AIDEA Board Meeting Audio — September 22, 2026

Chair, you are on the record. Okay, this is Bill Kendig. Uh, I will call the Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026 ADA meeting in beautiful Kotzebue, Alaska to order. And Framie, if you do roll call for the board members.

Commissioner Sandy. Here. Deputy Director Cruz. Here. Mr. Elich.

Here. Mr. Haynes. Here. Mr. Soley. Here.

Vice Chair Fogle. Here. Chair Kenday. Here. You have a quorum, sir.

Okay, um, we have approval of the agenda. Is there any, um, uh Amendments or anything that we would—. Mr. Chair, Randy Illich. I'd like to move that we amend the agenda to go into executive session.

Second. Second. Okay, is there any discussion? Is there any objection? Seeing none, we will go into executive session.

Have to wait till we're, uh, we're—. But, um, Randy, who would—. Who's—.

You are live. I advise that the public that the board did not take any action on the matters discussed while in executive session. The session was limited to discussion of matters directly protected from the public disclosure by the Open Meetings Act. But we're good.

Good. Sorry. And then let's confirm that we've got Albert and Al and, uh, Albert, can you hear us? Yep. We're here.

Thank you. Yeah, I'm here. Okay, all right, we're good.

Yes. Yeah, okay.

Let's get this party started.

Okay, uh, this is Bill. That moves us to, uh, that moves us to item 4. Uh, I think a motion for the prior minutes for the August 26th meeting.

So moved. Seconded, Randy Elledge. Any discussions?

Is there any objection? Hearing, see none. Motion carries. That brings us to item 5, public comments. And, um, we want them to come up front for public.

Yes, anybody with public comments would like to sit up front here so you're close to the microphone. So please Is there anybody on the phone? If there are any members on the line that wish to make public comments, please press star 9 on your phone now. Please clearly speak, state your name and affiliation if you have one. And right now we're recognizing members of the public here right now.

Anybody? If you have a public comment, please come up to this table here.

And if you would state your name and any affiliation that you may have. My name is Jim Dow. I'm a resident of Kotzebue. I've lived here since 1988. I'm a retired wildlife biologist and pilot for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, retired in 2016.

For the last probably 15 years of my employment with Fish and Game, I was Fish and Game's lead biologist for the Western Arctic Herd Caribou Herd.

I won't take much of your time, but I, I want to say very clearly that I strongly oppose the Ambler Road. I oppose this road because of my concerns for the western Arctic caribou herd. Road's going to impact it. Work I did when I was employed, I looked at caribou movements up near Red Dog from about 2000, 2000 until 2015. And it unequivocally showed that caribou movements were strongly affected by the road.

Caribou were delayed an average of about a month in years when more than 5% of the herd migrated through that area. It took sometimes up to 2 months for caribou to get across the road. And some caribou crossed the road relatively easily, as if, you know, the road hadn't been there. But the average over all those years was that more than 50% of the caribou were delayed by the road. When they migrated by Red Dog.

We're not talking about dozens of caribou or hundreds of caribou or even thousands of caribou. In 2011, which was probably the worst year I saw when I was employed, it was about 80,000 caribou were delayed an average of a month. They didn't walk back 3 to 5 miles from the road and then cross. Many of those caribou walked back all the way to Point Hope. That's over 100 straight-line miles.

Caribou never walk a straight line. Some of those caribou probably walked 300 to 400, maybe 500 miles from the time they got down to the road, went back, finally negotiated the road.

I think one of the things that really concerns me is that we've lost probably two-thirds to three-quarters of the western Arctic herd since about 2003. I don't think that's because of Red Dog. I think it's because of climate change. One of my concerns about building the Ambler Road is that I think the industrial mining complex that that road is going to facilitate is going to significantly contribute to further climate change. You hear a senator say, well, we need this mine, these mines up here so that we can mine rare earth elements and things that will help create batteries, but it comes with a terrible cost.

They're finding more and more that the best way, or a very good way, to fight climate change is to maintain intact habitat. It sequesters carbon.

So anyway, the last thing I'll say is I also want to express my frustration that the entire discussion about the Ambler Road has focused only on the Ambler Road. It's never considered, at least publicly, impacts from the industrial mining complex that the road is going to develop. I'm concerned that mining, industrial mining in the Ambler mining district, is going to spread for decades and decades, just like Red Dog is expanding now. It's not going to go away in 13 years. I'm more concerned about the industrial mining complex, how that is going to affect Caribou, how that's going to affect traffic levels on the road, how it's going to affect water quality and fish.

That's basically all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Now, do we have anybody else that wants to make public comments? If you do, step up here.

Our mic's kind of weak here.

My turn? Yeah. Okay.

I actually prefer to stand. Okay, if you state your name and if you have any affiliation with anybody, let us know.

Good morning. My name is Katigak. I am Sweetie Schaefer, born and raised here in Kotzebue. You know, people speak of the animals being affected, but something that we have, and this all intertwines together. When the colonizers invaded us here, we accepted 110% of all the rules.

We followed the rules. We did anything and everything to appease basically government, state. And that really needs to change. I speak for concern of our people. I speak for concern of the medicine that is on our land, and it is everywhere.

You know, the colonized mentality of seeing our land as development versus our land as medicine. And I just wanted to state that fact, but also again for the well-being of just our people in general. And that's who I fight for. So thank you for hearing me. Thank you for your comments.

Anybody else have public comments? If you please come up here. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Your name and any affiliation. My name is Cyrus Harris.

I am originally— I've been raised over at Tsisolik, which is roughly 12 miles across the bay from here, for the first 30 years of my life. And the other 30 years plus here in Kotzebue working, but I just recently retired from a fantastic program that I built, which is the Hunter Support Program. For able-bodied hunters to hunt, fish, and gather for elders that's in need. So today it built from small project to a great project that's within the region here. So bear with me, I'm going to read through some of my comments, the past comments, and also the tribe's comments.

My name, yeah, I did say my name right, Cyrus Burrus. Thank you.

So this is an opinion considered the Ambler Road, me, caribou's point of view. My name is Cyrus Harris. I'm Inupiaq from Sesolik, called Wells Cross, south of Kotzebue, and the co-chair of the Western Arctic Caribou Working Group. I want to talk about the fall caribou migration that I grew up with. In Sisolik, there were several families that lived there in the spring, summer, and fall.

When a traveller passes through, we ask what their observations of caribou were on the way. Elders got together to speak about the coming caribou migration. When the caribou did start migrating, us younger guys were always eager to hunt. The elders would say, "No, hold off." We didn't understand that, that they were allowing the first caribou to cross, pave the way for their migration route. After a day of heavy crossing, there was no stopping, there was no stopping the caribou behind me.

Caribou, we worked together and went hunting for our winter food supply. That's how it was done back then. But since my younger years, Sasóotik folks noticed that the caribou migrate much later. As we eventually found out, the Port Site Road, which was developed for the Red Dog Mine, turns the caribou back on their migration path. When they finally crossed and come south, we're able to hunt, but the bulls are already bad from the rut.

Growing up, we used to be able to get bulls when they were in their prime. When there's plenty of body fat and good skin.

So this past fall, it was not this past fall, but this is written later, it was first time that I had no caribou. This combined with the declining caribou population, it is a big challenge we see at Sasoliki and around the Northwest Arctic today. With the discussions about Ambler Road, I'm looking at it from a view of the caribou. The Ambler Road is a proposed 211-mile road that would cut the eastern part of caribou habitat in half and connect our region with the rest of the state's and country's road system. Caribou will start detecting the noise of the road from miles away.

They get closer, cautiously. Head in that direction, but they'll be hesitant to cross. This has already been proven to happen at Red Dog Mine support site. There are scientific studies to back up what I'm saying. Indigenous folks said this would happen.

