Seven people have applied for the Anchorage Assembly seat soon to be vacated by Harriet Drummond when she heads to Juneau to represent Anchorage’s House District 16.
There’s no lack of candidates for the open seat on the Anchorage Assembly. Barbara Jones is the Clerk for the Municipality of Anchorage. She says seven people submitted applications for the position by the deadline of Dec. 31 and a vote is anticipated at the next assembly meeting.
“The next step will be that at the Jan. 15 Assembly meeting, the Assembly will appoint someone to this position and they will do it by individual ballot,” Jones said.
Jones says assembly members will vote by secret ballot, and rounds of voting will continue until one of the seven candidates gets a majority. The candidates are: Cheryl Frasca, Gorden Glaser, David Nees, Tim Steele, Jerry Walton, Matt Clayman and Jason Agre. Assembly member Harriet Drummond served nine years on the school board and has served on the Anchorage Assembly since 2008. She is vacating her seat at middle of her second three-year term to serve in the House of Representatives. She said goodbye at the Dec. 18 Assembly meeting.
“This meeting is the last of my almost 13 years of service in local government. With each year I face challenges along with my colleagues that help me learn and grow as a public servant,” Drummond said.
Drummond noted that she had concerns about projects that she never saw finished, particularly the rewrite of Anchorage land use laws, also known as Title 21.
“I have to say I am extremely disappointed that my several years of work on Title 21 will not culminate in amendments or a vote from me,” Drummond said. “And neither will it have a vote from those that have invested years and years in this issue.”
The Title 21 rewrite is required under the Comprehensive Plan, Anchorage 2020, adopted in 2001. Title 21 committee chair Debbie Ossiander wants all the revisions voted on before she retires. Whoever is elected will fill Drummond’s seat until just April, but during those few months they will likely cast critical votes on issues related to Title 21. If they want to stay on the Assembly they’ll have to run against other candidates for a one-year term in the upcoming April municipal election.
The Assembly will vote on who will fill Drummond’s seat at their next regular meeting on Jan. 15. Thirteen of the 14 Title 21 chapters are set to come before the Assembly for a public hearing at that same meeting.
- Harriet Drummond Farewell Speech (PDF)
- Title 21: Amendment (PDF)
- Summary of Economic Effects (PDF)
- Anchorage Assembly Memorandum: Title 21 (PDF)
- Title 21 Rewrite Exhibits A-F (PDF)
- Title 21 Rewrite Project
- Title 21 Public Hearing
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Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
