At each Regular Assembly Meeting, Chair Christopher Constant gives a report on recent community events and issues of interest before the Assembly. If you missed the Chair's Report, you can catch up below.
March 3, 2026
View the recording of the remarks.
Good evening everybody and welcome to our regular business meeting.
Homeless Encampments
The first thing I want to talk about tonight is something that just absolutely blew my mind last week, and I also want to celebrate the press conference that we had last week kicking off the second Healthy Spaces team. In the middle of that press conference, the Mayor said something that quite shocked me. The Mayor said that as of now, there are no encampments and I had to stop and think about what that meant, because I didn’t know if I believed it. Not because I don’t believe the Mayor, but because I needed to see it with my own eyes to believe it.
So I took myself for a drive across the Anchorage bowl. I went from Centennial Park to Taku Lake, including Northwood and every stop in between – Chester Creek Trail, Sullivan Arena, Campbell Creek Greenbelt, Russian Jack Springs, Valley of the Moon, Davis Park and Mountain View, rights away across the Municipality. And low and behold, I found, there are no major encampments in this town anywhere at this time.
Now this is significant because for as long as I have been involved in the public process through community councils in Fairview, I never would have believed that today would occur. That we literally have no tent city and no major encampments. I did find one location that had three tents, and the Health Spaces team and the HOPE team went out to engage with them and begin the process to help them find a place to go.
So, ultimately, what that means is that while isolated tents remain out there and our behavioral health gaps are going to persist until we have some support, the entrenched encampments that have long characterized the Municipality of Anchorage are a thing of the past for now. And I want to say thank you to the Mayor, thank you to the Administration, and I want to say thank you to all of the community providers who are part of the system that we’ve been developing for the last eight years to provide a place for people to go and to provide an opportunity for our neighbors to be comfortable in their public spaces.
I want to be careful to recognize the fact that some will say that it’s just because it’s a cold winter, but having been working on this issue for more than a decade, I can tell you that we’ve had some really cold winters where those camps persisted, so that is not enough to explain why we are here.
Why we are here is because we’ve expanded to year-round shelter, we’ve been working hard on the hotel to housing conversions, we’ve opened the facilities at 56th Avenue, and Linda’s Place, and the Guest House is providing housing. We now have recovery housing coming online at Willow Commons. The Healthy Spaces team has now two teams, and they are working on rapid response. We’ve expanded the AFD and APD mobile behavioral health units – the Mobile Crisis Team and the Mobile Intervention Team. We also have been working hard with the Coalition to name each individual who is circling through our system, and we’re seeing major investments in our behavioral health system in the Municipality, like Southcentral Foundation with their behavioral health crisis response facility at the corner of Tudor and Elmore, which promises to provide key services that we need to continue this.
So, it isn’t a single strategy that has brought us here today. It’s not enforcement alone, it’s not housing alone, it’s not treatment alone. The difference is a policy choice to coordinate the system, to pair public safety and outreach, shelter access and housing, behavioral health investments together with a broad community network of support.
I’d also like to thank our friends in the Legislature and the Governor. In 2024, the legislature provided us $4M to help us stabilize our shelter system, so that we could provide year-round shelter, which is now online. That is the promise we will see as we move into the spring, that will help reduce the impacts when people do start leaving the shelters, which is an inevitable part of the summer. The goal now being that we will be assertive and on the front foot – ten toes down, I think they call it – in the process to make sure people aren’t allowed to establish large and unsafe camps within our community.
And so, I want the record to reflect right now that for the first time in my memory, we have no tent city, we have no major encampment in the municipality. And that is worth celebrating with all of the people who made that happen. If Members of the public want more information on this topic, you can go to
ancgov.info/FOCUS-Homelessness and the Mayor’s strategy at muni.org called
Turning the Tide.
ASD Budget
Tonight, we are introducing the Anchorage School District budget under Item 10.G.7. on the agenda tonight for a public hearing on March 24th. Since the budget document is so large, we’ve posted it on our website for those of you who want to view it.
It can be found at muni.org/assembly under About in the upper menu bar. Select Government to Government Relations and go to the
Anchorage School District section, where you will find it listed as the ASD FY2027 Proposed Budget. It is also on ASD’s website and will be in the March 24 agenda packet.
