Claman's latest move, which is a separate effort from the proposed ordinance that has been getting public comment for weeks now, would ask voters to change the city's charter to add sexual orientation to the list of characteristics protected under the charter's bill of rights and equal protection sections. It will need support from eight of the 11 Assembly members to reach the ballot, but Claman conceded he had a hard time even finding a third vote just to set it for a public hearing.
Claman originally said he thought sending the question to voters might short-circuit the Assembly's protracted consideration of three related versions of the anti-discrimination ordinance this summer. Tuesday night, however, he said he now expects the Assembly to conclude public hearings on the anti-discrimination ordinances and vote on them.
If the Assembly passes one of the measures and Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoes it, the body could then take up his new proposals and consider sending the issue to voters next April, he said.
Claman said he agreed to set back public hearings on the charter changes until Aug. 11 to give the Assembly more time to deal with the matter already before it. The anti-discrimination measures continue to bring out droves of people who want to talk about them.
According to the city clerk's office, more than 600 people have signed up to testify about the proposals; 385 had done so before Tuesday's meeting. The Assembly's chamber was busy Tuesday night with a small overflow in the lobby outside, but not as packed as it has been at four previous meetings on the topic.
The panel concluded its meeting with dozens of people still on the list wanting to testify.
The original measure before the Assembly would prohibit discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people in housing, employment, public accommodations, financing and education. Two modified versions of that proposal have since been added to the mix.
The hearing on the anti-discrimination law was pushed to the back of Tuesday's agenda to allow the Assembly to work on other city business. Among those items were proposals to crack down on campsites fashioned by homeless people and chronic inebriates, and to add back funding for some city jobs and services cut earlier this year as the city tried to adapt to an unexpected $17 to $20 million budget deficit.
The campsite law, which passed without objection after an extended debate, is driven by concerns about problems and threats posed by drunks in public parks and the prospect of campfires getting out of control and starting wildfires in tinder-dry parts of Anchorage. The law makes it illegal to camp on public lands, and allows police to start removing such camps 12 hours after posting notices on tents or shelters there.
People in the camps when police return would be given 20 minutes to gather personal property and leave.
Some Assembly members and people who spoke at a public hearing said the harsh new restrictions could affect homeless people who don't cause problems but are unable to find space at shelters set up by the city or churches.
Police Chief Rob Heun said his officers don't find people in homeless camps who are just down on their luck. Instead, he said, they are "chronic, homeless inebriates."
"There are choices being made," he said. "They might not be good choices, and they might be (based) on addictions," but police don't find homeless parents trying to take care of their families in the camps.
City officials say the illegal campsites also foster crime, cause noise and litter, yield unlawful burning and attract bears and moose. They also cited a series of deaths this spring and summer of homeless people in woods and near trails in town.
The other proposal -- an unsuccessful attempt to restore funding cut earlier in the year for three city jobs and bus service on two holidays -- was pushed by Assembly members Elvi Gray-Jackson, Mike Gutierrez and Sheila Selkgregg. Specifically, it would have added about $241,000 to put back a position in the Office of Equal Opportunity, staff support for a three-borough anti-gang team, and for an anti-graffiti program, along with restoring People Mover bus service on Veterans' Day and the day after Thanksgiving.
"These are areas that are really important to our quality of life," Gray-Jackson said, noting that Anchorage's sweeping diversity of ethnic backgrounds has doubled since she arrived in 1982.
Laura Waldon told the panel that the city's minorities need protections that the equal opportunity office is supposed to provide. Full staffing is important there, she said, and "you haven't protected us so far."
Gutierrez said the anti-graffiti job also is critical. "City Hall is covered with gang graffiti," he said, loudly. "It's an embarassment."
Sullivan acknowledged that the jobs the Assembly cut earlier this year are important, and said he'll try to find ways to fund some of them as he builds next year's budget.
But the city's finances are still in bad shape, Sullivan said, adding that his new executives think this year's budget still may be several million dollars short.
In the end, the Assembly voted 7-4 against spending the additional money. Only Gray-Jackson, Gutierrez, Selkregg and Vice-Chair Harriet Drummond voted to restore the positions and bus service.
Contact reporter Don Hunter at dhunter@adn.com or 257-4349.
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