Video Clips
Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.
Clips from City of SewardClear
0:09
Sue McClure“What if it— what if we change our mind after this upcoming election? Can we go back?”
Seward: City Council Meeting 10/26/2026 ·
0:24
Michael Calhoon“the biggest positive for me is an increased voter turnout, which is what I've always wanted here, because 19 to 21%, 22 once in a while, although maybe good compared to some other places, I don't think is, uh, is optimal for a town our size when we have a lot of important things to decide on. So I'm in favor of it for that reason.”
Seward: City Council Meeting 10/26/2026 ·
0:15
Lori Draper“I did have one person say don't do it, but pretty much everybody else said they wanted them on the same day.”
Seward: City Council Meeting 10/26/2026 ·
0:32
Kat Sorensen“that's because we're gonna treat FY27 as a bridge year. The sales tax will stay the same at 4% year-round and the mill rate will stay the same. The campgrounds will become its own enterprise fund and will have a larger campground and parking transfer to cover the gap that doesn't exist yet”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:33
Kat Sorensen“We also are now subsidizing the pool and the pool manager position at the school district, and so that costs about $200,000 annually.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:32
Kat Sorensen“It definitely doesn't seem like— it shows a loss in the general fund revenue, so I understand both sides to it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a wash.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:10
Kat Sorensen“something that many people may not know happens to your sales tax already in the winter is that borough exempts groceries in Q1 and Q4.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:54
Kat Sorensen“Which indicates the move to a seasonal sales tax, which would be 0% in Q1 and Q4 and 6% in Q2 and Q3, as well as a $1 mil property tax reduction. This would equal about 3— it would equal 3% on average across the year for year-round residents on their sales tax rate, and it would also allow the sales tax to drop to zero at a very, um, high cost of living time of year, January through March, and then October to December.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:26
Kat Sorensen“Together, tourism-related taxes and seasonal sales tax drew 62% of respondents. Residents really favor revenue from visitors”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:30
Kat Sorensen“First and foremost, through fiscal year '27, so starting January 1st to December 31st of 2027, everything will stay the same. In the— on January 1st, 2028, the proposed winter rate will take into effect, which is 0%, and then for that summer from April to September 30th, it will increase to 6%.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:38
Kat Sorensen“We wanted to mitigate that, um, debacle by pushing the 2028, um, pushing the start out to 2028 since so many bookings and plans are made at least a year in advance. This also gives local businesses time to update their booking and payment software, to build the change into their prices, and most importantly, it gives the United Peninsula Borough, who collects all of our taxes for us, the lead time to prepare and update its system.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:24
Kat Sorensen“costs do keep rising. Heating oil and nearly everything else across the board costs more money. You may also remember this year we took on the financial asset of leasing a new community center from the borough. The city took on that former middle school space with new costs and no new revenue.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:28
Kat Sorensen“It does not have the cash flow to sustain that size of a transfer annually, so we're using it as a bridge, not a sustained revenue source. A new sustained revenue in the form of a seasonal sales tax lets the city fund these costs without reducing any services to the city residents”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:36
Kat Sorensen“The biggest one is the seasonal sales tax, which will increase our revenue to the City of Seward and allow us to do a drop of the property tax by $1 mil.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:29
Kat Sorensen“Q1 and Q4 consistently bring about $20 million, while Q2 and Q3 bring in exponentially more, and that's in our peak season there.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:21
Kat Sorensen“It shifts the burden from year-round residents to seasonal visitors without— within our existing revenue framework.”
