Alaska Public Media, in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News, presents the Anchorage mayoral debate, moderated by Lori Townsend and Tom Hewitt.

Good evening.

Thank you for joining us for our Anchorage mayoral debate.

We're coming to you live from Alaska Public Media.

I'm Lori Townsend.

And I'm Tom Hewitt.

Tonight, we'll pose a series of questions to the candidates on this year's ballot for Anchorage mayor.

While there are ten total candidates for mayor, we've invited the four who reported the most significant support in their campaign filings.

These four candidates have also been the most active with their campaigns, both in the community and online.

Many of the questions we ask tonight are based on questions.

Anchorage residents asked to see our candidate comparison tool.

We'd also like to hear directly from you, the viewers, about what issues matter most to you.

If those of you watching on TV or online scan the QR code on your screen, it will take you to a live post where you can share your most important priority as a voter.

For radio listeners, go to menti.com and enter the code 18710347 to access the poll.

Later this evening, we'll check back on those results.

But before we get into the questions, we'd like to give the candidates a chance to introduce themselves.

Each candidate will have one minute for an opening statement.

The order of these statements was randomly determined.

Mr. Tuck, we'll start with you.

You have one minute.

I'm running for mayor because together we can do better.

Growing up here, I always knew I would be raising a family here in Anchorage.

I'm a diamond high graduate, and 40 years ago, when I graduated.

Our future was bright.

Unfortunately, today, it looks very bleak.

It breaks my heart driving my daughter to dance.

Yes, Daddy.

Why are there so many people living in tents?

Unfortunately, she sees what we all see and sadly, Anchorage is a shadow of what we once were.

I have over 20 years experience serving in Alaska legislature and and serving on the Anchorage School board.

So I focus a lot on education, but I also brought together the first tripartisan coalition of Alaska Independence, Alaska Republicans and Alaska Democrats, all coming together, putting Alaskans first and doing what's best for our communities.

And now I would like to put those skills to work for you as your mayor.

I'm.

I'm Chris Tuck, and I'm asking for your vote.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Ms. LaFrances, you have one minute.

Thank you for having us here tonight.

I remember living on Government Hill as a kid.

My family would walk downtown, go to the library, maybe get fried chicken.

I have such happy memories of downtown and of Anchorage.

And I know now as a mom of three, my kids are growing up in a different anchorage.

We can do better.

As I thought about running for mayor, I've thought about two things.

First, how do we restore basic trust and competence to City Hall?

And at the same time, how do we build a future for our entire community?

Beyond that, I know we can do both.

We can clear the snow from our streets and make sure those same streets are safe and welcoming home to more housing and strong local businesses.

I have 25 years of business experience.

I served two terms on the Anchorage Assembly.

I know how our local government works and I know how to make it work better.

I'm Suzanne LaFrance.

I'm running for mayor and I'm ready to get to work.

Thank you.

Ms.. LaFrance will go next to Mr. Popp.

And in full disclosure, Mr. Popp is a former board chair for Alaska Public Media.

Well, good evening, everyone.

It's such a pleasure to be here.

I thank you for taking time out of your busy day to come and learn about the candidates tonight.

I've been in Alaska since 1968, and I can remember back then when I first moved here with my dad, when he was posted, Elmendorf Air Force Base and the rest of my family that came after that, that Anchorage was a place of optimism.

Adults all around me were optimistic about the future and going to high school here in Anchorage and graduating from East High in 1977.

The same was true then.

We were in the middle of the pipeline boom and we could do anything.

And even during the Great Recession of the 1980s, our optimism remained.

But in the last decade or so, we've really lost that optimism.

We have problems that now seem to overwhelm us, and we just are caught in a loop of running from one dumpster fire to another.

I believe that I can break us out of that cycle.

I believe that I can bring good governance back to our city.

I believe I can set a bright future, and that's why I'm running for mayor.

Thank you.

And, Mr. Bronson, your opening statement, please.

Thank you for public media and at the end for this great opportunity.

I've lived in Anchorage 33 years.

We've raised two kids here.

It has been my pleasure to serve as mayor for the last three years.

We as a team have accomplished a great deal.

We brought in nearly $1,000,000,000 of investment to the city.

We've created over 330 homes for our homeless folks in the city.

We've accomplished a lot.

The port is back on track.

The construction plan, the financing is coming in place.

But there's a great more to be done.

We've got to get this city back on track.

As is.

Bill has said, it's been off the rails here for several years and I intend to keep working and get it back on track.

I have the most experienced team you can imagine right now.

It took a while to build it, but I'm very proud of my team in.

This team is ready, willing and able to keep this city moving forward.

Dave Bronson, I would appreciate your vote.

All right.

Thank you for those opening statements.

With that will begin the questions now for each of these questions.

Candidates will have 45 seconds to respond.

The first question is, what do you see as being the biggest priorities for Anchorage's mayor over the next three years?

And, Mr. Bronson, we'll start with you, 45 seconds.

Well, all the challenges that we've articulated here just in our opening, nothing, none of it matters unless we secure a reliable energy source for Cook Inlet for Anchorage.

That's why I stood up the Mayor's task force task force.

From mayors, from Homer to to Houston.

We've come together now.

We're creating a technical group that's advising on this.

We've got to get to a conclusion, a solution where we're going to capture our energy to keep the lights on and keep the heat on when it gets cold next winter.

That's why I've moved in forward on this.

And my intention is to keep this project moving forward.

All right.

Thank you.

Ms.. LaFrance, the question is to you.

45 seconds.

First and foremost, we've got to get the basics right before we can take on any of the big challenges.

And by that, I mean we must ensure that our municipality is staffed up.

So those services, such as snow plowing and public safety are fully reliable and local government needs to do its job.

So you all can do yours.

We need to ensure that our streets and trails are safe for everyone.

That means getting out of crisis mode and homelessness.

It means staffing up and filling those almost 50 vacancies of sworn officers, and it means ensuring that the streets are plowed and sidewalks as well of snow.

And then we need to make Anchorage a better place to live.

Raise a family, start a business, grow a business, and retire.

Thank you.

Mr.

Pop, the question two priorities over the next three years, 45 seconds.

Well, first of all, we've got to get government staffed up so that we're delivering services in an appropriate level and in a way that the public expects and should be given as a matter of course.

We're down 20% of workforce in the overall municipal government.

We need to fix that.

So the government is functioning the way we all want it to.

We need to make sure that our police department is staffed up.

We need to get out of this running for a quick solution to quick solution homelessness, and start establishing a long term five year plan, bringing all the parties together to set out sustainable goals that we will measure and be able to be transparent with the public on on whether or not we're succeeding.

And we need to start having a conversation about where our city is going to be in ten years so that our kids are no longer leaving us in such great numbers.

Thank you, Mr. Popp.

Mr. Tuck, 25 seconds.

Thank you.

We need to have a growing healthy economy with a growing, healthy economy that benefits all.

We can solve a lot of problems that we have right now.

We'll have resources for public safety.

We'll have a we'll have a homeless situation in decline.

And a key to a strong economy is making sure that we have a solid education system.

That is the key.

We also got to make sure that we have affordable, reliable energy.

We also got to make sure that we have infrastructure in place, one of them being the Port of Anchorage, and make sure that because that's the veins and vessels of our economy, making sure that we have a stable port and making sure that our streets are plowed so that we can get to and from work.

There's no reason why our cities should be shut down when we're an Arctic city.

All of this takes working together and I have my vision, but I know working together, we can come up with great plan.

Leave it there.

Thank you.

Next, what do you believe is the city's responsibility in addressing rates of homelessness?

Ms.. LaFrance, we'll start with you.

Thanks.

We've all seen that the approach from the mayor's office these last three years hadn't hasn't worked.

And I talked to folks who in the private sector, in the faith communities, providers, they want to bring ideas and resources to the table.

But right now there isn't a table.

And the big difference between me and the current administration is that I'll have a plan and I'll bring people together to implement that plan.

We need to have shelter.

We're a cold weather city and people have to have a place to go.

We also need to connect folks with treatment and with housing.

As mayor, I'll be focused on ensuring we have a plan and work with folks to enact that plan.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

You're up next.

What what what should the city's responsibility be in dealing with homelessness?

Well, government is a terrible solution to dealing with complex problems like homelessness.

And where the mayor's office comes in is as a convener of non-profits for profits, the state, federal and local agencies and the faith based community to bring them together and form a plan where everybody knows their lane, everybody knows what they are going to be working on and setting out goals for mitigating homelessness over the next five years.

