NSB Assembly: NSB Assembly — Regular Meeting & Public Hearing

Good afternoon. I'll call the North Slope Borough Assembly regular meeting and public hearing to order. Today is August 4th, year 4, year of our Lord 2026. It is now 1:32 p.m. Madam Clerk, could we have roll call, please? Thank you, Assembly President Avayak Brunel.

Here. Stanley Brower.

Here. Trina Paul.

Here. Crawford Potkodok. Here. Celia Atangarak.

Here. Frederick Brower.

Here. Eva Kenevak.

Here. Thomas Nebrek Jr.

Here. Robin Collette. Here. Michael Donovan.

Michael Donovan.

Assembly President, you have a quorum. Martin Edwardson asked to be excused from this meeting. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Beer. Sorry, I was on mute.

All right, what's the wish of the assembly on the absent member? Move to excuse. There's a motion by Robin Jonah to excuse. Do I hear a second? It's been seconded.

Any discussion? Question. Question has been called for. All those in favor, do so by saying aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay.

Hearing none, the absent member has been excused. Green up book.

Next item is invocation. If we can all stand. Again, we are reminded by the Word of God to keep Him first in everything that we do. And He tells us in Genesis 2:7, "For the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." And this is what differentiates us from the animals. Thank God for that.

He also reminds us to be wise stewards over all that we manage in our life, whatever the Lord put in our hand. He tells us in Deuteronomy 8:18, "But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, as he swore to our fathers." Thank God for his everlasting promises. His word stands forever. And I thank God today when Christianity was introduced to our people in the 1800s and our elders, our Inupiaq people embraced the word of God, they embraced Christianity. And I really believe that's how we are so blessed And it's a reminder from the leaders that stood before us here within this body, within the past mayors, past leaders that we've had.

We're reminded that they look to the Lord for help.

And he tells us in his word, he is a very present help in time of need, in time of trouble. And He also promises us that He will be with us in trouble, no matter what we go through in life. There's also the powerful scripture in Matthew 11:28, and He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Thank God for that rest that He's able to give us. And we in Haneraad that we're always reminded by our leaders, our early leaders, our elders, some of whom we still have with us today. Thank God for that.

And as, as the middle generation and elders in training, as they call some of us, we have to remind everyone within the leadership positions that we hold and thank God for his word, his everlasting promises. So with that, I'm going to ask Assemblywoman Kinnevec, Eva, if you can lead us in invocation this afternoon.

Arigatou, Mr. President. Even all the scriptures that you share I'm, I'm just so thankful, yes, for our parents, our grandparents, and even the elders around us and the ones that have gone before and how they, how they trained and taught us, you know, of, of the Lord. And we are a blessed borough because of that, because we choose to acknowledge and we choose to allow him to be a part of business, home, school, our community. We, uh, it's our choice, but it, it sure makes a difference. But thank you, thank you, Mr. President.

And before, before we, um, ask the Lord to help us Um, I just want to share a couple few scriptures, um, in one of my daily readers a couple of days ago. This one was, you know how God's word sometimes just magnify or it just becomes so loud that, you know, you like, he wants to get our attention and This is found in Mark 4:22-24. For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then he said to them, take heed what you hear.

With the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. It will be measured to you. For to you who hear, more will be given. I looked up heed and it's, it's, it says pay attention. Pay heed, meaning pay attention to what you hear.

This is what Jesus was— Jesus was when he was speaking in Mark.

Pay attention to what we are hearing today because today's technology, there's so many voices out there, whether it's our phone, Facebook, our children, our job, where there's so many voices Um, from the time we get up till the time we close our eyes, there's so, so many— the television, the internet, or the needs of our people.

And the Lord is, you know, for him to say, if you have ears to hear, let him hear. And I really believe this is the day and the hour that our Lord is really trying to get our attention as well, you know, to open our spiritual ears and really listen to what he's trying to, um, tell us, what he's trying to speak to us.

That, that was my one of my, um, scriptures a couple days ago. That was very loud. So with that, we can just all close our eyes and just honor the Lord.

Good afternoon, Holy Spirit. Good afternoon, Father.

We just welcome your sweet presence, whether it's in the chambers, whether it's in places where we meet, and even on radio land.

Father God, thank you for your word. Thank you for your promises.

Father God, I'm going to ask you, Father God, to open our spiritual ears to hear what you want us to hear from you. Open our eyes and our hearts to you, Father God.

Father God, for, for the direction you want us to take, for our home, for our work, for our community. For our region, our state, and our nation.

Father God, I just thank you and I just praise you. I praise you for speaking to us. I thank you, Father God. You said in your word, when two or three are gathered in your name, you are right here with us.

And you said we can ask anything And Father God, I'm asking you, Father God, just to touch each and every one that's listening. Father God, I thank you for, for touching our people, for healing and restoring our people.

