Assembly approves plastic bag ban
On Tuesday, the Haines Borough joined the ranks of nine other Alaskan communities banning the distribution of single-use non-compostable plastic shopping bags, unanimously supported by the Haines Borough Assembly.
The ordinance won’t take effect until January 1, 2020 to give store owners time to use their supplies.
Plastic bags used to package bulk items such as “fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains, candy; or bags used for damp or leaking products such as frozen items, meat or fish” are exempt from the ban.
Melissa Aronson, who helped bring the ordinance forward with Haines Friends of Recycling, said that the groups research showed an outright ban would be more effective than a tax, as a tax requires administrative duties.
Assembly member Brenda Josephson brought up what could be potential confusion with unclear wording in the ordinance, so the assembly voted to add “single-use” into the ban.
“I think we’ll see over time that its success will lead to more successes,” assembly member Heather Lende said.
Statewide legislation that would ban single-use plastic bags passed last month in the Alaska House of Representatives. If passed, Alaska would be the third state to impose such law, behind California and New York.
Resource Extraction
After more than two years of back-and-forth between the assembly, planning commission and committees, the Haines Borough Assembly unanimously passed an ordinance Tuesday defining resource extraction and where it can happen.
Resource extraction is defined as” heavy industrial use involving the removal of natural resources from a property, not including the removal of material incidental to construction or repair.”
The ordinance prohibits resource extraction in the Mud Bay rural residential zone and the cannery at the request of more than 120 Mud Bay residents and 40 non-residents in a February petition.
Mud Bay resident Kristin Hathorn said she was happy to see the ordinance come to a straightforward definition after “a very long journey.”
Planning commissioner Rob Goldberg told the assembly that removing the quantitative limits and clear definition of “removal” from the ordinance in its final draft will allow people to circumvent code.
Assembly member Brenda Josephson proposed an amendment to allow resource extraction by conditional use in the Mud Bay rural residential zone—a question that has repeatedly come up and been shut down by the majority of landowners in the area—but there was no second.
“We’re at a point where we voiced all the concerns and what we have in front of us is what the people want,” assembly member Sean Maidy said.
AC pipe replacement loan
The Haines Borough Assembly authorized the borough manager to enter into a low-interest loan through the Alaska Drinking Water Fund for replacement of Asbestos-Cement (AC) pipes on Front Street and a portion of Mud Bay.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the pipe in 1979 due to health concerns, like cancer, linked to inhaling asbestos.
Public Facilities director Brad Ryan said government agencies have allowed the pipes to remain underground under certain permitting, but the pipes are brittle and hard to work around
In June 2018, the assembly authorized Schnabel to apply the loan for up to $1 million, with up to $500,000 in subsidy.
The borough will use the loan for the Front Street portion of the project, with an estimated construction cost of $193,200.
Ryan said construction on Front Street will likely start this summer.
The borough contracted proHNS for design of the whole project for $152,000 with a total contingency budget totaling $550,000 to appear in the 2020 fiscal budget.
Construction of the Small Tracts and Mud Bay portions of the project are contingent on an additional loan, Ryan said.
Public safety building upgrades
On Tuesday, the Haines Borough Assembly approved reallocating $150,000 of townsite funds to install Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrades to the public safety building, and outfit the exterior with metal siding.
Upgrades will include new bay garage doors, ADA-accessible restrooms adjacent to assembly chambers, and electrical updates.
“Before the Assembly adopts the FY20 budget or amends the FY19 budget to appropriate $150,000 for painting, I appeal to change the focus of the project from painting to ADA upgrades and metal siding,” public facilities director Brad Ryan wrote in a memo.
Ryan said that replacing the public safety building would take “at least another 10 years,” but an additional $150,000 for metal siding would add 10-15 years of life to the building.
Ryan said the borough could be considered negligent in not providing an accessible restroom as part of public safety building improvements.
Maintaining the FY19 amendment for about $80,000 in energy-efficient doors and the FY20 budget adds to a total construction package of $450,000.
The assembly also approved spending $12,000 for Chilkat Center carpet and building repairs, and $33,000 for museum window replacement this year.
Union Negotiations near complete
The Haines Borough negotiating team and borough employees concluded union negotiations on May 21 with a new collective bargaining agreement.
If the union accepts the agreement, it will be published in the assembly’s June 11 meeting packet.
The borough negotiating team consisted of borough manager Debra Schnabel, mayor Jan Hill, assembly members Stephanie Scott and Brenda Josephson, clerk Alekka Fullerton and chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart.
Major changes to the collective bargaining agreement include changes to required leave, an additional $80 a month in health benefits for each employee, a wage schedule dependent on state funding and a reduction in police standby pay of almost $2 an hour.
With the new health contribution, the cost to the borough will be $40,960 annually for the three years of the agreement, “assuming the same staff profile,” Schnabel said.
Schnabel, who led negotiations for the borough, said she was pleased by “the union’s agreement to adopt a trigger plan, knowing that the budget may or may not include an almost $1 million school bond debt threat.”
If the school bond debt reimbursement is funded 95 percent or more, union employee wages will increase by 4.5 percent over three years at an estimated cost of $110,000 to the borough. If the program is funded between 50 and 94 percent, wages will increase by 3.5 percent; Less than 50 percent of state funding will mean a 2.5 percent increase in wages.
If the school bond debt reimbursement and community assistance program is reduced by 30 percent or more in coming fiscal years, the wage increase will drop to .5 percent.
At a personnel meeting on Tuesday, assembly member Heather Lende questioned the philosophy behind tying state funding to employee pay, when no other service in Haines is dependent on outside influence.
“We’re basically saying that we’re putting our human resources at risk for what happens in Juneau but that’s the only one?” she asked.
Schnabel argued that people are 70 percent of the budget.
“They are also in reality the most important percent,” Lende said.
Other changes include: union membership is no longer a condition of employment, the board of trustees is the immediate supervisor of the museum director, and the union will appoint a local steward to field grievances.
Borough employees not covered by the union are the borough manager, the clerk, the executive assistant to the manager, the public facilities director, chief of police and the finance officer.
Commissioner Invite
Assembly member Tom Morphet’s proposal to invite Alaska Department of Fish and Game commissioner and commercial division director to Haines to express concern about the Chilkat king salmon run failed Tuesday night.
“If conditions continue, we will no longer be able to say the Chilkat River is home to all five species of Pacific salmon,” Morphet said. “This is a species that could disappear on our watch.’”
Spawning Chilkat king salmon have missed escapement goals for six of the past seven years.
This year, ADF&G restrictions intended to protect area kings will likely affect sockeye landings by gillnetters.
“I think we should bring him in the room and say ‘Do whatever you can to reverse this situation Mr. Lang,’ because we are on the frontline,” Morphet said.
“Is this something that could backfire on us?” assembly member Brenda Josephson asked commercial fisherman and assembly member Will Prisciandaro.
“It’d be great to talk to him. I personally don’t think we’d get any change,” Prisciandaro said.
Assembly member Sean Maidy said he thought inviting the commissioner to Haines would be “a phenomenal waste of time.”
“We’re going to say ‘bring back the king salmon’ and he’s going to go ‘well, we are, that’s why you only have this much space to use.’” Maidy said.