CBJ Assembly Meetings

Assembly members chose not to raise property taxes in the city after seeing better-than-expected property values and a potential uptick in tourism.

Assembly members asked City Manager Rorie Watt to go back to Norwegian, suggesting the company donate directly to an organization like the Juneau Community Foundation, instead of the city itself.

Beginning at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday residents can comment — via phone or Zoom — on the city’s proposed tax hike, the plan for spending federal stimulus funds and using general funds, the school district budget and capital improvement project priorities.

Last year, the city spent a lot of money during the pandemic that the Assembly hadn’t originally budgeted for — that’s everything from city busses running for free to standing up an emergency operations center.

The committee will review proposed laws and advise the assembly if they include a policy or implication that is racist.

The Juneau Assembly voted 7 to 2 on an ordinance to pay out more individual grants in addition to those paid out last year.

Without Assembly action, 1,180 eligible, lower income adults financially hurt by the pandemic won’t be paid individual assistance grants.

City officials estimate that there have been about a dozen instances of what’s known as “Zoom bombing” or disrupting a meeting. Zoom bombers have successfully hijacked other public meetings in Alaska and throughout the rest of the world, often with lewd, racist or pornographic material.

The Juneau Assembly approved the transfer of the Hurlock Avenue lot at its meeting Monday night, along with leasing the property to Tlingit and Haida Regional Housing Authority for use as an emergency youth shelter.

On Monday night, the Assembly passed $2.3 million in CARES Act funding to create another grant program for businesses and another $2 million for grants to individuals impacted by the pandemic.