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The Juneau Assembly
155 South Seward Street
Juneau, Alaska 99801

C Street Accident; Snow Removal Failure

Today a commercial fuel delivery vehicle hit a parked car on C Street because of the catastrophic failure of the city manager's office to see to timely snow removal. The excuse of budget cuts doesn't wash. You could have increased property taxes so the average homeowner paid $2,100 instead of $2,000. No one would have noticed. We could have kept our snow removal staff. This city is awash in money. The whole point of government is to take the money people won't spend on their own and spend it for them. That's where the industrial might of America comes from: taxes. Not budget cuts. Unlike taxes, which employ people, budget cuts have dire consequences. These pictures from around the federal building show some of the consequences of being cheap.

9th & C: Sidewalk inaccessible, berm on the non-parking side as high as fence. (Image Tab/Window) 135321

9th to 12th: Sidewalk inaccessible, berm on the non-parking side the entire way; street arguably too narrow for an ambulance. fire, or utility vehicle. (Image Tab/Window) 135521

C between 11th and 12th: Confirming sidewalks shoveled but inaccessible because of giant berms. 140015

C between 11th and 12th: The space between lawful parking and the giant berm on the non-parking side is far too narrow for an ambulance, fire truck, or oil truck. 140055

Alley between 11th and 12th: Alternate alleyway emergency/utility access completely impassable because of giant berms on the non-parking side. 140121

But it is inarguably beautiful. 131238

Despite the beauty, citizens have to ask what's going on. It looks like CBJ management has been sitting in their mahogany foxholes designing a new Taj Mahal City Hall instead of funding sufficient actual workers to keep up with snow removal. One wonders if water and sewer are hanging by as thin a thread. Is there no supervision? Are there no performance standards? Are there no executive sessions to set any rules at all? What's going on?

The buck doesn't stop in the city streets or public works or harbor or another department. It stops in the city manager's office -- and at the assembly. We don't need excuses. We need performance standards that the assembly enforces without mercy. It's reported that our city manager's 2020 salary was $196,889 not including the value of health care or retirement benefits. A minimally acceptable performance standard in exchange for such vast wealth might include minimally acceptable snow removal, courtesy phones, warming shelters, housing first, libraries, pools, arts, Eaglecrest. Sure, it's complicated. There's never been anything easy about supervision. But it's essential. So let's have some.

Sign me at wits' end,

/s/

Walter Gregg