And with that five year window, we report frequently how we are doing on the metrics that measure our progress so that we restore the faith of the public in our efforts.

Because right now the public does not have faith in either the administration or the Assembly's abilities to address these issues.

And we need to be working together with metrics that everybody understands.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Mr. Tuck, what is the city's responsibility on homelessness?

Well, the city does have a huge responsibility on that.

And it's not just the mayor's office, it's also the assembly as well.

We had over $161 million spent over the last three years, and that money just evaporated.

What do we have?

We have a growing homeless population.

We have a bigger mess than we had three years ago.

And so we don't need another task force to determine what we need to do.

We know what we need to do.

We just got to implement the steps to get there.

One of the things that we have to have, though, one of the missing elements is drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, because when someone ends up in the back of a cop car or goes their family and says, I need help, you have a small window of opportunity to get them help.

If you don't get them help, they're going to be jonesing for the next fix and they're going to commit whatever crimes they can to get their next fix.

But there's a myriad of things that we need to do, but we got to make sure we take action.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck And Mr. Bronson, what do you feel is the city's responsibility on homelessness?

Well, when I came into office three years ago, homelessness situation was a mess.

We had hundreds of people sitting in the Sullivan Arena, probably the worst facility in the city for putting homeless people in.

That's why before I even came into office, during transition, I proposed a thousand bed shelter on Elmore and Tudor.

That was a consequence of a large study of multiple sites, 71 different sites, and that's the one that came to the top.

I supported that.

However, the assembly eventually approved it and they budgeted for it and they paid for it.

We own a building and in the middle of a concrete pour for the footings of it, the assembly, led by Mrs. LaFrance, canceled that project and never started it Back up June 1st, 874 homeless people are going to hit the streets.

We really could use that shelter.

Thank you.

Let's drill down a little bit on this issue.

Are there underlying issues contributing to homelessness that you believe the municipality is not adequately addressing?

And if so, how would you change things?

Mr. Popp, we'll start with you, 45 seconds.

Well, first of all, we know that one out of five people suffering from homelessness nationally is dealing with a mental health issue.

And one out of seven people dealing with homelessness that are adults are dealing with a substance abuse issue.

And we are not getting adequate funding from the state of Alaska, who is the main provider of federal pass through, as well as state funds to address those issues.

And we need to demand more.

That funding hasn't been adjusted by the state since 2016.

We also need to look at the issues of shelter space, both emergency shelter and long term housing.

I will say that it is interesting that the thousand bed shelter got shut down by the Assembly, but there's never been any kind of real negotiation since then by the administration with the Assembly about how to get that back on track.

Thank you, Mr. Pope.

Mr. Tuck.

Thank you.

A growing healthy economy solves all sorts of problems, including our homeless situation.

We've got to get our economy back on track.

We also got to make sure that people get homeless in the first place.

We've got to use a211 system making sure that resources are there.

So when people call, we can connect them before they get homeless in the first place.

Prevention is always cheaper.

We also got to pick up people for for the drug dealers that are out there.

We got to go tough on crime because people are going homeless because they're their addictions and we've got to get control of that.

We also cannot have a two class society where some people get away with certain crimes and other people don't.

If you're publicly intoxicated, we're going to pick you up.

Once we pick you up, we're going to be able to get you the services that you need to be able to get your life back on track.

As many of other people.

Homeless you.

Solutions that are out there.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker.

Mr. Bronson was Bill is right.

There are many complexities to this.

We have about 3700 homeless people that we're helping in the city.

We have about 3700 different problems.

And my focus, though, is on the shelter and the public safety aspect.

That's why I proposed the shelter.

Where is that first place that that police officer or that fireman or that EMS person bring someone to when it's 20 below and they're freezing or they're frostbite?

They need that shelter.

They need it now.

And we're certainly going to need it next winter.

That's why I proposed the shelter.

That's why I moved it forward.

The assembly paid for it.

We built it or we have it.

We own it.

And I'm paying $5,000 a month restaurant in Tacoma right now.

Ms. LaFrance, 45 seconds.

Underlying issues for homelessness.

We know that homelessness is a complex issue and that many folks are suffering from untreated mental illness.

There are substance misuse issues, and many folks, too, who live on the streets are survivors, survivors of child abuse, of domestic violence.

These are big issues and issues that the city alone can't address.

That's why it's so important to use the convening power of local government and bring together stakeholders, members of the faith community, providers, representatives of different agencies.

Anchorage is an economic hub and also a social services hub, and we need to have a strong partnership with the state to not only ensure that folks have shelter but have access to treatment and housing.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

Our next question.

Anchorage is facing a natural gas shortage in the coming years.

What would you do as mayor to help make sure there's a stable supply of energy and rates don't skyrocket?

Mr. Tuck, we'll start with you on this one.

Thank you very much.

I was serving a legislature back in 2010 where we had we passed House Bill 280, which is to incentivize natural gas into cooking it and also have a natural gas storage facility, the first of its kind.

This last winter, we had two wellheads on the at that that were froze up and they're going to be repaired this year.

But we cannot rely on just the natural gas supply that we have down there.

We need to make sure that we have independent power producers, incentivize new technologies and new means of bringing power to our homes.

We also know that a kilowatt saved is always cheaper than a kilowatt produced.

And so we need to be have more efficiency through weatherization programs.

I'd like to bring that back to Anchorage so that people don't have to spend so much money with utility bills.

Thank you.

Mr.. Mr. LaFrance.

We're looking at a short term solution and a long term solution.

We know that we need more natural gas in the short term, and so importing it is likely the option that we're looking at in the long term.

We can work on developing and upgrading, modernizing the infrastructure and developing clean energy, not just solar and wind, but also hydro and thermal and other firm energy sources.

I think at the local level, for municipal government to doing an audit of the municipalities use of energy and finding ways to reduce that is important, as well as taking measures to change out light bulbs and implement more solar.

Thanks, Ms.. LaFrance.

Mr. BRONSON.

Yeah, well, what I have done, as I've mentioned earlier, is that creates so central mayors, Mayors, Energy Coalition that again, a coalition of of 11 mayors today we had our first meeting of the technical group which about 20 people petro geologists, folks from the university drillers the entire spectrum because before we start running down the path to a solution, we got to know what the data suggests, how much gas is in the inlet is a big pipe from the North Slope or a small pipe or no pipe.

The answer is it's solar is a wind.

We all know.

I think we suspect it's all going to be a mix of something.

But we've got the challenge in the very near future by 27.

We've got to get this dialed in.

And I think the answer is probably going to be some form of natural gas, whether imported LNG or more cooking that natural gas.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson and Mr. Paul.

And we've got billions of dollars already invested in gas infrastructure, and it's going to be very hard to displace that in this short a period of time to deal with the apparent shortfall date of 2027 or 2028.

And the mayor is it's fine for mayors to become knowledgeable on the issues, but the mayors are not going to have as much stroke in this as you might think.

This is going to be a state issue.

This is going to be the state's division of oil and gas.

This is going to be the State Department of Revenue.

It's going to be the legislature and the governor coming up with solutions that are going to help to bring existing gas supplies that we know about that are of substantial size just off the coast of the Kenai Peninsula into market.

And those are just sitting there stranded.

We also need more gas storage.

Thank you, Mr. Popp.

Before we continue with questions, a quick reminder to our viewers and listeners that we want to hear what matters most to you.

Follow the QR code on your screen to participate in a live Paul about what topics matter most to you as an Anchorage voter.

For those listening on radio, go to Emmy and Time.com and enter the code 18710347 to access the poll will be looking at the results later in the program.

Now to continue with questions.

Anchorage is a very car reliant city.

How would you make Anchorage a safer place for pedestrians and people with mobility challenges?

Mr. Bronson, 45 seconds.

Well, we do need to do that.

We're we are car mobile today.

Just today, we worked on a plan to with our traffic planner in the state to propose legislation to allow us to have scooters on the street.

That that is a form of transportation that helps.

Does it help the handicapped?

No, it doesn't.

But there's a lot we can do.

There are national standards with which we can comply in that.

Right now we are, by and large, ADA compliant within our buildings.

I think we're doing a pretty good job, but there's always room for improvement on something like this, especially for the people that are are the most challenged.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

We'll go to you next.

45 seconds.

Thank you.

Yeah.

