Nome council asks utility board to move its meetings from the power plant to City Hall

The Nome Common Council on Tuesday asked the Nome Joint Utility System board to move its meetings out of the power plant and back to City Hall, after complaints that meetings at the plant are hard to hear and hard to attend.

Ben Townsend, news director at KNOM, which livestreams the utility board's meetings, thanked utility manager John Handeland for changing which engines run during meetings but told the council "the audio quality is still pretty abysmal." Townsend said that in two years of going to the meetings, he could probably count on one hand the members of the public he has seen there. The first time he went, he said, he was "pretty intimidated because it doesn't feel like a place that I should be in." Thirty or so people were watching Tuesday's council meeting online, he said, and sometimes 50 or 60 watch.

The council's resolution, as first drafted, said the board was "required" to meet at City Hall. Before passing it, the council changed that to "requested." City Clerk Daniel Grimmer called the resolution "a strong ask" and said the council could make the move a requirement only by ordinance. The council also added the Port Commission to the list of bodies that already meet at City Hall. Grimmer said leaving it out was an oversight. One member voted against the amendment, and no one voted against the amended resolution.

Councilmember Scot Henderson said the resolution formalizes what individual council members had already been asking. The mayor, who chaired the meeting, said those requests started because it is "really difficult to both hear and participate in meetings at the powerhouse," and that so far the board had not held any meetings at City Hall "despite the simple requests."

Handeland said the board used to meet at City Hall for years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it arrived on numerous occasions to find the Planning Commission or another meeting still going in the room. He said it moved to the visitor center, then to the power plant, whose meeting room has televisions and whiteboards. He said he believes public attendance has been better at the power plant than it ever was at City Hall.

Still, Handeland said he would support the move. He said he didn't expect a unanimous vote but believed a majority of the board would agree as long as the city guarantees the room will be available. The request is on the draft agenda for the board's meeting next Tuesday.

"I can't tell you the board is going to say okay, but if I was betting on it, I'd double my bet right now," Handeland said.