Father God, even the blessings that our people are getting in our region right now I ask that they be good stewards of the dividends you've given them, that you keep our people safe from the enemy, and that they'd be wise stewards, Father God, to, to, um, to be good stewards of the finances that you've given them. Father God, I apply the blood of Jesus over the over the assembly members, over our president, over our mayor, over his staff right now, over, over our region. Father God, I ask that, Lord, your wall of fire, your wall of fire be around, around us today, and that your glory be in our midst.

Father God, you said in your word, with the same measure that we hear, Father God, more will be given to us. Father God, keep us focused, keep us disciplined to, to stay close by you, to hear what you have to say or hear what you want us to hear. Father God, I thank you for the divine wisdom and the knowledge and understanding and wise counsel from heaven for our mayor and his staff. Father God, I thank you and I praise you, Father God, that our, our borough is the head and not the tail. We are above and will not be beneath, be beneath, because we choose, we choose to heed your, your commandments.

We choose to keep our eyes on you. Father God, and to ask you for help. Father God, I just thank you and I just praise you for this day, this hour. Father God, I thank you for the Comforter, Father God, to comfort ones that have lost loved ones. I thank you for your healing touch upon broken hearts.

And Father God, even the ones that are in the hospital Father God, thank you for miracles, signs, and wonders, even for the homeless. Father God, Father God, thank you for turning things around for the homeless and the ones that need their sound mind. Father, in the name of Jesus, we declare sound minds. Father God, we call them— we call forth their— call forth back their sound minds. Father God, the ones that need their minds healed, Father, in the name of Jesus.

Father God, I just thank you and I just praise you even for reaching down your hand, Father God, for the ones that are in prison. Father God, I just thank you and I just praise you, Father God, for turning the hearts of the ones are there that are there. Father God, Father God, I just thank you and I just praise you for this this day, this hour. I thank you for the strength that, that you are going to give us just for today. I thank you for, for helping us in, in making decisions, Father God.

Father God, we just want to take this time to tell you how much we love you, and we are thankful for your hedge of protection over us. We are, we are thankful for answering our prayers. And we are thankful, Father God, for just loving us. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.

Amen. Arigato for that wonderful, powerful prayer.

Next item on our agenda Is the approval of agenda and consent agenda. All items listed with asterisks are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the assembly and will be approved by one motion at this time. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless an assembly member so requests, in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda.

Item 5, approval and/or correction of minutes.

We have regular meeting and public hearing minutes of May 5th.

Item 8, introduction and/or approval of resolutions and ordinances. 8A, Resolution 44-2026, a resolution waiving competitive bidding for a change order to North Slope Borough, contract number 2021-132 with Umiak Environmental LLC for the area-wide environmental cleanup services.

Was this the one that was going to be postponed? No. Okay. Uh, 8B, Resolution 56-2026, a resolution waiving competitive bidding for change order to North Slope Borough Contract number 2025-036 with UIC Construction LLC.

Okay. For the Unaktuvuk Pass water and sewer connection, CIP project number 09-148.

8C, Resolution 57-2026, a resolution waiving competitive bidding for a change order to North Slope Borough for contract number 2026-114 with Arctic Fire and Security LLC for the district-wide security upgrade, CIP project numbers 06-201 and 06-203.

8D, Resolution 58-2026, a resolution waiving competitive bidding for a change order to North Slope Borough, contract number 2022-118.

With Taku or Taku Engineering LLC for API and SDI field tank cleaning and inspections area-wide, fiscal year 2023 through fiscal year 2027. 8D, Ordinance 2026-06, an ordinance amending Titles 1 and 2 of the North Slope Borough Code of Ordinances to authorize the revision and correction of manifest errors. Public hearing date set for September 1, 2026.

And also 8F, Ordinance 2026-05, an ordinance amending Title 3.25 of the North Slope Borough Municipal Code to establish a local homestead property tax exemption for owner-occupied and qualified long-term residential rental properties within North Slope Borough.

8G, Ordinance 2026-10B, an ordinance adopting a long-range capital improvement program and financial plan providing for the acceptance of certain powers transferred and appropriating funds to accomplish the capital projects outlined, recommended to be Oh, is it? Yeah. Where the heck did that come from then? Oh, right here. Yes, just this one.

This bottom part? This one? I mean, no, just these. Somehow I got this one here in front of me. And this one too is open.

Really? Somehow I got a couple of old ones. No, this is the correct Oh, that's, uh, this is just the agenda. That one is a cheat sheet. Okay, okay.

So we gotta cover this from 8 on down. You already did, so it's the wish of the assembly next. So that's okay. I covered them all then. Yeah.

Okay. All right, what's the wish of the assembly? Move to approve. There's a motion by Robin Jorna to approve. Do I hear a second?

Motion? Second. Been seconded. Under discussion. Mr. President.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. On items number 9 Alpha and Bravo, I would ask the assembly to consider postponing those until September 1st. That's Ordinance 2014-01-2, Ordinance Amending Title 4 of the North Slope Borough Code to Establish North Slope Borough Department of Commerce, to September 1st.