There are many more consequences that would come with the Ambler Road. These would affect not just caribou, but also waterfall and fish species of all sorts. Contaminants from the road and mines will drain from the tundra to the creeks and from the creeks to the Kobuk River. People making decisions about the Ambler Road don't seem to understand that Ts'isolk and Kotzebue are going to be highly affected. When people first were first doing studies in preparation for the Ambler Road, they claimed that there were no fish in a certain creek.

I thought that was ridiculous. Fish migrate too. Scientists often come up in summer, but later in the year that creek would swarm with fish. There's a season for every species in a particular location. For instance, caribou heavily migrate to that area where Ambler Road would be in the spring and fall time, and there are groups that stay throughout winter.

One thing that that I know that once you have a road connecting a community to the outside world, you become urban. So what happens when we become urban? We end up back to zero and lose our rights to subsist. Once the road is developed, it's going to affect our lifestyle. It's going to basically kill our culture.

Excuse me.

Mining companies get done messing up some other place, run out of resources, and then expand up here. I don't understand why our world is designed so that the majority of that revenue will go to another country while our region is going to get scraps. I think about this all the time. All parts of this land and sea are very sensitive and should not be disturbed by industrial development. After all, Alaska is the last frontier, isn't it?

For the sake of our future generations, I'm speaking in opposition of the Amber Road to save our culture.

That's one.

Bear with me.

Emerald Road Draft Impact Statement, EIS. Concern about invasive species and subsistence resources. Native vegetation and species are important to our subsistence lifestyle. We rely heavily on traditional foods that are staple diet which cannot be replaced by anything from the Western culture. We are not accustomed to the Western diet of beef, chicken, or other farm animals and need nikita, traditional foods, to be healthy.

In particular, we are concerned about the invasive plant species contaminating are wild edible plants. To name a few, we rely on berries, sourdough, wild edible roots, et cetera, to our subsistence needs. The whole food chain for wildlife in our region is reliant on these and many other plants. Caribou, moose, and many other species could be affected. As noted in the draft environmental impact statement, non-native invasive species of plants appear in high concentrations in project areas immediately adjacent to the Dalton Highway.

Environmental analysts reveal that the spread of establishment of these contaminants along the action alternative is considered likely. We are concerned about the effects of these invasive species on the subsistence lifestyle and health of the environmental invasive species will likely crowd out our affected native vegetation, which is a core of our diet. We are concerned about who will hold responsibility for the damage of our habitat and native subsistence ways. What will Ada do to prevent this damage? And who will be responsible for fixing the problem?

Who will be accountable for environmental damages that will be affecting our future generations? We want to ensure subsistence rights for our future children. These are my two comments, and I do have one for the tribe. Bear with me. This is the resolution that was submitted.

I'll pass by a lot of these whereas.

The Ambler Industrial Development and Export Authority is moving forward with the Ambler Road project, and which will construct a road from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler mining district for the purpose of providing access to 4 currently identified mining sites.

Construction of the Ambler Road and likely additional spur roads and development of these mine sites and associated industrial activity and tailing ponds will change the character of the Upper Coboc environment, including Coboc River. These changes will negatively affect the caribou, fish, birds, other wildlife directly through habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, industrial disturbance, and contaminations during their life of the mines and/or centuries thereafter. The wildlife and fish that will be harmed from the development sustain the cultural, nutritional, and spiritual way of life of the tribal members of Kikiutawak. The Native Village of Kotzebue Council believes that the relatively short-term economic and other benefits of industrial development of the Upper Kobuk Region is overweight by widespread long-term negative impacts to the fish and wildlife that will result from this development.

We oppose this road.

I thought it would be a great opportunity to take these in. They did get submitted just in case they did go in and get shoved down under the rug by And we appreciate you very, very much. You're kind. Thank you.

Good morning. Could you state your name and if you have any affiliation? Yes, my name is China Cantner. I am a resident of Costa View, grew up here, and downriver from Ambler. Can your other board members hear us okay?

Yeah, that's why I have you sit here. The microphone's kind of weak. They hear all the way back there. Yeah, um, so I'm here to say, uh, as we have all been saying, that I oppose the Ambler Road on the grounds of it being a really terrible idea as far as its attacks on subsistence caribou, sheefish, salmon. My family is third generation commercial fishermen here, and I'm really concerned about what the road and the mines are going to mean for the fish population, and especially considering that when you're in a position where these species are already being impacted by climate change, by rusting rivers, this is not the time to add another huge industrial impact to our waterways.

Uh, I also do not believe that Ada is doing its due diligence in considering, uh, how this project is going to affect animals and people in this region relative to the handful of jobs that are supposedly going to be created.

And specifically how people in this region are going to take advantage of those job opportunities.

There is not enough attention being paid to skill levels in this region and how people are going to be eligible for those jobs. This project is not going to benefit our region. It's only going to take away food sources and damage our water supplies. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Good morning. State your name and any village. I'll do that. Good morning. My name is Susan Georgette.

I've lived in Patsabiu for 40 years and my family has a camp on the Upper Kobuk. I'm also a member of Protect the Kobuk, which is a local grassroots, grassroots group of Northwest Arctic residents and tribal members who oppose the Ambler Road. We have over 700 members, all of whom either live in the region or are tribal members from the borough. I want to talk just for a minute about social license. So this is a word that Ambler Metals used at a borough meeting last month.

They claim that they would not proceed with the Arctic mine unless they had the social license to do so. So I looked that up, and online AI told me that that meant the ongoing acceptance and approval of a project by local communities, stakeholders, and the general public. So I, I just want to say that if a business like Ambler Metals claims to care about social license. I feel that a quasi-state agency like ADA should care even more about that. Um, I believe that ADA should be promoting projects that are in the best interest of Alaskans, and that includes projects that Alaskans support.

I want to emphasize that there is not social license in this region right now for the Ambler Road. The residents of this borough are highly divided about the road. There is support for it, of course, but there is substantial opposition to it. There are people who just feel resigned to it.

I think the opposition is based on what others have said, which is that the risks and negative impacts of this project outweigh the benefits in many people's perspectives. So I believe that ADA needs to recognize this, uh, this opposition and this lack of social license and not push ahead with this project. Thank you. Thank you.

Morning. You guys need a break? Couple people getting up. We're good. Just state your name.

Good morning. Name and any affiliation you may have. Okay. Good morning. Morning, Randy.

Morning, Teresa. My name is Elizabeth Hetzelig, and I'm a resident of Pottsview. Just here representing myself, not an employer or an organization or anything like that. Just welcome, welcome here. You've come at a really exciting time in our watershed when animals are moving.

We've been moose hunting. A bunch of people were blessed over the weekend, and it's cranberry picking time. The herring, fall herring will be coming in with seals, so you'll start seeing more and more seals popping up their heads. So we've come in a really active time for us, even though it seems like we're getting, you know, cold and dark. You'll see around town that there's a lot of, there are lots of projects happening right now.

There's a lot of economic development happening in our community right now with multiple structure projects, road projects, things like that. So you'll just kind of pay attention as you're out in the town and you'll notice that. So there's a lot of exciting things happening. You've come to the region that really kickstarted ADA's existence with that Red Dog Port Road, which we're really proud of in our region through the history. You can see what happens when our region is really united.

We get stuff done. We got the Red Dog Road done. We get a bunch of land swaps done in order to build that road. And then we, you know, hash out agreements with the Park Service and, you know, really get ADA up and running. And so, you know, that's a history that we know here in our region that we're really happy proud of.

I know too there's a bunch of cool stuff that ADA can do to help boost economic development through small business loans and things like that. And so, you know, as you're here, I would encourage you to really think about how can ADA be a good partner to help, you know, projects that have support really get the funding that they need to happen. And there's all kinds of stuff, renewable energy projects that help reduce the extraordinarily high cost of living here. There's just tons of stuff like that, housing projects to help bridge the tremendous housing gap that we have that prevents people from living in the region if they wanna live here and also results in overcrowding.

