Donna Schantz

Short Bio
 
Donna (Walsh) Schantz was born and raised in New York and graduated from Providence College with a BA in fine arts.  After college, she lived in New York City and worked for an advertising agency.  In 1990, Donna visited her sister in Alaska and decided to stay.  She settled in Juneau and worked for Coeur Alaska on environmental permitting and public outreach to promote the Kensington gold mine project.  In 1997, Donna and her husband Tom moved to Valdez after winning 20 acres of land in Jack Bay through the Alaska Homestead Lottery Program.  Donna worked for the Valdez Convention and Visitors Bureau and for the City of Valdez at the harbor before joining the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council (or RCAC) in 1999.  Donna currently serves as the Director of Programs for the RCAC, a non-profit organization that provides public input intended to ensure the environmentally safe operation of the Valdez Marine Terminal and associated oil tankers.  Donna and her husband have two children, Timothy “Eider” and Ellie, ages 8 and 7.   Donna and her family enjoy boating, hiking, spending time at their cabin, skiing and generally enjoying everything the local area has to offer.

1. What are three main challenges for the City of Valdez in the next five years? As a potential council member, how do you plan to address them?

One of the main challenges facing the City of Valdez is to reverse our declining population.  Some things that attract people who are considering relocating include good jobs, affordability of housing, low cost utilities, a quality education system, and a high quality of life.  If elected I will be promoting our valuable resources including the people, scenery, fish, snow, and Port Valdez with a focus on attracting people and new business to Valdez.  I will work to support efforts and services that improve our quality of life.   I support an increased focus on improving core services provided by the City and maintaining current infrastructure without incurring debt to do so.   If elected, I will advocate for a high-quality education system that strives for academic excellence with a culture of trust and integrity.   I will support initiatives that promote increased summer tourism and fishing, but I would also like to see a focus on developing our shoulder seasons to help balance our economy and draw new businesses and jobs.   I will work to promote small businesses that add jobs to our community and I will advocate for developing all aspects of our valuable and well positioned port.
 
Another challenge facing the City of Valdez is to properly manage our existing investments to ensure that they are working for us and will be there for us in the future.  The City of Valdez currently has more than $300 million dollars in investments (over $140 million in the permanent fund, and over $160 million in other investments some of which are unrestricted and some that are restricted due to legal challenges).  If elected I will promote more transparency and local decision-making on city finances.  For example, I will promote adherence to the Valdez City Code that requires a report of all city monies and investments to be provided to the Council and members of the public each month. I will promote a vision for the permanent fund that goes beyond accumulating wealth to be invested in perpetuity in big banks in far off lands.  I will also strongly advocate that more time be dedicated to managing and simplifying the overly complex City investments to ensure that decisions are made in the best interest of the citizens of Valdez.   
 
Another challenge is to ensure that our future operating expenses can be covered by declining tax revenues.   If elected, I will work to ensure that the annual budget is developed to capture only those expenses required to efficiently operate and maintain the City infrastructure and provide services by well trained staff.  I will also oppose incurring debt for future generations to pay back with interest, and will do what I can to ensure that long term operation and maintenance expenses are considered and that they are sustainable.   I will encourage an open process whereby City employees, the general public and Council members are comfortable and have the opportunity to express their views so that there is adequate information to make balanced decisions.   I will push for fiscally responsible decisions to be made at the most local level.  I will only support initiatives that I believe are in the best interest of all residents and taxpayers.  I will also be a strong proponent for levying taxes based on need rather than greed.  The City of Valdez has been so focused on maximizing taxes such that a significant portion of our tax revenues are dedicated to challenging the tax structures in court or cannot be spent by government or taxpayers because they are being challenged.  A better balance of effort and investment is needed.  It seems that some of our money could be better invested closer to home, in our own community, at a lower risk.
 

2. The City of Valdez has put considerable effort into strategic planning in the last few years, do you feel the current level of planning is lacking, adequate or excessive? Please explain.

This is a difficult question because I have not been directly involved in the strategic planning efforts.  I am very interested in input from members of the public on this topic, particularly those directly involved in the process.   With this understanding, I believe that a strategic or long range plan should be a high level view of goals that set direction for the City.  Managing a revolving five year strategic planning process is a big part of my job at the RCAC, and I believe that plans should not be so detailed that that they become obsolete before they can be printed for distribution.  I also believe that these plans should serve as a tool or a guide and not be so set in stone as to prohibit change or new ideas.  We should work to define long term challenging, yet achievable, high level goals that look into the future while also setting some short term strategic directions.  For example, a high level long term goal could be improved services and infrastructure within the City and short term strategic direction could be to strive for fiscal efficiency, transparency and responsibility.  Once the high level goals and strategic direction are agreed upon, it should be up to the City employees, working with local experts, to develop initiatives and projects with detailed budgets designed to move us towards the long term goals.   I do applaud all of the time and effort of the many volunteers involved in this process.   However, it appears that perhaps too much time or detail is being put into the planning effort and people may be wondering if the time and energy invested in this process has been worthwhile.   It also appears that there may be a lack of information sharing on the current fiscal complexities that are necessary to provide for meaningful long term strategic planning.