Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Clips from Kodiak Island BoroughClear

Scott Smiley “We need that cash to lower the mill rate a little bit and to make sure we're doing MAPTR the right way.”

Assembly Special Meeting of May 28, 2026 · May 29, 2026

Aimee Williams “The numbers that are in front of you once again do include adding the, um, staff, um, cost of living raise that would take place on July 1st.”

Assembly Special Meeting of May 28, 2026 · May 29, 2026

Aimee Williams “by adding those now, that's in the MAPTR limit, and it helps us fully fund MAPTR and takes it out of the need to do a budget amendment.”

Assembly Special Meeting of May 28, 2026 · May 29, 2026

Scott Smiley “I think the more important issue here is the amount that we're directed towards MAPTR for next year. We really hamstring ourselves at $16.665, whereas at $17.290, we're doing a lot better for next year.”

Assembly Special Meeting of May 28, 2026 · May 29, 2026

Aimee Williams “When we put money into facility or into R&R, it causes us to collect, it doesn't affect the mill rate in a positive way. It makes it go up.”

Assembly Special Meeting of May 28, 2026 · May 29, 2026

Aimee Williams “For a mill rate, our current mill rate in the borough is 8.91. As the budget stands right now, without using any facilities fund interest, we are about at a 9.36.”

Assembly Special Meeting of May 28, 2026 · May 29, 2026

Jared Griffin “COVID money helped bridge those gaps for a few years, and as have federal grants for numerous years. COVID money is gone. Um, we voted in an executive branch in, in D.C. that eliminated those education— federal education grants that provided for a lot of the services our kids rely on.”

Kodiak Island Borough Assembly Regular Meeting of May 21, 2026 · May 21, 2026

Dave Johnson “I had a conversation with my kids and I told them, you know, the sad reality is the education you're getting this year is probably the best you'll get while you're while you're in school. It's only going to get worse. For me, the kind of final straw, or whatever you want to call it, was going down to Juneau last, last winter and here being told that until the state's congressional budget reserve is fully depleted, there's no appetite to really do anything to fix things.”

Kodiak Island Borough Assembly Regular Meeting of May 21, 2026 · May 21, 2026

Scott Smiley “There seems to be a conception that we have some kind of authority over the budget of the school district. We don't. They have the authority over the school district's budget. That's their business to do. They have cut more than $2.7 million this year and $2.5 to $2.7 million for the year before that and the year before that.”

Kodiak Island Borough Assembly Regular Meeting of May 21, 2026 · May 21, 2026

Bo Sedillo-Whiteside “move to amend Resolution Number FY 2027-01 for the amount to be made available to the Kodiak Island Borough School District from local sources for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027, is set at $13,779,556 for both in-kind services and direct appropriation.”

Kodiak Island Borough Assembly Regular Meeting of May 21, 2026 · May 21, 2026

Aimee Williams “right now, as the budget stands, um, I would have us at around a 9.4 mil rate to fund everything that's in there currently. So, and we're currently at 8.91, just as a reference point.”

Assembly Work Session of May 14, 2026 · May 14, 2026

Aimee Williams “Last night I sent the assembly an email just to go over some of the budget assumptions that were made when we were developing the original Level 1 budget. We had the assumption that the school district would ask for the maximum amount of local contribution, and they did. The budget was built around that.”

Assembly Work Session of May 14, 2026 · May 14, 2026

Aimee Williams “Using those historical trends, our forecast would be a little over $1.2 million. If we take $37,500 off that, that gives us a better revenue estimate at $4— sorry, $700,067. $767,000.”

Assembly Work Session of May 14, 2026 · May 14, 2026

Pat Griffin

“the pressure that we're feeling, right, it's state-created, it's federal policy-created with this cost of living, cost of expenses. Uh, uh, rev, uh, explosion that we've experienced this year. So, um, and I personally, I think that this is the kind of year where we look at interest income and how that we can make that, how we can make that work for taxpayers”

Assembly Work Session of May 14, 2026 · May 14, 2026

Mike Litzow “If state funding had kept pace with inflation at our current enrollment, we would get $7.4 million more from the state in this fiscal year. And critically, the local contribution scales with state aid. If the state aid had kept up with inflation, um, the cap for the local contribution would be $1.7 million higher.”

Assembly Work Session of May 14, 2026 · May 14, 2026

Pat Griffin

“Fully funding the school request, um Some of you are interested in reducing pressure on the mill rate. We need to protect borough operations and staff and, of course, avoid maintenance deferrals.”

Assembly Work Session of May 14, 2026 · May 14, 2026

Haley (Staff / Clerk, Planning and Zoning Commission)

“Motion passes 4-0.”

Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting of Wednesday, May 20, 2026 · May 20, 2026

Chairman Court (Chairman, Planning and Zoning Commission, Planning and Zoning Commission)

“case number 26-017, request a rezone of a portion of Yuzinki Track C, Block 1, remainder of USS 4871 from R-1 single-family residential to District 2 PL public use lands district.”

Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting of Wednesday, May 20, 2026 · May 20, 2026

Chairman Court (Chairman, Planning and Zoning Commission, Planning and Zoning Commission)

“Case S26-016, requests a subdivision of USS 4871 Block 1 Track C, creating USS 4871 Block 1 Lot 2 Track C, and an extension of G Street, a 60-foot right-of-way.”

Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting of Wednesday, May 20, 2026 · May 20, 2026