Manila Health Center, and I don't represent them in my comments, but they do tons for our community and they are always partnering up to do things like build. Right now they're building patient housing and staff housing. So tons of opportunity for great stuff. When it comes to the Ambler Road, I think there's just not consensus that our region wants that. And that's why you're not seeing it really happen like what happens when our region does have consensus, like with the Red Dog Road or with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which really you know, was jumpstarted when our region got together and started advocating for the settlement of our land claims.

So you'll know it when we've got consensus, because things will happen. And things aren't happening with the road because there's just not consensus. So keep listening, keep doing the work. But I would really encourage Ada to continue. Yeah, just continue the conversations.

It's a violation of the— our fundamental human rights to free prior and informed consent if projects happen without consensus and approval of the Indigenous peoples of that land. So yeah, keep working at it. Thanks for coming. Enjoy your visit. Thanks for your comments.

Do we have any other people here for public comment?

Please state your name and any affiliation you may have. Sure, my name is Chris Rose, um, community member, Northwest Artis—.

Resident. Um, sorry if I'm not totally, uh, distinct in my comments. I wasn't planning on coming, um, but because of the delay, my wife had to leave and she asked me to come.

Uh, I think that I'd like to just focus on sort of potential. I think that the development agency is looking for potential, um, to develop And I think that if you were to spend time in these spaces, 200 miles of space that is undeveloped, you'd understand that the potential is already at its fullest.

This, this space couldn't have more potential. You can't make this space better. It's wild. It's natural. I don't know where everyone's from.

Maybe, I hope some of you are born and raised in Alaska. So you're familiar with wild spaces. You're from Palmer or Valdez or Juneau or Barrow. I don't know, but if you've driven from Chicago to New York or Chicago to LA or Austin to Seattle, there's just not many spaces like these anymore.

Um, and so, and Segaluk said it well, and we, we're not opposed to progress, we're not opposed to things that serve our people, that serve our region. Um, but overwhelmingly, this doesn't feel like it's going to be one of those things. It feels like it's going to be one of those things that takes And the dust will just never settle. It'll never be reclaimed. They'll never make that space good again.

They'll never, you know, reseed it with, you know, thousands of years of ecological development. It'll just be another scar like Route 66 was when it was punched through for the railroads. It's just another big, uh, pursuit of potential, but, um, the potential is already, is already completely whole in that space, and people have been using that potential and continue to and want to continue to, um, Yeah, I, I, I don't think that that, that picture has been considered fully, um, by the people seeking development. And, um, like, again, like Zeglec said, I think, um, Ambler Metals has, you know, uh, the burden of, of costs and profit and shareholders, um, Uh, or maybe that was Susan that said that. Uh, but you guys are looking to, to, to do good, do good projects for the state, um, and us, and I don't think this is one of them.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment.

Is there anybody else here that would like to speak under public comment?

Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair. Yeah, just a quick note for the people commenting in public comment.

First, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. ADA does have a fair amount of studies and other work that I think would be good to be shared with public commenters like yourselves and if you want to see some of the things that we're seeing when we're looking at the project, if you could leave your email, we're happy to share some of that information with you and hopefully get some more dialogue and back and forth going on things.

If you have a—. Let me sign up for that. I can take it over. Okay, great. Thank you, guys.

Okay, Randy, do we have anybody online? Public comment. Is there anybody on the phone? If you are and wish to make a public comment, please press star 9 on your phone now. Please clearly state your name and affiliation if you have one.

Chair, we have 4 members on the line.

No members on the line. 4. 4. Okay, member, you are on the line.

Can you hear us, Cheryl? Can you hear us, Cheryl?

Yes, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, sorry, technical difficulties. My name is Cheryl Maiorato And I'm Zooming in from my home village of Evansville, Alaska right now. I'm a tribal member and I also happen to be the president of Evansville Corporation.

I am calling in to speak in or Zooming in to speak out against the Ambler Mining Road. My corporation and my tribe have been in opposition to this project for, I would say, 15 years. And I think a good indication of the lack of knowledge or care or respect for the peoples who are involved is indicative of that. When this project was first proposed, the map of the proposed road was published in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, and it included a section of the road that crossed over Evansville Incorporated lands. At the time, we were not notified, informed, invited to the table, or given any indication that this is going to happen.

We found out after the fact. So when you go back to the beginning and a project's proposed land route crosses over Native corporation land without informing that corporation or asking whether that this section of the road would be allowed by the landowner, that gives you a good idea that this road was not a good idea in the first place. If the people involved do not recognize that you must include the people who live in this area. That being said, I believe that this project, from concept to construction, has grown already far beyond your estimation of cost. And it also does not have widespread public support from the regions or from the state of Alaska.

So as Ada, you are here to represent our people in responsible, sustainable projects. If you do not have the type of support, and then I feel like this is a bad project to go on. Um, your— the numbers that you're projecting, even to my untrained eye, I can tell that they are based on your hopes and your dreams and not ours.

So I would suggest that you go back to the drawing table and you look at your numbers again and be transparent, because the people of Alaska are very smart and we do support development, but we support it in a way that is educated, responsible, smart, and beneficial. Right now, this road does not benefit us.

I do not understand yet why you have foreign entities who are benefiting the most financially from this. If we are going to enter into this type of a project that's going to destroy so much of our vast wilderness, Alaska and some of the last vast wildernesses in our nation, why are we not the ones going to benefit? I've asked that question a number of times and I have not gotten an answer. So please look at this again, think about it from a common sense point of view, and and ask yourselves, are you really doing something that's to benefit Alaska? Are you doing something that is going to just make profits for outside entities?

Thank you.

Thank you, Cheryl, for your comments. Next caller, please.

Ruth? Caller, are you on the line?

Yes, good morning. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Great. Ruth Eaton, I'm calling in from Suckagoon Creek.

It's about 25 miles northwest of Kotzebue. I'm a resident of the Northwest Arctic Borough. I'm a dog musher. I'm a commercial fisherman.

And back when we had the supplemental environmental impact statement coming at us, I traveled to the villages and brought a petition to people in their homes and asked those people what they thought about the road. And did they, did they want a road built or didn't they? And those are the people right now who I'm representing. I would like to talk about them. Thank you all the people who have commented.

I can't add to it. I'm not an eloquent speaker, but I do relate to people in their homes and people tell me things. It was the first time I ever heard about man camps. I had no idea. Man camps.

And then we started looking at the development along the road and the people it was going to bring in. When we looked at that environmental impact statement as it was being— as it was being presented to us, there are young women in the villages afraid of this. And we Really, you can't blame them. The oldest elder in Kobuk is against the road. Another woman in Norvik who works at the IRA there told me, she said, "I tell my kids everything comes downriver.

I tell my kids about the circle of life." These are the people who I am talking about. These are the people who you might not hear from, but these are the people who live with us, and these are the people who are against the Amla Road. Ruth Eaton from Suckagun Creek, and I am against building the road.

Thank you, Ruth. Thank you for your comments.

Next person online.

Caller, are you on the line?

Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can. All right, my name is David Leslie. I'm representing myself today. I'm in Fairbanks, but my mother, Lily Cookie Leslie, was born in Kotzebue.

My grandfather was John Schaefer Jr., and I'm a NANA shareholder. I'm calling in to voice my opposition to the road. The 88 tribes have stood against this, and it is alarming to see this move forward without consideration for the tribes. I'm also deeply concerned about the U.S. government's— the federal government's strategic investment into Trilogy Metals. That creates a clear conflict of interest where the federal government, who's issuing the permits, are the ones also financially benefiting from it, and there's been no frank discussion about how this is not under the perception of a conflict of interest.

