Assembly Finance Committee Meeting Summary - December 1, 2025
Assembly Finance Committee Meeting Summary - December 1, 2025
The Assembly Finance Committee convened on December 1, 2025, to discuss a diverse array of agenda items ranging from property tax exemptions to significant budget allocations for dockage fees, the Fourth of July fireworks display, and legislative capital priorities. The session also included updates on assembly grants, the formation of a new visitor industry task force, and a preview of an upcoming retreat focused on the FY27 budget process. Key discussions centered on liability management, revenue allocation nexus, and prioritizing housing and safety projects within the capital improvement plan.
Consent Calendar
- The minutes of the previous meeting were approved without objection.
- Roll call confirmed the presence of all assembly members except Assemblymember Wool (available via Zoom) and Assemblymember Smith (absent).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Public comment was not a distinct featured segment of this specific meeting transcript; however, city staff provided updates on behalf of the Juno Fireworks Crew regarding their willingness to form a corporation to address liability issues.
Discussion Items
- Property Tax Exemptions and Credits: Staff presented a comprehensive review of exemption groups, including senior/disabled veterans' property tax reductions, dollar-threshold credits, motor vehicle/vessel exemptions, manufactured home tax issues (noting 467,000 dollars in value in mobile home parks), health/burial exemptions, and economic development credits. It was noted that the dollar cap adjustment for single goods/services would occur January 1, 2026.
- Dockage Fee Usage and FY27 Budget: A discussion regarding the estimated 2.9 million dollars in additional revenue from increased dockage fees. Staff clarified that 2.2 million dollars would remain for city-wide allocation after 700,000 dollars is retained by the docks and harbors enterprise fund for security, restrooms, and maintenance.
- Positions and Deliberation: Director Flick explained the "nexus" requirement for transferring funds, referencing a "red face test" to ensure legal defensibility.
- Key Contributions: Assemblymember Brooks suggested using funds for South Douglas Harbor restrooms. Assemblymember Hall questioned if the funds would cover capital needs for docks; Director Flick clarified the motion only covers operating excess. Assemblymember Wall proposed a motion to utilize all excess dockage fees to offset general operating expenditures (police, fire, transit) to the fullest extent, with remaining funds directed to prioritized projects.
- Fourth of July Fireworks Display: Madam Manager presented three options: (1) Hire a contractor (costing 250,000–350,000 dollars), (2) Stop funding, or (3) Maintain status quo with increased city management of risk (storage, procurement, insurance).
- Positions and Deliberation: Director Flick highlighted that while the city has insurance ($1 million per incident), liability risks regarding storage and procurement without an indemnity agreement are significant. The Juno Fireworks Crew expressed a preference to remain volunteers but acknowledged the need to address barge and storage costs. Assemblymember Kelly questioned the liability caps. Assemblymember Steininger noted that volunteer donations (like barges) might be harder to secure under strict city procurement. Assemblymember Wall moved to maintain the status quo with an emergency ordinance exemption for this year while directing staff to resolve indemnification and risk management issues for the future. Assemblymember Brooks objected to a $350,000 cap, arguing it discourages seeking donated services; however, the objection was withdrawn after clarification that staff would seek the cheapest option first.
- FY25 Assembly Grant Update: Mr. Barr presented the first comprehensive report on FY25 grants, including spending summaries, funding sources, and grantee performance.
- Positions and Deliberation: Assemblymember Hughes Scandis asked if the Assembly could mandate specific actions, such as syringe exchange programs for the Four A's grantee. Mr. Kerr explained that such conditions can be added to Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) during the budget process. Assemblymember Brooks requested clarification on the overlap between the Juno Economic Development Council and the Small Business Development Center.
- Legislative Capital Priorities: The committee reviewed the legislative capital priorities list.
- Positions and Deliberation: Assemblymember Steininger moved to prioritize Fish Creek Road resurfacing to number 10 (to address gondola access safety), but the motion faced objections from Assemblymembers Hughes Scandis and Atkison, who preferred maintaining the existing ranking due to project uncertainty. The motion to move Fish Creek Road to spot 15 (breaking a tie) passed.
- Assemblymember Hughes Scandis moved to reposition the Telephone Hill Redevelopment project from rank 11 to rank 9, citing housing as a linchpin priority. This motion failed by a roll call of 4-4-1 (Mayor Weldon and four Assemblymembers Yes). As a compromise, Assemblymember Wall moved to place Telephone Hill at rank 10, which passed 5-3. The final list was forwarded for adoption by the full Assembly.