9 Bravo Ordinance 2026-02, an Ordinance Amending Certain Sections of Title 18, Subdivision, Certain Sections of Title 19, Zoning of the North Slope Borough Municipal Code also to September 1st. There are no other additions or deletions that the administration is requesting, although we do have a special presentation under the monthly status report that we would like some grace in allowing time for some of our folks to present to the assembly and the listening audience. Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

It's been moved and seconded. Any other discussions?

Questions?

Question has been called for. All those in favor of the approval of the agenda and consent agenda, do so by saying aye. Aye.

Aye. I was supposed to say nay.

Hearing none, our agenda has been approved.

Next item on our agenda is the, uh, communications. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. I'm happy to to present the Employee of the Month from the Department of Public Works. If we can have the appropriate supervisors come up and present the assembly and the listening audience the Employee of the Month, just to give a little— or maybe I'll save my remarks until afterwards.

Deputy Director Mawak. Through the President, George Mawak Jr., Deputy Director for Roads, Airport, Sanitation. Today we have for you the Employee of the Month, Randy Asouk, presented. I'm pleased to— I'm pleased to announce that Randy Asouk is the August Employee of the Month. He currently works as a heavy equipment operator for the North Slope Borough Department of Public Works in Utqeruvik.

Randy's previous employment within the department includes working as a laborer, toss operator, and an oiler. Randy is a dependent, dependable, and valued member of our team. In a short time, he has demonstrated great commitment to his work. Randy consistently comes to work with a positive attitude, strong work ethic, and willingness to help whenever and wherever needed. Whether stepping in to assist others, taking on new tasks, or simply doing what needs to be done, he approaches every challenge with dedication.

Certificate language: In recognition of your hard work, dependability, teamwork, and positive attitude as an employee of the North Slope Borough Department of Public Works, Randy's commitment to getting the job done has gone— has not gone unnoticed. His willingness to go the extra mile has made a meaningful difference, and we truly appreciate the contributions he has made to our team. Kweena.

Don't be scared. Tell them how old you are and what you've been doing. I'm 26 years old, and I've been working as a temporary heavy equipment operator at a place I love and enjoy working at.

I really love what I do.

So, you know, Mr. President, Assemblymembers, listening audience, in this month's selection, the way it works, folks nominate certain employees for the Employee of the Month process, and we go through the list of nominations and make a selection based on those nominations. And I saw This nomination, and it made me think a little bit about our work that we do in providing services to the community and the approach of being proactive versus reactive. And one of the simplest tenets of knowing if we're being proactive and reactive is when we go into our spring thaw, snow management, culvert clearing, and as soon as the snow turns to water, it's got a culvert to move through and drain so we're not flooded throughout town. And we've seen that over the last couple of years, and I've had plenty of late-night discussions with George and Scott Danner about making sure we, we time it right with when everything's going to melt and get it cleared out, get the road scraped down, etc. And I go and check their work.

I'll drive around and, hey, how come I don't see culvert crews? How come this, that, and whatever? And I was driving out by Gaswell on one of the bigger culverts there. And I drove by and there was a vactor truck and there were about 4 or 5 guys working on that big culvert. And I looked and there was some guy that was chest deep in the water in the culvert all the way in.

And man, that guy's real serious. I wonder what he does. And I found out it was Randy. And so the folks that are that are keeping our community safe from the, from the infrastructure perspective. Though Randy is just a temporary employee, typically you don't see temporary employees serve as Employee of the Month, but I think it's an important recognition of the work that we're asking our folks to do on the ground and our duty here as the elected officials to make sure that they have the resources available to them to do their job.

And so not only a recognition of Randy's hard work, but but everyone else within the department, Public Works, all of our temp laborers, that when the big spike in service for the communities come, when we have changes of season, we have plenty of boots on the ground for almost 24-hour operations with our Public Works Division. So again, very thankful for your service to the borough, and it serves as an example for our young people. Don't be afraid to try something and fail, because that's the best way that you can learn something. And I bet you As Mr. Assoq has pursued his CDL, among other certificates, that it's been quite challenging. But that's what we're here to do, is encourage the younger generation to step up and encourage them that when they do fail, that that's just part of life and you get up and you keep moving forward.

And then making sure that we give the opportunities for anybody that's interested in any of our municipal services to have the opportunity to pursue that type of training and support them for that. So again, Randy, khweena for your hard work and setting the example where it needs to be set.

For those not in the room, I asked if he knew that he was getting employee of the month. He said no. So that means we did our job right by making sure the surprise was there. So again, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience, moving on with our business. If I can go to item 6 Bravo.

Thank you, Mr. President. 6 Bravo is the confirmation of the Ilyasovik Board of Trustees, memo number 26-76. Please confirm my appointment to the Ilyasovik Board of Trustees in accordance with North Salabur Municipal Code 8.02.040, representing the community of Pointe-Laye, Dorothy Pickle, as a member serving a 5-year term starting immediately, ending December 31st, 2027. And for your information, there are the other Board of Trustee members listed below and who they represent.

Greenup. Mr. Mayor, what's the wish of the assembly? Move to approve. There's a motion by Trina. Do I hear a second?