Elections
As we get closer to the April municipal election, I want to continue to share some reminders about deadlines and voting.
- March 8th is the last day to register to vote for the April 7th election
- Ballots will be mailed out on March 17
- If you are traveling during the election, there are several options available so you can still vote:
- You can apply to vote at a temporary address- the form must be turned in by March 31
- You can also apply to vote by email, fax, or by Secure Document Portal
- If you are in town, we encourage you to drop your ballot in one of the secure dropboxes.
It’s not too late to sign up for
Ballottrax. You can sign up at
anchoragevotes.com to get text, voicemail or email alerts on the status of your ballot, including when it’s mailed out, when it’s delivered and when it’s counted across the machine. It’s a great tool and I encourage you to sign up now so you’re all set before the ballots are mailed.
All of the forms and other election information can be found at
muni.org/elections or you can call the Voter Hotline at 907-243-VOTE.
February 17, 2026
View the recording of the remarks.
Good evening everybody and welcome to our regular business meeting.
Recent Events
I would like to follow on with what the Mayor just discussed about the Nordstrom Building. We are going to ask that the item be set for public hearing at the second meeting in March so that there can be a more open and formal discussion with the downtown community council at their meeting on March 4th. If any members of the public have thoughts about the project, please attend the Downtown Community Council meeting. Having been briefed by both parties involved in this, I’m pretty excited to hear about the housing proposals that are being put together and the commercial proposals that are being worked out right now. This is a foot forward toward the revitalization of downtown and I want to make sure that anyone who has concerns will show up in person so they can learn more, either at the Downtown Community Council meeting or when this returns to us in March.
Allie Hartman - Top 40 Under 40 Award
Next, I would like to note that the Assembly’s Communications Director Allie Hartman was named this week as one of the Alaska Journal of Commerce’s Class of 2026 Top Forty Under 40. The Assembly is very lucky to have her on our team. Congratulations Allie.
The Assembly’s efforts to communicate our work on an ongoing basis is really complemented by the work of that office. They’ve been putting together briefings on how the budget works, how assessments work, how tax levies work, and helping to get out sponsor messages relating to important legislative projects. We’re definitely lucky to have so many great young leaders in our community and I congratulate Allie and all 40 of the awardees this year. We have an alumni or two on this dais.
Alaska Municipal League Meeting
You’ll notice a few of Members absent from the dais and calling into the meeting tonight because a number of Assembly Members are attending the Alaska Municipal League conference in Juneau this week. We’re grateful for their participation in our meeting tonight when they’ve been working really hard down in Juneau to get the message of our local governments across to the legislature. The conference gathers local government officials from across the state to learn about and advocate for local government issues. Anchorage was a founding member of the Alaska Municipal League and works closely with the League to advocate for Anchorage and local control issues. The Members will also be meeting with Legislators to discuss the Anchorage legislative program and Anchorage priorities. To those Members, I wish you safe travels and productive meetings, and thank you for your participation tonight.
49th Anniversary of the Ombudsman
This weekend marks the 49th anniversary of the Office of the Ombudsman. For those of you unfamiliar with the Ombudsman, they are responsible for resolving conflicts and complaints between constituents and local government, including the Municipality of Anchorage and the Anchorage School District. With their 49th anniversary, the office has a goal this year to build more connections and share how the office works so they can improve their services to the community. I encourage everyone to learn more about the Ombudsman’s Office and see how they may be of service to you. And happy anniversary to the Office of the Ombudsman!
Elections
As we near the spring municipal election, I wanted to share some reminders about deadlines and voting.
- March 8th is the last day to register to vote for the April 7th election
- Ballots will be mailed out on March 17
- If you are traveling during the election, there are several options available so you can still vote:
- You can apply to vote at a temporary address- the form must be turned in by March 31
- You can also apply to vote by email, fax, or by Secure Document Portal
- If you are in town, we encourage you to drop your ballot in one of the secure dropboxes.
Once you’ve voted, Anchorage offers a way to track your ballot called Ballottrax. We’d love to have you sign up for that. You can sign up at
anchoragevotes.com to get text, voicemail or email alerts on the status of your ballot, including when it’s mailed out, when it’s delivered and when it’s counted across the machine. It’s a great tool and I encourage you to sign up now so you’re all set before the ballots are mailed.
