The Anchorage Daily News asked candidates for Anchorage mayor to answer a series of issue questions. Read all of them here.
HEATHER HERNDON | Occupation: REIT/Developer/Construction | Age: 49 | HerndonForMayor.com
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1. Why are you running for mayor?
I’m from Anchorage, I am a fourth-generation Alaskan and I have the required background to actually do the job as mayor, including financial, accounting, construction, negotiating leases and new business in addition to listening to public and dealing with our immediate needs.
2. What in your background or experience sets you apart from the other candidates and makes you suited to be an effective mayor of Anchorage?
Project management. From creating to pushing the job through until completion and then monitoring it while serving a term as mayor. Not needing a committee to investigate accounting and financial issues. Making decisions on findings in expedited manner to not harm our economy further.
3. What’s the biggest challenge facing city government and how would you address it?
Job loss and homelessness. My specific plan would put an average of 25,000 people back to work immediately, build veterans housing (not with city money), housing the homeless to bring them back into society as a wage earners, turn the Golden Lion into outpatient care with the UAA nursing program, complementary to existing business around it, and 90-day letters of intent for new business.
4. Describe how your administration would approach the coronavirus pandemic.
End the mandates. If number of cases rise, shut down inbound traffic except for shipping.
5. What’s your assessment of how Anchorage’s city government has responded to the pandemic over the past year? What, if anything, would you have done differently? Be specific.
Beyond the original two-week quarantine, I would have shut down inbound traffic with the exception of shipping. I would have prevented non-residents with jobs in Prudhoe Bay from leaving and bringing the virus back with them into our villages, given Anchorage is the airport to which they would pass through while we were still in this situation.
6. What role should city government play in repairing economic damage to individuals, businesses and community organizations from the pandemic?
Revaluations. Abatements. Reverse new taxes.
7. Downtown Anchorage has been hit especially hard by impacts from the pandemic, with tourism, gatherings and events greatly reduced and many businesses and organizations struggling as a result. Another difficult summer with greatly reduced tourism appears likely. What’s your vision for downtown, and what specifically are your short-term and long-term plans for repairing damage from the past year?
It’s a long road to bring back tourism without sacrificing the lives of those who reside here in Anchorage. We wouldn’t have as much business if we closed inbound traffic, but all business would still be open. I intend to bring speaking engagements for experts in their field or culture to speak in downtown Anchorage, and all the way to hosting large events once we are past quarantine.
8. Would you make changes to the Anchorage Police Department and policing policies? Why? Please describe in detail.
Yes. I have an attorney who said in a brief that APD policies and procedures are not in alignment with statutes, codes and ordinances. We will review and examine each one to make it to where we are all on the same page.
9. Is the Anchorage Police Department adequately staffed?
No. I support APD restructuring of policing career criminals, human trafficking and drug cartels while having an extended social work arm for non-violent calls for help. I support not politicizing our police. It is not their job to be bodyguards for politicians.
10. Do you support the bond issue on this spring’s municipal ballot that would fund public-safety technology upgrades, including body-worn and in-vehicle cameras for police officers? Explain.
I support firearm sight lasers and allowing the police to do their job without having a political viewpoint overview. I support the police protecting innocent people, including bystanders, before protecting the life of the person committing a crime. If our police are so corrupt that we can’t trust them then it is time to rebuild with new candidates.
11. Describe, with specifics, how you would expand and diversify Anchorage’s economy.
I would put Native history courses into the school system. Each tribe would contribute to the material of these courses.
12. What’s your vision for Anchorage’s economy in the future?
Financial district. Larger companies coming here for the logistical advantage and locals being hired for skilled labor jobs.
13. Is taxation in Anchorage too high/about right/too low? Explain.
Too high. Valuations are also too high. I know what I can acquire or build in other states and what their tax rate currently is on their books. I would subsidize joint-ventures into private equity, not new taxes or debt.
14. Do you have ideas for alternative sources of city revenue? Explain.
Yes. Private equity joint-venture, perhaps some as a carve-out from publicly traded companies. There’s more we can do other than taxes and debt.
15. Are there city programs or services you would cut? Explain.
I’d consolidate after an efficiency review. We don’t need redundancy on anything but our electrical grid and sewage.
16. Are there city programs or services you would expand? Explain.
No. With the exception of a Native commission that would contribute directly to the mayor’s office to resolve issues between Anchorage and Alaskan villages resulting in homelessness.
17. What’s your view of current Anchorage land-use plans? Would you push for changes?
It’s creating too much of a hardship. Yes, I would push for changes.
18. Homelessness remains a persistent, significant problem in Anchorage. What specifically would you do differently from previous administrations?
Veterans Housing, working with Native corporations and having our own local plan for housing to get people back on their feet into society as wage earners.
19. Name a program dealing with homelessness in Anchorage that you believe is working.
There are too many programs and nonprofits that mildly help the situation other than keeping themselves employed.
20. Please discuss your commitment to transparency and openness in Anchorage municipal government. Do you have suggestions for improving either?
As mayor, I do not intend to sit in my office. I will be giving blanket Slip and Fall waivers to construction sites to continually review their progress. I will be calling for 20-minute meetings with different groups across industries at different times to resolve matters quickly.
21. What’s your assessment of Anchorage’s transportation infrastructure? Do you have a plan to improve it? How?
I intend to give this issue to UAA Engineering Department and decrease bus size to recalculate the matrices for the optimal solution in scheduling bus routes to make it efficient before seeking an outside opinion.
22. Are there specific transportation projects you would initiate in the municipality if elected? Explain.
Yes. I’d like to look at decreased bus size with updated schedule. There’s a local talent that chops cars into limousines and I wonder if they can do it in reverse. Recalculate costs-benefit.
23. The past year has been marked by increasing civic discord in Anchorage. What would you do to reduce frustration, distrust and anger that increasingly has characterized civic conversation?
Lead from the front. Be visible. No secret meetings. No undermining the public. Giving more weight to a public vote not limited to community councils or lobbying opinions.
24. What other important issue would you like to discuss?
I’d like to inspire other Alaskans to run for these political offices in future. It’s important. Right now, Alaskans from Alaska have barely a 1% voice holding a political office.