I'm worried that this project is being used to bully Alaska Native corporations and other entities into development that is so harmful. The supplemental EIS stated there should be no action taken due to the irreversible harm done to the environment and ecosystem. As Alaska Native people, we are stewards of the land, and to see this road being forced through when we know it will cause harm is frankly, uh, it's racist. And I am deeply, deeply concerned that this is moving forward without taking these into consideration and having very frank discussions The road itself, the mines that are currently proposed won't even pay for the road. It doesn't make financial sense.

It makes me worried that there are other things at play that aren't being discussed. And if people are not in the, uh, fully, uh, informed about why this road is being built, they cannot consent to it. And that means that this should not continue to move forward. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, David.

Next caller.

Caller, are you on the line?

Yes, hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Can you— yes, we can. Can you state your name and any affiliation you may have?

Good morning, my name is John Gadeke. I'm calling from Inyukuk Lake, about 250 miles due east of where you're sitting right now in the Brooks Range. This morning, when you go into yet another closed-door executive session to discuss how to spend more money for foreign mining companies to access this region, I'd like you to take a minute and think about the legacy that you're leaving behind. Not you, the ADA board, but you, the board member, individually. We can't see or hear what you're doing in these executive meetings.

You know that. So we have to assume that you're all in agreement. You all appear to think financially supporting foreign mining efforts with a proven history of bankruptcy and pollution is the way forward. We all read the recent story in Bloomberg, and there have been other stories in ADN and even the Newsliner. It bluntly pointed out the road permit was traded for stock shares.

We can see that. We can read it. You don't have to send us another email about the numbers. We, we're reading this stuff. You all appear to support it.

And so we see shareholders get enriched, they make millions overnight and then sell out and have left this proposal behind before it's even started. These are facts that we're reading in Bloomberg. It's hard to live and work in this region. It doesn't mean we're stupid to live here. Your actions to date treat us like we are stupid.

Live here to try to make a living. You're all sitting in a region that you don't appear to understand, making decisions that will have far-reaching impacts for the local people. There has been very little transparency or accountable under the Dunleavy administration. That's just 8 years, but this proposal has been here going on 15 years. We're all hoping Changes with the next governor will happen and make more transparent and— but for now, we have to keep watching you, you individually, you board members, make one bad decision after another.

Suggest you do better starting today. In Kotzebue, you're in country. Show us with your actions that you're paying attention. Treating this like a third world backwater where political connections turn into paydays. That's what you said that would not happen.

That's— you say the reason to mine in this area is responsibility, and yet all your actions are irresponsible. Today, if this road was connected to the Dalton tomorrow, I don't even see where you know what tidewater you're going to. It's inconceivable after this amount of time. For those of us that live in the region and have to pay and be accountable every day for our own actions, What we see you individually doing on the board is very difficult to understand. We're watching because our land and our livelihoods depend on that long after you resign from the board.

Please be more accountable individually.

Thank you for your comments. Is there anybody else online? Chair, there are no other comments on the line. One more time, is there anybody else in the boardroom that would like to make public comments? Bill?

I just—. Randy? Randy Ruaro, Executive Director for ADA. I just wanted to add a few notes to the record here for today, and that is that ADA does visit communities near the road. We have resolutions of support from the communities, some near the road, for the project.

And what they are saying is they need jobs for their youth and people living in the villages to to keep the village alive. They need work and jobs. And so we have a subsistence committee that has representatives from residents in the communities that also are supportive. So we understand it's not a consensus, 100% one way or the other. But we are charged by statute, Alaska law, to try to develop resources and jobs and economic development.

And when we earn money, ADA earns money from projects like that from Red Dog, 25 to 50% of it does go back to the state for everyone's schools, everyone's Medicaid, everyone's benefit in Alaska. And so it's, it's, it's just not a 100% issue either way, but for us, the statutes charge us with looking out for the entire state economy and communities. So I just wanted that to be set forth. And for Mr. Leslie's comment about us being racist, I find really offensive. That's a very dangerous allegation.

It's unfounded, and I hope he would retract it at the next meeting. There's no racism in ADA at all. Highly offensive, uh, said Mr. Chairman. Okay, can I, can I finish my last minute and comment?

You know, that's a little unusual, but yes, I think so. We came all the way up to Kotzke, but if you could come up front again, and you'll have to speak a little louder because we moved the mic.

Thank you. I wanted to finish my thought process kind of after hearing everybody. Sure. Katigak, sweetie. And could you repeat your name again?

Yes, I just did, but I can say it again. Thank you. Kusagak. Steve Wackowski. So I wanted to give a quick snapshot.

My grandfather was born at our family camp, and I actually was married to a Caucasian man for many years, and what sustained my sanity was actually coming home and making sure I was on a plane, on a snow machine, or in a boat within an hour to go to camp. And that actually helped heal me that time, uh, being on the land, being with my family, and those conversations, a connection, right? Um, and so with that being said, You know, something I actually proposed recently to the borough, our tundra tea, artillake. It has such a high anti-cancer rate. I believe it's 67%.

And so why not bag them up? Or in gathering bulk for pharmacy companies to use. And this was just something that I proposed here not too long ago. But, you know, there's no reason why we can't look at our natural resources, what we already have, versus, you know, this mentality of, oh, we have to build, we have to, you know, destruct. And to me, it just goes along the lines of the patriarchy leadership versus you know, matriarchs.

And why not, you know, actually work together to be able to come up with a better solution, not only for our communities, but for our, you know, our people in general, our land, the animals, everything. And so that's what I wanted to finish with. Thank you. Very, very well Thank you.

My name is Cyrus Hurst. Thanks for allowing me to do a follow-up comment. Regarding Mr. Ruaro's comments regarding jobs and the local people that see it in that direction, one thing I have to state, my statement there is they don't see it that it's going to be a short-term job. When the Emerald Road's being developed, there's going to be just a small handful that get hired for that. When the mining companies get developed, there's going to be, you know, a lot of other folks that's overriding the jobs that we don't qualify for, high-paying jobs.

Of course, we get the broom and shovel. And let's say, let's give our team, it runs strong for 20 years. What happens after 20 years? I'm going to get my children might benefit. My grandchildren are going to live with the damages that got left behind with the, the full environmental damage also.

This is what need to be shared with those folks that don't understand where they're coming from or which direction they're going, um, through jobs. Jobs are good, But not in this manner.

I would encourage you to get on the email list. I'm gonna—. Yeah, I'll work with the email list because there may be some job training associated with these longer-term projects. You do have the work for Native Americans of Coatsville, I believe, right?

I just recently retired from my Maniluk email listing, so, but I am a tribal council member who in turn looks at these within the department. Okay, yeah. Thank you very much for the opportunity to come and speak. We have to keep in mind that when other people come in, when I first started meeting, I feel intimidated, I feel small, looking at big people, right? But I was totally wrong, you know.

Right. An elder told me, you know, once you come into these meetings, you're invited, whether you're invited or, you know, whatever, the meeting is there, you come in looking at everybody level, not up, not down, we're even. I agree. So that's one thing a lot of our people, that's why a lot of our people are not speaking up, not used to this stuff. They're right now, they're in their fish camps getting ready for winter, and that should continue.

Thank you. Yep. And, and just so you know, we're, we're going to have a representative, uh, meeting at the, uh, uh, city council meetings. Assembly. Assembly.

Assembly meetings every, every 2 weeks. Every 2 weeks. Here, got to give status update. Yeah, that's good to know. Yeah, it's funny, I just got a whiff of this meeting 11 o'clock last night.

We try— didn't hear anything about it, so I had to hurry up and jump, at least show up, say hi, right? Yeah, but we're, we're, we're working on getting communications a lot more efficient. Yeah, I thank you all for your opportunity, and I thank you for your comments too. Yeah, God bless you. Thank you.

