff projections.
“Chuck is straight, flat, dead wrong about the numbers,” Kiehl said. “Absolutely the money came, and I’ll show him the spreadsheets. It’s not hard to read.”
One of the largest audience reactions of the night was when write-in candidate Andy Hughes, who is running for the Areawide seat against incumbent Maria Gladziszewski, used his full closing statement to explain how to vote for a write-in candidate.
“Write my name in, if not correctly, at least phonetically so that the intent is written,” Hughes said as the crowd laughed.
Gladziszewski’s closing remarks reflected one of the biggest themes of the two forums, as she said she feels that working together as a community can solve just about any problem.
“People talked a lot tonight about working together and working as a community,” Gladziszewski said. “I just think my track record is clear on that. It’s not idle talk. It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve done my whole career and my whole life.”
Education talk
The three candidates for two Board of Education seats also faced 13 questions from moderator Alyson Currey, including opening and closing statements. Main topics included how to figure out budgetary solutions when the state is cutting its education spending, early childhood education and declining enrollment.
All three agreed that early childhood education needs to become a priority for the city, but that it will be tough to find the funds.
Each candidate detailed his individual strengths as well. Kevin Allen, a recent graduate of Thunder Mountain High School, said his recent experience with the school district and understanding of student priorities will help him.
“As somebody who has recently come from the school district and has recently applied to university and realized the deficiencies of their education,” Allen said, “I would be very effective to help on our great Juneau school board.”
Allen, who also ran last year, spoke specifically about applying for grants to aid with school funding and instituting more of an Alaska Native history curriculum along with general Alaska history.
Incumbent and current Board of Education President Brian Holst said he’s learned extensively from the community in the past three years on the board, and that his economic expertise (As executive director of the Juneau Economic Development Council) also helps.
Jeff Short, who has never run for public office before, said his background as a data analyst will make him an asset in breaking down budget numbers and test scores. He also said that as a retiree, he’ll be able to make the considerable time commitment that’s required for the position.
In the audience Thursday night was A.J. Edwards, who recently retired from the Coast Guard and decided that he wants to live in Juneau permanently. Edwards said he thought some Assembly candidates were too “wishy-washy” on some topics but that he liked how much they brought up their ideas to reduce crime.
This was the first candidate forum he’s been to in Juneau, and he said he thought it was an extremely valuable service.
“It did make a difference,” Edwards said afterward. “It solidified my decision-making.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