Second. Seconded by Robin Jonah. Any discussion? Any discussion?

Question.

Question has been called for. All those in favor of the confirmation of the Lisa Holbrook College Board of Trustees as presented. For Pointe de lait, Dorothy Pickle, 5-year term. All those in favor, do so by saying aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Hearing none, confirmation has been approved by the assembly. Mr. Mayor. We have 6C, Mayor's Status Report. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly. Going right into the monthly status report, as always, I believe the importance of reading the preamble of the charter just to remind ourselves what we are doing in the roles that we serve here at the North Slope Borough. Preamble of the North Slope Borough Home Rule Charter. We the people of the North Slope area, in order to form an efficient and economical government with just representation, and in order to provide local government responsive to the will of the people and the continuing needs of the communities, do hereby ratify and establish this home rule charter of the North Slope Borough of Alaska. And before I go into the detail on the mayor's office Listening to the opening remarks from the assembly as it relates to the prayer and our thankfulness and our reliance on our faith to get us through different things.

We had the wonderful opportunity from the mayor's office to participate in ICC Alaska, which was held in Iqaluit, Canada, and there was plenty to take home as far as observations, speaking to the North Slopes experiences under our forms of government here in the United States. And where we have our rights in place at the self-determination local control level and where we may not have the rights in place. And, you know, 3 or 4 days of very in-depth discussion about all the differences. But at the end of it, I think very happy to take away the observation that thank God that we are residents of the United States of America and that You know, our early leaders made the effort to play the game according to the rules under the United States, and we are blessed to have our regional village corporations, our tribal organizations, and the North Slope municipality, along with the city municipalities, to exercise all the different powers that those jurisdictions have. And just based on the observation in some of these other countries in Greenland and Canada, Russia, Labrador, they don't have it the same that we have it here.

There are different pros and different cons, but thank God that we are inupiaqs in the United States. To conclude this month, I'll skip through some of the language that relates to ICC as I just spoke to it, but we had a big section of folks that went down and attended and represented our communities and participated in the work of ICC. There should be a declaration from the General Assembly that can be made available to folks online that speaks to the priorities that ICC stands up for.

We also traveled to Pointe-Laye to participate in Koveesook kasehkisigoot, community engagement celebration, and partnered with the prevention program to host a colour run and glow-in-the-light dance party. Staff also facilitated a dumpster painting event in conjunction with the regular assembly meeting while engaging with community members throughout about the visit. And I've taken some flak about the community engagement efforts that we've taken as the administration. The Pointe-l'Élysée visit obviously was not just a community engagement but also an assembly meeting. But some of the highlights that we take away when we talk about healthy communities work and preserving and living our Inupiaq culture, When we spend so much money on those efforts, sometimes it's hard to see the fruit.

And from the community engagement perspective, just for the community of Pointe-Laye, some of the takeaways that we had was it's good to get the whole community together and exercise peace, love, and joy amongst the community. One of the takeaways was this is the most people I've seen in the Pointe-Laye gym the most community membership participation that I've seen in a number of years. And when we got to the ahe, we were sitting next to Stocker Quayat, and he mentioned that this is the first time he's come out and drummed and sung Kali dances in 4 years. And if we hadn't showed up, he probably wouldn't have showed up that day to do that. And so it's those little things that really perpetuate our culture, really perpetuate the need for community-based unity and coming together and really looking to celebrate things that we should celebrate.

So many times we're inundated with different issues that come up, maybe tragedies, incidences, emergencies that we have to respond to with our infrastructure,, and it can get tiresome, but it's good to get together once in a while and celebrate where we do have wins, and, and that was good to share with Point Leland, and we just concluded our visit in Nuxitl for the last couple of days last week, so we'll report on that next month. We continue our strengthening partnerships with other organizations like our education Foundation and our annual culture camp that was held at Tatsumiso in partnership with other organizations, which brought a number of children from all across the slope out to the culture camp. And Madam Vice President, I want to thank you for your work in doing that. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it out to the culture camp as we were prearranged to be at ICC during that week. But I'm glad to see and hear that students, children from across the Slope got to experience Tutuleq and Ugruqsiaq in the same place that I grew up by chance, and that's good to see.

We also partnered with the Health Department Prevention Program by providing barbecue supplies for the community fun-run events and supporting successful gathering for participants and families. Family. We also hosted dumpster painting with the youth here at the Utqiaġvik playground, where participants incorporated Inupiaq values into their artwork while promoting creativity, teamwork, and community pride. Before I have our intern Jordan come up and read the rest of the status report in the record, I'll just cover government affairs very quickly. Alaska Legislature has concluded Second Special Session, which the department closely monitored legislative activity affecting North Slope communities and coordinated with regional partners to advocate for local priorities ahead of the upcoming Third Special Session on July 27th, focused on the Alaska LNG Project.

