A proposal for the city to hire a kind of "bear cop" hits the Assembly this week after an unusual summer of attacks and close calls.

Here's the pitch: The city pays a seasonal wildlife specialist to track bear sightings and use anything from air horns to rubber bullets to harass the animals out of town.

If necessary, the specialist would have the power to relocate or kill a bear.

"The issue is the defense of life and property. You know, we need to take responsibility for our public spaces and defend our own," said Eagle River Assemblyman Bill Starr, who proposed the idea.

The plan is scheduled for a public hearing at Tuesday's Assembly meeting in the Loussac Library. It also calls for a safety education program, enforcing garbage rules to keep people from enticing bears into neighborhoods, and a clear policy for dealing with bear complaints.

Some of that sounds good, said state wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott. But not the part about a city employee handling or shooting bears, which is normally the Department of Fish and Game's job.

When he read the proposal, Sinnott said, it seemed like Starr "was looking for a kind of Dog the Bounty Hunter kind of guy." Someone who would go after bears with guns blazing.

Starr said killing bears would hopefully be a last resort.

The debate strikes at a classic Anchorage conundrum. The city is proud of its proximity to wildlife, but how close is too close?

A violent summer forced the question.

First, a bear ran over a pair of runners on a Hillside Park trail on June 14. Two weeks later, a 15-year-old girl was mauled nearby while competing in a bicycle marathon on the Rover's Run trail. Grizzlies confronted or chased hikers and bikers on popular local trails, hospitalizing a 51-year-old woman -- again on Rover's Run.

The city closed the trail. Fish and Game killed the bear.

This fall, the School District talked to its cross-country coaches about making sure kids ran in groups for safety. The Abbott Loop Community Council in late October called on the state and city to reduce the bear population in Bicentennial and Campbell parks and to protect people using "aggressive management" of local bears rather than by closing trails.

Public opinion split into two camps. Some thought the state needed a heavier hand when it came to dispatching local bears inside city limits while others were angry to see a sow killed for following its instincts.

ALTERNATE PLAN

East Anchorage Assemblyman Mike Gutierrez is working on an alternative to Starr's plan that he hopes to propose as early as next month, and have in place before bears return in the spring.

For example, Gutierrez said, the city parks department might work with the state to determine when trails are growing dangerous. In parts of Anchorage, it might make sense to temporarily close a trail to prevent attacks, he said.

Starr's proposal could get a vote as early as Tuesday, but Assembly members warn they expect a busy night packed with union contracts and other topics.

If approved, it would be up to the city manager to put the proposal into action.

Deputy City Manager Heather Handyside says she has questions about Starr's plan to have a city employee handle bears but that the mayor's team is working to clarify exactly how it responds to, and prevents, bear threats.

Starr's proposal also calls for the Board of Game to OK more hunting permits for moose in the upper Hillside and Eagle River Valley areas, and to authorize hunting of brown bear in the upper Hillside, Eagle River, Southfork areas and certain Heritage Land Bank lands.

But Sinnott says it won't do to have people hunting and wounding dangerous bears in city parks.

Fish and Game is already looking to increase the number of hunting permits for brown bears in Chugach State Park, he said, and to open areas in upper Eagle River and the Eklutna Valley to brown bear hunting.

Gutierrez argues that Starr's plan duplicates what the state is already doing -- managing wildlife.

"I just don't think that's a wise use of taxpayer dollars," he said.

Starr counters that the state's focus is on animals, while the proposed city hire would be looking out for public safety first.

"There's a whole host of things the state doesn't do, refuses to do or doesn't want to do," he said.

Asked if that means he thinks Fish and Game is too reluctant to shoot bears, Starr said yes.

But each shooting -- including bears killed by city police -- brings fresh outrage from people who argue the bears are being killed by doing what comes naturally.

OPINIONS DIFFER

It's a polarizing argument, but there are people with moderate opinions on both sides, said KENI 650-AM radio host Rick Rydell.

The first school of thought is that by taking the right precautions, people can live peacefully next to bears in one of the few cities where that's possible, he said.

The other side says that by moving to Anchorage, they chose to live in the city, not the wild. They want to know their families are safe in city limits, and that they have more rights than the wildlife.

Rydell once offered to rid local trails of problem bears himself, and his own views are anything but middle of the road.

He compared bears encroaching on public lands such as the Rover's Run trail to Nazis slowly overtaking Europe before World War II.

"We're the first civilization ever to be overtaken by an unorganized group of animals," he said.

To others, things are much less dramatic.

Cheri Lipps is chairwoman of the Bear Valley Community Council. The area lives up to its name, she said.

Lipps sees bears nearly every day from her yard. But she has never had a problem with bears being aggressive or getting into her trash, she said.

"If we're going to have bear management that's one thing, but people need to be more aware."

Two things Starr and Sinnott appear to agree on are the need for more bear-safety education and policing of city garbage rules.

Sinnott said Juneau had success controlling bears by focusing on keeping them away from trash, and that it's way past time Anchorage required bear-proof containers.

"We'll never get rid of bears in the city until we deal with what's attracting them," he said.

But considering the high cost of the containers, $200 to $300 each, Gutierrez said he wouldn't support making them mandatory unless the city covered the costs. Maybe through a state or federal grant, he said.

Assembly posts are considered nonpartisan, but Gutierrez is part of a loose majority of Democrats elected in April. He'll recommend the Assembly reject the proposal by Starr, a member of the Assembly minority.

"I don't know if (Starr) has the votes to pass it," said Assembly Chairman Matt Claman.