Seward: City Council Work Session 10/26/2026 ·
0:15
Clare Sullivan
“Yes. That resolution has been approved.”Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:21
Clare Sullivan
“Does anybody have any concerns, questions, or otherwise? I had questions for Mr. Zimmerman, but he's not here, so I guess I don't have any questions.”Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:16
Clare Sullivan
“Be nice if Mr. Zimmerman was here, but yeah. Okay, well then, if that's the case, no one has anything else, then, uh, are we ready to vote?”Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:32
“Voting on amending Resolution 2026-016 by adding the applicant— by adding to Section 2, 15.10.220, subsection D, the applicant or individual responsible for complying with the conditions of the proposed conditional use permit has demonstrated the ability and willingness to comply with permit conditions as evidenced by their compliance history with previously approved permits issued by the city.”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:59
Courtney Bringhurst“The conditions primarily mirror What has been required on past CUPs for multifamily dwellings requiring the applicant comply with all building fire and life safety requirements as well as tariff service connections. A minimum of 4 off-street parking spaces are required. Of course, the bear-resistant refuse containers and three-sided enclosure. With roof, the landscaping requirement, which is required to be completed within 1 year following the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy. And then, the final condition is that all the conditions must be completed prior to the Certificate of Occupancy being issued and that ongoing conditions are— will remain in effect for the duration of the approved use.”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
1:04
Courtney Bringhurst“the review criteria has been amended or is being proposed to be amended to now address that as the Commission reviews conditional use permits, they can evaluate whether the use will have significant noise, glare, odor, or other nuisances and dangers affecting the surrounding properties that would be greater than anticipated from other permitted uses in the area, as well as a review criteria where the Commission can evaluate whether the property is current in payments owed to the city”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:10
Courtney Bringhurst“the first primary focus of this ordinance is to adjust the requirements of a conditional use Permit Application and the review criteria.”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:16
Clare Sullivan
“I like the fact that you actually put a lot of the things that we add in the CUP actually in code, so we don't have to redo it every time. It sort of makes it a lot easier, because it's usually the same thing over and over.”Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:12
“That amendment has been approved, and back to the main motion. Resolution 2026-016.”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:26
Daniel Meuninck“thanks to Courtney who, um, workshopped the amendment with Brennan, talking to the City Attorney. We'll We'll still provide the City Attorney with the new language, and so we may workshop it a little more, but I think we have a pretty good understanding of your intent with that amendment.”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:10
Clare Sullivan
“Reinforces bad behavior if you don't enforce it.”Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:17
“I think we did a great job with multiple work sessions, and I think everybody's, you know, on the same page the way it came out. Clean some stuff up, clarify some things.”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:18
Brenan Hornseth
“I would like to propose an amendment to Section 2 of the Seward City Code, Title 15.10.320, on page 47 of our packet here, under subsection— Section 2, subsection D, the review criteria.”Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:20
Clare Sullivan
“Does anybody have any— is there any public comment for this at all? There is no one. There is no one signed in. Thank you. All right, well, uh, then what I will do is I will close the public hearing for now, and I will go into our deliberations here for the commissioners.”Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:27
Courtney Bringhurst“So it's similar to other fourplexes that have been constructed by Phil Zimmerman along Phoenix Road. It would be 4 units, 2 one-bedroom units and 2 two-bedroom units. The conditions for this conditional use permit are found on— in the resolution on page 23.”
Seward: P&Z Regular Meeting October 20 2026 ·
0:30
Heather Haugland
“I especially think if it's an issue that you don't have enough services to meet the demand and that residents are having to give up a bed or, you know, an appointment. For the sake of the visitors, that's something that would be bothersome, that would be a problem.”Seward: Planning & Zoning Work Session 10/20/2026 ·
0:07
Lori Draper“What about impacts on our medical system from the visitor industry?”
Seward: Planning & Zoning Work Session 10/20/2026 ·
0:19
Heather Haugland
“we're happy to— whatever you guys want as a scope, you know, we're flexible. Yeah, just let me know next steps, you know, whether it's— maybe you guys can prepare like a list of outcomes that you would be interested in and we can provide some scoping and budgeting language.”Seward: Planning & Zoning Work Session 10/20/2026 ·
0:07
Tim McDonald
“You're going to add 20, 30% to the cost of a house, is that correct? Something like that. Whatever it is, it's a lot.”Seward: City Council Meeting 10/12/2026 ·
0:22
Courtney (City of Seward)
“it is common across the board to require developers to provide all the public utilities and installations when they develop a subdivision. And, and just to clarify too, this, this change to our subdivision code is not now requiring developers to provide that. It has always required that.”Seward: City Council Meeting 10/12/2026 ·
0:19
Robert Barnwell“So there's a reason for these demands. And I don't think they're excessive.”
Seward: City Council Meeting 10/12/2026 ·
