Assembly Regular Meeting of October 2, 2025

I'd like to go ahead and call to order the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly regular meeting of Thursday, October 2nd, 2025, at 6:30 PM. We are in the assembly chambers. We'll have the invocation by Captain David Shadow of the Salvation Army, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand.

Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for bringing us here tonight. Thank you for the absolutely beautiful day that we had today. And God, thank you for the beautiful life that you are giving us here in this beautiful island. We thank you for these public servants, God.

We thank you for their service to the community. We pray that they'll have wisdom and dedication and honor in the their posts. And God, I pray during this election season that the citizens of this community will, will step up and do their civic duty to exercise their free rights in a democracy to elect those who are on the ballot for this year. God, please be with us as we go through this meeting today, and I pray that you'll bless us and keep us always in your heart, and help us to always remember that, that we are here to serve the people of this community. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We are gathered on the traditional homeland of the Supiaq Alutiiq people, and we acknowledge the 10 tribes of the Kodiak Alutiiq region. We recognize the Alutiiq culture that enriches our community to this day. Roll call, please.

Mr. Ames. Here. Mr. Griffin. Here. Mr. Johnson.

Here. Mr. LeDoux. Here. Mr. Smiley. Here.

Mr. Whiteside. Here. Mayor Arntz. Here. You have a quorum.

Thank you. Next is approval of agenda and consent agenda. Jarrett. Move to approve the agenda and consent agenda. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries unanimously.

For the public's information, the consent agenda consists of approval of the minutes from the special meeting of September 11th, 2025, and regular meeting minutes of September 18th, 2025. The next item is citizens' comments. There are two designated citizens' comment periods, one at the beginning of the meeting and one towards the end. These comment periods are intended for general comments as well as for agenda items that are not part of a public hearing. We have 5 public hearing items for tonight, uh, one of which is the El Chicano liquor license transfer of ownership and ordinance— ordinances number 2026-7 through 2026-10.

Comments for these items will be heard when the items are called during public hearing. Please wait until you get to that portion of the agenda. For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3231, toll-free number 855-492-9202. And please turn off your radio, uh, to prevent feedback. Uh, for those in the room, Who wish to speak under citizens' comments, please come to the podium and sign in.

Turn on the microphone, make sure the green light is on before speaking, and speak directly into the mic. Please state your name for the record. Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof. Sandra, go ahead. Hey, it's automatically green.

That's awesome. Uh, hello. For the record, My name is Sandra West. Uh, I just want to say good job, everybody. I mean everybody, you know, people that you see out walking and I don't know, it's a great town.

It's a great town. It's been a great summer and great fall, but good job to the clerks. Yeah, the staff, the assembly, and the manager, soon to be a famous author.

Um, I also want to talk about recycling a little bit. I want to encourage the community. Every time you recycle, you're saving money. I am very surprised that we have to talk already about expansion of the landfill. I thought we just did that.

I don't know if that's a sign of aging, but I thought we just did that. It costs us money. You can save everybody money by recycling. So less in the trash, more recycling. I also want to say I'm very excited that we are recognizing October as being Filipino American National History Month because I am very excited.

I also want to say, just in case somebody's getting ready to, you know, put some salmon on the barbecue and they might not hear this later, I'm sure all the assembly members will chime in. But vote! Get out and vote! You can vote tomorrow, Friday, or Monday here in this chamber, this building, this room from 10 to 4. And on Tuesday, it's voting day, so please get out and vote.

And good job, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to come forward, please do so at this time. Do we have any callers.

Okay, go ahead, Sima.

Hi there, I am Sima, your assessor. As the assembly knows, assessing and finance are currently converting software from Harris to Tyler. The Tyler team graciously sent two folks up here to ensure our conversion to go live runs smoothly. Here with me tonight is Jeff Henderson Tyler's GM, Jeff, joins us from Texas, the second largest state in the U.S. Jeff and the Tyler team member Joe Todd have been instrumental in getting a multitude of things up and running for both assessing and finance. While this week has been mostly about assessing, additional Tyler members will be on site in the next few weeks to assist finance with their side also.

It's on. I have to say, assessing staff has been throwing a lot at this— at these guys this week, and having the GM on site, it's a phone call and it's done. So it's been amazing.

They have— sorry. They have been awesome to work with and gracious in helping us move through the software with our needs. Joe did mention that he would like to come back to Kodiak and assist staff with remote inspections too. Assessing staff looks forward to continued support with the Tyler team, plus it doesn't hurt that I have Jeff's cell phone number. Jeff, would you like to say anything?

I will just take a quick minute. Jeff Henderson, General Manager for the Appraisal and Tax Business Unit. Thank you. Tyler sees these relationships as long-term partnerships. And so we're very excited to be in the borough of Kodiak and look forward— we're working with SEMA and the finance team this year and over the next several years.

Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for coming up here and working with us in person. Absolutely. Because that makes a difference in— with the problems we've had with the previous software, I am tickled to see that we're getting something that appears is going to work well.