We need to make sure that we have lighting, proper lighting for pedestrians.

We got to make sure that we have our streets plowed.

We also got to make sure our streets are swept, because when we have gravel on the roads, a car tire picks up that tread.

And the next thing you know, that piece of pebble gets dislodged like a projectile.

And it's really dangerous.

So we've got to make sure that we have the infrastructure in place.

We also got to make sure it's going back to the homeless situations.

Our bike paths are safe to travel up and down for pedestrians and for children.

And right now, I don't think people feel safe utilizing the infrastructure we have right now until we have that homeless situation under control.

We're going to see limited use of our trai Thank you, Mr. Park.

Much like we need renewable energy to diversify our energy mix, we also need to diversify our options for pedestrians, for bicyclists in our community.

We need protected lanes for both.

We need to look at better snow clearing on sidewalks and pathways in the wintertime.

We need to take three lane freeways with stoplights running through our downtown and turn those into two way lower speed streets so that our downtown, once again is a downtown as opposed to a quasi freeway.

We need to look at neighborhoods and making sure that we institute efforts to get more sidewalks and pathways so the kids aren't riding on the shoulders of roads.

And finally, you know, Anchorage is a great town to live in if you're a car and we need to do a better job of making it a great town to live in if you're a pedestrian.

Thank you.

Miss LaFrance, 45 seconds.

A walkable, bikeable city enhances the quality of life.

And first of all, we need to do better with what we have.

We need to ensure that our streets and trails are safe, clear still, and also accessible to folks.

We need to explore more temporary bike lanes.

And like the pilot project that occurred this summer, and I think there is a lot of opportunity for expanding that bikeable, walkable infrastructure.

And the city really needs to get in early on too, with planning with state roads through the maps process and ensure that this is a priority and that from here forward we are making sure that there are bike lanes and areas where pedestrians can safely walk.

Thank you.

Anchorage has seen a net negative population change for more than a decade now.

What do you think has caused this trend and what would you do to reverse it?

Ms.. LaFrance We'll start with you.

Yeah, the loss of young people and working families is perhaps the biggest issue facing our community right now and our economy.

It comes down to two things Is Anchorage a place where people want to live?

And is it a place where folks can afford to live?

We need to ensure that our streets and trails are safe, clear of snow, good schools, good jobs and nice amenities as well.

And then we need to ensure that folks can buy into the housing market.

We know that housing is very expensive here and child care is another thing that can break a family's bank.

So access to quality child care is very important in terms of making our community more affordable.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

Mr. Bronson.

Yes.

More affordable is the key to this.

Our young people can't afford to come back.

We have too many regulations that we've imposed on builders over the last ten or 12 years.

In the nineties we built a lot of homes, but the regulations weren't as severe as they are now, and that's because of greater restrictions placed on builders in the areas of Title 21, how we build our develop our land.

And a lot of this can be laid at the feet of politicians.

There's other cities that don't have many that don't have these problems because they don't have the complexity within their development and planning processes.

Government's got to get out of the way.

The marketplace so that the builders can can build the homes profitably.

It's much cheaper in the valley than it is in Anchorage, and that's why they're leaving.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr.

Pop.

Well, most people are leaving Anchorage for the Lower 48, and only a very small percentage of the people that we are losing every year are going to the valley.

Housing is an important issue, but we have many other things that we need to address.

We need to address better schools in our community because parents want good schools for their kids, good universities for adults and for our kids.

We also need to focus on the issues of quality of life and quality of place in our community.

And we're pretty rough around the edges.

We haven't re-invest it in our community in a serious way.

Since Project eighties nearly 40 years ago.

It's time for Anchorage to up its game.

Hundreds of cities across the United States are competing for our workforce, and we're just not doing a very good job of trying to retain our youth or attract new workers to our community.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Mr. Tuck.

Again.

A key to all of these problems that we have in trying to retain Alaskans in Anchorage residents here is a growing, healthy economy.

Jobs, jobs, jobs, Jobs is what's going to make the difference.

And jobs are going to help people stay out of homeless situation and they're going to be able to afford housing.

Jobs going to be able to make our community more enriching when we have disposable incomes to do all the other things that that really makes a community great.

And I would like to have our Port of Anchorage become a future industrial park so we can have a physical goods economy because you cannot rely on somebody else's economy for your own, such as the tourism industry.

That way, we can control our own destiny.

And looks like I got 4 seconds left and.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Anchorage Residents and those looking to move to the city report that housing is expensive, low quality and difficult to find.

What will you do to increase the affordability and availability of housing in Anchorage?

Mr. Papp, we'll start with you.

Thank you for that question, because, yes, it's a big issue in our community.

We only had a little less than 140 homes listed in the most recent listings month here in Anchorage.

That is a very tight inventory and we have big challenges.

We are not building adequate housing to deal with our growth in the demand for housing, which seems counterintuitive, but families are getting smaller.

You've got a lot of single, single adult households, and it's not like it used to be.

We need to be looking at new kinds of housing.

We need to address issues within policy that hold back developers that cost them more money on their projects.

But we also need to look at the kinds of housing that we want to encourage and incent using the Heritage Land Bank assets, using other tax incentives and using policy tools to address them directly.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

We'll go to you next.

Well, what I did do was I signed a modified methane gas agreement with the Klute Corporation to free up 1170 lots in Eagle River.

You've got to marry up capital with real estate and allow and then create an environment where builders can build and make money.

I supported for two years now the Horton Hills Project in in Girdwood.

That's an addition.

We've got other projects coming online we'll be announcing shortly here in South Anchorage, which will add to the the housing market.

But to answer your question directly, is this government has been much of the problem here.

If you look at the cities, especially in Florida, where development isn't a problem, it's because they have very much less restrictive rules on how to develop.

Thank you.

Mr. Tuck.

Thank you.

It seems odd that we have an outgoing migration from Anchorage, but yet our housing situation gets worse and worse.

A lot of it has to do with the short term rental housing and our Airbnbs.

So that's that's taking available housing away from Anchorage residents.

We need more hotels and motels.

We're going to see another record year of tourism this year.

So we need to have more residential housing.

One of the highest expenses and into new housing is utilities.

We have a lot of dilapidated and buildings here that need to be refurbished.

We need incentivize that.

And because we already have the utilities there, incentivize the renovations of those so that we can have low income housing for our residents here in acreage.

Thank you, Mr. Miller, France.

Housing is so expensive here and it's hard to find and it's keeping young people from staying here.

It's keeping people from moving here.

I will bring a pro housing culture to city hall.

And what I mean by that is focusing on how do we get to yes, bring in how do we bring municipal assets like Heritage land back land to the table.

I believe we have opportunities to with incentives and ensuring that projects pencil out.

I also believe that we can do more to ensure that the permit center is helping to move those projects along.

And as mayor, I will be focused on making it easier build here.

Thank you.

Tourism is an important industry in Anchorage.

What ideas do you have to attract more visitors to the city?

And Mr. Talk, we'll start with you.

Well, it goes again to their homeless populations.

I was down at the rail depot when a train had arrived.

It was late evening and the tourists, as they were coming off, they're looking at the top of the hill saying, what in the world is going on up there?

It looked like Mad Max.

There is honking horns, there is fire, there is yelling, screaming.

There is a loud music playing.

And I had to share with them.

That's our homeless population.

They were shocked that Anchorage had such a high homeless population.

We're a seventh in the nation per per capita of our homeless.

And how are we going to ask?

Expect tourism to come back.

Tourism come back when they see such a situation.

It's a deterrent.

Our downtown.

It's a deterrent from them returning.

We've got to get control of that to continue promoting a record year of tourism.

Thank you, Mr. Tusk.

Ms.. LaFrance You know, it starts with the basics.

We've got to ensure that our community is safe, and that means we need to staff up those almost 50 vacancies at APD of sworn officers.

It means we've got to get out of crisis mode on homelessness.

It means we've got to ensure that the snow is plowed from our streets and then we need to also make sure that we are promoting and taking care of the assets that we do have and whether that is access to the two GACH or having a vibrant downtown and working closely with those businesses to promote our city in ways that draws people here.

I will be a mayor who is focused on doing just that.

Thank you, Ms. LaFrance.

Mr.

Pop, how would you attract tourists to Anchorage?

Well, it's not hard to attract tourists to Anchorage because we have millions of baby boomers turning 65, almost 38 million of them turning 65 the next five years.