All of the forms and other election information can be found at
muni.org/elections or you can call the Voter Hotline at 907-243-VOTE.
City Nerd Nite
City Nerd Nite is coming up again. It will be held on Thursday, February 26th from 6-9pm at the Seed Lab. It is part of the Anchorage Design Week festivities, and the theme is “Imagining Our Winter City.” Seven locals will each have seven minutes to share their bright ideas and warm takes on Anchorage’s future as a winter city. Tickets are available and they will sell out, so visit
muni.org/Assembly to get yours.
February 3rd Meeting Recording
I’d like to note that at our last meeting, something very unusual happened. We had a breakdown of our system in which the recording stopped – the whole system seized – and for the first time I can recall in the nine years that I’ve served, we lost approximately one minute of our record. And so, that is regrettable and it’s something we don’t want to repeat, so we’ve established a new recording system here that is separate from our online streaming system, so we’ll at least always have a backup of the full audio of the recordings so that the public doesn’t lose access to important public records that they have a right so. So, again, we lost about one minute and ten seconds of total video feed and we’ve come up with a solution to ensure that it doesn’t happen again
Mardis Gras
Finally, on a personal note, I am of Cajun descent. My father was 100% Cajun and my family has lived in Louisiana for hundreds of years and they came down from Acadia in the northeast of the continent, and today is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. So I want to tell everyone to celebrate - laissez les bons temps rouler. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and we all have to get back to being serious, so we’re going to have fun here tonight.
February 3, 2026
View the recording of the remarks.
Good evening everybody and welcome to our regular business meeting.
Property Appraisals
One of the topics we’ll be talking about tonight is property appraisals – one of the hot topics of recent weeks, as it is almost every year at this time with the green cards out and the appeal period open.
I wanted to share that the Assembly had a very informative worksession last Friday with the Administration on this year’s property appraisals. A lot of information and pretty technical, but the bottom line is that we are in the process now and the Assembly’s role is in the role of the appellate body, which we have referred off to the Board of Equalization to do on our behalf.
In that worksession, we learned that the Property Appraisal Division can often resolve issues before the appeal stage, and that the appeal deposit will is always refunded if you just attend your hearing or notify the Division in advance that you plan to drop your appeal. Historically, numbers of people signed up for appeals and then didn’t show at their hearings, causing the Board of Equalization to spend a lot of unnecessary time and resources. So the appeal fee is fully refundable, except in cases where you don’t show up – even if you lose your appeal, you will get that money back.
So, please, if you do feel that your assessment is inaccurate, call the division and file your appeal before the 11th of February. A link to a recording of that meeting, as well as other information on property appraisals and taxes can be found on the
Assembly’s Budget and Taxes webpage.
Youth Voter Drive
As many of you have seen, we have Youth Representatives that join us on the dais for each of these meetings to contribute the youth perspective to the Assembly’s work. Each year, the youth representatives choose an issue to work on, and this year, Kennedy Bowser, Jacob Lavarias and Gwyneth Eggleston are working on a youth voter registration drive. This work builds upon the work of last year’s cohort.
Tonight, you will see their resolution kicking off the youth voter registration drive and we will register Jacob and Gwyneth to vote in their first election, which happens on April 7th. A reminder that if you will be 18 by April 7, you can register to vote even if you’re only 17 now. Ballots packages will be mailed out March 17. And, if there are any members of the public here tonight who are 18 or will be 18 by April 7, and would like to register to vote here tonight – you can join us.
January 27, 2026
View the recording of the remarks.
Good evening everyone and welcome to our regular business meeting.
Property Appraisals
As the Municipal Manager mentioned, the big topic of the week is the property assessments. We’ve heard from a number of folks about seeing some big increases in values this year. First of all, if you believe your assessment is incorrect, there is a process in place with the Assessor’s Office to make appeals. There is no charge to call their office to do an informal review. The deadline to file an appeal is February 11. More info at
muni.org/pa.
I’m told by the Property Appraisal Division that the appeal deadline is set by state law of thirty days. If you get a new green card if your property is reassessed, the thirty day clock starts when those are sent.
Second, I want to say thank you to the Assessor’s Office and the Property Appraisal Division. It’s hard work and it happens all at once and mistakes do happen. So this process of correction is built into our system, and is in fact why the state law provides thirty days after the cards go out for the appeal process, because everyone realizes that government is run by actual people and not machines.