We, we will—. I got—. No, back to the drawing board.

Okay, so I, I'm going to— with that, I'm going to close public comment, and we're going to take a a 10-minute at ease before we get into new business.

We are back from our break. That brings us to item 6, new business. 6A is Resolution G2610, Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference. Can I get a motion?

So moved. Randy Elliott second. Been moved and seconded. Now it's time for discussion. Randy, you want—.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Resolution G26-10 proposes to authorize the executive director to spend up to $400,000 in funds to support the annual Alaska Energy Conference. This is an event that has been sponsored by the governor for a number of years. It brings— it has been extremely successful.

It's brought hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the world and the United States and Alaska to get together annually and discuss opportunities and options for new energy development in Alaska, which as people know, energy and fuel is a major issue in all our communities. We're looking at potential shortfall of gas in Cook Inlet, but all around the state energy and fuel is an issue, cost of living issue, and issue for the state. And so AIDA's statutes direct it to assist in energy development, and I think, Mr. Chairman, this conference, keeping this conference moving and trying to make progress to lower energy costs for Alaskans is a worthy cause for the board and recommends support. Okay, and if you don't mind, I'll start off.

Um, heard you mention $400,000.

Um, without additional help, that would put a burden on our staff. Is that taken into consideration with the additional money? Uh, it is taken into consideration, and That's an up-to amount. It's not a we will spend that amount. We're going to try to spend less and get the financial support from participants in the conference, sponsors, corporate sponsors, things like that.

So that's not an amount that is assured to be spent. It's an amount that is an up-to maximum. Yeah, but my concern is for the staff. They're already You got a heavy workload, and I just want to make sure they can get additional assistance to put on a program like this. Correct.

Take over the program. Correct, Mr. Chair, and we'll be reaching out to AEA for some of their assistance. The governor's office can assist, I think, possibly. It'll be a new governor, but we'll be looking to make sure we don't get stretched too Okay.

Does anybody have any other questions? I have. Go ahead, please, Rick. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Rick Soli.

Randy, what have— Mr. Ruaro, can you give a sense for what has been spent net bottom line after sponsorships and those things kind of in the last while? Been a very successful conference. I've attended it, and and have benefited. But can you talk about that a little bit to give us a sense of kind of what we're stepping into? Yeah, thank you.

I'm going to actually defer to— Andrew Jensen is on the line with us and has some additional details.

Yes, and thank you, Director Ruaro, Chairman Ken Bigg, and members of the board and AIDA staff, and of course, the people of Kotzebue who are there. Today. My name is Andrew Jensen. I work as a policy advisor for Governor Dunleavy in food security and energy in particular. I have been charged with coordinating this conference for the past 5 years, and to Member Solee's question around financing, the governor has always had a goal for this to remain an affordable conference for attendees, so he has provided some level of subsidy for the past 5 years.

The amount of $400,000 that is before you, the largest outlay from the governor's office in a prior year, I think it was 2023, was around $378,000. This year, the outlay from the governor's office, because of the increased attendance, increased sponsorship, the outlay from the governor's office was about $211,000. So as the attendance has grown, as sponsorship has grown, that level of support has gone down. And so I do think that the number $400,000 is a conservative estimate. And it is, you know, expenses for the conference are largely— the number one cost is catering, food and beverage.

And so that's an attendance-driven number. So as the attendance goes up, your revenue does also go up to account, which then helps cover the cost of food, beverage, and that kind of thing. So that would be sort of the range from the low to the high over the 5 years was from around $211,000 this year to a high of around $378,000.

And I do have, you know, and I just would like to briefly speak to Chair Kendig's concerns about staffing and resources. We do have our event contractor who is on the line, Martha Keel, and I think it would be good for awareness to learn what this contract and support does for what they have done for the governor's office in terms of the planning, the logistics, the working with the vendors, handling the invoices, the sponsor, you know, perks and everything that goes along with that. And if it's the will of the chair and the members, I'd like Martha to tell a little bit about the services that the contractor provides that I think will perhaps alleviate some concerns about staffing resources that would be required from ADA. I'm happy to jump in. Hi, Martha.

Hi. I'm happy to jump in if anybody would like to see. No, go ahead.

Andrew, would you be able to— thank you. Okay, you guys can see that? Yes, we can now. Yep. Perfect.

Oh, go ahead, Andrew. No, please, Martha, go for it. I believe everybody has this in your board packets. The only change is I added a few photos for Flair in case you've never been to the conference. But if you want to go ahead to our next page here, Andrew, what I went ahead and did here for the purpose of walking everybody through our, our contract proposal is we, we always go through our proposed roles.

And so on the next slide, you'll be able to see, uh, same within your, your board packet here, uh, what our team does versus what we are projecting the ADA team to do. So my team serves as our full event management, speaker management, website, uh, designer and manager of maintenance updates. Registration, all of the vendors. We actually report out to you all on the, the budget piece and track the revenue coming in as well as expenses going out. The marketing, exhibitor and sponsorships, and AV and programs.

So all about the production that you saw in that photo before. On the ADA side, we really need help when it comes to program direction. So this is of course the, the strategy of how we build our speaker list and who we're inviting and what topics we're going to be addressing, working through speakers and ensuring that we are executing the theme or the direction of the 2027, so to speak, conference. There's a PR element, marketing. We can also, if there's a concern here, subcontract that to a third-party agency.

We've done that previously. And then as far as sponsorship goes, If you've ever run sponsorship before, you know it's a team sport. So we're only as good as our partnership back. Andrew can speak to that further. He's done an excellent job helping, you know, curate a list and, you know, work towards the solicitation and having my team help manage all the administrative pieces to that.

So I'll go into that on the next section. On our next slide here talks actually through our scope of work. Again, every, every slide you see as, as our subsequent slides are in your board packet. I just made it a little bit more digestible here for today's PowerPoint. So on our first page of the scope of work, you'll be able to see our event management.

We typically start in an October timeframe, so we're, we're gearing up for that now, and we'll be meeting with you either biweekly, every other week, or weekly. It really depends on the cadence of our planning partners. My team comes to every one of those meetings with a planned agenda. We follow up with our notes and we submit weekly action items to you. So we know the project timeline, the milestones, and we're going to actually work every single week to ensure that really you have like 3 to 5 pieces of, let's call it, homework to do over that next week or two.

We work with you on creating the conference agenda. We help create the script on site for our MCs, moderators, any of our sessions. We help with the post-event evaluation survey, coordinate our debrief meetings, making sure that we've tracked everything to close out the project. Of course, we're on site. If you've ever seen a member of my staff, we're probably one of those girls running around making sure that everything is going off smoothly.

And then it is our job to liaise with all external parties here to ensure that everything is moving forward successfully. So vendors, any media, of course over the last several years we've had cabinet members join us, so making sure that all of their needs are met, venue staff, volunteers, or any other conference personnel that you guys assign.

Yep, perfect. When it comes to budget management, uh, we, uh, develop and manage the conference budget. So I have already proposed what a potential budget could look like for the 2027 event. I know Andrew just spoke to this, that, you know, we've been extremely successful in building our sponsorship program. So when we talk about a budget allocation, it is not, it is not something that we've ever gone over, and we stick to that, that strict rule.

We update and report to you on a regular basis with our budget updates. Really, as revenue is coming in, you're going to get that weekly. As we're spending money, we're going to give you more frequent updates on your expenses. And then of course, it's our job to pay out any of our vendor invoices that need to get paid or collect our sponsorship revenue that needs to come on in.

Next page. Speaker management. This is where it becomes a team sport. In many ways, we look to you to tell us who you're interested in for speaking. My team then takes it from there.

