ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said in her first State of the City address Monday at an Anchorage Chamber of Commerce luncheon that she will not attempt to do the work involved in addressing some of the largest Anchorage's challenges are glossed over.

Instead, she said, her government is committed to making this happen.

“I’m really excited about this work,” LaFrance said. “From directly addressing homelessness to expanding crisis response services to hiring prosecutors and rebuilding our snow fleet. We are committed to action and will implement it.”

LaFrance said a big focus during her first 100 days in office has been addressing the city's staffing, forming a team to address adjusting wages to make them more competitive, expanding paid parental leave and implement new policies to allow more city employees to work remotely.

One of the most pressing issues, LaFrance said, is the municipal prosecutor's office, where recent reports show hundreds of cases are being dropped and not going to trial because of staffing issues. LaFrance noted that the criminal division had lost more than three-quarters of its prosecutors in the past three years.

“We found that the biggest problem was a longstanding lack of management and administrative attention,” LaFrance said. “The office was too cramped for audits, let alone strategic planning and training.”

LaFrance said the department has hired eight new attorneys since June – including four in the criminal division – with another coming in November.

“The trials are underway again,” she said

Regarding people experiencing homelessness in Anchorage, LaFrance said the city is working to stop the cycle of shelters that open for the winter months only to have people return to the streets in the spring when they close bring. She cited better coordination with partners, shelters, shelters and navigation aids to work toward a year-round solution.

With snow falling steadily outside Monday, LaFrance called snow removal one of the most important services the city can provide. She said planning for the winter snow removal began in June and involved as many as 12 city departments.

She said the Snow Solutions Team looked at equipment and staffing needs.

“The team also looked at the things that didn’t go as they could or should have last year and found ways to improve that service delivery,” she said.

LaFrance said a big improvement this year will be better communication with the public. The city is working on a website that uses GPS tracking to show where plows are and when they are expected to be in different parts of the city. The website is expected to be operational on November 15th.

“I believe we did everything we could do to prepare and best position ourselves for the challenges,” LaFrance said, referring to snow removal. However, he added that major improvements, such as replacing aging equipment, will take several years of effort.

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