And Anchorage is definitely at the top of their bucket list for the place that they want to go once they retire.

But we do need to maintain a quality for them to come to.

The homeless issue is a big problem.

So is keeping our streets clean and our public spaces clean.

And it's not just the homeless issue.

We need to do a better job of maintaining our public spaces so that not only do visitors enjoy them, but our own citizens get to enjoy them and reinvest in those public spaces and do more to celebrate the culture of our community by nameplate.

Name Place naming in native languages with native history and alongside of that.

Thank you, Mr. Pope.

Mr. Bronson, how do we attract more visitors?

Well, you're right.

We need to attract more tourists.

And we do that by dealing with the homeles problem we have downtown.

Effectively, it's a matter of math.

When I came into office, that site down by the railroad station was a big problem.

That's why I proposed the large shelter, because right now we're not allowed to remove people from that site because of federal law.

The federal law says if you build enough shelter, you can then forcefully remove those people as long as you can place them in a shelter where they get the services that they need.

That's why I proposed a thousand person shelter.

The assembly, led by Suzanne de France is assembly chair killed that project.

So now we're stuck two years later and on June 1st we have 874 homeless people extra hitting the street.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

What is your plan for downtown Anchorage, and how will you work with others to accomplish this?

Mr. Bronson, we'll start with you.

Well, we've been working with Downtown Partnership Visit Anchorage.

We are doing better at shoveling our sidewalks.

The downtown partnership is responsible for shoveling our sidewalks.

But I think we see the results in the Iditarod.

Start in fur, Randi.

It was reported near the end that by one person who was there.

It's the largest crowds they'd seen downtown in a long time.

And it was I spent several days downtown during the start of both Iditarod and for Randy.

That's how you do it.

That's why I've been working for two years.

And we finally got to a settlement on creating an arch that a large stainless steel arch over Fourth Avenue, which will begin the Iditarod, which creates effectively the mushing district.

Thank you.

Mr.

Pop will go to you next.

Well, the past member, 16 plus year member of the visitor Anchorage Board of Directors and the Anchorage Downtown Partnership.

I'm intimately familiar with the challenges that downtown faces.

We need better police patrolling.

Having one walking patrol in downtown is inadequate, and we need to staff up and make sure that we've got multiple walking patrols so that the public and the visitors feel safe.

And we need to make sure that our spaces downtown are clean and we need to support the work of the downtown partnership.

In maintaining a clean and vital downtown, we also need to focus on reinvestment in downtown.

Flat parking lots are the worst possible use of land in your downtown.

We need to encourage development, but with intent.

What do we want?

What kind of housing?

What kind of businesses do we want downtown and incent those?

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Mr. Tuck, your plan for downtown.

Figure in much the heart of any city is your downtown.

And right now you can't even feel a pulse.

And we need to get Anchorage downtown to visit.

I propose that as mayor, that we have free parking after 4:00 Monday through Thursday and free parking after noon on on Fridays.

Getting people to come downtown again.

We got to get control of our homeless population because people are getting harassed going to and from their car to their work and we're can't even keep a coffee shop and major department stores open because of the problem that we have down there.

We also also, once we get in control of the homeless population, we can open up town square for ice skating once again.

We can have short shuttles for stuff that are happening downtown between Midtown, downtown for Farai and for parades, for for the fireworks, all those type of activities.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker.

Ms. LaFrance, your plan for downtown?

Well, people tell me all the time they don't feel safe going downtown, whether to shop, walk around or work their.

And so safety is the first thing.

And whether that means foot patrols with the police department or more or more the mobile intervention team providing those supports.

The municipality needs to work closely with businesses to identify those issues and best align resources.

We need promote more housing downtown, and I think we need to take a look at the tax incentive because it should be changed to ensure that projects can pencil out.

And then there are other things we can do Decouple Fifth and Sixth Avenue, add diagonal parking, add blade signs, more beautification efforts as well.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

What are your plans and goals to prepare Anchorage for the changing climate?

And Ms.. LaFrance, we'll start with you.

Yeah, one of the things I'm really looking forward to is mayor is dusting off our climate action plan because it's been sitting on the shelf for like three years now, and a lot of people put a lot of work into identifying ways in which the municipality can take action to better prepare and be more resilient.

And that includes developing clean energy.

It includes continuing to change out the light bulbs throughout the municipality and finding ways to move to solar.

There are other things, too, in the long term that require, I think, some community engagement.

And I'm talking about some of the changes we've seen with whether that impacts clearing the roads, for example.

And so there are a lot of areas that we can pursue.

Thank you, Ms. LaFrance.

Mr. Bronson.

Well, changing light bulbs and building more solar panels is not going to solve anything in our challenges, especially the winter, because there's no electricity produced by solar panels in the in the winter, nor by windmills for that matter.

We need to satisfy and we talked about this earlier, our energy challenges in Cook Inlet.

But we need to conserve.

That's why I ordered all lights turned off and all facilities at night.

I temperatures turned down on the weekends.

That's how you actually save consumption on natural gas.

That's how we keep the energy process moving forward so we don't get to a shortage in the in the first place.

But light bulbs and solar panels, that's not going to solve this problem.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr. Tuck.

Thank you.

It's through technology that you save the planet and not the elimination of technology.

We need to use innovation to try to meet our energy needs so we're not creating pollution all over the place.

And to do that, we need to invest in our university, invest in science and technology there, and then go one step further with the prototype and Materials Development Institute.

Because as students learn those science and technologies, they can apply them entrepreneurially right here using that innovation.

Applied entrepreneur right here for for our needs.

And we also got to make sure that we have good bike trails, make sure that we have a great public transportation system and an ability to walk because we don't need to be driving everywhere we need to go.

If we can promote more of healthy lifestyles of transport ourselves, we'd be much better off.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Mr.

Pop.

We need to dust off the Climate Action Plan, and we definitely need to look at what the options are there and perhaps update some of those elements.

We need to look at that citizen effort and respect it for what it is contributions from our taxpayers and our citizens to helping make Anchorage more vibrant in the face of climate change.

But we've also got to look at the basics that we offer a better snowplow strategy that takes into account that things are changing instead of looking backwards and assuming that whatever happens over last ten years is an average is what you plan for, we obviously are dealing with more difficult times.

We need to have better partnerships with the state in regards to snow plowing.

We also need to look at ideas to help expand our public transportation system as to the degree, greatest degree that we can to where we can get better efficiency in the use of vehicles in our community.

Thank you.

That concludes our first round of questions.

Before we continue, let's take a look at the live poll.

It looks like of the topic areas listed, people are chiefly concerned about the economy, housing and homelessness as their main concerns followed in municipal operations.

Also, an area of concern for viewers.

All right.

While we take a short break.

Here's an opportunity to look at what happens to your ballot after you vote.

Anchorage's First vote by mail election was held six years ago, and each year the Municipal Election Center invites the public to observe the process.

Alaska Public Media's Matt Fabian went this year and spoke with the municipal election administrator.

Well, William Northrup, about how the city keeps the vote counting process secure.

Ballots can come in to the Election Center one of three ways through one of our 18 secure drop boxes behind me.

Or they can come in via the United States Postal Service or they can come in through in-person voting at one of four Anchorage vote centers.

As ballots come into our election center, they are sorted through our order system here so that as they get sorted, this can take an image of the voter signature and check the voter off the voter list.

Once a image is taken, it is then sent to our signature verification team who are trained by professional document forensic experts.

We'll look at the voter signature and compare it to the signatures that we have on file from the State of Alaska Division of Elections.

The envelope opening team will start removing the batches of ballots that have been sorted twice from this cage.

They will then bring the batches to their table where two people will work together to disassemble these in a way where the voter's information remains confidential.

Those ballots then get put into another cage ready for scanning.

Once the ballots are all scanned in, they're then put in our vault where they will remain for the rest of the election.

Once the ballots are scanned, we begin what's called adjudication.

This is just another means of ensuring that people's votes get counted if there are any ambiguities that are on the ballots themselves.

One of the highlights of this system, as well as the system for sorting and signature verification, is they are air gapped, which means they are not connected to the network whatsoever.

But another security feature is that the Election Center live streams their security camera video on their YouTube channel so the public can see what's happening there at any given time.

Our next question is a video question from Madison, an Eagle River high school student with Anchorage Youth Vote.

After the video, each candidate will have 45 seconds to respond.

The majority of youth report that they have not been invited to be a part of the decision making process about a community issue that directly affects them.