And, uh, your responsiveness in coming here to make sure any problems are addressed immediately speaks highly. So thank you. Thank you.

All righty, any other citizens' comments?

No phone calls? Okay, then we'll move on to awards and presentations. First one is, uh, award presentation for Employee of the Quarter, and at this time I'd like to turn it over to Borough Manager Amy Williams to present the Employee of the Quarter. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, the borough used to do an Employee of the Quarter for every quarter and hasn't done so since 2020, so we're really excited to bring the program back.

This year we had 4 nominations. Those are for this quarter. Um, out of those 4 nominations, they were only for 2 people, so each one got 2 nominations, which made it really hard to pick which one was going to get it. But the Employee of the Quarter for third quarter is, uh, Patricia Valerio. Patricia is unable to be here tonight, but I wanted to read something, um, from her nominator.

And she was nominated by Cody Allen, so he wrote almost 3 pages. I'll save you and only do a little chunk. Um, I'm pleased to nominate Patricia for Employee of the Quarter for her outstanding performance, leadership, and unwavering commitment to operational excellence during a period of critical staffing shortages in the Engineering Facilities Department, and more specifically, the Projects Office. Patricia stepped up well beyond the expectations of her project assistant role, taking on duties of interim project manager with professionalism, effectiveness, with a results-oriented mindset. During this period, Patricia played a pivotal role in managing the delivery progress and oversight of numerous active construction and capital improvement projects across the borough.

This includes direct management and coordination on over a dozen complex projects from contract execution, contractor coordination, and involving stakeholder engagement and design development, all while continuing to support her regular responsibilities. Um, it's like he wrote an OER before or something. He does a great job. So, um, we have an all-staff meeting next Friday, and I'll present Patricia her certificate there, and she'll have a name on her plaque again because this will not be her first award. And then instead of, um, whatever they used to give, we're giving 4 hours of admin time for, um, employee of the quarter, and then employee of the year will get a full day of admin time as their gift.

They won't let me give Sunshine Liberty here, so this is closest I can get. So congratulations to Patricia, she truly deserves this. I also want to say the other person that was nominated was Cody Pashkal, and Cody had 2 people, one of them being Patricia, write some really good things about him. And it wasn't a super easy decision on which one of those people were going to win, but it says a lot about both of them that 2 people each nominated them. So we look forward to this program continuing, and congratulations to Patricia.

Yes, congratulations to Patricia, and hopefully, uh, some— when she's feeling better, she can make it to a meeting. We've seen her before, but we'll have, uh new members on in not too distant future, so it'd be nice for them to meet her too on there. So the next item we have is a proclamation from the Office of the Mayor of Kodiak Island Borough declaring the month of October Community Planning Month. Whereas change within a community is constant and community planning and plans can help navigate the change with data-driven insights and expertise that provides better choices for how people work and live; and whereas, community planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be meaningfully involved in making choices that determine the future of their community; and whereas, the month of October is designated as National Community Planning Month throughout the United States and its territories; And whereas the celebration of National Community Planning Month allows us to publicly recognize the participation and dedication of the members of planning commissions, professional planners, and other citizen planners who have contributed their time and expertise to the improvement of the Kodiak Island Borough. Now therefore, I, Scott Arndt, Mayor of the Kodiak Island Borough, declare the month of October 2025 as Community Planning Month in the Kodiak Island Borough in conjunction with the celebration of National Community Planning Month.

And I'm here to present this to our Community Development Director, Chris French. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you. Okay. So I just wanted to, again, thank the mayor and the assembly for approving the proclamation. Over the past year, we've completed the hazard mitigation plan, which has been adopted by the state of Alaska, the borough assembly, and also finally by FEMA.

And we will be working to implement that. I think as the Assembly knows, we are working hard to get our Comprehensive Plan done. Just a shameless plug, we are going to— we have an open house on the 8th next week from 10:00 to 2:00 to talk about parks and trails and open spaces. And I hope people— urge people to come and participate and provide their ideas and comments on those particular parts of our community. The Comprehensive Plan is important.

Assembly and the Planning and Zoning Commission know for the guiding of future growth and development for the borough and its communities. We also, on Community Planning Month, like to thank all of those professional planners, planning officials such as Planning and Zoning Commissions, Assembly members, and as well as citizen planners who participated through planning processes throughout the years. And again, we thank those who are currently participating in our current planning processes. I wanted to thank them as well and thank everybody here tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Next, next, uh, from the Office of the Mayor, Kodiak Island Borough, we have a proclamation declaring October 2025 as Filipino American National History Month. Whereas Filipino American history and culture must be promoted because of the role of Filipino Americans in the history of Kodiak and Alaska. And whereas positive role models will be able to instill and teach the Filipino American youth the importance of education, authenticity, and values of their legacy. And whereas Kodiak is fortunate to count among its population a large concentration of citizens of Filipino descent, including those who have lived in Kodiak for generations and those who are new to the Kodiak area, who contribute to Kodiak's economy and society through their commitment to professions, commerce, family, and the arts.