So we prepare a speaker agreement, we publish all agreed-upon deadlines and presentation guidelines. We do ongoing communication and tracking with those speakers regarding logistics, making sure to receive their materials ahead of time, and then get all of their necessary bio materials to be able to publish on our website, on our app, and other marketing materials. We actually host a speaker meeting a few weeks out to make sure that everybody knows the logistics, um, as well as session details. Uh, we provide any sort of speaker support that they may need. Some, for example, have had to attend virtually.

Uh, we receive all presentation materials 1 week prior to the conference, and we actually, uh, then store them for you. So you could actually ask us for the 2025, uh, breakout session, uh, from a previous ASEC, and my staff would be able to pull that for you from a previous year. And then we collect all those speaker presentations and we share them not only with our AV provider to ensure that they are on screen, but after the event we have published them on the website. And then we also work with recruiting any sort of room hosts or moderators to ensure that the— each of our breakout rooms are, are successful the day of the event.

When it comes to our website, we actually have alaskasustainableenergy.com, and we, uh, we have the domain that we've been managing. It's about 8 pages. I think it's grown, Andrew, over the last few years, but that's okay. We've continued to manage that— the registration homepage, speaker page, event agenda, those types of things. We said in here that we will do website maintenance before the event and then up to 6 weeks after.

Most often, because we know that this event is continuing, we we just continue that as a part of our contract into the next year. So this would be something ADA of course could, could change, but the governor's office has already helped ensure that it remains up for an extended period of time. And then as you can see, the option to extend. Yep, registration management. We have an Eventbrite registration management platform that we manage all of your attendees, pull your registration reports, reports on a weekly basis, not only tell you your revenue from that, but your actual attendance, maintain all of your conference registration needs through our portal, and give you guys the breakdown of those details.

Of course, in with that, when we have the registration information, we communicate to all of the conference attendees. We respond to any inquiries, we respond to the public. We also send out emails or anything else with conference logistics. And then post-event, we actually give you the analytics on who was in the room and who attended.

Vendor management is coordinating with all the numerous vendors that we need to ensure that the conference is successful. A lot of that you can see is within our venue management. We're making sure you have your food and beverage or your floor plans, even your audiovisual or Wi-Fi needs. So all of those things we help coordinate for you. Of course, everything is per your approval, but we, we help move that forward.

And then on the event design piece, you can see if you've been to ACE, the last Sustainable Energy Conference in the past, it's done an excellent job about creating a brand for itself. So my staff is able to do that, all of that graphic design, all that graphic design work, as well as printing and production. Construction work, and the expenses of that are embedded in our project budget. The floor plan as well. So, you know, any, any changes that you would need.

For example, a few years ago Andrew came and wanted more additional private meeting space, and so those types of requests we take from our clients and execute on site.

As far as print coordination, it kind of goes in with our graphic design piece, but we design anything from room signage, exhibitor signage, to name badges and lanyards. And then my staff actually holds that inventory for you. So Andrew's done an excellent job within the governor's office to ensure that not only when we're passing off this plan for next year, we have a whole set of inventory that's coming with it. So there are things that we are able to use for year over year, and that helps, helps with our budget management here. And then we actually put everything out on site and of course make sure that all the information is correct for the 2027 event.

As far as marketing goes, we've done this in a few different ways, but this year we're proposing that, you know, my staff design all event marketing materials. We already have an event logo and we may decide to make a change in this upcoming year. A program flyer, event program booklets, event signage, all of those things. We also send all the promotional emails to the conference mailing list, which is in itself a rather robust mailing list. And then any, any internal communication timelines to registered attendees, we make sure that we do as well.

Speaker and exhibitor management. We have many different speakers, sponsors, exhibitors. We communicate with all of them. Make sure all of our sponsor logistical items are tracked. We make sure to communicate with our secured exhibitors to make sure that they know where they're located on site, give them their floor plan, all of our pre-staffing needs to assign tables, etc.

And then we actually make sure that everybody knows our tracking and where we are in real time of our sponsor and exhibitor payments as well as their benefits.

And then finally, our audiovisual and program management. This is everything you really see on site if you've ever attended from the main ballroom. It's making sure that what is said from the stage is curated, it's what they see on those screens is planned, and then it's all the actual rentals that you need to create that environment included in this proposal as well.

And I think that's it as far as our scope. Thank you. What questions do you have for me?

Any questions from the board? Randy? Randy Elledge. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Um, just a couple of, uh, comments. Uh, with the conference being in May, are we going to have any compressed schedule, or are you very comfortable with an agreement going forward with the proposed date in May?

Well, Member L. I'm happy to speak to that. Andrew Jensen here. We do have dates set up for May, and that's one reason that we are bringing this resolution to you now, because it is, it is a kind of an almost a year-round type planning process, and the fall is really where we move to, especially looking at sponsor renewals. As you, you probably know, most companies are setting their budgets for next year right now. And so it's important to reach out to people who have sponsored in the past to try to get on their radar for their next year's budget.

So that is one of the main things. There's also deposit, like venue deposits, hotel room reservations, things like that that generally need to be done before the end of the year. And that is one reason, again, because of the timing of bringing this to the board now, is the governor is very— the direction we have gotten is that he wants this to be a very, very smooth handoff to the next administration. So, of course, every state agency, every state corporation is working on transition materials. And this is one item where if there's a lot that needs to get done right now.

So in order to hand it off to the next administration, whatever they would want to do with this conference, having this financial infrastructure and planning in place is really critical to be done here before they'll be taking office. So this is kind of part of the governor's overall goal to, to make it a smooth handoff. And so the timeline would be really compressed if the next administration came in in December and started from scratch with this. So this is where I think the governor looked at ADA as a natural entity with its— certainly with its mission, and it's been an active participant in the conference for the last several years, well, really since it began, but also given the financial resources that it has to ensure that there is a plan in place for the next administration.

Thank you, Andrew. So basically, this resolution is authorizing the transfer of the existing conference from the governor's office to ADA. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. And I think if you will note within the resolution that it directs, I guess, the executive director to maintain these partnerships with the Energy Authority, with the governor's office, with the Department of Energy's Arctic Energy Office.

These have been very key to making this successful. And Randy Ruaro did mention the Alaska Energy Authority. They're very keen to remain involved in this project. And so, I certainly gave Director Thayer a heads up that AEA would be mentioned in this resolution as a continuing partner for ADA. So, I think those resources from other entities and certainly The Governor's Office will be very key to the success of the conference, so ADA would be more than just going it alone, but because of the financial resources that need to be brought to bear at this time of year, this was where the Governor felt like ADA would be the natural and best partner to hand it off for, certainly to ensure the continuity of the event.

Thank you, Andrew. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any other questions for the board? This is Commissioner Sandy.

I think, you know, I would just say, you know, certainly that I would commend the Governor, Andrew Jensen, and Martha and her team as well. I've had an opportunity to work firsthand with all of those folks with the Sustainable Energy Conference, and I've been so impressed by the individuals who people participate through the programming, and then also the amount of interest that's been generated both domestically and internationally because of the conference. I heard last year at the conference from several people who regularly attend other conferences that it's the best one they've ever been to. I know that this— that participants very much appreciate the direct access to the governor's office. So I would hope that the next governor would remain very involved.

I would— I also appreciate calling out the Energy Authority and that partnership because I completely agree that it would be really so unfortunate to lose the momentum and the work that has been achieved through Andrew and his team. It's really a remarkable event and one that we should be proud of. So I don't want to lose momentum on that. That. At the same time, to the chair's comments related to manpower, I think we are sensitive to the team and the amount of manpower available to really dedicate to this.

And so I think that that's really key to have the Energy Authority available to be partners with us in the participation and the planning of the event. So I appreciate that that's included. Here in the resolution. And then the last thing I would just say is, you know, I didn't naturally— when I first took this position, both on the board of the Energy Authority and ADA, um, and then also as the Commissioner of Commerce, I didn't fully appreciate how important energy is when we talk about economic development. But I would say to our mission You can't have one without the other.