How will your administration work to empower youth voices?

Mr.

Pop, we'll start with you.

Well, first of all, it's a great question, and thank you for taking the time out of your day to ask that question.

You know, a mayor has got a responsibility to include all members of the community in the municipal government process to the greatest degree possible.

And as mayor, I will seek out opportunities to meet with student governments, student groups, whoever has an interest in talking to me about issues that are important to them from their neighborhood, from their school, from their own community groups, and have those conversations to where I have a better understanding of their needs because we need to better understand the needs of our youth as they are going to be who we are relying on for keeping our city moving forward.

And we want as many of you to stay here in Anchorage as we can possibly convince to do so once you turn 18.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Mr. Tuck, we'll go to you next.

How do we empower youth voices?

Thank you very much.

And it really is our reach out to the community.

One of the things I've always worked on is making sure our community efforts succeed.

It takes all players to make that happen.

We need more participation in government, not less participation.

To get that participation, though, we got to restore faith in municipal government once again.

We've got to make sure that we have a fair process.

Because even though you may not get your way, at least you can say it's a fair process.

And then when more people are engaged, they will bring their friends.

And then we reach out to our schools to educate them on our government process.

I would be more than happy to personally come in and speak to the classrooms because once they get educated and they know how they can make a difference, they will get involved.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Mr. Bronson.

Yeah.

When I came into Officer was a thing called Youth Advisory Board.

It's still there is.

What we did is the mayor would appoint some youth to this board and they would advise us on a lot of the issues.

The Assembly then took that authority away from the mayor and took that for themselves.

So what we replaced it with was an internship program that we have on the eighth floor.

So I have a lot of kids streaming through, serving for days or weeks, working on our floor.

That's the way we reach out through our normal course of business.

But then I spend a lot of time in schools, elementary schools, middle schools, and certainly high schools, particularly East High.

Great group, a particularly great group of people.

They're young kids.

And so we listened to them.

I listened to them.

They have a lot to offer.

But thank you.

Wish I had that other mechanism left available to me.

Ms.. LaFrance Thank you for the question.

Our city is facing some big challenges, and if we're going to succeed, we need to ensure that youth are involved.

And I want to also mention that when I was on the Assembly, I was proud to vote in support of adding a youth member.

And that's where a young person sits on the dais with the Assembly members and participates.

And we also, when I was on the Assembly expanded access to that member program, and I will take that same approach as mayor and seek out young people and invite them in to City Hall to be a part of what's going on.

Thank you for that.

For our next question, we will talk about the revenue that comes into the city.

The municipalities tax revenue comes mostly from property taxes.

Do you think this works?

Or how would you like to see the system change?

Mr. Tuck, we'll start with you.

Thank you very much.

You know, a lot of people say that only a select few pay property taxes when really we're all affected by the property taxes that are out there.

It's really hard for me to ask people to be paying more for city government when we're not really taking care and being responsible with what revenue we have coming in right now.

But the question is, is if we do convert into a partial sales tax, how much are renters going to see as a benefit from that?

We know that property owners will, but how much will renters have?

And so the big question is, is if we do do a sales tax, when do we do a sales tax?

If we need to do a seasonal one?

That totally makes sense because then we can capture those tourism.

Another record year of tourism coming up this year to make sure that seasonal and is not adversely affecting families who are trying to survive.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker.

Mr.

Pop will go to you next.

A sales tax is something we need to have a conversation about property.

Taxpayers are paying an undue part of the burden, basically, most of it when it comes to the cost of government in our city.

And we need to have a conversation about a sales tax that is not regressive to the greatest degree possible, that excludes things like food that you take home to cook homes, residences, rentals, health care, child care, personal care products, gasoline, all of the things that would fall unfairly on the lower income portion of our community.

And there should be a very hard and fast one for one trade off of a dollar in sales tax for $1 less in property tax in a model that maybe is 2% under the cap.

And that's what I think is a good conversation to have for the community.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Ms.. LaFrance Taxpayers aren't getting great value for their tax dollar right now.

Scandals, lawsuits, unapproved contracts, those all cost extra money.

As mayor, I'll be focused on ensuring that you get better government for your tax dollar.

The idea of a sales tax is interesting, and we do need to take a look at how we're investing in ourselves and what's the best return on that investment.

It's a conversation for the community.

I know some folks like the idea of having a diverse tax base.

There are concerns about it being regressive, depending on how it's structured would depend on whether or not I would support it at the end of the day.

It'll Be up to the voters to decide if that's something that they want.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

Mr. Bronson.

Well, taxes are driven mostly by spending.

Government spending.

Your mill rate is not that issue because the mill rate is the multiplier for for the assessed value.

It's the spending that drives your property taxes.

We need to spend less.

When I came into office, my my budget was $2.8 million for the mayor's office, and now it's about 2.5, a little bit more.

So it's come down.

When Mrs. LaFrance came in in 2017, her budget for the assembly was 3.7.

And when she left six years later, it was 8.9 million.

So that was about 18% per year increase in budget.

That's not how we get to lower property taxes.

That's how we get to higher property taxes.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

This is a topic many community members have spoken out on this winter, as have all of you.

Is there a policy change you think would improve the city's ability to plow its roads and sidewalks in a safe and efficient manner?

Mr. Bronson, we'll start with you right.

It was a great challenge this winter.

We we hit a snow storm on November 9th, a series of, in short order, a very wet 40 inches of wet snow operations.

The first time in the history of the state actually shut down.

And Ted Stevens international for that snowfall.

It was a great challenge to the point where I had to ask the state if I could plow some of their roads to to clear our main thoroughfares.

Most of our main thoroughfares are actually state controlled roads.

I'm not allowed to plow them without permission.

We did that certainly would do that again.

But if the director of snow plowing, who's been doing it for 27 or 28 years now, if he asked me for more money or more equipment, we just give it to.

Mayors don't get in and create snow removal plants.

We really don't want that.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr. Tuck, we'll go to you next.

Thank you very much.

We used to have a policy that if we get our roads cleared within 48 hours, now it's 84 hours.

But man, we would be happy if we can get it done in 100 hours.

We got to make sure that we have our procurement policies in place so that we can secure contractors before we even hit the heavy snow season.

And that way we can utilize the extra iron and manpower that out there.

We got to get that out straight first.

We also got to have a procedure in just getting the snow off of the streets as fast as possible.

That means blowing it off to the side just to get one lane going.

And let's do that.

Open up the intersection super wide just on a temporary basis, just so we can get to school and get to work.

We also going to make sure that our public transit system is plowed because if people can't make it out of their neighborhoods if their vehicles, at least they can walk to a bus stop and get to work.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Ms.. LaFrance Well, you know, other winter cities have figured this out, and I know we can do better.

My approach is three.

Part one We need to make sure we have the correct number of operators and that our wages are competitive because they haven't been competitive and it's hard to compete with the state.

The second thing we need to do is an equipment audit to make sure that we have the right kind of equipment.

And if we don't, I'm committed to bringing forward a bond to the taxpayer so we can ensure that we have the right equipment.

And finally, we've got to coordinate better with the state.

I think folks all know that there is a mishmash of state and municipal roads, and we need to have a clear understanding of what the state is going to be able to do when it snows.

And then we've got to communicate better with the public about expectations.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

Mr.

Pop.

You know, bottom line, the mayor sets the direction of the city in any number of ways.

And if the mayor sets a goal that we're going to get snow removed no matter how deep the snow is within a certain period of time, and it is in advance of a plan that is going to address heavy snowfalls, unexpected snowfalls, then the mayor sets that direction.

It's up to the staff to come up with the solutions that make that happen effectively.

You know, it's not the staff telling the mayor how he's going to do his job.

It is the mayor who sets the direction for our city and says these are the things that we are going to accomplish in my administration.

Now, let's get the job done.

Bring me your plans.

And that's my view on this.

We also need to demand more from our partner, the state of Alaska, and having the right equipment to get any kind of snow removed from our streets.

Thank you.

The municipality has seen high turnover in many of its departments.

What will you do to attract and retain skilled employees?

Ms.. LaFrance, we'll start with you.

It starts from the top.

As mayor, I will build a competent, qualified team to carry forth a culture of respect and accountability.

We also have to address issues of wages and benefits to ensure that the municipality is competitive.

And we can do that.

The Mayor.

As mayor, I will do that by working closely with the unions.