Now therefore, I, Scott Arndt, Mayor of the Kodiak Island Borough, do hereby proclaim the month of October 2025 as Filipino American National History Month, as established by the trustees of the Filipino American National Historical Society, encourage all the residents to participate in the festivities celebrating the rich heritage and traditions of the Philippine Islands. And I am here to present this to Ruby Schultz.

Take care. You want to speak?

Okay.

Everybody thinks we're dancing. We're dancing tomorrow. Okay, um, good evening, Borough Assembly members. Assembly and member— well, I'm messing up already. Okay, good evening everybody, my name is Ruby Schultze.

On behalf of the Filipino American Association of Kodiak, we are grateful and humbly accept this proclamation presented here tonight declaring the month of October as Filipino American National History Month. This recognition highlights the camaraderie between our community and the city, emphasizing the rich contributions of Filipino Americans to to the cultural tapestry of Kodiak. We look forward to collaborating with the Borough Assembly and the entire community in celebrating this month through events that reflect our heritage and promote understanding and unity. Thank you for supporting the Filipino community and acknowledging the importance of our history. We would like you to invite you all to the Filipino exhibit at the Kodiak History Museum tomorrow at 5 PM.

It is a potluck. Please bring a dish if you can. If you can't, we'd love to to watch because we will be performing a Filipino dance at 6 PM. So we hope to see you all there.

Thank you so much.

Do we have any committee reports?

Jared? Just a brief one from the Health Facilities Advisory Board. The board is recommending— we're passing on some purchasing and reimbursement requests from HFAB, from Providence, and it's going through the process now. We have to— we're waiting on some other items first to see how much we have, but those will be coming down in the next 3, 4 weeks or so.

They deal with things we've already talked about, the chiller, for instance. So, but yeah, that was our last meeting. Thank you. Any others? Seeing none, we'll move on to public hearings.

First one we have is Assembly Review of the State of Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office Beverage Dispensary Liquor License Number 329 99, transfer of ownership from El Chicano Incorporated, doing business as El Chicano Mexican Restaurant, to Antonia Bravo, and transfer of location from 402 Marineway Suite 100 to 202 Reznov Drive, with new restaurant endorsement application. Staff report, our clerk, Nova Javier. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. Um, the assembly is to assess the license transfer application based on the information that's contained in your packet, the feedback received from staff and public testimony during the public hearing. I would also like to note that attaching your guidelines are the two public hearing notices that we received regarding the transfer of this license and the voice Non-objection.

So this agenda item pertains to the transfer not only of the ownership but also of the location of this license. The clerk's office has reviewed the application in accordance with code, and our investigation resulted with fire safety concerns. And what I understand is that the licensee is working closely with the fire marshal to get this resolved. Ms. Antonia Bravo is here with us tonight, and she mentioned that she would be speaking under public hearing, and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have. We have given you 3 recommended motions in your guidelines.

Thank you. And your recommendation? I think you would be making your motion based on the information that you have in your packet or any questions that may be answered during the public hearing comments. Thank you. Jared, what's your wishes?

Uh, move to voice non-protest to the State of Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office beverage dispensary liquor license number 3299, transfer of ownership from El Chicano Incorporated, doing business as El Chicano Mexican Restaurant, to Antonia Bravo And transfer location from 402 Marineway Suite 100 to 202 Reznov Drive with new restaurant endorsement and direct the clerk to notify AMCO of this decision. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion at this time? We'll go ahead and recess the regular meeting and open the public hearing.

Anyone wishing to speak on this? If you're in the audience, come forward. If you're wanting to call in, I'll repeat the phone numbers. The local number is 907-486-3231. Toll-free number, 855-492-9202.

And ask you to state your name for the record, turn on the microphone before speaking. Address all remarks to the assembly. And if you're calling in, please turn off your radio. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Antonia Bravo.

I am the daughter of Anna and Fili Bravo from El Chicanos, and I'm here to represent the transfer license application. Um, just want to address the assembly that I've been working very diligently to uh, get this completed. I've been working on it since April of 2025. Um, I've been very diligent in communicating with AMCO. Um, I've also been communicating with the fire chief recently.

Um, and it's to my understanding here recently that, uh, most of the items are completed at the 202 location. Um, but I'm also going to follow, follow up and make sure that all those items are completed to just make sure that those are done. Um, we've had to kind of pivot from the 402 Marine Way location just because there's been a lot of, um, family things that have happened, unexpected things that we weren't planning on happening. And so we've kind of have had to pivot to the location that we're at now to make that work and just kind of you know, be where we are now with the license and make that work for the time being. And so that's kind of the reasoning why we're doing that now.

It wasn't really the original plan.

But again, like I said, I've been working diligently on trying to get all those things completed. I've communicated with everyone. I've been on the board meeting for the original AmCo license. Voiced, you know, everything. I've communicated with them as well, you know, paid all fees.

