Kodiak Island Borough Assembly sets Aug. 6 vote on nonprofit grants

One member pitches flat grant awards

The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly is scheduled to vote Aug. 6 on how much borough money nonprofits receive for the coming year. One member spent Thursday's work session pressing for a single award amount for every applicant in a category. No awards were approved at the work session.

That member laid out a spreadsheet built on flat awards. It set $16,000 for each health and safety applicant, down from the roughly $25,000 apiece the borough has paid in past years, and $3,500 for each smaller request. The total came to $175,000, or $5,000 above what the Assembly budgeted. "I do think that keeping the amounts the same and trying to avoid the appearance of bias is a crucial thing that we should do," he said.

Other members favored a competing spreadsheet prepared by Manager Aimée Williams, which carried varying award amounts rather than uniform ones. "I think we are— it seems like we are very close with her version," the deputy presiding officer said.

Another member proposed trimming the seven health and safety awards to $15,000 each. That would free up $3,500 for the Humane Society of Kodiak, which the draft spreadsheet leaves at zero.

Humane Society warns of funding gap

Two Humane Society board members had asked the Assembly not to drop the organization. The borough grant pays for coupons that cut the cost of spaying and neutering pets for residents outside city limits, including the villages, one said. From fiscal 2019 through fiscal 2026 the program covered 265 borough residents at a total of $51,700. At the Assembly's June 4 regular meeting, Humane Society President Linda Lance said a $5,000 borough grant sterilized 22 pets in the current fiscal year and 35 the year before. "Veterinary care is expensive in Kodiak," Lance said then.

The Assembly's deputy presiding officer pushed back. He said the shelter already receives $75,000 from the borough through animal control funding approved in the budget, separate from the grant pool.

Members asked the manager's office for a cleaner spreadsheet that separates general fund, tourism fund and opioid settlement money before amendments are offered next week. They also clarified that the restricted opioid money supplements ordinary health and social services grants rather than replacing them. Brother Francis Shelter, for example, would draw $19,000 from the opioid funds on top of a $15,000 general grant, because the opioid dollars are narrow in what they can pay for. Members may amend the resolution when it comes up for a vote at the regular meeting.