I think we need to explore telework, flex time and part time positions as well.

And at the same time, we've got to make sure that Anchorage is a place where people want to live.

So getting the basics right, ensuring we have a safe city, a place where the snow is removed from the streets, a place that is affordable, where people want to live is also a big part of it.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

Mr. Tuck, we'll go to you next.

Thank you very much.

It does start with the leadership.

We have too many rulers and not enough leaders that are that are here.

We've got to make sure that we inspire public employees because they know what they are doing so they can really know how they benefit our servants.

One thing as a contractor, I've learned that you cannot take care of your customers until you take care of your employees first.

We need to take care of our municipal employees so that we can deliver the best services that that Anchorage residents should expect from government.

And that starts with treating people right and making sure that we have a workforce available.

And any and a working conditions that makes it enjoyable for people to have these careers with our municipality.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Mr. Parker, you're next.

I'm going to hire only professionals.

I'm not going to do political appointees.

I'm not going to worry about their political dogma and whether or not it aligns with mine.

I'm going to be hiring nothing but professionals who are going to be held to the highest standards of conduct and professional behavior in the workplace so that their teams feel like they are supported.

And it's a collaborative environment where any member of the team can help contribute to the ultimate success of that department's overall achievement of its goals, as laid out by the Department head at the direction of the mayor.

We need to work with the unions in terms of wages and benefits.

We need to have advocacy for a defined benefits plan, especially for our police and our fire departments.

We need to look at how we can attract the best and brightest in a very tight labor market in Anchorage.

Thank you.

Mr.. Mr. Bronson.

So what I have done is I built an highly competent team from the municipal manager to the director of OMB, who's worked for multiple administrations, to the CFO who's worked for multiple administrations, both Democrat and Republican, down through economic development, like folks like Lance Wilber, who have been here for over 30 years.

I built that competent team.

It took a while.

It was difficult in doing so.

And then as what I did do to retain people, some of our most important public safety people, the police.

I gave them the largest pay increase in the history of the Ms. polity because they deserved it, and that helps retain them.

And we're now in the process of working on paying our the rest of our employees more because we need to retain them.

That's what.

I've done.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

The Don Young Port of Alaska is a critical part of Alaska's supply chain.

What is your vision to ensure adequate funding, maintenance and modernization for the port?

Mr. Papp, we'll start with you.

Well, it is a critical asset, and it's an asset that's been in disarray for decades.

And we need to get faster movement on the remodeling and rebuilding of our main dock.

We also have some challenges with the fuels and concrete dock.

I've been listening to the port users in different meetings, both individually and as a group, and they've got some concerns and they want to make sure that things stay on track, that we get focused on getting this key asset up to snuff as quickly as possible, but also in a design that makes it usable for them in the long term and for us, for our economy, for our community, for our state.

This is a critical piece that we can't get wrong.

We need to make sure that we have our plans well laid out and well executed in the coming years.

Thank you, Mr. Paul.

Mr. Bronson.

Yeah.

So what I did do when I came into office, I was aware there was challenges at the port.

After just a few weeks in office, I realized it was.

It was real serious.

The port is built on a little over 1400 pilings, and they're all corroding quite severely.

One bad docking, one big Earth earthquake like we had in November 30th of 18.

That dock will fall over with.

The dock falls over.

No food, no food, no workers, no nothing.

And it could take a year, year and a half to to to get that back, that dock rebuilt.

That's why I came in, because the project was languishing, because we had port managers, municipal employees, managing a $2 billion construction project.

Is what I did is I put an engineering firm in charge of that progress, of that project.

And now the project is back on course.

The financing is being stacked and we're well on our way to food security.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Ms. LaFrance will go to you next.

The port is such a tremendously important piece of infrastructure, not just to Anchorage, but to the entire state.

And I'm proud to have worked with the prior administrations and assemblies to get the port modernization program back on track.

It started as a failed federal project and has moved along to a five phase program.

There are still some issues, and I dismayed to learn recently that the petroleum portion of the petroleum cement terminal has not actually been completed.

And so that's a challenge that needs to be addressed.

I think it's also really important to work very closely with our Anchorage legislators so that they can also advocate for the port funding as well.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

Mr. Tuck.

Thank you very much.

I serving as majority leader, helped get the $200 million from the state.

The state has played a role in this.

We have given money, but we're hesitant in giving money when we have such a failure in their designs and accountability and all the layers and layers and layers of consultants.

First time ever made it in On the front page of the newspaper was July of 2009 over this port situation.

Here we are, what, 15 years later?

Still trying to figure this out.

We've got to get back on track on really what our needs are.

Our users are losing faith in our port.

And the port is such a great opportunity, such an economic opportunity.

The cheapest mode of transportation worldwide.

Still water.

Thank you, Mr. Talk.

Alaska leads the country in rates of violence against women.

What is Anchorage mayor would you do to combat that problem in the state's largest city?

Mr. Tuck, we'll start with you.

Thank you very much.

We've got to get tough on crime.

That's one thing we have to do.

We have young people coming into Anchorage from their villages, going to our shopping malls, and they're getting preyed upon and then they're being taken advantage of.

And the next thing you know they're trapped and they can't get back home.

We've got to take care of the predators that are out there and making sure it's safe for everybody.

It's no excuse that we should have the highest rate in domestic violence and sexual assaults here in Anchorage.

When we look at the homeless population, a lot of that has to do with human trafficking.

A lot of it has to do with people trying to escape a really bad situation.

And they'd rather be on the streets than trying to to deal with what they have going on.

We've got to enforce our laws and get public safety.

The resources need to protect the public.

Thank you.

We will now go to Mr. Popp.

We need a stronger partnership with the state of Alaska for sure, because the state of Alaska controls, the prosecutor's office and the correctional systems and the probation systems.

We also need to do a better job of making this issue more aware in all corners of our community.

And as mayor, I'll definitely be a voice in making that awareness known and being out there and talking about this topic shoulder to shoulder with the providers of services to the victims of domestic violence and abuse.

We can't tolerate this in our city.

This is not acceptable.

And the rights that we have in our city and in the state of Alaska are totally unacceptable.

We need better enforcement, yes, but we also need to have better awareness and better treatment options for those who have suffered from the scourge of domestic violence sexual assault and abuse.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Ms.. LaFrance This is a huge problem in our community, and law enforcement definitely has key part of it, and we need to ensure that that's that perpetrators are getting prosecuted and serving the appropriate time.

But we also need to really focus on prevention and education.

And the health department, which has had a vacancy rate of almost 40% in the past, has done a lot with outreach and prevention.

And so as mayor, I would staff up the health department and restart some of those programs.

I also think working closely with the school district and I appreciate the Moore's efforts with Bree's law and how they have focused on healthy relationships, and we need to do more of that.

Thank you.

Ms.. LaFrance Mr. Bronson, lowering rates of domestic violence, violence against women in Anchorage.

Yes, it's it's severe and it folk it's focused primarily or not primarily, but in large part on native Alaska women.

It is a tragedy.

They come to Alaska and they wind up being trafficked and abused.

We've got some we have some good facilities available, private facilities like priceless.

And the hope Center Hope Centers, an absolute great facility for women who have been trafficked.

And I've supported them.

I've tried to give them grant money, but the the assembly actually sued them.

And quite frankly, under Ms.. LaFrance, they sued that organization.

That was a tragedy.

They recovered.

They actually won the lawsuit, thank heavens.

But we've got to look to partners who don't share our same worldview to help us with the problems we're all facing.

Thank you for that.

Our next question is from a viewer.

It's hard for Alaskans to retire here.

How would you make it easier?

And Mr. Popp, we'll start with you.

Well, first and foremost, it's offering more options for seniors in the form of housing.

And right now, we've got a lot of seniors who are hanging on to their five, 6000, 4000 square foot homes with multiple bedrooms, even though it's only one or two of them living there because it's got a low interest rate and they don't have any options to speak of in terms of senior friendly housing, small, efficient units, you know, thousand square feet, 1200 square feet, maybe 1400 square feet that make that gives seniors options for housing in vertical developments so that they can take an elevator down and we'll face the scourge of stairs in their seventies and eighties and be able to still maintain their mobility and go out and shop and be a part of the community.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Mr. Bronson.

Well, again, Bill's right on that.

We we need to make housing cheaper in this in the city for our elderly.

The good news is, is we believe here shortly we'll have some really good news on a large project that will deal with this quite effectively.