I've been on, on all the transfers and just have covered all bases. So I've been working really hard on keeping all the communication open and just covering all my bases on, on everything. So hopefully you can get all this completed and move forward. And I've been really working hard to get this done and, and completed for my family. And, um, just, yeah, just take care of things.

So thank you for coming forward and letting us know, um, how things are going. So I appreciate that. Yes. Um, anything else you'd like to say? No, I don't think so.

I think that kind of covers everything that I, that I've, I've had for tonight. Okay, thank you so much. Yes, thank you. Do we have any No calls. Anyone else that wishes to speak under the public hearing on this?

Good evening, my name is Carleen McChesney. From listening earlier, I understand Tony has also been in front of the City Council getting things taken care of there also. Thank you. Thank you, Carly. Anyone else wishing to come forward and speak under public hearing?

And no further calls either. Okay, then at this time we'll go ahead and close the public hearing, reconvene the regular meeting. Assembly discussion, any Discussion. Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Ames.

Um, yes. The motion before you, I will just repeat it. It's a non-protest. Correct. Mr. Griffin.

Yes. Mr. Johnson. Yes. Mr. LeDoux. Yes.

Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Whiteside. Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Motion passes unanimously. Okay, thank you. Next we have, uh, next public hearing is ordinance number FY 2026-7, amending the Kodiak Island Borough Code, Title 2, Administration and Personnel, Chapter 2.10, Appointment of Officers, Commissions, and Committees. Section 2.10.030, Compensation for Regulatory and Quasi-Judicial Boards and Commissions. Jared, move to adopt Ordinance Number FY 2026-07.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Amy Williams, Borough Manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Board of Equalization for Valuation typically meets twice a year in May.

To hear evaluation appeals and approve the role for certification. The board consists of 5 members and 2 alternate members, each serving 3-year terms. According to borough records, the last time this board's compensation was reviewed and increased was in 2008. The board chair is requesting the compensation amount be raised from $100 to $170 per meeting.

Okay.

At this time, I'll close the regular meeting, open the public hearing. Once again, I'll read the phone numbers. Phone number is 907-486-3210, and toll-free number is 855-492-9202. Those for in the room, you know the drill. So anyone Wishing to come forward or call in, please do so at this time.

No call. Hearing and seeing none, I am going to close the public hearing, reconvene the regular meeting. Assembly discussion, any discussion? Bo? Just a quick opportunity for a quick thanks to those that are serving on the BOE.

It's without their expertise, it would be a lot more difficult for us to take something like that on. And so we appreciate their expertise and willingness to serve the community, and this is quite reasonable to me. Okay, seeing no other discussion, roll call vote, please. Mr. Griffin? Yes.

Mr. Johnson? Yes. Mr. LeDoux? Yes. Mr. Smiley?

Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames? Yes.

Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next public hearing is ordinance number FY 2026-8, amending Kodiak Island Borough Code, Title 3, Revenue and Finance, Chapter 3.35, Real Property Tax, Section 3.35.030, Real and Personal Property Exempted from Taxation, regarding good cause appeal hearings. Jared, move to adopt Ordinance Number FY 2026-08.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This ordinance updates the process in which good cause hearings will follow.

This ordinance clarifies the role of the assessor, the borough clerk, and the claimant, and the procedure that the assembly will follow for the public. This is the procedure that we use now, however, it has not been properly placed into KIB code. This ordinance will change that. If you have any specific questions, our assessor, Seema Groot, is here tonight to answer. Okay, at this time I'm going ahead and recess the regular meeting and open the public hearing.

And I'll read the phone number again: 907-486-3231, and toll-free number is 855- 492-9202. And everybody knows the drill, so we'll wait a moment.

Any callers?

And no public wanting to come forward, so we will close the public hearing. Reconvene the regular meeting. Assembly discussion, any discussion this time?

Seeing none, roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Johnson. Yes. Mr. LeDoux. Yes.

Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Whiteside. Yes. Mr. Ames.

Yes. Mr. Griffin. Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Then Next is Ordinance Number FY 2026-9, amending Kodiak Island Borough Code Title 3, Revenue and Finance, Chapter 3.35, Real Property Tax, Section 3.35.040, Method of Assessment, regarding correction of the assessment roll. Jared. Move to adopt ordinance number FY 2026-09. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Um, at this time I'll recess the regular meeting, open the public hearing, and the phone numbers are 907-486-3231, toll-free number 855-492- 9202. Anybody wishing to call in or come forward and speak, please do so at this time.

And any phone calls?

And seeing no one in the audience wishing to come forward at this time, we'll close the public hearing, reconvene the regular meeting. Any discuss— Assembly discussion. Jared.

Oh, I skipped right over that. Moving right along. Staff report. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Uh, this ordinance is so that our code can align with Senate Bill 179.

Senate Bill 179 describes specific information for the assessor's role in assisting the public during the appeal period after notice of values are mailed and how errors and omissions may be corrected. The first section clarifies the assessor's role in determining full and true value notices, and the second section clarifies how errors or omissions will be handled when someone comes in to appeal. Our assessor is here tonight if you have any specific questions about these changes.

