After the Juneau city and borough assembly declined to accept a $2 million donation from Norwegian Cruise Line — saying it could look improper to accept money from an industry it regulates — the company opted to give the money to the Juneau Community Foundation, which invests and manages funding for multiple nonprofits in town.
The cruise line in May announced it would donate $10 million to six Alaska port cities most damaged economically by the loss of cruise ship travelers last year and again this summer due to the pandemic: Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway, Hoonah and Seward.
The company will donate $2 million each to Skagway, Hoonah, Juneau and Ketchikan, and $1 million each to Sitka and Seward.
Amy Skilbread, executive director of the Juneau Community Foundation, said she is waiting for any directions from Norwegian Cruise Line on use of the funds. After that official confirmation, the foundation will consider ways to use the money in Juneau.
The assembly rejected the donation on a 6-3 vote at its June 14 meeting, asking that the company direct the donation to the community foundation.
Assemblymember Carole Triem cited Norwegian Cruise Line’s proposed new dock in Juneau as factoring heavily in her decision to vote against accepting the money. “I just think that to accept money from NCL, even though it’s totally separate from the decisions we’d be making about this (dock) development project, just is not a good look for us,”she said.
Triem said even though she has faith in everyone involved, even the appearance of impropriety is enough to lose the public’s trust.
Assembly member Wade Bryson said the path for the company developing its waterfront property is already mapped out, adding that rejecting the donation would be “foolish and fiscally irresponsible.”
Norwegian officials, when they announced the donations last month, said, “We are giving that money to the elected representatives of those cities to disperse through their existing pandemic relief programs that they have set up,”with “no strings attached”to the donations.
All of the other communities selected by the cruise line have accepted the funds.
The Seward city council earlier this month discussed splitting its $1 million, with half for a developer reimbursement program to create more affordable housing locally, and half for creating more child care in the area.
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