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HALO v. ANCHORAGE11/22/1996
ice High School, within the Hillside. About thirty APD officers reside in the Hillside and drive their patrol cars home, providing a limited patrol service for the Hillside. Many city-wide services provided by APD benefit Hillside residents. Those services include the 911 system, specialized units such as the bomb squad, and what the Municipality calls "safe city" functions. Safe city functions are programs designed to benefit all Anchorage residents and include crime prevention education, municipal prosecution, jail cells, patrols for safer recreation and shopping areas, and measures to reduce drunk driving.
The boundaries of APSA have not been static. Previous expansions of APSA, to include the neighborhoods of Eagle River/Chugiak, Muldoon/Sand Lake, Dimond Industrial Park, Ocean View/Klatt, Glenn Heights, South-East Midtown, Basher/part of Bicentennial Park, Abbott/O'Malley, and Independence Park, were approved by the separate votes of residents of the new areas to be added. Hillside voters have rejected expansion of APSA into their neighborhood on three occasions.
On February 13, 1996, the Anchorage Assembly passed AO 96-30(S). That ordinance placed two propositions on the April 1996 ballot. The first, Proposition 13, provided for the abolition of APSA. Only residents within the existing APSA could vote on it. However, it was contingent on passage of the second proposition, Proposition 14. Proposition 14 provided for the creation, effective January 1, 1997, of a new Anchorage Police Service Area (NAPSA) consisting of the old APSA plus the Hillside. Proposition 14 also stated that " he new police service area would succeed to all of the assets and liabilities, including bonded indebtedness, of the Anchorage Police Service Area." All residents within the boundaries of NAPSA could vote on the second proposition. Thus AO 96-30(S) offered a mechanism to expand APSA to include the Hillside without a separate vote by Hillside residents.
The April 1996 ballot also included Proposition 6, which authorized $900,000 in bonds to purchase APD police cars. That proposition
stated that the bonds will be paid by property taxes within APSA and guaranteed by the Municipality. Local law requires service area bonds to receive "dual majority" approvals from the voters who will be primarily liable for them and the voters who will guarantee them. AMC 06.20.020(A). Therefore, Proposition 6 had to pass both among APSA residents and among all voters in the Municipality. Hillside residents did not vote as APSA residents on Proposition 6. However, if Propositions 6, 13, and 14 all take effect, Hillside residents will be assessed for property taxes on the $900,000 debt after January 1, 1997, under the "assets and liabilities" clause of Proposition 14.
Before the election, HALO brought suit. HALO alleged that AO 96-30(S) violated (1) the "area affected" provisions in the Anchorage Municipal Code and the Charter and (2) the equal protection clauses of the Alaska and United States Constitutions. It sought declaratory and injunctive relief.
The superior court ruled that HALO was not entitled to a preliminary injunction. In particular, the court found that the voting scheme in AO 96-30(S) rested on a correct determination of the areas affected by Propositions 13 and 14:
Giving the appropriate [deference] to legislative action, a review of the totality of the information before the Assembly reveals that the Assembly had a reasonable basis to conclude that all Anchorage voters will be subject to significant change in cost, quality, and quantity of police service if a citywide police service area is created.
The change will affect the tax burden in
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