Any discussion? Any questions of the assessor? Seeing none, roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. LeDoux. Yes.

Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames?

Yes. Mr. Griffin? Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes.

Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. The last public hearing is ordinance number FY 2026-10, determining the disposition of tax foreclosed properties acquired by Clerk's Deed in 2024, and established intention to surplus and sell said properties by finding that a public need does not exist for the properties and authorizing the properties for immediate disposal. Jared.

Move to adopt Ordinance Number FY 2026-10. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

On July 12th, 2024, the borough acquired a clerk's deed for 4 properties via the foreclosure process established by borough code and state statutes. Of those 4 properties, only 2 currently remain unredeemed. Those 2 unredeemed properties were presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission during their August 13th work session and August 20th regular meeting, where they determined that a public need does not exist. The ordinance— this ordinance accepts the Planning and Zoning Commission's findings classifies the properties as surplus to the borough, gives permission for the properties to be sold, and establishes the conditions of sale. The conditions of sale set in ordinance are: the sale is conducted by a sealed bid auction.

The bid shall contain a 10% deposit based on the minimum bid amount listed in the bid packet. The minimum bid is the amount owed to the borough including the cost of the sale. The remaining bid balance must be paid within 30 days of bid acceptance, and the highest bidder takes ownership. If the property remains unsold after being offered for sale by sealed bid, the property may be listed online for sale to any approved party for the minimum bid. A sale date has not been set.

Thank you. At this time, I'll recess the regular meeting, open the public hearing, and I'll read the phone numbers. 907 486-3231, Toll-free number 855-492-9202. And anyone in the room wishing to come forward and speak, please do so at this time or call in.

Hearing and seeing No public. We'll close the public hearing, reconvene the regular meeting. Assembly discussion. Any discussion?

All righty.

Go ahead. I didn't realize you want—. Um, I just want to point out that whatever, um, if these properties are sold at auction, that anything above what they owe the borough Goes to the registered owner, is that correct? If the sale is completed before the 10-year mark, yes. Okay, thank you.

Roll call vote on the motion, please.

Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames?

Yes. Mr. Griffin? Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes.

Mr. LeDoux? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously. Next item we have is the Borough Manager's Report.

Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The United Fishermen of Alaska are having their fall 2025 board meeting in Kodiak on October 14th and 15th. There are two events that local government officials are invited to on October 14th. One is a meet and greet scheduled between 8:30 and 9:30 in the morning and an evening reception at the Afognak Native Corporation from 5:30 to 8:30 that evening.

KB has also been asked to sponsor their evening reception on the same night. The sponsorship form is attached. Mayor Arndt and I were able to catch the last part of the Descartes Technologies presentation to the City of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough after agenda setting this week. Both municipalities agreed that it's worth the investment to see what the software could do for our region. I negotiated with them today and we should be ready early next week to sign a 3-year contract for that software.

The Solid Waste Contract Committee met this week. Uh, we discussed a path forward for meeting the goal of having our contract awarded 1 year in advance of the current contract's expiration date. Assemblymember Johnson and Smiley agreed that we would wait to name a chair of that committee until after the mayor assigns new committee assignments later this month. I attended the annual workshop for the Information Education Committee this week. I'm the liaison from the board to that committee, and we have two other people who used to live in Kodiak.

One lives in Washington and one in the Kenai Peninsula, so Kodiak is represented very well on that committee. We are currently recruiting for an ENF director, an environmental specialist, a landfill manager, a general laborer, and a code enforcement officer here at the borough. In community development, there will be a planning and zoning work session on October 8th. The commission Commission is going to continue its discussion on short-term rental-related definitions and on staff report formats. The Commission will be having training related to review of city, city planning history and a discussion on land use planning.

The Commission will also review the packet for their October 15th meeting, which is the follow-up hearing on the parking variance for the Kodiak Maritime Museum. As Chris mentioned earlier, there is an open house for Parks, Recreation and Trails on October 8th from 10 to 2, located here in the Assembly Chambers. That's open to the public, and we'd love to hear your input. The Alaska Chapter of American Planning and Association officers have named our department director, Chris French, as their professional development officer for the Alaska chapter. The professional development officer assists members in maintaining certification maintenance and helps planners that are new and those who are preparing to take the American Institute Institute of Certified Planners exam.

Chris's term will start on January 1st, 2026. In assessing, we still have 13 senior citizen or disabled veteran exemptions undetermined. Assessing will begin processing supplements into the new software tomorrow. We have several village trips with Canna scheduled for the week of November 17th, and we have in-town application periods. Assessing staff will be at the Kanna Coffee Hour on December 3rd and 10th and at the Senior Center on November 19th, December 19th, and January 13th.

Uh, we have our Alutiiq Heritage Foundation appeal that, that is scheduled for late July 2026. You got to meet, uh, Jeff tonight. Um, staff had a very productive week and will continue for one more day with the Tyler staff. Sima mentioned it, but when the general manager is here and you have a problem, he just picks up the phone and within 5 minutes that problem is fixed. So it's been really great to have them here, and we thank them for coming.