And so if there's a question about why we, ADA, would become involved in something that's energy-related, I would just say without affordable energy, you don't have economic development. And so those are things that I think Andrew and his team have been really pushing at the conference, and I think that we should absolutely continue down that vein. And I appreciate resolution coming before the board.

Okay, are there any other questions from the board? Uh, Al, you have any questions? No, I don't have any questions. I, I understood it pretty good. I think it's, uh, it's, it's— I think it's a good thing.

Okay, Albert, any questions? No, I think you pretty much covered all of my questions. And thank you for the presentation. Okay, Randy, would you pull the—. Oh, he's in a meeting.

He's in a meeting. Oh, I'm sorry. Lee, any questions?

Thank you. Step out. He's in a meeting. He's in a meeting. Okay, okay, so Randy, would you poll the board?

Commissioner Sandy? Yes. Deputy Director Cruz? Mr. Elledge? Yes.

Mr. Haynes? Yes. Mr. Soley? Yes. Vice Chair Fogle?

Yes. Chair Fogle—. Or pardon me, I'm sorry, Chair Kendig? All right, yes. The motion passes, sir.

Okay, that moves us to our normal executive session. Mr. Chair, yep, I'd like to make a motion that the board entered into executive session for the purpose of discussing the following: a) the finances and investments and other matters which are subject to specific legal advice and matters subject to the executive and deliberative process privileges. These matters, which is discussed publicly, would have an adverse effect on the finances of ADA, or matters that are attorney-client privileged, and matters involving consideration of issues and that by law are not subject to public disclosure due to the executive or deliberative process privileges or other law. The executive session and matters discussed herein are proper subjects for an executive session, and under the Alaska Open Meetings Act Reference Alaska Statute 44.62.310 and the Alaska Public Records Act.

What we're going to discuss is Ada Finances and Investments, ANWR.

Amler Red Dog Mine, Wesu Sutna Access, Ketchikan Shipyard, ADA legislative matters, and other matters related to ADA and matters that are subject to specific legal advice, which is subject to the attorney-client privilege.

Randy, would you call the board? A second. Oh, second. Okay, we got first and second. Commissioner Sandy?

Yes. Deputy Director Cruz? Mr. Elich? Yes. Mr. Haynes?

Yes. Mr. Soley? Yes. Vice Chair Fogle? Yes.

Chair Chendu? Yes. Motion carries, sir. Okay, hold on.

You're on the record. Okay, I advise the public that the board did not take any action on the matters discussed while in executive session. The session was limited to discussion of matters directly protected from public disclosure by the Open Meetings Act. That takes us to item 7, director comments. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. So I'm going to limit my comments a bit to the project that we visited here in Kotzebue, Red Dog Mine Project. It would have been the best project probably AIDA has ever invested in and may always be, but we're going to try to do more, better. But mine is winding down. That's a concern for for residents in the area and the borough.

Mine provides a lot of the revenue for the borough and residents' jobs, hundreds of shareholders of NANA and others. There will be a drop as the, as the mine plays out, but we think they're developing the adjacent deposits pretty quickly, and hopefully it's a temporary, very short-term, temporary drop. And everything gets back up and running well.

We know that the mine has provided billions in benefits to the ANCSA's 7 revenue sharing and economic development taxes to the state, pilt to the borough, revenue to Ada, which is then shared back to the state. We did hear from the assembly and from residents that job training and Some benefits, infrastructure benefits for villages is, in the separate villages is really critical to them and to getting support for the project. So we'll be following up with the Bureau and working on, with the communities on ways that we can hit those points and hopefully bring some improvement in. We'd like to get as many people trained up and eligible possible, and there's probably several ways that we can work on village benefits infrastructure funding. All right, thanks.

So the loan dashboard report is in your packet. Does anybody have any questions on the loan dashboard report?

Okay, I don't hear anything. Same thing for statistic summary, that's in your report. Is there any questions on the statistic summary?

Albert or Al, any questions on that? Any—. No, none for me. Okay, Albert, are you good? Yeah, I'm good as well, thank you.

We said it at the boat at the same time. All right, well, that brings us to board board comments. Let's start with Al first online.

Oh, hang on. Okay. Yeah, I got a couple of questions that are just, that are kind of non-related too much, but when is the office moving?

Scheduled, the actual physical move is February 1st. February 1st. Okay. Yeah, I'm just curious about that. Kind of want to know when I come in, make sure I'm going to the right building.

And then everything else was really good today. I certainly appreciate some of the reports that we've gone through. I am still a little worried about the whole legislative piece and being able to dissolve us. And I guess about the only other thing is I was looking back through my notes.

Did we ever have a status update on One of the things that we talked earlier, a couple of meetings back, from, uh, in a reply to Prosper Alliance. Did we ever reply to those people?

I can't hear anything. Oh wait, there you are.

Hi there. Did I overstep?

Sorry, Chair, I think we're back.

Okay, uh, Albert.

Yeah, I'm sorry that I was not able to make the Kotzebue trip. I was looking forward to it. So I'm glad that we were able to come up there and engage with the community and take a tour of the Red Dog Mine, which has been a very successful economic driver in that community. Uh, overall, I'm just really thankful for the staff for putting the trip together and for all that you do. Randy, you continue to impress everyone.

Um, and I just encourage everyone to understand that we need to move at the lightning-fast pace, that we need to ensure that we can get these projects and everything down the line from just proper parties and moving paperwork. We need to move as fast as we can because our time frame is closing rapidly. But thank you all for what you do, and I'll see you in person at the next meeting. Okay, why don't we start over here? More coming.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Rick Sole, um, well, this was a delightful few days, uh, to spend in the community of Kotzebue, to be able to go out and see Red Dog Mine, and more than anything else was to get to know some of the people here because it's the people that have made this a place worth remembering and coming back to. It's the people that made the Red Dog Mine, and I was particularly impressed by the discussion we had on the mine when they, when they talked about that period of time when they reached consensus in the community before they ever developed Red Dog. That they talked about 10 years that, that the Nana region communicated with one another about advancing the big mine, which has been totally transformative in a good way for this area. We've all seen that.

So I guess I want to kind of highlight this tension of, as my fellow board member just said, moving at light speed to advance an agenda that we believe is good for our state and for this region, and yet to take the time that's needed to build consensus. And so how do you bridge that gap? It's trust and respect, Mr. Chairman. I think that is the bedrock principle, and I felt like this meeting was an advancement for at least me, but I definitely think for this board too, to move forward with mutual trust and respect, to talk about coming up here at future meetings to share information with them, to be able to email in between, a host of things. Bottom line is, if we need to move faster, we've got to bring them with us so that we can make it a success for everybody.

And just thanks for a great board meeting. And for staff, you guys made it pretty simple for me. You made it flow nicely, and it's been really good. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Randy?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to share with staff how much I appreciate what y'all do for us. It's like that duck, you don't see the feet moving, but man, is that duck moving forward. Y'all have done such a good job.

Thank you so much. So this, uh, this community has been exemplary for decades, so If I remember right, Kotzebue was the first community that installed a wind farm above the Arctic Circle. So their history is steeped in innovation. So it's been the testbed for, for Arctic for a long time. Since that wind farm was installed, they also installed an array of solar.

So that solar array plus the wind farm has reduced their liquid fuel consumption by 30%. That is a huge number when you consider the cost of liquid fuel today. So we've heard earlier in our meeting No, not in our meeting. We have heard earlier that there's communities in this region that are paying above $26 a gallon for diesel. So I'm not suggesting that Kotzebue pays that, but what I am suggesting is that, that, that conservation effort by using innovation by these people in Kotzebue has really made a difference in their lifestyle.