And so if you're watching the timeline, special session is designated for 30 days. And so we have 30 days from the 27th until this third one comes to an end, and we'll wait to see to see what kind of legislation the legislature decides to advance forward for signature from the governor. Following months of coordinated advocacy by myself, other regional partners in the department, the NPRA impact mitigation funding was successfully restored and included in the final adopted capital budget. So the appropriate NPRA grants that were solicited from the North Slope Borough and other impacted communities will be funded accordingly. And so we're happy to report that we were able to reinstate that funding that was cut.

To build on this momentum, the team met with our NPRA-impacted community to discuss long-term sustainable solutions while the borough and the city of Utqiaġvik presented updates on federal legislation and a proposed resolution supporting an NPRA program fix to the Voice of the Arctic Inupiat Government Affairs Committee. We'll be taking that proposal to the full voice board for support in the efforts that we've started about a year and a half ago now with the impacted communities, eventually resulting in the endowment fund that we worked with the assembly to establish and borough code. These discussions reinforce the critical importance of maintaining a unified regional voice on future revenue sharing and federal Arctic policy. That's a message that will be further shared with residents through a newly restarted quarterly newsletter scheduled for its first release by the end of this month. So last week we should have got the newsletter finalized and put out.

So with that, Mr. President, Madam Vice President, I'll ask Jordan to read the rest of the monthly status report, and we're open to any questions.

Green up, Mr. Mayor. Jordan.

Is this on? Okay. Uh, oh my goodness. Um, thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. Uh, Jordan Belgaard, uh, Mayor's Office intern, for the record.

Environmental management. EPA's contractor Sundance, uh, completed its inspection of Cocteau during July. Based on primary feedback, this was the borough's most successful inspection in the past 3 years and reflects the significant progress made by the Department of Public works and environmental management. In strengthening hazardous waste and tank management, uh, compliance, inspectors identified only a limited number of relatively minor defectancies, primarily involving hazardous waste labeling, container management, equipment and florescent bulb storage. Most of these items have already been identified during the borough's pre-inspection assessment conducted by Jacobs Engineering, and corrective actions have been—.

Oh my goodness.

Initiated prior to the official inspection. CIPM: The Tiguyuk School kitchen renovation project is currently underway. However, the project may not be completed before the start of the school year. During demolition, the contractors discovered that the existing plumbing beneath the floor was significantly was in significantly worse condition than originally anticipated. The necessary plumbing repairs have been— have since been completed, but this unforeseen work resulted in a delay to the project schedule.

Fire Department: July is the month we officially start with Thursday night firefighters and EMS training. This month we've had firefighter 1 psychomotor skills for all students across the slope attended in person here in Utqiaġvik. Future plans on emergency medical technician level 1 training in the works.

Call volume from May 16th 2026 through June 15th, 2026. Uh, ground EMS calls, total of 373. Fire calls, total of 8. ETOH, 23. Drugs, 9.

Full-time staff, 54. Active volunteers, 35. This month there were a total of 373 dispatched calls. Of these, fire calls represented 2%, while EMS calls made up the remaining 98%. With calls, 6% were related to alcohol and 2% were associated with drugs.

Oh, arrow.

Arrow Medical Division detailed report. Total requests for services: 34; total missions complete: 28; medevacs: 41; search and rescue: 2. Health and social services prevention started traveling to faculty—. No, fac-fac-culated? Facilitated young people's health care needs.

Adults Speak, a coalition meeting, and community fun run and field days, and community needs assessments in our outlying communities. Below are the 10 event travel dates, delayed flyer, detailed flyers with event The following event information will be distributed to respective communities. Point Hope, 5/19 through 5/23. Nuu-chuk, 6/22 through 6/24. Wainwright, 6/24 through 6/26.

Kaktovik, 6/7/20 through 7/22. Point Lay, 7/22 through 7/24. Ahtkosuk 7/27 through 7/29, Inuktuwik Pass 7/29 through 7/31. Health Department will conclude their Behavioral Health Summit report out in the following communities: Nuu-chuk 8/6, Kaktovik 8/7, Inuktuwik Pass 8/8.

Human Resources. Human Resources highlight key municipal policy updates including the final form from integrating— integration of the borough-wide Family and Medical Leave Act policy prior to mayoral submission according to the SAGE onboarding program remains on schedule with candidates arriving in Ute Aavik on August 3rd, 2026, for mandatory in-person competency training and final placement evaluations. Permanent job offers accepted: 26. Permanent job offers declined: 0. Total temporary hires including ETP interns substitutes, uh, 30.

Total positions closed, 31— 41. Total positions posted, 34. Planning and Community Services, in coordination with Hill Corp, the borough planning inspectors completed a site visit to Seal Island to collect independent samples of an ongoing spill, which the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Environmental Conservation are currently analyzing alongside samples from June to identify a responsible party. During a July 22, 2026 interagency meeting, North Slope Borough Planning and Wildlife Management officials virtually participate— participated to advise continued site observation and push for an official liability assignment along potential parties. Currently, cultural resource specialist Tom Nagyak concluded an archaeological survey at the Kokuk Unit with Santos Consultants, marking a critical step— critical first step in rezoning the land from conservation to resource development following multiple pre-application meetings and recent ice road appraisal drilling.

