Kelly Fishler is an avid home gardener. She grows Swiss chard, berries, and kale in her yard — she says it’s one way she can live more sustainably. Sustainability is an idea that she says is important to her and a perspective she’d like to bring with her as a member of the City and Borough of Juneau’s City Assembly.<\/p>\n
Fishler is a candidate for the District 2 Mendenhall Valley seat, currently held by Michelle Bonnet Hale, who is running for a second term on the assembly. The election will take place on Oct. 5 in a largely vote-by-mail affair.<\/p>\n
Fishler is a longtime Alaskan and has been a Juneau resident for about two years. She said she felt at home in Juneau from the start, and that’s one of the reasons she decided to run for the City Assembly.<\/p>\n
Assembly member to seek reelection<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n “I really want to see Juneau become the best it can be,” she said, adding that sustainability is the key that will allow her two young children to thrive in Juneau as adults.<\/p>\n “I really want to be here in 40 years. I want my kids to be here in 40 years,” she said. “It’s not fear that drives self-sufficiency, it’s wisdom.”<\/p>\n Challenges<\/p>\n Fishler described a constellation of concerns about Juneau’s future, including population loss, cost of living and waste management as the areas that are driving her run for the seat. She sees many of these issues as being interconnected.<\/p>\n “We need to make Juneau an attractive place to live,” she said. “Why can’t Juneau be a place where problems get solved?”<\/p>\n She said that she’d like to see Juneau adopt a 25-, 50- and 75-year plan for the future.<\/p>\n “We have a capital improvement plan until 2027. It addresses roofs and building issues. We can’t stop there,” she said, mentioning a model plan from Portland, Oregon, that takes into account schools, neighborhoods, safety, private enterprise and parks.<\/p>\n According to CBJ’s website, the city updates the Capital Improvement Plan each year, and the plan looks out for six years.<\/p>\n The site reads: “The CIP serves as the overarching strategic plan for improving the public infrastructure of Juneau and is collectively developed by the CBJ Assembly, its boards and commissions, CBJ staff, and the citizens of CBJ.”<\/p>\n In addition, the city’s Community Development department’s website includes a number of comprehensive planning documents, including those developed for specific areas of town. Available plans date back to 1981.<\/p>\n Beyond creating a longer-term master plan, Fishler said the city can help residents become more self-sufficient by making sure that zoning and other city rules support people in sustainability efforts and business creation.<\/p>\n “We have abundant clean water and hydropower. We have lots of empty buildings where we could grow produce in hydroponic gardens inside,” she said, noting that the city could support entrepreneurs in this endeavor, which could help make life here more affordable for families.<\/p>\n “Juneau is an amazing city. But, it’s expensive for families to live here. One of the things the city can do is support entrepreneurs,” she said. “Living in Juneau, you should not have to pay a lot for produce. We can grow it locally,” she said. “We can get people to start businesses.”<\/p>\n Property taxes are another area of concern for her. She mentioned that earlier this year Hale successfully carried the water on a small mill rate reduction—a move she supports. However, Fishler said her overall property tax bill still went up due to increasing property assessments.<\/p>\n “When taxes go up, our cost of living goes up,” she said. She said she’d look for additional tax-reduction opportunities if elected.<\/p>\n “As a candidate, I want to make sure the city does everything it can to make sure people get out of poverty.”<\/p>\n Fishler said she is also interested in tackling Juneau’s quickly filling landfill.<\/p>\n “I want to work on things that are not glamorous, like the landfill,” she said.<\/p>\n Fishler suggested that solutions may lie in new technologies that should be explored sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n “The reality is that no one wants to talk about the dump. But, we need to take care of it,” she said.<\/p>\n Concerns about the landfill have swirled around the assembly for the last few election cycles.<\/p>\n As the chair of the Public Works and Facilities Committee, Hale has chaired several recent public meeting that outline options for the city’s waste, including the possibility of establishing a zero waste plan.<\/p>\n