It’s not done right, if it’s not done in the light

January 26, 2012

As many of you know, Title 21 governs Public Lands Use in Anchorage. For a long time, all proceedings under Title 21 were done in public, so that everyone would know what was being proposed, everyone would have the opportunity to comment, and if a project was going to go forward, everyone would have the opportunity to bid on the work. I think that system is fair and equitable.

Mayor Sullivan sees it differently. He has allowed the process for determining what should be done with public land to be manipulated and taken behind closed doors, where select groups of insiders are making back-room deals without public notice or input. Essentially, what must be a open, public process, has become a secretive, private one. It has gone on for years and no one knows what deals are being made and favors are being exchanged.

All I can say is, Anchorage MUST do better. We cannot and will not put up with insider, back-room politics when our public lands are concerned. As Mayor of Anchorage one of my first acts will be to drag the process out of the back-room and put it squarely in the light of day for all to see. I will also declare null and void anything that was decided behind closed doors, without public input. Essentially, I will reset the process to where it was at the last public meeting, and we will start over from there, with everyone’s involvement.

Sure, that will mean the undoing of some progress that has been made, and it will be much harder to get things done transparently, with input for all of the stakeholders when we could just shut folks out of the process and treat public land like our personal sandbox – after-all, the public voted for us right? All I can say is; Anchorage deserves better. It’s not that we can do better, rather it is that we must do better.