Police Department: during the reporting period of June 16th, 2026 to July 15th, 2026, the Police Department responded to 521 incidents, 123 of of which were alcohol-related. 7 AKP, 83 Barrow, 20 Nuitsuk, 1 Point Lay, 5 Wainwright, 2 Point Hope, and 4 Kaktovik, and 1 Deadhorse. And 2 reported vehicle thefts. A total of 50 criminal cases were designated for submission to the District Attorney and 12 to the Juvenile Probation Office for prosecution. 41 Individuals were arrested.

Police Department staff attended a participant participated in community— oh, and participated in community events during the reporting period. A few highlighted activities included participating in Coffee with a Cop event throughout all communities, escorted Walking Wednesday, and participation in Founders Day and Independence Day celebrations. NSB Detectives Task Force. NSBPD detectives across the NSB Anchorage and Fairbanks continue to participate in multi-agency task force with our law enforcement partners to include the Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Postal Service.

Service. Drug and alcohol seizures occurring within a North Slope Borough community or conducted by a task force officer where the intended designation was identified as an NSB community are documented in the list. Seizures not meeting these criteria reflect encouragement— encouragement violent actions in Anchorage or Fairbanks. Total alcohol: 3 1.5-liter bottles of distilled spirits were seized in barrel with an intended designation of Nuu-chah-nulth. Estimated street value: $900.

3.6-Liter bottles of distilled spirits were seized in barrel with an intended designation of Nuitsuk. Estimated street value $1,080. 3.7 Liters of distilled spirits seized in Nuitsuk. Estimated street value $2,000. 9.3 Liters of distilled spirits were seized in Nuitsuk.

Estimated street value $3,650.

2 750-Milliliter bottles of distilled spirits spirits, 750 milliliters of wine, and 24 12-ounce cans of malt beverages were seized in Nuu-witsik. Estimated street value $800. 5.25 Liters of distilled spirits were seized in Anutuvik Pass. Estimated street value $2,200. In addition to the above totals, the U.S.

Postal Inspection Service Task Force seized over 1.3 pounds of various controlled substances and over 6.5 liters of alcohol beverages with a street value of approximately $37,176 being shipped into North— into North Saltboro communities. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service Task Force also seized seized over 2.5 pounds of various controlled substances and over 19 gallons of alcoholic beverages with a street value of approximately $85,200 being shipped into other various communities throughout Alaska. Public Works. During July, Department of Public Works covert crews worked to open and clear culverts across the North Slope Borough to help reduce flooding caused by spring thaw and on-run and runoff.

Their work improved water flow, helped protect roads from damage, and kept travel routes safer for the public. The crews continued to, to respond where, where needed to keep drainage systems working and support the community— communities they serve. For water and sewer operations, there was a total of 463 trouble calls for June 2026, 271 for WNS-related repairs, and 192 for bus breakdown and repairs below.

Search and rescue, search and rescue staff attended an aviation safety summit in Anchorage for the purpose of advocating for the flight service station recent closure in Barrow.

N681SH, the first AW189 helicopter from Leonardo is currently on the assembly line for an expectation of arriving Barrow in March 2027. There were 6 missions for the reporting period: 1 Inuktuivik Pass, 1 Barrow, 1 Kaktovik, 1 Nuuk Sik, 1 Point Lay, 1 NWAR equipment for 6/20/2026 through 7/19/2026. King Air—. Do I read this? Okay, wait, do I read this or just— okay, King Air, total hours flown 22.1, aircraft availability 100%.

Notes D, ICE equipment installed.

Sikorsky, total hours flown 17.9, aircraft availability 65%. Um, Pilatus, total hours flown 28.7, aircraft availability 40%. Notes, avionics power supply unit replaced.

Bel 412, uh, total hours flown 0, aircraft availability 0%, notes upcoming GPS replacement. Wildlife— oh, GPS replacement. Wildlife. Wildlife Department staff recently traveled to Point Lake to collect beluga harvest samples and assist with community events while in while a wildlife intern advanced the 2025 community harvest surveys. Additionally, staff provided a critical bowhead research update at the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission meeting in Fairbanks and are continuing fishing— fish monitoring efforts in the North North Salt Lagoon throughout August 2026.

Looking ahead to next month, the department is scheduled to participate in the Inuvialuk— Inuvialuk Agreement meeting and the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council fall meeting between August 18th and 21st, 2026. IHL-C from July 22 through July 29, 2026, the Inuit Heritage Language and Culture, IHLC Department, partnered with the Arctic Education Foundation to host an impactful youth summer camp at Tutchumiso Students from across the North Slope gathered at IHLC to begin their experience with a comprehensive orientation camp, guidelines, and interactive museum activities featured in a traditional Eskimo dance during the culture work— in the culture workshop workshops, expert instructors provided pre-cut beaver skins and linings and patterns, allowing participants to select their size, pin their furs, and master essential sewing knots before embarking on their journey to Ultimately, this successful collaboration ensured that every student returned to their home community with a brand new self-crafted beaver hat, celebrating both their participation and the activity or active revitalization of of Inupiat values. Housing. The NSB Housing Department successfully hosted its second 3-day financial literacy workshop at Hut 365 in partnership with Ilyasagvik— Rogamith Realty and Prime Lending, while also completing a major community outreach effort across 8 North Slope communities. Regarding regional housing, uh, housing development, only one house, one home remains to be constructed under the construction loan program.

