Meeting colors

OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD

Record of Proceedings

Anchorage Public Health & Safety Committee Meeting Summary, November 5, 2025

Assembly & Committee Meetings — Wednesday, November 5, 2025

BodyAnchorage, Alaska

SessionAssembly & Committee Meetings

DateWednesday, November 5, 2025

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 1:24:04

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:05

Okay.

0:07

Hi everyone, welcome.

0:08

Calling to order this meeting of the assembly public health and safety committee.

0:13

It is November 5 at 1045.

0:18

Let's uh let's start by uh doing role for the members that are here.

0:23

It's not that someone just joined us on the phone.

0:25

So that's true.

0:26

You want to start?

0:27

Jared Gerger.

0:29

Yara Selders?

0:30

Cameron Perez for Dia and on the phone.

0:32

Uh so far we have uh member Baldwin Day.

0:35

Are you there?

0:39

Great.

0:40

And uh I'm I'm assuming others will join us shortly.

0:44

Uh and just a reminder for those that are on the phone.

0:47

If you want to text me, uh I will get you in the queue.

0:50

I'll check it.

0:52

I can um okay.

0:53

We've got a full agenda today.

0:56

Uh so we should just jump right in and get started.

0:59

Uh looks like uh the ancient fire department here first.

1:08

And is there someone from the mayor's office here yet?

1:12

I have no update from that, but if someone arrives and there's something they want to add, just obviously if we want to try.

1:19

All right.

1:20

Welcome.

1:21

Uh thanks for being here.

1:23

Thank you.

1:23

And uh thank you for the opportunity.

1:25

Doug Sharagi for the record.

1:28

Uh at the budget work session, the question was raised about station locations, driving times, and call density.

1:38

And so I appreciate the opportunity to address some of those concerns.

1:41

Next slide, please.

1:44

So uh what you're seeing here is obviously a map of the anchorage pole, and it's truncated for obvious reasons, so no disrespect is intended towards our Eagle River communities.

1:58

Uh be displayed here, but uh the point here is to uh paint a picture and uh answer the the question at hand.

2:07

There are multiple layers.

2:09

The first layer that we're seeing here are the fire stations.

2:13

So each of the fire station locations is depicted by a red circle with a fire department emblem in the middle of it.

2:20

There's 12 of them in the anchorage pole, as you can see.

2:23

The fire stations are located when they are, with the goal of getting four personnel on scene to every critical agency within four minutes, 90% of the time, and they have a full response within eight minutes 90% of the time.

2:42

That brings us to the second layer.

2:45

The colors depict the driving time from each of the fire stations.

2:50

Everything that is shaded green are occupancies that fall within the four-minute driving time from each of the stations.

3:08

Within more than four minutes and up to eight minutes, and then everything that's shaded red are uh beyond uh eight minutes and up to ten minutes.

3:19

So uh graphically you can quickly see the areas we're able to meet our response time targets and uh the areas that we aren't.

3:30

The third layer we've layered on the fire and EMS instance.

3:36

This excludes private angular calls, but it's probably pretty hard for you to see except for up close, but uh that that map is littered with dots, and each dot represents a fire or uh emergency incident we responded to in 2024.

3:56

And uh there are a lot of them.

3:58

So by examining this, you can get a sense for the number of calls that we are are and are able to meet in our response time targets.

4:10

We are uh quite seriously concerned about the areas just to the west of uh Fire North Bicentennial Park.

4:20

You can see there's a large uh blue area that means a response time of more than four minutes that has uh it may be hard for you to see to see it if you're in the room looking at the screen.

4:33

There are there are many, many calls there, and that's owing to the growth in home construction and population that's moved into that area.

4:40

And so there's a large percentage of the population that we are able to serve within our prescribed time limits.

4:46

Also, between stations 12 and station seven, there's parallel to that, there's another large blue area with a with a significant cluster of instance that that we weren't able to read reach within our four-minute response time.

5:03

I will uh pause there for any questions.

5:05

Thank you.

5:07

Thank you.

5:07

And just for the record, we were joined by uh Ms.