When I look around Kotzebue and I see all of the construction that's going on, these folks are development-minded here in this community. They know what innovation does to the lifestyle. You know, we even see it here in the hotel that we're in. They have conservation efforts when you walk out of your room. If you're the first one in the hallway, the lights come on.

So, so they're, they're mindful of energy and what energy costs the community and its impact to their livelihood. When I look at Kotzebue, I think of prosperity, the happiness of the folks. You can, you can see it. In their faces. You know, I was greeted with a smile as soon as I walked into, to the hotel.

We saw that at dinner at one of the local restaurants, and I was privileged to tour the power plant solar array.

Craig McConnell arranged that tour. Due to staff—. Oh, he's here. You know, it's tough to talk about somebody. Oh, thanks.

So, uh, this, this community is, uh, just busy with activity. And they, you know, to, uh, another board member's, uh comments about training. They have a training center here. They have simulators here for heavy equipment. So preparing the people to take those high-paying jobs, you know, road building, construction, whatever, whatever that is, to further that.

I think the challenge is that in those jobs and in some of the region and the rest of the state where, where they're turning over on a rotational basis is, you know, people get in an airplane to go on rotation. Well, many of them are going out of, out of region, if you will. So, if we can help with the population in the smaller communities, I think that would be a monumental effort and help us in Alaska. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Lee, any more comments? Sure. Yeah, this is Deputy Commissioner Cruz. I'm just, you know, happy to be here on the board for at least the next few months, and we'll see what happens after.

But it was a pleasure getting to, you know, get to know you guys and spend a little bit of time with you guys yesterday. Sorry I couldn't be there today. I also want to thank the staff. You guys have been very helpful just kind of getting me up to speed on a lot of things. And, you know, hopefully we can like get some good projects moving forward.

Forward in the next few months while we still got some time. Happy to, you know, be an ear here to the state. I got a good— a lot of good relations with, you know, the DNR folks, DEC folks, and yeah, we'll see where things lie. But today it was a good meeting, very informative, and thank you guys again.

Okay, Commissioner Sandy. Yeah, thanks. I just want to echo the comments from the rest of the board members about just being so grateful that the community members in Kotzebue welcomed us. Such a warm welcome. I'm so impressed by the hotel, the accommodations, the staff.

It's, it's just meant a lot. And this is the second time I've been back in this community in a month. So that's a record for me. And I, but I appreciate it.

I also wanted to thank the folks that participated in last evening's dinner with us and the staff, ADA staff who participated in the assembly meeting and gave a report out to the assembly members. I appreciate your guys' commitment to, first of all, willingness to hear the community and the concerns of the community and your willingness to address that and commitment to the community members by being here more often than you've already. Been here, and so I thank you for that. I really love the comments from the folks last evening talking about the ways in which ADA and the staff are contributing in their communities and how much they appreciate it. I feel like sometimes the ADA staff in particular, you don't— you're not face to face with community members who look you in the eye and say thank you for your efforts.

As a board member, it meant a lot to me. I'm sure it meant a lot to you guys. So I want to just thank those community members for being willing to come and take time away from their families, but to give us that feedback, both bad and good. It means a lot to us, and I know we take that to heart. I was so impressed with the tour yesterday at the mine.

It has been on my list for 8 years now to be able to go out and see what we hold up as an example of what Ada participation means and can do for the state. AADA as an organization is meant to be much more nimble than a state agency and organization can be and respond in ways that the state may not be able to, to create opportunities for the economy and for Alaskans. And so we use Red Dog as a great example of what that successful involvement can look like. So being able to see it firsthand meant a lot to me personally and professionally. And what One of the things that stood out to me yesterday was just that it went from a small creek to the world's largest zinc mine and the nation's largest critical mineral mine.

And all of that is based on what can happen if we Alaskans work together to develop our resources in a sustainable manner. And I'm so impressed by that and so thankful for for that. But one of the things that stood out to me was they were listing off all of the things that they offer at the mine in terms of services for their team members. And they mentioned mental health. And then when we were taking the tour through, I don't know if anybody else noticed, but there's a little card on the windowsill that said, "It's okay not to be okay." And it referred the staff back to the resources that they have available through their mental health services.

So I just, I was very, very impressed. And I'll say it again, and I've said it a million times now, I thank the members of the ADA board who were involved at the time, who voted yes to a hundred and something million dollar investment at a time when the price of oil was under $10 a barrel and the price of the ore was at an all-time low. So I always appreciate visionaries and pioneers, but I have to say, like, I, I would hope that I would have had the guts and the courage to do what those board members did, and I don't know that I could have. So I appreciate them then and now and the lessons that they taught us. And this is very long-winded, so I'll wrap it up.

But I also just want to say we often hold up the Red Dog as a model for what we want to do in the future. Part of the reason the Ada board members have been working so hard on the Ambler Road is because We look ahead to the time when the life of the mine is winding down, and hopefully through expansion, that won't happen for a while, but we have to be realistic. And when we picture that reality, we have to picture— we also have to consider what can we do in this organization to try to replace that revenue if it were to stop. And so That's part of our hurry, hurry, hurry on what can we do to restore that revenue and to help better the lives of Alaskans. And it's part of why we've been so focused on the Ambler Road and the Ambler mining district, because we realize the potential there.

And what I'll say about that is that the Red Dog as a model is a starting point, because I also think that these face-to-face conversations have been so important. And the feedback from community members, including the feedback we heard today, it is taken to heart. And I think that there's ways that we can improve the model that we used in Red Dog so that the communities can benefit in a way that's— that means— is perhaps more meaningful. So that's— I know that that's been a part of our conversations as board members throughout these last couple of days, and I know they will continue. As we work with the executive director, Randy Ruaro, and his team on how we can help to benefit the communities around these projects more and differently and perhaps in a more meaningful way.

So I thank the Red Dog team and the community members in Coxview, all of you for being a part of this, and of course the staff for all of your help in getting us here and taking good care of us while we're here. Thank you, Julie. I have some comments too, but it's pointed out to me that I skipped over 7 our next regularly scheduled ADA board meeting is Wednesday, October 1st—. 21St. 21St.

I'm sorry, 21st, 2026. And I imagine that's in Anchorage. But I do want to point out that it's been impressed upon us that we got a lot to get done in a little time, and there may be special meetings being called to get there. Randy, if there's anything we need to do, don't hesitate. I mean, we've got people that— we've got teams, we've got whatever we need to do to get it done.

So let's do that. So my comments are, this was a really nice trip. This was as nice as Katowice, I think. Certainly eye-opening. We saw people in favor of projects like Amber, and today we saw people that weren't in favor.

What I was impressed is the people that weren't in favor were very respectful. They weren't like a lot of times we get, you know, over the phone and people get emotional. These people presented their case and they were very respectful of the way they presented it. Presented it. But yesterday I was really struck by a gentleman sitting over here in a village, and I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of the village, but this past year they just got water for the winter, for all year round, and that's the only infrastructure they have.

And that's a big deal. And I, and I just thought, we, a few of us discussed it, you know, maybe when we get into projects like this, we get a little more creative in how we can help those communities develop their infrastructure a little bit better. And I, and I, uh, I hope we can come out with some kind of formula for that. But I was really impressed with meeting everybody up here, uh, just couldn't be more pleased. And if we still exist going into next year, any of us, I think they should have meetings meeting.

I think that makes a big difference on, on both sides, for the board and, and for the public that we're serving. So with that, I guess I'll take a— but the draft ADA meetings— well, I don't—. The draft dates for the, uh, the board meeting.

So the comment about September the 15th being part of moose season, but the season is over generally the 20th. Okay, um, Randy, you got that? We've got it. Okay, with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

Moved and seconded. Return. Good job. Thanks, guys. Thank.