So, I just want to say thank you to the department for their work and for their responsiveness when hearing from a number of us about properties that clearly had some error in their assessments.
Despite what is being said, they are professionals who are deeply dedicated to the success of our community and have a goal to do assessments fairly, accurately and transparently. They recently refined their process model to better align with the International Association of Assessing Officers standards, in following with recent changes to state law, and while there might be some bumps along the way, these improvements will make our assessments fairer over time.
Now there has been some conversation about the difference in assessed value and its relation to taxation. Those two things are slightly different. The levy that gets set at the end of the year is multiplied by your value and that’s how we get to the tax rate, but at this point, the assessment process is really doing a comparison of your share of the total municipal cost, not how much you will pay. That is an April question.
So, the bottom line is that housing prices are increasing across the municipality, and across the country. Until we build more housing and stabilize home prices, more people will continue to see your assessments rise each year. However, a rise in your home value does not necessarily mean a corresponding increase in your taxes. And that may be a conversation where we go a little deeper in a future worksession or Budget and Finance Committee or Budget Advisory Commission meeting. These are places where the public who are wanting more information can follow along.
If you are interested in being part of the appeals process, we are always recruiting for Board of Equalization experience. So I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that. If you have some property or legal experience, I hope you consider making an application to serve on the Board of Equalization. Those who serve sit on three-member panels who sit in judgement on appeals made after the department has done their job to review. To learn more or apply, send an email to the Municipal Clerk's Office at
wwmasmc@anchorageak.gov. We would love to have you serve.
Both the Mayor and Assembly have put out fact sheets and more information on this topic, so I encourage you to go to muni.org to look at these and learn more about how property assessments and taxation work.
Elections in April
The next big issue for us tonight is finalizing the propositions that will go on the ballot in the upcoming April 7th election.
We have a full slate of bond proposals to consider tonight in the 14s on the agenda. If you’re here to testify on one of those items, you’ll see a Clerk’s Note at the top of the 14s that reflects my intent to begin taking public testimony on bond and ballot proposals as soon as possible after 6 p.m. The other big deadline this week is that the filing period for candidates closes this Friday, January 31 at 5pm.
Once the propositions and candidate lists are finalized, the elections will be in full swing. The last day to register to vote is March 8. A reminder that if you will be 18 by April 7, you can register to vote even if you’re only 17 now. Ballots packages will be mailed out March 17. This year the last day to vote will be April 7 at 8pm.
Next Meeting
Finally, a note that due to the way the calendar falls this year, the next Assembly meeting will be next week, February 3rd and we won’t have our typical two-week break between meetings, so you’ll note that anything introduced tonight can’t be heard next week because they won’t meet the public notice timeline, so they will be heard at the February 17th meeting.
January 13, 2026
View the recording of the remarks.
Good evening everyone and welcome to the first Assembly meeting of the new year. Members, I’m sure you were grateful for the four-week interlude that we just had, and for the opportunity to spend some time with friends and family, away from this work. And now, we are back, so welcome.
Snow Plowing
I also want to echo what the Mayor had mentioned about snow removal. I have seen some of the maintenance challenges in this town, and the worst conditions that I continue to see are on facilities managed by other entities. It is really challenging that some of those main roads continue to be quite dangerous.
In fact, this morning, I had a friend reach out to me to say they saw a car flip over on C Street. But that said, last week I attended the Fairview community council meeting and it was quite remarkable to hear the positive gratitude coming from members of that community, which is a highly pedestrian neighborhood, who are grateful for the marked improvement in snow management in the district.
And so, my thanks also to the Maintenance and Operations team, Superintendent and everyone who is driving those plows and the equipment out there. Check out
muni.org/plow to watch our amazing team do the work. Thank you again.
Martin Luther King Day Free Legal Help
Next week, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day, which is a holiday on a Monday, but generally speaking, for many people, it is a day of service.
I’d like to point folks who might need legal help to the Martin Luther King Day Free Legal Help clinic, which has been held for many years at the Mountain View Community Center. The clinic, held by the Alaska Bar Association will be on Monday, January 19th from 12-4pm. Local attorneys and legal associations offer free legal consultations for low to moderate income Alaskans on a first come, first served basis. It’s civil law – they don’t do criminal law consultations.