5:10

Mr.

5:10

Johnson.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Public Safety█████████████████████████████████████37%

Technology and Innovation██████████████████████████████████34%

Disaster Relief█████████████13%

Food And Agricultural Uses█████5%

Public Health████4%

Homelessness███3%

Procedural██2%

Animal Welfare██2%

Summary of Proceedings

Anchorage Public Health & Safety Committee Meeting Summary, November 5, 2025

The Anchorage Public Health and Safety Committee convened at 10:45 AM on November 5, 2025, to review critical updates regarding fire station coverage, the ongoing response to the 2025 Western Alaska storms, WIC funding stability, and new police drone policies. Major discussions focused on addressing response time gaps in underserved areas, the logistical successes and future plans for storm evacuees, potential funding lapses for the WIC program, and the implementation of a new drone-as-first-responder program with strict privacy safeguards.

Consent Calendar

No specific consent calendar items were explicitly listed or voted on as a separate group in this transcript segment.

Public Comments & Testimony

Jamie Lovis expressed strong concern regarding the disparity in care between the evacuees and those left behind. They argued that while the city provided excellent shelter and services (including shower trailers and pet care) to evacuees, vulnerable people on the streets are facing a crisis without adequate response or resources.
- Lovis also raised privacy and accuracy concerns regarding the new drone program and License Plate Readers (LPRs). They argued for transparency on data retention, questioning if data will be used for predictive analytics or profiling. Lovis expressed skepticism about the efficacy of drone collision avoidance technology, suggesting current Class C airspace requirements should be sufficient to ensure safety for small aircraft.

Discussion Items

Fire Department Response Time & Coverage

Doug Sharagi (Fire Dept) presented data from 2024 indicating a 39% increase in Basic Life Support (BLS) calls and a 24% increase in fire calls over the last decade. He highlighted that lower-acuity calls are taking a larger share of the volume, likely due to residents using 911 as primary care due to insurance gaps.
Position on Coverage: Sharagi expressed serious concern about underserved areas west and east of Station 12 (Potter Valley and Psycho Gate Heights), noting that these areas fall within blue zones (8-10 minute drive times) with high call densities. He argued that Station 12 is not ideally located and recommended a plan to relocate Station 12 to the east and add one new station to the west to better serve the population.
Committee Inquiry: Members asked about the distinction between driving time and response time, and whether station locations have historically shifted with population growth. It was noted that only a few stations have moved, while the majority remain at legacy locations.

2025 Western Alaska Storm Response

Amanda Loach (OEM Director) and Sean McKenzie (EOC Liaison) provided an update on the response to Typhoon Halong. They reported the successful evacuation of over 1,500 residents, with 655 flying to Anchorage. 100% of evacuees at congregate shelters (Egan Center, Alaska Airlines Center) were transitioned to non-congregate hotel rooms.
Outreach Support: The committee heard details on the pet rescue mission, where 175 dogs were rescued and 52 flew to Anchorage, with 24 placed in foster care. A dedicated website was established to reunite pets with owners.
Reimbursement: An MOU between the state and municipality was signed on November 3rd to cover municipal expenses. Members expressed gratitude for the inter-agency collaboration.

WIC Funding & Federal Shutdown

Anchorage Health Department reported that due to the federal government shutdown, WIC funding is at risk. New federal Section 32 funds have provided a temporary bridge, but projections indicate staff funding will end on December 4 and food benefits on December 16.
Contingency Plan: The department presented a plan to purchase and distribute 6,084 cans of infant formula monthly at a projected cost of $183,000 (excluding tax and storage), served by a team of 12 members who are 100% currently funded by state/federal grants.
Position: Staff are working with the Mayor's Office to explore municipal funding options. Members were asked for clarity on the formula distribution plan should the cutoff occur.