But even after that, we need to make the building of the homes that we need, elderly and young people we spoke of that we need to make it cheaper and easier for them to afford to live in our city.

Right now we're pricing them, we're pricing everyone out.

Someone lives in that great big home bill is talking about there is no condo to go to and they'd normally would like to go to a condo, sell their home, but that property too.

So they're actually stuck in the large house because that is the low interest home that they've been living in.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr. Tuck.

It is government's role to promote a growing healthy economy.

That's going to be key right there.

We all have the same wants and desires.

We want to be able to provide, for our families, have great careers, have affordable health care, make sure our children get a great education, and be able to retire with dignity, giving back to our communities.

And if we if we have parents that didn't save for that, at least the children can take care of their seniors with a growing healthy economy.

We've got to make sure that we have service, they're available services, they're available for them so they never have to leave their home.

In other words, lose their home.

Because if we can keep them in their home by providing services, there, that's how they contribute back to their neighbors.

That's how can they contribute back to their family and that's how they can contribute back to our community.

It's expensive to house them somewhere else.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Miss LaFrance.

Thanks.

Hey, just a quick fact check.

The assembly did not sue the Hope Center.

That was the administration.

Actually, seniors retire here.

It's expensive to live here, and housing is a big piece of that.

It's also difficult to get around Anchorage when sidewalks are and full of snow.

And so definitely ensuring and working to make it easier to build here so that there are more housing options and also ensuring that the streets and sidewalks are clear of snow and that there are multimodal transportation options as well.

And partnering too, with folks who are in the this demographic in finding out specific ways where municipal resources can align is an important thing we can do.

Thank you for that.

This next question is also from our audience.

What would you say are the greatest public safety challenges?

Anchorage and what would you do to address them?

We'll start with Mr. Bronson.

Well, recruiting and retaining police officers, because they're the pointy end of the spear for public safety.

And again, I came into office and it was languishing.

We weren't recruiting and we weren't retaining.

And that's again, it was real clear.

That's why I gave them the largest pay increase in the history of this city.

And we're seeing now indications that people are going to stay on because of that.

The other thing was a pain mechanism within senior officers.

When you were a sergeant, you promoted to lieutenant, you actually took a significant pay cut.

So recently I fixed that as well.

And now we're going ensconce that within municipal code going forward.

So as you promote, you always get paid more as you promote.

That was a system that just made no sense at all to me.

And we fixed it.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr. Tuck, we'll go to you next.

Thank you very much.

We need to uncuff our police so they can provide the services they need that we all expect for our community.

We've got to make sure that we have defined benefit plans so that people can have long lasting careers right here with with the fire department and our police department.

We don't want to train people up for them to seek employment outside of Alaska, outside of Anchorage, in better opportunities with retirement plans down there.

But we also got to get control of the homeless situation is taking up massive resources from our public safety.

And we need that freed up to get the really fight crime.

Like we really should be rather than reacting to things.

There's a lot more that we can do on prevention, and it takes a good viable public service, public safety service to make that happen.

Thank you, Mr. Tacoma's plant's biggest public safety threats and your plan for addressing them?

Well, there are three big issues right now.

And the first is we've got to get out of crisis mode for homelessness.

Folks simply have to have a place to go.

We're a winter city and they also need to be able to access treatment and housing.

Second, we've got to staff up APD.

We have lost almost 50 sworn officers in the last three years and it's important that our wages are competitive and that our officers have a pension or access to a pension as well.

And then finally we need to make sure that the snow is cleared from the streets, because as we saw this winter as well, that is a public safety issue.

Thank you.

What is one specific thing that you would do as mayor to make Anchorage a more appealing place to live, both for residents and new arrivals?

Mr. Tuck, we'll start with you.

Man.

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it is a growing, healthy economy.

I'm sorry, we need to stop.

We.

Mr. Popp, please.

You're the largest public safety threats in your plan to address them.

Thank you for that.

I appreciate.

I knew you were going to catch up with me there momentarily.

So we've got to deal with the issues that are rooted in homelessness, homelessness is creating a lot of petty crime in the community.

And then in addition to that, there are those who are not homeless, are using the cover of homeless to commit petty crimes, establishing crime rings to go in and hit large retailers, small mom and pop businesses.

And that is just a scourge we need to end.

But unfortunately, we don't have enough law enforcement available for that because they are addressing a lot of issues related to the homeless population, as are the fire department and we also are down 50 officers plus support staff, which puts police officers off of the street dealing with support responsibilities where they could be out on the street doing the job that we really want them to do.

There's a lot of things to be done in terms of those types of crimes.

Thank you.

And now what's one specific you would do as mayor to make Anchorage a more appealing place to live?

And he will have 30 seconds for this question.

And we will start with Mr. Tuck.

Thank you.

Okay.

Again, a growing healthy economy.

It starts with a viable, vibrant education system from pre-K all the way up to our university so we can capitalize on the investments that we're making in our future generations and so they can apply and have good jobs when they come out of our schooling system and they can learn the things that we want them to learn in the direction we want to go.

And they can apply entrepreneurially what they learn right here in our great city rather than shipping them off to.

Thank you.

Education elsewhere.

Mr. Bronson Well, again, like Chris, I'll sound like a broken record.

We've got to do two primary things deal with the homelessness because that impacts us economically and it drives down the price of our property and our ability to use downtown.

And while the whole city.

The other thing is what we've talked about several times here is we need to make the cost of housing far less.

We need to increase supply and if we do that, get government out of the way.

Hopefully interest rates will come down.

We build more housing and more people will come and stay here.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr.

Pop.

There's no silver bullet, and I can't name just one thing that we need to do.

There are a multitude of things that we need to do, but I'll.

I'll go top of the list.

We do have to address the homeless problem.

That is an appearance issue.

That's a petty crime issue.

That is a citizen's issue that we need to address.

We need to work on attracting workers to our community.

We are sitting asleep at the wheel while hundreds of other cities across the United States are recruiting our workers to their city.

And we need to work very diligently to make sure that we've got the best educational opportunities for both our kids and our adults.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Ms.. LaFrance There are a number of things we need to do.

We've talked about housing.

We've talked about homelessness and public safety and a little bit about child care.

I want to focus on schools because right now we're losing families.

We are losing educators because our schools are not being funded.

Granted lies primarily with the state, with legislators and the governor.

But as mayor, I will be a tireless advocate for our public schools because I know how important they are to families, and I know how important it is for kids to get a good education.

Thank you, Ms.. LaFrance.

Our next set of questions have been written for candidates based on interviews you each did with Alaska Public Media.

For these questions, you'll have a minute to respond.

Mr. Bronson, we'll begin with you.

During the last three years of your administration, your plans to address homelessness, namely the proposed mass shelter at Tudor and Elmore have not made it through the Assembly, and efforts to circumvent the Assembly have also failed.

The makeup of the assembly is not significantly changing with this election.

So how would the next three years of your administration be different?

It's math.

It's called Build more shelter.

We're doing pretty well and others are doing pretty well on the building of housing.

And that's part of the solution.

There's no single silver bullet here either.

But without the shelter component, I was watching your news in the green room here, your national news, The NewsHour.

And they were talking about the exact same thing.

And there was a city and they says, well, 11,000 beds is not enough.

What we need here is we need about a thousand.

And on June 1st and I think I spoke of this an hour and a half or so, we've got 870 homeless people hitting the streets of Anchorage because we've got a couple of large hotels that are being used and the cold weather shelter system that we use are being shut down because they're not funded.

We're out of m And in the assembly now is is funding our health department, which runs that function in only two week internment increments.

That's why we need shelter.

I've been saying it for over three years and ask this question of the assembly.

That's what you need to do.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr. Francis, the next question is to you.

You'll have one minute.

You have been critical of the current mayor's handling of the issue of homelessness.

However, you were chair of the Anchorage Assembly during the first two years of the Bronson administration with a voting body that often overrode the mayor's vetoes.

How do you explain the apparent lack of progress on this issue during those years where you were chair?

You have one minute.

It was an honor to serve on the assembly, and I'm proud of representing my constituents and standing up for taxpayer interests.

I did vote in support of Mayor Bronson's proposed shelter because we do need more shelter and we need another navigation facility.

However, when cost ballooned and the law concerning how to spend public money was broken, it became a matter of fiscal responsibility to stop the project.

And unfortunately, the mayor has not come forward with another plan.

It's the job of the mayor to bring ideas forward and to build support around those ideas and to move our community forward.

