Juneau Assembly candidates discussed the necessity to provide affordable homes, better child care, and higher salaries for public safety workers in a forum organized by local firefighters and police Thursday.
staff problems, wages and child care were frequent subjects in the surveys asked by employees of public safety as well as first response personnel. Juneau Police Department Juneau Police Department has 14 vacant jobs, which translates to with a vacancy rate of 23.
“Increasing wage levels is the most effective solution to address the vacancies that exist,” said District 1 incumbent Christine Woll.
The previous year, Juneau police were given the same 5.5 per cent wage hike that all other city employees as well as an increase of 5% on their health insurance contribution from employers.
Local candidate JoAnn Wallace has said that increased recruitment in the local community may aid.
“If you were able to recruit students straight after high school to then send them to scholarships to be trained and then go to going to college, I believe it’s a great option to keep children who already live in our town within our town and into these amazing job opportunities,” Wallace said.
Some candidates suggested that the fire and police departments require more funding from the city.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”We have to discover a way to ensure that the department’s finances are funded in a proper manner, and without a rise in sales or property taxes,” said areawide candidate Jeff Jones. “We require more transparency in the city. We should understand exactly where the money goes .”
Public safety workers also questioned the candidates on what they would do to tackle children’s care. problem of child care shortage.. The candidate for the Areawide seat Nano Brooks suggested that the city can aid the business by providing subsidies as well as grants to help the providers to expand their facilities.
“Also support local programs such as RALLY, which had a major impact for me,” Brooks said, in reference in reference to Juneau Child Care Program of the School District.
Depression, burnout as well as other health problems were also issues for police and firefighters. Regional Candidate Ella Adkison said diverting some of the burden to other types of workers, like mental health specialists, might aid.
“If we could create an innovative program that lets non-police officers accept calls that aren’t violent for example, addiction and mental health crises, we could keep our police officers away from the most violent calls they must be on like assault and domestic violence phone calls.” She said.
Thirteen of the 14 candidates for assembly attended the forum. 10 candidates have been selected for 2 regional seats Two candidates are running for the District 1 seat, and 2 are running to represent District 2. District 2 Candidate David Morris did not attend.
The forum on Thursday is the first in many occasions for people to listen to municipal candidates. In the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, Juneau Chamber of Commerce will hold an event for district 1, 2 and 3 candidates Thursday, September. 7. In addition, the Juneau League of Women Voters KTOO and The Juneau Empire as well as KINY will host forums on September 12 and 13. 12-13. The Chamber will host an all-area candidate forum on September. 14.
Juneau residents are able to be registered to vote or update their addresses until the weekend of Sept. 3. The election day is October. 3.
