News from Patrick Flynn

Like all Alaskans I was deeply saddened to learn of Monday’s plane crash that claimed five lives and injured four others.  Many residents of the Last Frontier, myself included, fly throughout Alaska in aircraft large and small so each accident reminds us of the risks we accept as part of our lives.  That doesn’t make the loss of life easier to bear.

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Tomorrow’s Port committee meeting has been postponed.  Here’s the message I sent to committee members and stakeholders:

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If you’ve never been to Valdez please allow me to recommend a visit.  I’m told my first one occurred before the ol’ memory banks started recording, and I definitely recall enjoying spending the summer of 1989 in Alaska’s “Gateway to the Interior,” despite the circumstances that drew me there.  During the intervening years I’ve kept my eye on a community that’s played a remarkable role in Alaska’s history.  Aside from its role as the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) it’s a fascinating part of Alaska and, among other things, I couldn’t help noticing when my former high school principal, Lance Bowie, was hired as the local school district Superintendent.

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Despite what you may have experienced recently, it is summer so I’m going to take a few days and enjoy it.  Once I’m back, and recovered (breaks can be hard work) I’ll get more information posted.  In the meantime, enjoy your break from my missives!

Regards,

Patrick

The next meeting of the Assembly’s Port committee will take place on Tuesday, August 10, from 10 am to noon at City Hall in the first floor conference room (suite 155).  The agenda will be as follows:

1. Updated project schedule:

a. Port/ICRC/MARAD update on project timeline and projected effects on Port users.

b. Army Corps of Engineers comments related to dredging.

c. Port user comments.

2. Review and discussion of project budget distributed at June 10 meeting.

3. Synopsis of port-related discussions at the recent joint work session of the Anchorage & Mat-Su Assemblies (this item may go first).

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We begin today’s post with a word that nicely summarizes the administration’s continued efforts to warp Anchorage’s ethics code; pettifoggery.  Here’s how Webster’s defines it:

pet·ti·fog·ger, noun

Etymology: probably from petty + obsolete English fogger pettifogger

Date: 1576

1 : a lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable

2 : one given to quibbling over trifles

— pet·ti·fog·ging, adjective or noun

— pet·ti·fog·gery, noun

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While getting North Slope natural gas isn’t really within the purview of the Anchorage Assembly, ensuring our community has sufficient gas for heating homes and keeping the lights on is important to all of us.  In that spirit I offer a guest commentary, in the form of a letter to the president of the newly-created Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, Dan Fauske, from local financial consultant David Gottstein:

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For only the second time during my tenure on the Assembly, this afternoon we conducted a joint work session with our colleagues on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly.  The meeting, which was open to the public, occurred at a very nice B&B off Fairview Loop Road (just a little southeast of Wasilla).  And, since a neighbor called today to say he couldn’t make the meeting but was interested in a report of the proceedings, here’s a quick synopsis of what we discussed:

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Many years ago a friend observed parallels between the legislative process and elephants mating; most of the activity occurs above the average person’s head, there’s a great deal of blaring and other noise, and it generally takes 22 months to produce tangible results.  I suppose it was his way of explaining the difficulties of governance (and I apologize if any elephants are offended by the comparison).

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It’s hard to decide on the most appropriate response to a recent column authored by Jim Minnery, president of the Alaska Family Council.  Minnery, a hard-right field marshal in the never-ending culture wars that consume far more energy than their lack of appreciable societal change merits, evokes Billy Joel’s song “Honesty” in complaining his political opponents are (surprise) employing rhetoric they feel will most effectively make their case regarding ballot measure 2.  This from the guy whose acolytes employed, shall we say, somewhat inaccurate rhetoric during last summer’s equal rights debate.

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