The Assembly, the mayor have different jobs.

The assembly controls the purse sets policy.

The mayor is the leader of our community, the CEO of our community, and the one who needs to be focused on bringing a plan together and pulling in support and working together to make it happen.

Mr.

Pop, you're pitching a vision of Anchorage that involves large investments in the city's future.

How do you propose funding these types of projects when it's so difficult to get the public on board with new taxes?

And how would you ensure that your vision is continued by future administrations.

Emulating what has been done in other cities across the United States, which is to look at a community conversation about what it is that we want to see in our community, not just coming up with whatever you as a mayor decide is the right path, but having a not short conversation, a year long conversation.

The community about where is Anchorage going to be in ten years and what do we see that's needed to make Anchorage a better city that's going to attract workers, that's going to retain our youth, that's going to grow our future, and then have the conversation about how we fund it.

There are models out there that we can look at.

There are cities across the United States that have done this repeatedly.

We could talk about a dedicated sales tax.

We can talk about bonding potentially.

We could talk about a lot of different things.

We can also seek out grant funding.

In addition to those elements.

It's all all the options on the table.

And then a community conversation that isn't rushed, like the bathroom bond that's on the ballot next week.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Mr. Tuck, you've said what's needed for Anchorage is more respect for the public and for institutions.

Name specific steps you would take to overcome political divides in Anchorage to build that respect.

Thank you very much.

You can't get anything done in government without building relationships.

To build relationships, you have to have respect.

Not only respect for those who are you're serving, but respect for those who you need to partner with in moving Anchorage forward.

And to do that, you have to have respect for the institution.

We've got to make sure again that we have a fair process, because once we have a fair process, people will be have more participation.

I will meet with assembly members as mayor and make and learn what their aspirations are, what their beliefs are, and how we can move Anchorage going forward.

I haven't talked about having my own coffee cup with the assembly on there, so when we have our assembly meetings, I'll be drinking out of that coffee cup showing the partnership that is required to bring people together to get us going in the same direction.

It's going to take all of our participation to make that happen.

I do have my vision for Anchorage, but I need make it sure that it's our vision.

And to do that, you respect those who you serve.

And when they do public testimony, you don't dismiss them and you don't disregard them.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Now it's time for our Lightning Round.

For these questions.

You will only have 15 seconds to respond.

Our first question, starting with Ms.. France.

Do you support ballot initiative to bring public bathrooms to Anchorage?

I do support it.

I wasn't on the assembly when they voted to put it on the ballot, and I was happy to see that the cost was reduced down.

We have a need in our community for bathrooms and at the end of the day, it'll be the voters who decide.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

We do need public restroom systems in our community, but I feel that this ballot proposition was not given enough time to be understood by the public.

Not enough time for debate.

Not enough time for research for different options.

I'm going to be voting no.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

Thank you.

I'll be voting no as well.

This is a huge expense.

I mean, if you just look at the dugouts that we have at our baseball fields, that's what you're going to expect from having these bathrooms.

You to have public safety, you've got to have law enforcement.

And I won't even take my daughter to go look at what's left behind in these dugouts.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Absolutely Not really.

Bad idea.

It's going to create it's going to make our housing problem worse, even as it waste a lot of money.

That money could be spent on building shelter space.

Thank you.

Should Chugach Electric Association restructure their rates to incentivize consumer conservation?

Mr.

Pop will rate cases are pretty pretty complicated.

I you know, I think anything that we can do to incent better consumer or conservation efforts is definitely something that we can do.

But I think we do that through infrastructure grants or infrastructure rebates as opposed to rates.

Thank you.

Ms.. LaFrance In general, I'm supportive of incentives, and for this particular one, I would want to know more about the specifics.

And here how exactly it would have an impact on overall costs.

Thank you, Mr. Tuck.

This is a question just for about to get results, also about inStar as well.

As I said earlier, a kilowatts saved or BTU saved is always cheaper than trying to produce another one.

So yes, we should incentivize weatherization and making sure, that we have incentives and grants there available for encourage residents to say.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Right.

Conservation, I think, is the key in the very near future, even even beyond that.

That's why I ordered our municipal buildings to turn down the heat on the weekends and make sure the lights are turned off at night when the office isn't being used because conservation is going to be the key in the near future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Next, regarding the acute in the dam, do you support its full removal or the partial removal proposed by electric utilities?

Mr. Tuck.

Thank you.

A key to a strong economy.

Another one is making sure that we have affordable, reliable energy and clean water included.

Dam gives us both.

If we're going to get rid of that dam, we've got to have alternative sources both.

And I.

Don't.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Bronson, 15 seconds.

I do not support tearing out a dam.

That which creates 5% of rail built electricity in a time when we're already short on an electricity.

All right, Mr. Popp.

Full removal or partial removal?

I think there's a middle ground, and I think it's an extension of the time frame to look at more options to see if there are ways to preserve both.

But I do want to see fish back in the lake.

So that's going to be something that we need to be working on to figure that out, because that is something that requires collaboration with the including the tribe.

Staff up Friends.

Yes, I do support full restoration, but not necessarily today or tomorrow.

It'll take time and there needs to be a transition, especially when it comes to replacing the hydro that would that we would lose by taking it out.

That concludes our questions for the evening.

We're now moving on to closing statements.

The order here was also determined randomly and will begin with Mr. Tuck.

You have 45 seconds.

Thank you very much.

Anchorage, We're at a crossroads.

My opponents have had years to get Anchorage back on track, but instead we are left with a declining economy, a growing homeless problem.

We have a failing education system and we have a divisive and ineffective city government.

We are in a hot mess.

We can't do more of the same.

And voting for one of them is voting for the same.

I want to make Anchorage a place where ideas and innovation flourish.

Education is the highest quality and a result.

The economy thrives and jobs are rewarded.

This is your well-being.

This is your life.

This is your decision.

And for a stronger anchorage, I say vote for a stronger mayor.

Please vote for me.

Chris Tuck.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

45.

Seconds.

All right.

Thank you.

And thank you again for this venue.

When I came into office three years ago, the assembly was shutting down small businesses.

The school district was closing our schools.

Our economy was tanking.

Large part because of that.

But we're through that.

I came.

We came through that together.

That was a difficult time.

Since I've come into office, we brought in almost $1,000,000,000 of investment into the city we built.

We built some homes.

We've we paved the way for a good future.

There's a lot of money sitting on the outside waiting to come into this city.

Now, do I wish my relationship with the assembly was better?

Yes, I do.

But I don't work for them.

I work for you.

And I'm happy to be the last man standing in the gap to protect you from bad policy overspending and overregulation.

Thank you, Mr. Bronson.

Mr.

Pop, your closing statement, please.

We're on the cusp of one of the greatest economic booms the state's ever seen with billions of dollars going into the oilpatch, billions of transportation dollars coming into our community and billions of dollars in broadband and other private sector investments that are going to really strain our ability to meet their workforce needs.

We have two times as many jobs being posted right now in all wage categories than we have workers seeking those jobs.

We really need to have a city that is focused on the future.

I am nonpartizan.

I am not been a member of a party for over two decades.

My party Anchorage.

I am dedicated to the city.

I am not running for higher office.

I am not encumbered with those kinds of issues politically.

I am focused on your future and our future.

Thank you, Mr.

Pop.

Ms. LaFrance, your closing statement.

I grew up playing soccer and later hockey and being a part of a team and building and leading teams is a big part of who I am.

That's the approach I'll bring to the job as mayor by creating a competent, highly qualified, passionate team that is committed to our community because that's what it's all about at the local government level.

We have this amazing opportunity to lean into our potential here, and our future can be so great.

It is about working together to solve problems.

And as mayor, I will bring forward plans and collaborate with folks to ensure that we have a better future.

I'm Suzanne LaFrance.

I'm running for mayor and I'd be honored to have your vote.

Thank you all for your answers this evening and your cordiality to each other.

That concludes tonight's debate.

Anchorage residents, you have until 8 p.m. on April 2nd to make your vote count.

You can visit our website, Alaskapublic.org to view more election coverage and use our candidate comparison tool to see more about the mayor's candidate answers, as well as Anchorage School Board candidates.

For Alaska Public Media, I'm Lori Townsend.

Thanks so much for joining us this evening.

And for the Anchorage Daily News, I'm Tom Hewitt.

Thank you all for joining us on all of the platforms.

And have a good night.