In finance, for property taxes, Wednesday, October 15th is the next payment deadline for those wishing to make their full payment. If you paid your first half payment late, if you did not get it in by August 15th, Please make it in by October 15th to avoid late charges. For finance staff in the Tyler project, they're working on verifying financial data calculations and functions, dual entry for new and legacy systems, will continue through December. Finance IT and assessing are all completing a final review of the property access module. That module is expected to go live in mid-October.

Information technology, they are continuing continuing to support that Tyler migration, and they're working on updating borough servers and systems. IT staff is currently evaluating RFP proposals submitted to the Alaska State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. This is the second time we went for that grant and got it. We'll be upgrading borough firewall and network systems with that grant. And our GIS employee is working with Community Development providing maps and other documents for that open house that's happening on the 8th.

In engineering and facilities, we finished our replacement of the light fixtures in the egress areas at the KFRC building. That project is done. We have the KFRC decontamination project that is being reviewed and getting ready to advertise for a bid. I reached out to the DEC, the state of Alaska. When we got that permit, we said that we would have some components added to that system before the 2-year mark.

That 2-year mark is November 30th of this year, and we do not have that done yet. And we've had problems. We're not supposed to spend that R&R money unless we have GSA approval. There are no GSA people out there to help us, and so we're kind of in a rock and a hard place. But I told them today, if that's a requirement, no matter what our readings are, and we'll just go ahead and do it and say sorry to GSA later, but we can't continue to not do something a permit has instructed us to do.

So I'm waiting to hear back from her. Out at the landfill, our regional solid waste management plan update is due December 12th. Our environmental— the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation conducted an inspection. We're supposed to have that inspection by tomorrow. And both yesterday and today was our community commercial hazardous waste event that went really well.

The primer inspection was completed at the Chiniak School. Cody showed me a sample of the new paint and it looks great. And I think the weather cooperated today, so they were actually able to put some of that final coat on today. Our Dark Lake cleanup effort has been interesting. While the contractor was cleaning it up over the weekend, he had 6 different people try to add to the pile while they were cleaning it up.

They spoke to the people, sent videos to the mayor, which mayor forwarded to me. Amazingly, he managed that digital thing. Um, and you're welcome. And so, um, it has continued to be a problem, but it was clean again as of, as of this afternoon. We've been keeping on top of it, but we're looking at the options of moving those dumpsters out of there and placing trail cams on that road so we so we can watch anyone who's coming out there.

If there's not residential dumpsters there, there is no legal depositing of solid waste in that area. So the property owners on the right-hand side of that road have agreed to allow trail cams on their property, so it'll be on private property, so we'll be able to watch who's going in and out of there. And we're going to try that for about a month. If that does not work, we're going to investigate putting a fence and blocking that area off permanently. For summer 2026, Construction, we have 3 projects that are about to go out to bid: the landfill scale shack platform, the Sergeant Creek Park tables, and third piece of equipment, park equipment that will be installed out there.

And then we have a borough-wide park table replacement project that's about ready to go out. And attached to the report tonight is the UFA sponsorship form. We are getting really close to that date, so I'd appreciate any comment you might have on if if the borough is interested in doing a sponsorship at any of those levels tonight. Thank you. Okay, questions or discussion?

Dave. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I don't expect or want an answer now, but I wonder if there's a system where we could do a Crime Stoppers-like incentive where, say, people who provide who has enough evidence to issue a citation could receive 25% of the citation funds to incentivize, you know, we can't have code enforcement everywhere 24/7, but maybe incentivizing locals to help with identifying the culprits of this could be a way to help address the problem. [Speaker:COMMISSIONER ARKOOSH] It's interesting you say that because on Facebook today, one of our community members went over there and found all the mail that was in the trash and said, hey, does anyone know this person, this person, or this person? And so public shaming has begun.

I've got Scott, Larry, then Bo. I think we should agree to give $100 to UFA. I think it's something we need to support.

Okay, thank you. Larry. Mr. May. Just a quick question. With the closure of Northstar School, we have one of the largest playgrounds, you know.

Is there any kind of official designation of the Northstar Playground as now a borough park? The Northstar building is not officially ours yet, so no such designation has been made. But we are responsible for that park or that playground at the at this point in time?

Yes. So is that something that the Parks and Rec Committee needs to take a look at? Because it's going to be used as if it were a park. It's got picnic tables. It's got playground equipment.

It's used by the community all the time. I think that's a great idea. We could add that to our inventory list. Thank you. Beau.

Thank you. Just going back to the Dark Lake cleanup and You're, you're ahead of me there. It got cleaned up and someone went and dumped immediately once they vacated and had mail and identifying information there. I think the frustration now is what is the borough doing with information if people were dumping while the cleanup was happening? There's a dump that happened after that with identifying information.