If you have limited financial resources and are struggling with an issue with your landlord, child support, your place of employment, or any other issue that may have a legal aspect, I strongly encourage you to attend this event and get the support you need.
And to the attorneys of our community, I thank you for providing this valuable service and if you haven’t signed up to help, contact the Bar Association to see how you can get involved.
Elections in April
Also of importance to the Municipality and its people in April is the election. And in fact, this Friday, the election season begins in earnest when the filing period opens for candidates. The filing period will be open through January 31 at 5pm
This year the last day to vote will be April 7th. Ballots go out in March and over the next two meetings, we’ll be reviewing the proposals for what will go on the ballot for bonds, levies and potential charter amendments. The final date for action on those items will be our next meeting on January 27th. I encourage you to read over the bond proposals in the 10.G. section of the agenda and email your Members or testify at the January 27 meeting. Those items will go along with six Assembly seats that will be on the ballot.
Youth Voter Registration
Also, as we near the elections, I want to make a special pitch to high school seniors in town. Many seniors will be 18 in time to vote in our upcoming municipal election, so I highly encourage you to register and vote. Even if you are 17 now, as long as you turn 18 on or before election day, which is April 7, you can register to vote.
Our Youth Representatives and Election team are working on a voter drive to get eligible teens registered to vote this spring, so if you know of someone who recently turned 18, or turns 18 before April 7, please help us get the word out to them.
You can learn more about registering to vote and find other election information at
muni.org/elections.
December 16, 2025
View the recording of the remarks.
Laid on the Table Items
We generally have a policy to be pretty restrictive of laid on the table items, but at this point, we've asked the Administration to do as much as possible to get critical, time-sensitive items to us tonight because we don't want to have to exercise the worst option which is meeting next Tuesday at noon for a special meeting if, in fact, any time critical items arise that have to be passed before the end of the year. We don't have any items on that list and we would hope to keep no items on that list so we don't have to convene one more time before the end of the year. Hopefully this is it.
Solstice this Weekend
I will note that the Solstice is almost upon us, and I'm grateful that the light will start to come back. I'll join the Mayor in recommending folks come out and celebrate the Parks Department's annual Winter Solstice festival at Cuddy Park this Friday, December 19th 5PM to 8PM, free with activities like ice skating in a photo booth with Santa's reindeer as well as cocoa by the fire. I encourage everyone to get out and enjoy our uniquely Alaskan solstice experience.
Looking to the Calendar
As this is the final meeting of the year due to the way the counter falls, our next meeting won't be for 4 weeks, as the mayor noted. I can't remember a time when we had 4 weeks between meeting so please take your time and enjoy it. You've earned it.
Thanks to the hard work of the Municipal Manager, the department heads, Clerk's Office, and everyone else to get our year-end materials all squared away early, hopefully we don't need that special meeting.
Year End Reflections
Finally, happy New Year! As the New Year approaches. I want to reflect a bit on where we've comments community over the past year. We have had challenges. We have turned those challenges into opportunities.
I think upon our friends from Western Alaska who joined our community from the tropical storm, Halong, and then our school district. How the city has taken on the challenge of having year-round shelter in supporting people. How we as a city supported furloughed workers providing as many opportunities and benefits for them to have continuity in their life. And also, of course, the kindness that just exists in our community. That happens every day and every small way.
This Assembly has taken on some pretty complex questions. The question about camping in public and the laws around that. Dealing with challenges of homelessness and improving our response. Public safety challenges in our town.
Of course, wrestling with the question of how we address our financial situation as costs increase but revenues do not. As we've learned over the past year, nobody is coming to save us. Our future will be determined by those who love this community and its people.
And it's challenging. Over the 9 years I've been on this body, we have been forced to find efficiencies and kind of engage in the process of picking up the slack where others have lost their ability to fund or their willingness to fund their responsibilities in our town. And we have done it but the challenges increase. We've had to work to support each other. And we continue to do so.
So, I encourage you to join one of the many holiday festivities being offered around town and take time to connect with your neighbors and celebrate the what it means to be part of this really special community at this really special time of year.
And to my colleagues, I am glad and look forward to us getting through our agenda tonight because once we're done, hopefully it's holiday season for the rest of the year.