Finally, administrative staff are working to submit a superseding ATN for the Construction Trades program, and all new fuel housing tanks have arrived in the communities with contract language finalized, pending final funding approval. Administration Department. Department of Administration is working closely with SAGE to advance the comprehensive digital records management program that aligns with the broader detail transformation initiative. This effort includes a full review of the record retention schedule, development of an improved detail repository, and planning for a streamlined digital record request system. Port Authority.

The Port Authority continues advancement— advancing the Astar Tribe Village Planning and Environmental Linkages, or linkage, uh, PLA or PEL study into an environmental Environmental Assessment and Impact Statement. A supplemental funding request was submitted to administration, and the ASTOR coordinating group is preparing a Bureau of Land Management right-of-way application for submission following the August 6th pre-application meeting. This initiative follows a July 15th federal strategy session regarding community-led roads in the NPRA.

Through immediate corrective actions are underway with risk management to refile a separate, um, separate incomplete Bureau of Indian Affairs right-of-way application using updated forms. And initially— no, internally, the Port Authority managed key personnel transitions by promoting Ian Shroud to program manager and acting deputy director while senior leadership can conducted comprehensive budget and grant reviews in Utqiaġvik and Point Lay to address the deputy director, uh, resignation and enforce contract regulations ahead of the upcoming AASHTO test road bind opening.

Mr. President, if I may just continue a little bit on the monthly status report before we address any questions from the Assembly members. I'm a firm believer in the importance of trial by fire, especially for our young folks to be put into an uncomfortable situation and forced to perform through that. It's important for an individual to learn what it takes to perform through those maybe high nervous adrenaline dump situations and then really tap into that fight-or-flight response. And so that was an example of trying to handle all of that, and I think that's an important step for young people, especially young men, to to go through. And so I'm thankful for the Assembly with— for allowing me the opportunity to give that experience to this young man.

I'm sure he'll never forget reading the monthly status report for this month into the record. In addition to that, Mr. President, if I may take the opportunity to have the NOLS group come up and just talk a little bit about what they've accomplished. We have some young folks from all across the region. Maybe if we can have them introduce who they are who they are, where they're from, and how they liked the trip. Just briefly summarize that, Mr. President.

If you young folks can come up and put your name on the record. Bring up the mayor. Come on up, young folks. Introduce yourselves.

Hello, my name is Kea Edwardson. I went on the AKP NOLS trip. AKP trip. It was definitely a life-changing trip and I would recommend it or I'd want to go on it again. Where are you from?

Oh, I'm from Barrow, Alaska. My mom's Heather Dingman.

My name's Vivian. I'm from Barrow. Barrow. And the AKP trip The trip is a real big mind opener and it's a very great opportunity. It was very amazing to also—.

And also the people I got to bond with.

My name is Alaina. I'm from Barrow and the Unaktuvuk Pass trip was A really great experience, and I would really want to go again if I was able to.

I'm William Hobson from Nauxit, and I think this trip was very amazing. I hope, like, my classmates and the younger people before me would be able to go on trips like this again because it's life-changing. And it made me open up to the wild.

My name is Andrew Rexford, and I really found peace in the mountains in Anaktuvuk, and the trip was really life-changing, and it really made me think about times past and you'll never relive them. And I hope everybody has a good day.

My name is Mark, and the AKP trip really opened my eyes through a different perspective, should I say. Hiking 14 miles around the mountain really helped with that, and I hope that everyone has an amazing day.

My name is Scott Aiken. I grew up here in Barrow, Alaska, and one thing I'd say about the AKP trip is it was really beautiful. I'd love to go again, and I feel so blessed that I was able to go up there in AKP and hike. It was amazing.

I'm Evan Judkins. I'm from here and there's too many mosquitoes. It was a really good trip though. It was a really good trip and, um, yeah.

I'm Jasleen Tesorlik. I'm from Barrow, Alaska. I think going on that trip in AKP was, like they said, life-changing. It makes you change the way you see life. It makes you more present, be in the moment.

It's very precious, and I think it should continue on. Thanks.

Hello.

Say your name. Your name and where you're from.

What's your name? Where are you from? My name is Isaac. I'm from here.

How was your trip to AKP? Good.

Mr. President, just for those online, there's a video showing kind of a slideshow of the pictures, but maybe if we can have one of the camp coordinators kind of explain just very briefly what the trip entailed and kind of your takeaway from partnering with the borough to provide this opportunity for young folks. Mr. Camp Coordinator.