Acknowledging we don't have a code enforcement officer, what can we do when we do know who's doing it to fine these people? Is there anything, any sort of teeth behind identifying who's dumping now? That's the frustration that, that seems to be coming my way is folks are, well, what are you going to do about it? You're catching people, you know who's doing it, or why aren't they getting fined? And my only response so far has been, well, we don't have a code enforcement officer.

We're trying to hire one, but I don't know what our options are.

Amy, I know you want to say it. You can say it. No, uh, the code makes me the code enforcement officer, and we don't have a code enforcement officer. Yeah, so we do have the capability of doing that. I just don't have time right now to do that.

But, um, we do have the ability to write citations. That is something that trying to have the Community Development Director bring me up to speed on. Also, there has been times in the past where we have kind of deputized the Community Development Director into that role, and I would absolutely like to look into that.

Okay. Any other— Jarrett? With the UFA sponsorship, you are looking for some kind of consensus from us today? Yes. Please.

Okay.

And we do have a budget line item for things like this for the year.

Scott recommended $100. I'm fine going up to a silver or a gold. And we also are planning on a silent auction.

I was personally going to do a silent auction item. Oh, you personally. That counts. Kind of. Does it?

Yeah. So again, we budgeted for things like this. So I wouldn't be put off by going for a gold membership. But my question is, do you have any idea what the difference between— it says premium sponsorship recognition versus elevated sponsorship recognition versus receive recognition, like, what is that kind of value? Or is that just kind of moot and we should just—.

I am not sure on the differences there. Um, our logo is probably just bigger, right? Probably. Yeah. So what's the amount?

I mean, I, uh, I heard $100. I'd raise you, uh, to $500. $250. What do we got? Okay, we got 2 at $500, 3, 4.

1 At $250. 4 Is all I need. Thank you. Larry, he's got 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay, I'm a $250 person. Okay, 4 at $500. Okay, next is messages from the borough mayor. The only thing I have is, uh please, please get out and vote. Um, our voting response has not been the greatest in, in recent years, and especially in an off-election year when we don't have the, the state and federal.

So please encourage everyone to vote. We got 2 more days of early voting to tomorrow and Monday. And then we also have, uh, Election Day, which is Tuesday, October 7th. So with that, uh, we'll move on to new business. We have resolution, resolution number FY 2026-6, authorizing disposal by lease of a portion of USS Survey 25-369, Lot 1, remainder Woman's Bay.

Jared, move to approve Resolution Number FY 2026-06. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

This action requests consideration for disposing of a parcel of borough land commonly known as the Kodiak Fairgrounds. The fairgrounds property has been under a 55-year lease that was assumed by the borough from the state of Alaska when property ownership was transferred. The original lease is expiring on November 3rd, 2025, and the lessee, Kodiak Rhodian State Fair Incorporated, has requested a new lease. To enter into a new lease, Borough Code 18.20.030 requires consideration of the disposal of land via lease by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and if approved, consideration by the assembly. A vote in favor of this resolution approves the disposal of land and directs the manager to negotiate a lease.

Last week I got a little bit ahead of myself and had you review the lease. That doesn't happen until October 16th. This is just, uh, the assembly approving what the Planning and Zoning Commission has already approved, and then you will see the final lease in the work session packet next week, and we'll look at the actual lease on the 16th. Okay, any questions on there? Any discussion?

Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames? Yes.

Mr. Griffin? Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes. Mr. LeDoux?

Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously.

Next, we have citizens' comments at the end of the meeting here, and I'll repeat the phone numbers. The local number is 907-486-3231. Toll-free number, 855-492-9202. I ask you to please turn off your radio or any listening devices to prevent feedback. And anyone in the audience, you know the drill.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Carleen. Good evening, gentlemen. My name is Carleen McChesney. Today on NPR News, the 12 o'clock hour, I heard a nice story about the Tlingit Haida organization, something called Gold Belt. I tried to listen at 5 o'clock, but I'm It could have been on at 4 o'clock, so I just quickly jotted down a few things.

It's Juno Douglas, and the Tlingit Haida were going to build a dock and tour area on the backside of Juno Douglas, a dock for tour ships. So Juno will be expanding their tourism. And there was a clip, and the Tlingit Haida spokesman said that we will be happy to pay taxes, and they would like to contribute to the well-being of the community. So I quickly opened up my newsletter from the Tlingit Haida but the story wasn't here, and that's because it just happened today. So I expect in the next newsletter there'll be more details.

So I just thought it was really nice news to share. Thank you. Thank you, Carly. Do we have any phone calls? Anyone else in the audience wishing to come forward under citizens' comments?

Seeing none, we'll move on to assembly member comments. Uh, Bo, I'll start with you. Thank you. I'll just keep saying it until next week passes. Please get out and vote.

It, I, it truly does. I confirmed it takes far longer to make a pot of coffee, probably 5 times longer, to sit in line at a coffee stand to get your coffee than it does to vote. I came in and voted this week. I think it took longer for me to choose which sticker I wanted than it did to vote. It's very efficient.

