Juneau voters will see a markedly one-sided presentation of the “Ship-Free Saturdays” measure on their ballots in the Oct. 1 municipal election — and rather imbalanced wording for the recall of two school board members — but it won’t be the only side of the ballot questions residents receive from the city.
A notice of election published Monday by the municipal clerk’s office contains strong ballot wording by supporters of the Saturday cruise ship ban — such as declaring the cruise season “adversely impacts Juneau residents’ health and quality of life” — without a response from opponents of the measure.
On the same notice (and thus ballot), rebuttals are included by the top two members of the Juneau Board of Education who are the targets of the recall vote, with each given 200 words to explain why they deserve to keep their seats.
It’s all standard procedure for a local election, but other official material will be available to voters as well, Municipal Clerk Beth McEwen said Tuesday. Those include a voter information guide published by the city manager’s office, and candidate profiles written by the people seeking Juneau Assembly and school board seats that are expected to be published at the city’s website by the end of the week.
The language submitted by the group petitioning to get Ship-Free Saturdays was reviewed, for example, but “we are not certifying that the language in there is factual whatsoever,” she said.
“We do not weigh in on the merits or on the substance of what is in the language they submitted,” McEwen said. “We just certify whether or not it meets the legal requirements for an initiative.”
The ballot language makes 11 “whereas” declarations for the Ship-Free Saturdays question — officially referred to as Proposition 2 — such as “a majority of Juneau residents think that our local government is not doing enough to manage cruise tourism.” Another “whereas” proclaims “city leaders and industry have had decades to act and have failed to balance the economic benefits to some against the economic and other harms of the many imposed by the cruise tourism industry.”
Voters are then asked if cruise ships with a capacity of 250 or more passengers should be banned from Juneau on Saturdays and the Fourth of July.
The measure is being opposed by the group Protect Juneau’s Future, backed by a multitude of cruise industry and local businesses. In addition to a large-scale advertising and events campaign planned by the group, a roughly 450-word opposing statement for the official voter information guide was written by Red Dog Saloon owner Eric Forst.
The opposing statement provides its own list of six reasons to oppose the measure including “economic disruption and job loss,” “impact on public services,” and “collaboration, confrontation” — the latter referring to voluntary agreements the industry has reached with the city such as a five-ship-a-day limit in effect now and a daily passenger limit scheduled to take effect in 2026.
Voters will be presented with pro and con arguments for the two school board recall questions, although with a decided imbalance favoring the targets of the recall.
The ballot language states the grounds for recalling the two members — President Deedie Sorensen and Vice President Emil Mackey — are “(each) demonstrated failure to perform prescribed duties, misconduct in office, and incompetence by: …Failure to understand the FY24 budget accounting errors resulting in $7.9M deficit and taxpayer loan from CBJ, violating BP3460.”
That bureaucratic language refers to a portion of the Juneau School District’s financial crisis that was publicly revealed in January — a deficit incurred during the past fiscal year resolved through cutbacks and accounting adjustments — although proponents of the recall have cited the longer-term crisis and resulting consolidation of schools that took effect in July as their motivation.
Both Sorensen and Mackey, provided with 200 words to respond, also went beyond the strict confines of the 2024 fiscal year in the recall language to defend their actions and ask voters to reject the recalls.
“The reality behind this recall is 20+ years of declining student enrollment and prior board leadership unwilling to adjust the budget to this reality,” Sorensen wrote at the beginning of her rebuttal. Toward the end she adds “we made difficult decisions for our schools in the 2025 budget. Decisions necessary to ensure our students continue to receive a great education.”
Mackey challenged the ballot’s description of the district’s situation, asserting among other things a shortage of state funding for many years is the key cause of the crisis.
“The budgetary choice was simply buildings versus staff,” he wrote. “In FY 2024, the District employed 317 teachers. The chosen model laid off 46.5 teachers. Had we adopted the model advocated by recall sponsors, the district would have had to lay-off 84 of the 317 teachers. Nobody liked the choices, but the chosen alternative was the best decision possible for student success and kept the lowest possible Pupil/Teacher Ratio for years to come.”
Rebuttals by Sorensen and Mackey are included on the ballot because “the recall petition is an entirely different process under different statutes” than the cruise ship initiative, McEwen said.
Also being decided in the Oct. 1 election are two bond measures totaling nearly $23 million (each with statements of roughly 100 words describing their purpose), a mayor’s race with two declared candidates, a District 1 Assembly race with two declared candidates, a District 2 Assembly race with five declared candidates, and a school board race where six candidates are seeking three open seats.
Ballots for the by-mail election are scheduled to be mailed to residents on Sept. 12.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
