First 100 Days: LaFrance addresses campaign promises on staffing, public safety, snow removal & affordability

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Reflecting on where her public safety, homelessness, and snow removal campaign promises stand as she passes 100 days in office, Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says while “some dents” have been made to address her number one priority, staffing, the police department remains 60 officers short.

“I’m talking with the chief and the municipal manager about, what can we do? I mean, I know ... the pension conversation comes up as a retention tool, and you know, that’s something that, for the most part, needs to be addressed at the state level, but we’re looking at everything,” LaFrance told Alaska’s News Source’s during a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday.

As a candidate, LaFrance had pointed to some departments having vacancy levels as high as 40% in putting her priority into perspective.

LaFrance says as mayor, her administration is seeing some recruiting and retention success, crediting efforts such as telework, and is hopeful about including pay increases in her budget proposal.

“When we look at the municipal attorney’s office, for example, we have hired attorneys in both civil and criminal, and we had some big gaps there, and we still have some, and we’re working to continue to fill those positions, but that’s a department where we’ve made significant progress,” LaFrance said.

Snow Removal Services

In September, the LaFrance administration identified a 30% maintenance and operations staffing shortage, said the city’s snow removal fleet had been underfunded for more than 15 years, and identified 17 of the city’s 30 snow graders as needing to be replaced.

While LaFrance said those issues will likely not be addressed this year, the mayor said she sees proposed plow operator pay raises and the municipality identifying $3.7 million in an unused account to pay for replacing part of the city’s aging fleet as movement toward her campaign promise of future improvements.

As far as snow removal this season, LaFrance said she expects services to be better than last year.

“We’re going to be better off because we have a plan, and we have engaged stakeholders, you know, including like the school district, the state DOT,” LaFrance said. “We ordered GPS devices ... to put on heavy equipment. That’s something that the public has been asking for for a while. And so that’s a change, and we’re going to continue to communicate with the public and make sure the public knows where to go to get information and knows what to expect."

Anchorage Affordability & Housing

LaFrance thinks potential April ballot measures asking voters to approve a special tax levy to pay for replacing snow removal equipment will help address what she sees as addressing the affordability problem she campaigned on.

“If we can step back and have a replacement schedule so we are avoiding those crisis points — I mean, ultimately, that’s going to save taxpayers money, right?“ she said. ”I mean, as a homeowner, we want to make sure that we don’t wait until the last minute to repair our roof. Otherwise, you know, the issues compound and the costs go up."

However, that ballot measure could be competing with a ballot measure for a 3% sales tax, which local business leaders are supporting.

As far as the housing plan she talked about during the campaign, LaFrance said her administration is working on that, saying it will include what she characterized as removing red tape by simplifying the code to encourage new housing and expanding tax abatement, which she believes will incentivize new Anchorage housing developments.

“We’ve got a draft plan and with some specific actions, and I know this is a priority of the Assembly as well, and we are aware of some of the actions that some of the members, you know, want to take and think are important. We are working with members of the industry, from builders and developers and other stakeholders to really figure out how can we move forward,” LaFrance said.

As far as her campaign promise to improving wages for childcare workers, LaFrance said this will be the first budget cycle where marijuana tax money collected as a result of 2023’s Prop. 14 will go toward paying for more than just wages.

“We are proposing that those funds be spent to stabilize the industry to the extent we can — it’s a limited fund — and also implement some new programs, and so that will be coming up into the forefront as we have the budget conversations and we look at those proposals,” LaFrance said.

Overall, LaFrance said she is pleased with her administration’s work thus far.

“We came in at a time when there are a lot of challenges, and we have focused on stabilizing the municipality and getting a hold of our finances, staffing up and, you know, building a team,” LaFrance said. “The next step ... will be focusing on housing and really building out our future.”

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