Local Government

The Haines Borough Assembly narrowed down a list of manager applicants from ten to four at a meeting Thursday. The shortlist includes the current interim manager, the Haines Chamber of Commerce director, and two Lower 48 applicants who have Alaska municipal experience.

City Manager Rorie Watt says the owner was given “ample time to become compliant to little effect.”

The City and Borough of Juneau has been offered a site for a winter campground for homeless people. But whether the city wants to take on that responsibility next year remains undecided.

Representatives from more than a dozen tribes across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta came together to share how their communities have been affected since Bethel started selling alcohol last spring. Bethel’s alcohol stores are affecting the entire region, and it’s up to the tribes to do something about it. That’s the message from a tribal gathering held Wednesday in Bethel.

Separate from the sales tax exemption, the Juneau Assembly had its first reading on an ordinance to earmark sales tax revenue to keep paying lawyers retained to fight the cruise industry’s lawsuit against the city.

The person who was fired from the Haines Borough Manager position about three months ago has applied for the job again. The Assembly fired Bill Seward for cause in a 4-2 vote in December. Assembly members raised concerns about Seward’s competence and behavior during his six months as manager.

For 70 years, Juneau and Douglas were separate cities. That came to end in 1970 following a controversial vote in which voters in Juneau overwhelmingly voted to consolidate their smaller neighbor.

Greece, New York, looks like your typical New England town: quiet tree-lined streets, modest ranch-style homes and a lot of churches. Nearly a decade ago, Greece made national headlines when two residents sued the city over the prayer that begins each town board meeting. They alleged the invocations, though technically open to all faiths, were almost exclusively Christian.

The city’s finance department concluded last year that cruise ships are legally liable to collect local sales tax and could raise as much as $100,000 annually. But an ordinance considered by the Juneau Assembly on March 6 would exempt onboard transactions as a friendly gesture to the industry.