Less than 5 minutes of your time to decide who gets to represent you and make changes that will affect your lives and your families. Thank you. Thank you. Jared. Uh, thank you.

Uh, piggybacking really quick on Beau's statement, I think, uh, I think the borough needs to up our sticker game a little bit. Um, yeah, um, I'll just throw that one out there. Uh, big congratulations to Patricia. I've been able to work with Patricia on the Health Facilities Advisory Board, and she has been meticulous, and her follow-through and preparation, making sure I'm prepared for all the meetings, holy cow. She really— she's the engine of that group.

So many thanks to Patricia, and then also thanks to the BOE for everything that you all do. The increase is well— very well deserved. And thanks— I know I've said this a few times before, but thanks to SEMA too for all the cleanup, the code cleanup and rectifying it. That's hard work, hard language work to do that. And just a reminder, First Friday Art Walk tomorrow.

It's huge. There's a lot going on tomorrow. Something for everybody. Thank you. Thank you.

Dave. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Recognition of the Filipino American History Month resolution. I did a quick look and, you know, to address the contributions of Filipino Americans to our country. In World War II, there were over 260,000 thousand Filipinos in the military serving as allies against the Axis. In the post-World War II era, there were 35,000 Philippine nationals who were able to enlist and some gain commissions later on in the military. And today there are over 15,000 Filipino Americans serving in the military, making them one of the largest Asian American represented groups despite much lower population.

So It is a significant contribution to our country and our community. I'll echo what Mr. Griffin said. Thank you to staff for finding and cleaning up those code issues. There's always going to be shortcomings in code, but if we can find them before opposing counsel does and exploits it, all the better.

As for the elections, you know, turnout in presidential elections is obviously quite a bit higher. But for comparison's sake, when Iraq held their first national election in 2005, they had a 76% turnout rate. Compare that to our local turnout rate for elections. Sweden, in the last 55 years, has never had below 80% turnout for any of their parliamentary elections. You know, you get the government you vote for.

Thank you. Thank you, Dave. Steve? I'll keep it short. Vote.

And my attitude is, if you can't vote, then you don't have a right to complain. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Larry? I don't think not voting has ever stopped anybody from complaining, but just a couple of quick things.

At a Rotary meeting I attended, Monte Haver, a number years ago outlined some of the hardships our community was having, uh, both with paying rent, paying for food, getting fuel. And it was the statistics that he presented were alarming and mostly unknown to our community. And we have a lot of people in our community that are having a really hard time. If you go into the grocery store, all you have to do is look at the prices and go, wow. What a change.

And I think that's put even more pressure on our community right now. And I think it's important that our community realize that, that there's a lot of people out there hurting and perhaps even hungry from time to time. And I had the opportunity to attend an event at the Salvation Army Friday night, a meet and greet with the Chamber of Commerce. And Part of that was a tour of the food bank, and I didn't participate in it at that time, but I did attend recently a Rotary presentation there, and I want to make sure the community understands— and I was almost trying to get over there during public comment to see if you could talk about this, but maybe at another meeting— but the food bank is an incredible operation. If you have a chance to visit it.

And people can donate food. And they take it, assuming it's good food. I'm sure there are rules, but my wife and I brought a number of cases there one time, and they were ready to take it. You can donate money. And they serve— I don't know how many people.

I'm not allowed to ask questions, but I imagine it's hundreds of people. Live day to day on some of the food provided by the bank. And I just want to let the public know that all they have to do is to go down there and write a check, bring food, and they'll make sure it goes out to somebody in our community that really needs it. And I think that's really important, especially with prices increasing the way they are. I also wanted to thank Patricia too, I'm very proud of her.

She's a North Star graduate. I remember when she was in kindergarten, and I don't want to embarrass her, but I'm as proud as I can be. Her father, Captain Miller, was commandant at the Coast Guard base and also president of the North Star PTA, and great relationship. So I'm very, very proud of her and think she did a great job. I also wrote on my list ahead of time to really appreciate the team that our manager has put together.

The awards, you know, Patricia, Mr. French, Sima, they can't operate without good leadership. And it's up to the manager to create an environment where people can grow and pursue excellence. And every time an award goes out, I also think I want to thank the manager in charge that creates the environment where people can again find excellence and pursue their occupation with honor and dedication to our community. So at the same time, every time one of these awards go out, I want to thank you also for providing that leadership, and I do appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Aries. Scott? Well, I think everybody said it already, but vote and, uh, Hats off to Patricia. Thank you, Scott. The next assembly work session is scheduled on Thursday, October 9th at 6:30 PM.

The next assembly regular meeting is scheduled on Thursday, October 16th at 6:30 PM in the assembly chambers. Early voting is still available from 10 AM to 4 PM on Friday, October 3rd and Monday, October 6th, in the Borough Assembly Chambers. Election Day is on Tuesday, October 7th, and polls will be open from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Entertain a motion to adjourn. Move to adjourn.

It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Opposed, same sign. We are adjourned at 7:33. PM. Thank you all. Good night.