Juneau, Alaska

B-
Budget Y Meetings Y Elected Officials P Administrative Officials P Permits, zoning Y Audits Y Contracts Y Lobbying P Public records Y Local taxes Y Transparency grading process

”’Juneau”’ is a city in Alaska. The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. The municipality unified on July 1, 1970, when the city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current home rule municipality.

The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island and Delaware individually and almost as large as the two states combined. Downtown Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and across the channel from Douglas Island. As of the 2010 census, the City and Borough had a population of 31,275. Juneau is named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, though the place was for a time called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau's co-prospector, Richard Harris).^[1]

Website evaluation

Main article: Evaluation of Alaska city websites

Last reviewed: August 2012

In 2011 Juneau earned a Sunny Award for having a perfect website transparency score.

The good

• The current budget is published and previous budgets are available for the last three years^[2]
• The calendar of meetings, meeting agendas, and minutes are available and archived at least three years^[3]
• Names of elected officials, individual phone numbers, and a physical address is available^[4]
• Names of administrative officials, individual phone numbers, and a physical address is available^[5]
• Permit applications are available for download^[6] and zoning ordinances are available^[7]
• The current audit is published and previous audits are available for the last three years^[8]
• Bids are posted, including approved contracts over $10,000^[9]
• A list of employed lobbyists is available^[10]
• A public records contact is available and public records policies are available in a central location^[11]
• Tax revenues are available^[12] and tax rates are published^[13]

The bad

• Email addresses are not available for all administrative officials (i.e. City Manager).
• Contact forms are listed as available for elected officials. In the text, you can find out how to directly email a member; those email addresses should be included in the contact information boxes.
• Limited lobbying information is available, including the name of the lobbyist employed as of October 2011, but additional lobbying information, including more detail and associated fees is unavailable.

Elected Officials

The city and borough of Juneau is a unified home-rule municipality. The Juneau Assembly is composed of nine members with the mayor as presiding officer. Elections occur on a rotating basis every three years and the Assembly is tasked with providing policy and direction to the city manager.^[14].

Elected Officials

Name	Title
Bruce Botelho	Mayor
Carlton Smith	Area wide Assembly Member
Johan Dybdahl	Area wide Assembly Member
Mary Becker	Assembly Member, District 1
Jesse Kiehl	Assembly Member, District 1
David Stone	Assembly Member, District 1
Karen Crane	Assembly Member, District 2
Randy Wanamaker	Assembly Member, District 2
Ruth Danner	Assembly Member, District 2

Administrative Officials

Name	Title
Kathy Kiefer	City Manager
Rob Steedle	Deputy City Manager
Laurie Sica	Municipal Clerk
Greg Chaney	Interim Director Support Services/Planning Manager
Charlie Ford	Building Official
Ron King	CBJ Land Surveyor
Rich Etheridge	Fire Chief

Budget

The approved FY12 budget is $324,727,000, up slightly from FY11 ($319,704,200). The largest expenditure is personnel costs (54%), followed by commodities and services (25%), debt service (8%), capital projects (7%), “other” (4%), and capital outlay (2%).

Stimulus

The city of Juneau received $195,977,202 in 1 contract and 41 grants.^[15]

Local taxes

State and federal revenues declined between FY09 and FY12 by 40% for general government but increased by 36% for education on a per capita basis. During the same period, the operating mill decreased by 26% or 3.27 mills. Sales tax revenues increased due to economic and tourism growth. Sales tax revenues are projected to increase from FY11 to FY 12 by 4% due to general economic recovery.

Tax revenues are expected to generate $85,814,400 in FY12, up from FY11 where taxes generated $83,663,600. The increase between FY11 and FY12 is due to an anticipated increase in sales and property taxes. The increase is not as great as expected, explaining the decrease between FY12 Approved ($86,433,700) and FY12 Adopted ($85,814,400).^[16]

Taxes

Category	FY2010	FY2011	% Change
State Support	$65,632,500	$67,195,900	2.38%
Federal Support	$13,860,400	$10,129,100	-26.92%
Taxes	$82,803,700	$83,663,600	1.04%
User Fees, Permits & Donations	$118,080,400	$126,102,100	6.79%
Penalties & Fines	$1,124,500	$925,800	-17.67%
Interest-Investment and A/R	$4,749,900	$4,528,200	4.67%
Property Sales and Rents	$4,476,300	$4,430,400	1.03%
Special Assessments	$65,300	$69,300	6.13%
Other Miscellaneous Revenue	$382,000	$94,500	75.26%
Fund Balance Usage	$8,315,200	$10,836,500	0.30%
Total Funding Sources	$299,490,200	$307,975,400	2.83%

Spending

Category	FY2010	FY2011	% Change
General Government, City	$61,055,200	$60,791,800	-0.43%
General Government, School District	$87,720,400	$88,946,800	1.40%
Non-Board Enterprise	$13,022,500	$13,768,300	5.73%
Board Controlled	$91,909,000	$96,038,500	4.49%
Internal Service Funds	$4,859,200	$1,273,100	-73.80%
Debt Service	$20,522,400	$21,068,200	2.66%
Capital Projects	$19,685,500	$25,296,500	28.50%
Special Assessments	$241,000	$292,200	21.24%
Special Appropriations	$475,000	$500,000	5.26%
Total Expenditures	$299,490,200	$307,975,400	2.83%

Lobbying

Main article:Alaska government sector lobbying

Juneau has reported $80,000 spent every year on lobbying since 2000^[17].

External links

• City of Juneau official site
• Juneau Community Profile
• Juneau information
• Juneau links
• Juneau information

References

	v • d • e State of Alaska Juneau (capital)
Transparency	Public Records Act | Open Meetings Act | Government corruption news | Transparency Legislation | Open Records procedures | Transparency Advocates | Transparency blogs |
Divisions	State | List of Boroughs | List of Cities | List of School Districts | Evaluation of State website | Evaluation of borough websites | Evaluation of city websites | Evaluation of township websites | Evaluation of school district websites |
State spending	State budget | State salaries | Stimulus allocations | Taxpayer-funded lobbying |
Government	Alaska State Constitution | Executive | House of Representatives | Senate | Local officials | Public school system |
Judiciary	Alaska Supreme Court | Alaska Court of Appeals | Anchorage Trial Courts | Anchorage Superior Court | Anchorage District Court | Judicial selection in Alaska | Alaska judges in the news |
Ballot Measures	2008 Ballot measures | Ballot measures by year | Alaska local ballot measures | Initiative laws | History of Initiatives | Campaign finance requirments | Sunshine on elections |