- Visitor Industry Task Force: A motion passed to create a new Visitor Industry Task Force with a specific charge to review 2020 recommendations, manage impacts (congestion, whale watching), develop a revolving loan structure for clean energy, and identify new revenue opportunities. Ms. Atkison was confirmed as Chair, with Mr. Steininger and others serving. Assemblymember Wall raised concerns about revisiting revenue options already addressed, but staff clarified the task force would compare fees against global markets.
- Budget Retreat Preparation: Madam Manager and Director Flick outlined the agenda for the upcoming budget retreat, focusing on service-by-service review, public engagement strategies, and final budget direction. A humorous motion to confirm "tacos" for lunch passed by consensus.
Key Outcomes
- Dockage Fee Allocation: Motion passed to direct the Manager to include in the FY27 budget the use of all dockage fees in excess of dock operations (estimated 2.2 million dollars) to offset CBJ general operating expenditures to the fullest extent possible, with any remainder brought back for project prioritization. A separate motion passed to memorialize this process via a resolution.
- Fireworks Display: Motion passed to maintain the status quo for the upcoming season with an increased budget (without a fixed cap specified in the final motion) and an ordinance exempting the purchase from procurement code, while directing staff to resolve indemnification and risk management issues for future years.
- Capital Priorities List: Motion passed to move Telephone Hill Redevelopment to rank 10 on the legislative capital priorities list. The list was forwarded to the full Assembly for introduction.
- Task Force Creation: Motion passed to establish the Visitor Industry Task Force with the defined charges and proposed membership.
- Next Meeting: The Finance Committee is scheduled for January 7, 2026. The Assembly Budget Retreat is scheduled for 8:30 AM following the meeting.
Meeting Transcript
We will bring the Assembly Finance Committee to order for December first, twenty twenty-five. And I believe we will have Ms. Wall on Zoom that will work with that. Would you call Roll. Thank you, Mayor Weldon. We have all assembly members present in chambers, besides Assemblymember Wool, who is available on Zoom, and Assembly Member Smith, who is absent. Going to approval of minutes. Any objection? See none, those minutes are approved, which leads us to agenda topics, and I'm going to make one slight difference. Kind of in things that are alike. So the first grouping are things that you don't actually get to control. Those are exemptions that exist by another body, which is passed down to you. The only element in this grouping that you do control is with respect to the senior and disabled veterans, state mandated property tax value reduction. There is a deadline by which people need to file for that. Those who file past that submit are submitted to you for approval. And so your decision to approve them or not in that current year in which they submit is completely at your discretion. But if they file timely, they are granted that exemption. The next grouping is everything that is a credit or rebate that's based on a dollar threshold. Most of these don't have an inflator involved or a sunset time or a reset prescribed in code. Many of these haven't been touched in years. And so this is an area where we can certainly look at various items. I will say number 10 on the list, the dollar cap on a sale of a single good or single service. Just before I came down from for this meeting. Because it gets adjusted every even year. So January 1 of 2026, it would be adjusted. The next group is credits or rebates that are on a series of properties that don't follow kind of the normal home titling process. So we've got motor vehicles, vessels. These are items which when they're sold, don't go through the state for titling purposes. Number 14 in here is just an item that we as staff struggle with, and so we wanted to include it on the list. Manufactured homes are taxed as real property, just like other homes, other property, but they are not titled through the state regular natural resources. Rather, they go through Department of Motor Vehicles. And so we often find ourselves in cases where we end up with delinquent taxes with somebody who's a new owner, and they change titles ship at DMV but never inform the city. So we don't have that same route of information. In 24, just a stat that I had available. Manufactured homes that are in a mobile home park represented 467,000 worth of property taxes. So we're not talking about a huge property tax value. The next set of exemptions, 15 through 17, deal with health or other areas of required expenses in our journey of life. So medical type things and burial type things. So where the property doesn't stay here or may not even originate here, but flows through the city on its journey to its end location. The next the last group on page 12 of the packet are a series of exemptions and credits that are related to economic development. So most of these are real property. And then the 31 through 47 is a whole host of things that just aren't like the others, and so they ended up in a popori group at the end. Just a group of random various things that we have as exemptions and credits. So with that, Madam Mayor, I'm I'm happy to answer questions. Thank you. Huscanys, Mr. Steininger, and myself. So just to give you an idea how deeper diving into it, I think we put up to about four hours now, almost close to four hours of work. So if you have anything specific, um send it to Ms. Flick's way, and if it's something different than what we've already looked at, then we will figure out a way to air it publicly before we because we are a group of three, but um I'll take any general questions at this time.
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