Anchorage Assembly reviews proposal to create community-led Public Safety Commission

The Anchorage Assembly held a work session Thursday to review AO 2020-662, an ordinance that would amend municipal code to create a community-led Public Safety Commission to advise the municipality on policing, fire, emergency response and other public-safety systems.

Sponsor Janice Park said the proposal grew from a six-month task force and two decades of prior commissions. “We went through a process … where we engaged the different departments of the municipality, of the public,” Park said, and presented the ordinance as an effort to “build trust” and provide a consistent forum for community concerns. Park noted a prior iteration of the commission had been allowed to sunset and emphasized the sponsors’ effort to structure the new body so it would be “meaningful and valuable to the community.”

The draft ordinance would create 14 seats: nine voting community members and five ex‑officio, nonvoting seats representing key departments (police, fire, health, law and the Office of Emergency Management). The body’s role would be advisory and systems-focused: it could review policies, hold public hearings, request briefings and public records, and produce an annual report to the assembly and administration. It would not have subpoena power, disciplinary authority, access to personal records beyond what law permits, or the ability to conduct independent investigations into active cases.

Sponsors described training and participation expectations: members would serve as volunteers, receive ethics and governance training, be eligible for department ride‑alongs and be supported under a rotating staffing model drawing on existing departmental staff rather than new hires. “We did not envision needing to hire additional staff for support,” said one sponsor, adding the goal was to use existing staff capacity.

Assembly members pressed for details. Member Silvers asked whether the fire, police and emergency-management departments had committed to the staffing model and what the ordinance’s fiscal note is. Sponsors said conversations have taken place with the mayor and departments but no formal staffing commitments or fiscal-note numbers were finalized.

Members also probed composition and selection. The ordinance includes intent language to recruit members with a broad range of experiences, including what sponsors described as “lived experience” interacting with law enforcement — a deliberately broad phrase that could cover community advocates, Citizens Academy graduates, service providers or affected residents. The draft limits voting members who are former public-safety employees: “not more than three members may have been previously employed as police officers or fire department officers,” the sponsors confirmed. The five ex‑officio seats would be nonvoting.

On authority and oversight, sponsors emphasized the commission’s systems-level remit. Members would not be empowered to make disciplinary findings or replace internal processes; rather, the commission would serve as a bridge between the public and public-safety agencies and could request that the mayor or assembly approve independent reviews of settled matters if community concerns warranted further examination.

Council staff clarified procedural rules: boards and commissions can call special meetings with 24‑hour public notice, but there is no statutory mechanism for emergency meetings for boards and commissions (emergency meetings are a unique assembly power).

Sponsors said the ordinance includes staggered, three‑year terms with a limit of three consecutive full terms. They also said an S version — a revised ordinance reflecting departmental feedback and other language edits — is expected before the public hearing and that the hearing will likely be continued to allow time for further amendments.

The assembly scheduled a public hearing on AO 2020-662 for May 26; sponsors said they plan to bring an S version and likely continue the hearing to a future meeting. The work session adjourned without a formal vote.

What’s next: AO 2020-662 is set for a public hearing at the Anchorage Assembly’s May 26 meeting. Sponsors expect to file an amended (S) version and encouraged members to propose amendments ahead of that hearing.