Police Drone First Responder Policy

Chief of Police (TK) presented a policy for "drones as first responders," featuring three drones mounted on municipal buildings (not police cars) and operated remotely from the Real-Time Crime Center.
Safety & Privacy: The Chief emphasized that safety for officers and the public is the primary goal, allowing officers to see a scene before arrival. Privacy safeguards include: 14-day retention for non-crime footage, no recording during transit without a specific event, and a prohibition on recording First Amendment activities (protests) unless a credible threat of physical harm exists.
Technology: Members inquired about collision avoidance. The Chief assured that the drones have internal technology to detect and avoid aircraft in real-time, and a separate system (Remote ID) identifies non-compliant recreational drones.
Public Transparency: The department plans to publish a public dashboard with flight dates, times, and general areas, and will engage Community Councils regarding specific installation locations which are currently being analyzed but not yet finalized.

Key Outcomes

Fire Station Review: The committee requested further assessment on the need for new station locations, specifically addressing the blue-zone gaps near Station 12. No vote was taken, but the proposal to relocate Station 12 and add one station was presented for deliberation.
WIC Monitoring: The committee acknowledged the potential December 4/16 funding cutoffs and requested a follow-up email from the Health Department regarding the contingency plan status by the end of November.
Drone Policy Continuation: The committee expressed support for the safety benefits of the drone program but mandated a phased deployment approach. They requested that the Police Department provide evidence of successful cases/arrests from other jurisdictions and continue public engagement via Community Councils before finalizing site locations.
Storm Recovery: The committee accepted the OEM update and the signed MOU, noting the successful transition of evacuees from congregate to non-congregate shelter and the ongoing pet rescue mission.
Next Steps: The committee will wait for the final policy document distribution for the drone program and the Health Department's email regarding the WIC contingency plan.

Meeting Transcript

Okay. Hi everyone, welcome. Calling to order this meeting of the assembly public health and safety committee. It is November 5 at 1045. Let's uh let's start by uh doing role for the members that are here. It's not that someone just joined us on the phone. So that's true. You want to start? Jared Gerger. Yara Selders? Cameron Perez for Dia and on the phone. Uh so far we have uh member Baldwin Day. Are you there? Great. And uh I'm I'm assuming others will join us shortly. Uh and just a reminder for those that are on the phone. If you want to text me, uh I will get you in the queue. I'll check it. I can um okay. We've got a full agenda today. Uh so we should just jump right in and get started. Uh looks like uh the ancient fire department here first. And is there someone from the mayor's office here yet? I have no update from that, but if someone arrives and there's something they want to add, just obviously if we want to try. All right. Welcome. Uh thanks for being here. Thank you. And uh thank you for the opportunity. Doug Sharagi for the record. Uh at the budget work session, the question was raised about station locations, driving times, and call density. And so I appreciate the opportunity to address some of those concerns. Next slide, please. So uh what you're seeing here is obviously a map of the anchorage pole, and it's truncated for obvious reasons, so no disrespect is intended towards our Eagle River communities. Uh be displayed here, but uh the point here is to uh paint a picture and uh answer the the question at hand. There are multiple layers. The first layer that we're seeing here are the fire stations. So each of the fire station locations is depicted by a red circle with a fire department emblem in the middle of it. There's 12 of them in the anchorage pole, as you can see. The fire stations are located when they are, with the goal of getting four personnel on scene to every critical agency within four minutes, 90% of the time, and they have a full response within eight minutes 90% of the time. That brings us to the second layer. The colors depict the driving time from each of the fire stations. Everything that is shaded green are occupancies that fall within the four-minute driving time from each of the stations. Within more than four minutes and up to eight minutes, and then everything that's shaded red are uh beyond uh eight minutes and up to ten minutes. So uh graphically you can quickly see the areas we're able to meet our response time targets and uh the areas that we aren't. The third layer we've layered on the fire and EMS instance. This excludes private angular calls, but it's probably pretty hard for you to see except for up close, but uh that that map is littered with dots, and each dot represents a fire or uh emergency incident we responded to in 2024. And uh there are a lot of them. So by examining this, you can get a sense for the number of calls that we are are and are able to meet in our response time targets. We are uh quite seriously concerned about the areas just to the west of uh Fire North Bicentennial Park.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI

TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com