LaFrance talks snowplowing, public safety and more in State of the City address

A few hours after the first real snowfall of the winter began in Anchorage, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance reflected on the municipality’s biggest challenges during the mayor’s annual State of the City address.

Speaking to a crowd during a luncheon by the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, LaFrance outlined actions her administration has taken so far to address the problems, including snow removal, public safety and homelessness. She emphasized her vision for a “reliable, transparent and effective” local government.

“Our challenges are big. They’re complicated. They are often interrelated. Homelessness, public safety concerns and our housing shortage are all connected to each other, and none of them have quick fixes,” LaFrance said. “Many of our essential services have gone without the necessary attention, management or funding for a few years — in some cases, decades — from prosecutors to snow removal to emergency response.”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it — there’s a lot of work to do,” she added, also saying that her administration “is committed to action.”

Snow removal

Over the coming week, the administration will roll out its updated snow removal plan, which is a “detailed strategy” that lays out municipal snow removal policies, processes and operations, LaFrance said.

The city will soon launch a new snow removal webpage so residents can get “near real-time information” on plowing with GPS data from new devices mounted on the city’s snow removal equipment, she said. In previous years, residents could only see plow-out progression by numbered neighborhood sectors on a map that required manual updating.

Much of the city’s snow removal fleet is aging. Of the city’s 30 graders, 17 have more than their expected lifetime of 10,000 engine hours, LaFrance said.

“That means over half our fleet should already be retired, resulting in extended maintenance, higher costs and more delays,” she said.

The city is currently in the process of buying several new pieces of equipment: four snow blowers, six Caterpillar graders, four Caterpillar plows, and a dozen trucks, including 10 with plows — but most equipment won’t arrive until next season, LaFrance said.

“This is an important reminder of how critical consistent investment in the system is to maintain a reliable and functioning fleet,” she said.

That’s why the administration is proposing to the Assembly a tax levy specifically to systematize regular replacement of broken and old snow equipment, she said. Voters would see that on their ballot next spring if the Anchorage Assembly approves the proposed ballot measure.

Steps to improve snow removal services for this winter include better coordination with the state and school district, and streamlining workflow and communication among the 12 municipal departments involved in the snow efforts, LaFrance said.

Public safety

During the last three years, the city Department of Law’s Criminal Division saw turnover of more than three-quarters of its prosecutors, and a major focus of the administration has been filling vacant positions, LaFrance said.

“We found the biggest issue was a long-standing lack of management and administrative attention. The office was stretched too thin for trials, let alone strategic planning and training,” she said.

Low staffing led the municipality to drop hundreds of criminal cases, including dismissing cases of domestic violence, child abuse and DUIs.

Trials are now “back on track,” LaFrance said, adding that four are occurring this week.

To lead the criminal division, the administration hired Dennis Wheeler, who worked as municipal attorney under former Mayor Dan Sullivan, she said. Since June, the law department has hired eight attorneys, including four prosecutors, with another one starting work next month.

During her remarks, LaFrance also touted the implementation of the police department’s body worn camera footage release policy earlier this year.

Anchorage police have shot eight people so far this year, killing five, including a 16-year-old girl who was holding a knife.

“In the wake of critical incidents, we’re working with a third-party investigator to assess APD training and practices,” LaFrance said.

Housing and homelessness

In the administration’s city budget, LaFrance has proposed funding to the fire department’s Mobile Crisis Team to operate 24/7 and funding for homeless services and sheltering.

The city is currently working to open 200 winter homeless shelter beds, and is in contract negotiations with an operator for another 200 beds.

But the administration’s larger goal is to see a “consistent, effective process” that takes pressure off of local businesses struggling with impacts of nearby homeless encampments and off of municipal departments responding to people in crisis, LaFrance said.

“I want to see us interrupt the seasonal cycle of increased unsheltered homelessness in spring and move to a sustainable pattern,” she said. City coordination with homelessness nonprofits, shelters, housing and other service agencies will work toward “reliable, year-round solutions,” she said.

The city in recent months has cleared nine homeless encampments that the city deemed a public safety risk, she said, adding, “we will continue to do that.”

Later, in response to a question, LaFrance said that city policies on abating homeless camps did not significantly change in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that allows cities to take a more punitive and assertive approach to enforcing camping laws.

“That’s a tough one, because at the end of the day, if folks don’t have a place to go, or you don’t have a way to get people into services, as we found out, the camps just move,” she said.

To have enough housing for everyone, the city needs about 1,000 new housing units built each year, and in 2024, Anchorage is on track to see less than 200 built, LaFrance said.

The administration is looking for ways to encourage housing development through incentives for construction and repair, removal of red tape, and improving service at the permit center, she said.

It convened a working group to tackle issues in city zoning code, and the administration is working on an ordinance to update property tax incentives for multi-family housing, LaFrance said.