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In advance of the April 6 Anchorage municipal election, the Anchorage Daily News asked candidates running for Anchorage mayor a series of issue questions. These include questions suggested by readers. Read all the mayor and school board candidates’ responses here.
Q: Are there city programs or services you would cut? Explain.
I’m sure there are, my baseline feeling about government is that in an ideal situation you wouldn’t notice it working. Anything that exists to bother people would need a compelling reason to be maintained.
I have no plans to eliminate any programs or services. I will always consider reductions in spending and streamlining functions where appropriate, even as we maintain critical and necessary functions. My team will streamline the building process by consolidating economic and community development, planning, project management and engineering, and inspections in a single agency to facilitate new construction and improved community development. This effort will be laser focused to provide centralized efforts to support businesses navigating the economic development process.
I believe most city programs are in existence for good reason and have been put in place to address a valid need. That said, I feel it is the duty of the mayor to find efficiencies in government. I will review budgets and department and program operations to look for efficiencies. I manage my own 4-plex and budget and find efficiencies and survive within a budget. I will bring this same sensibility to city government. I consider myself a fiscal conservative in this way and would look to identify programs and functions of government that are no longer effective or fulfilling of the mission and needs of the municipality. However, as a candidate, I am not going to target a program for elimination without having the insider information necessary for good decision-making. That would be reckless.
When I go door-knocking in East Anchorage, I seldom encounter residents who want less snow removal, less road maintenance, fewer fire personnel on call, or slower police response times. There are always opportunities for better efficiency and improved customer service to residents, of course, and my administration will aggressively seek those out. But in general, the municipality delivers core services with tight budgets, and unlike some other levels of government, those services impact our everyday lives.
There are no city programs or services I have identified to cut at this time. That being said, I think that all city programs and services should be evaluated to determine if they are actually producing a benefit for the community. It is the responsibility of the government not to continue to invest in programs or services that are not providing a sufficient return in value to the citizens of the city. Such review needs to be an ongoing and continuous process.
Virtually every department other than police and fire has seen cuts over the last decade. Scroll through the list of municipal departments, and you will not find “optional” business lines: police, fire, parks, road maintenance and construction, traffic engineering, health, cemetery, public transit, libraries, building-development services, planning, real estate, treasury, finance, property appraisal, controller, purchasing, HR, facilities, fleet, internal audit, IT, municipal attorney, prosecutor, etc. That said, the municipality established a “film permit” process sometime in the Sullivan administration that I think merits a second-look; it’s not clear to me that the process is necessary.
I’d consolidate after an efficiency review. We don’t need redundancy on anything but our electrical grid and sewage.
We must practice fiscal responsibility, operating within our means, and rejecting unfunded mandates. There are also many opportunities for decreasing costs through shared-service agreements and other cost-reducing strategies. I would audit the cost-effectiveness of every nonessential program to determine the magnitude and impact of pursuing those cost savings strategies, knowing that we must also maintain the highest core function delivery and operational transparency levels.
Every program and or service we provide should be constantly evaluated. I am for cutting any service or program that does not provide the proper return on investment. Nothing specific at this time.
If necessary, economically I would. I would review all city income, expenses, programs, services, budgets and hold meetings with all departments and others prior to making such decisions. This would be a methodical analysis covering all areas and economics involved.
Read more questions:
Why are you running for mayor?
What’s the biggest challenge facing city government and how would you address it?
Describe how your administration would approach the coronavirus pandemic
Would you make changes to the Anchorage Police Department and policing policies? Why?
Is the Anchorage Police Department adequately staffed?
Describe, with specifics, how you would expand and diversify Anchorage’s economy.
What’s your vision for Anchorage’s economy in the future?
Is taxation in Anchorage too high/about right/too low?
Do you have ideas for alternative sources of city revenue? Explain.
Are there city programs or services you would cut? Explain.
Are there city programs or services you would expand? Explain.
What’s your view of current Anchorage land-use plans? Would you push for changes?
Name a program dealing with homelessness in Anchorage that you believe is working
Are there specific transportation projects you would initiate in the municipality if elected?