Utqiaġvik council to vote on seeking $4.5 million in NPR-A money for city operations

The Utqiaġvik City Council will decide Thursday whether to let Mayor Asisaun Toovak apply for a $4.5 million state grant to help pay for city government operations.

The money would come from the state's National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Impact Mitigation Program, which uses the state's share of federal oil and gas lease money from the reserve for grants to communities affected by development there. State law gives priority to the communities most directly or severely affected. Alaska News reported Sept. 1 on the fight in Juneau over whether that money keeps going first to the North Slope.

The program covers effects on population, employment, local finances and a community's ability to provide essential public services, including government administration, according to the state Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.

The resolution names "Governmental Operations" as the purpose but doesn't say how the money would be spent. It would authorize Toovak to submit the application, sign the grant documents and approve later amendments.

An application is not an award. Applications are due Nov. 15, the department recommends awards in January, and grants are paid only after the Legislature appropriates the money, according to the department's 2026 report to the Legislature.

In January, the department recommended $3 million for Utqiaġvik's "NPRA Local Operations," part of about $18.2 million for five North Slope cities and the North Slope Borough. The city also received $3 million for local government operations in the fiscal 2024 cycle, the report shows.

The North Slope Borough's mayor told the Borough Assembly on Aug. 4 that the impact funding had been cut and then, "following months of coordinated advocacy," restored in the final state capital budget.

The program also figures in an unfinished city audit. Utqiaġvik has not finalized its fiscal 2020 audit, according to its preliminary financial report for the period ending June 30. Finishing it, the report says, "will allow the City to begin reporting eligible FY2021 NPRA expenditures and submit reimbursement requests."

Some grant records needed for the audit can't be found, the report says. Files tied to former employees were corrupted, and the state no longer had copies. Management will work with the auditor on other ways to support the figures.

The city "continues to rely significantly on grant funding to support operations and capital projects," the report says.