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Connor Ulmer: Juneau Assembly District 1 candidate
Age: 26
Occupation: Executive Assistant
All but one of the nine Assembly and mayoral candidates oppose the Ship-Free Saturday ballot measure, including you. What do you feel that says about how cruise tourism in Juneau should be managed?
I think one of the big things that they look at is how it can stay sustainable in our community. And I think it needs to kind of veer away from cruise ships more because the city and the community is so heavily invested in just the cruise industry. There’s so many people who take cruises, but they can’t afford to spend a lot in communities. I think the main shift needs to be going away just from so much cruise tourism focus, but more towards the independent traveler focus for tourism. That could mean we see a decline in the number of people on cruises — which I highly doubt that’s going to happen — but just making sure that that’s not our main focus.
How would you do that?
I think part of it would be to help market more towards independent tourists. I also think that the city should kind of help out in looking at ways they partner with different organizations in town like the DBA, JEDC and Travel Juneau to see how they can look at more focusing away from a heavily cruise tourism base and more towards the independent traveler base, kind of helping steer them in that direction.
The city’s population is projected to shrink in the years to come. Other than tourism, how does this town generate a sustainable economy?
I think part of it is we need to figure out how to attract people to come back to town. I know there’s a lot of my own friends who move away for school. They want to live down south for a little bit, but they want to come back. There isn’t anything. They can find some jobs here, but from what I’ve been told their biggest hurdle is the housing here. If you can’t find anywhere for younger people come move into that they can afford then how are they going to apply for a job here?
Housing is an issue that’s been talked about for years. What suggestions do you have that haven’t already been studied to death?
I’d be interested in the city looking at additional ways of maybe even becoming like some sort of a landlord over a housing development in Juneau. And more of the, not low-income, but kind of targeting that person who make too much to be qualified for low-income housing, but don’t make enough to really afford to live here. So I think the city needs to look at way to get into that.
Where would the buildings, property and/or money for that come from?
I think that could kind of help with the tourism — because we’re wanting to bring in more tourists and younger people in, why not use some of that funding from there to help bring it up, to help fund or maybe subsidize a private contractor to come in to do.
A recent study found the two strongest-performing economic sectors locally are tourism and Native corporations. Given discussions about partnerships in Juneau and Southeast Alaska for things such as housing and healthcare, to what extent do you feel CBJ could partner with tribal organizations and what could be achieved from that?
I think the city can do more partnerships. I know for housing the Tlingit and Haida Housing Authority and (the separate tribal entity) Tlingit and Haida are looking at projects together to develop additional housing in Juneau. So I think the city can do a similar partnership of working with the housing authority to identify some land that the city might have available that could be opened up for development…and not just solely for Tlingit and Haida tribal citizens.
Do you see any other industries in Juneau that have potential to be growth industries?
I think Native organizations and nonprofits are going to be the big thing for Juneau and Southeast for the next 50 years. They’re the ones that are pulling in the additional funding for our communities. Part of it is that they are able to tap into additional funds that other places can’t. But from what Tlingit and Haida, and Sealaska, and all these Native orgs are doing is they look at it as a different way. From what I can tell they follow a lot of our traditional values and practices, and with that comes they aren’t looking at just today or just this current situation. They’re looking at that, but they’re also looking two generations out from now how that decision is impacting them that far out, not just making sure it can work for now for the next 30 years and then reevaluate it then.
How do you think CBJ operates and spends its money efficiently versus not doing so efficiently?
They could do better with how money is being spent and part of that is with respect to all the rentals that they have for all the other departments that are under CBJ, but can’t be housed at City Hall. So I think being able to move them all into the one space would really help out with that. I think it would be more efficient and it would be healthier for those employees too, to kind of build a better working environment for everyone. Because if it gives them the opportunity to kind of be in one central location they can more easily work together and not currently how they are — kind of almost in little silos throughout the community of this is the City Hall main core staff, docks and harbors over here — they don’t ever interact — or Parks and Rec or whatever.
What’s about the city’s revenue, since that is an ongoing issue for many people in the form of property tax assessments and the milk rate? What are your thoughts on how the Assembly has handled those recently?
For the mill rate I will say I’m not completely sure whether it should go up or down. As for assessments towards property taxes I think the city really needs to look at the overall span of how much it has grown over the years and seeing what can we do to level it out more, kind of make it more consistent across the board — not just the increase after increase after increase. What can we do to make sure that kind of stays at this one set kind of set rate for however long, like maybe looking at how will it look like if we set the rate at this much for over five years and then after that five years is up go and reevaluate.
What suggestions do you have for people worried about annual flooding from Suicide Basin damaging their homes?
I think the city needs to look at more data on how much is going to be flooding again each year. If we know that this is an annual thing that’s pretty much guaranteed to happen, like how it’s been over the past few years, we need to look at what can we do in the future to make sure that we’re more prepared for it. And part of that is their emergency response for natural disasters. From my understanding it’s kind of like one guy who does the city’s natural disaster response, but that’s not his full-time job, and knowing that this is probably going to be an annual thing there should be somebody whose main job is to kind of focus on what will be happening. How can we mitigate this from happening to be not as bad as it was this year? What can we do with the river to make sure it doesn’t flood far deep into the Valley. And then also looking at the landslides because we’ve seen more of those happening downtown over the past few years.
The Assembly this year passed a new landslide ordinance that essentially is a “buyer beware” policy that eliminates building restrictions in such zones. Can such a policy while also increasing protection in flood zones logically coexist?
I think they kind of can exist side-by-side of there being the plans and then the governmental response to it. I think there needs to be a response for any sort of larger natural disaster, that the city is ready and geared up to be that kind of first people on the ground, but also they need to be looking at and coming up with those studies — like for the avalanche and landslides and for Suicide Basin at the same time — so they can better respond to what could happen in the future.
What are your thoughts on how the Assembly has acted since last year on the homeless issue, including the debate about the winter warming shelter as well as problems at Mill Campground that resulted in a “dispersed camping” policy?
I think for the camping portion the city needed to look at another area where that population could have moved to. Everyone is always a “yes, I want this, but not in my backyard” sort of mentality. But I think at some point you have to make that decision, to move it or do something, knowing that you are not going to be able to please everybody. My first thought is maybe back in the Costco area, sort of further back in that route. I’m not fully sure what it’s like back there.
What else do you want voters to know?
I would want to be there just to kind of help bring in additional youth voice, but also make sure that there is still a Native voice who is on the Assembly, knowing that a large population of Juneau is an Alaskan Native community where they don’t always get to see themselves represents in these sorts of organizations. And then also that when I look at making my decisions for things I do look at the media, but I also do look at it from a “how will this decision affect my grandchildren and their children,” so not just looking at the immediate picture, but the long-term picture of multiple generations out.