Hi there all. Thanks for the opportunity. Thanks for the opportunity. Great to be here. My name is Sam Newberry.

I work for the Health Department and have coordinated this trip the last 2 years. And it feels like a really special opportunity to give folks opportunities to, one, build relationships with the land and build relationships with each other that are really meaningful, and then also with themselves doing really challenging things like you just heard about. Um, yeah, so it feels special. And to give a little background, right, we went to Nxtuvupass. There were two trips.

One was about 40 miles from Chandler Lake back to AKP over 12 days, and that was a route that, uh, locals said no group of teens has walked in like 50 years. Evan was on that trip along with half a dozen folks from Nuxit, Kaktovik, Point Lay, many of the other villages.

Yeah. So it—. And then the second trip was most of these folks here. And yeah, they did a 7-day trip around a mountain that was— well, it just went away. But anyway, it was beautiful out there.

So I think what What the kiddos accomplished out there is really, really special. People come from all around the world to see this place, and for them to get to say, "This is my home. I love my home, and I also get to interact with other folks from around the world who are coming to see this place." It was— particularly Elena got to share about Inupiat culture with some visitors, and it was a really beautiful thing to watch. So I'll stop there. Good enough, but how do you go?

Green up. Very good. So, you know, uh, Mr. President, uh, just last thing I'll say about these types of endeavors, um, uh, relates to what I was saying earlier. It, it is a very strong character-building trait to push yourself yourself to a limit to find out that, you know, you might just have mental blocks or some of these other things that are stopping you from accomplishing some of these hard tasks that you're going to have in life, and the sooner that you can prove to yourself that you can overcome something, the better the rest of your teenage years or your young 20s are going to be, being able to rely on yourself to accomplish anything you set your mind to. So I think that's a good example hopeful of some of the things that these young folks can take away as they finish up their high school education, start to figure out what they want to pursue, having that idea in the back of their mind that really I can do anything as long as I show up every day and do the hard work.

That's a good perspective to have going into adulthood. So again, Assemblymembers, thank you for your support from the budgetary perspective as we've hosted this NOLS trip for young folks all across the slope for the second year now. Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience, open to any questions on the overall monthly status report. Look forward to the discussion. Mr. Mayor, before we get into the question, just want to— it reminded me of a trip that we took when we were in school years ago, and it was Arctic survival.

They took us out for 2 weeks, but it was in March, no mosquitoes.

Sounded like you guys had a great experience, and hopefully that continues throughout the different seasons, right? So, Mr. Mayor, with that, do we have any questions from the assembly on the mayor's status report?

Mayor's status report. Good evening, everyone.

This is Eva. Go ahead, Eva. Was someone gonna go on? Sorry. Naomi.

Oh, okay, thank you. I just have a couple on the healthy communities.

I recall when There was a lot of painting going on. So can we request from the Village to get some paint so we can color our trash bins?

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly, listening audience. For the line of questioning. Yeah, so that's no problem.

The way we've done it is in partnership with each city government, we'll provide paint to anybody.

And then partner with whoever from the city and our local mayor's office staff to help host the dumpster painting event with the kids. And depending on, you know, the level of staff available to help, do barbecue at the same time, whatnot. Just some summer activities to keep kids doing something different once in a while. So absolutely, we can work with the city of Point Hope to do that same partnership we've done all across the slope.

Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor. Um, that would be great. Also, in one of the conferences, um, I don't know whether it was a school district or another organization, that we saw, um, their big water tanks you know, with some drawings, would the borough allow us to paint or draw on those big water tanks right in the middle of the village? I mean, it would be, to me, I would think the city or the tribe, I can't speak for the tribe, but, you know, make sure people are well supervised, or what, what goes on to promote healthy communities or positive, positive scenes on your water tanks? Would, would that be possible?

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, Madam Vice President, members of the Assembly, listening audience. For other— my initial response is yes, but there's going to be a couple of things that I'm going to double-check. I know we extensively— and you'll see in one of the resolutions— well, it wasn't pulled, but there's a tank cleaning inspection that has to be done on both fuel and water tanks, and we need to make sure that the outside coating isn't compromised that then would result in rusting of the tank. But I'm sure that we can figure out a way to make that work, and I believe it was Nome Belt where you saw that water tank being painted.

So we'll follow up with the engineers in Public Works just to make sure that we know the parameters in which— what kind of chemical we want to slap on the tank, and then we'll follow up with the mayor's office to make sure that that's coordinated properly with Public Works. Khayena. Khayena. Mr. Mayor. Assemblywoman Keneba.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor. I just have a couple more.

Um, before I forget, I just want to thank Mr. Jordan, you know, for reading that lengthy monthly status report. And it's always good to have the young ones, you know, to experience different tasks on whether they're intern or um, helping out. So thank you, Mr. Jordan. I just wanted to, um, make sure I, I thank him. The other one is, um, I just have a couple more.

Do we have, um, or Seal Island on one of your reports? Where is Seal Island?

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly, listening audience. Under the Planning and Community Services Department, I believe, is where they mentioned Seal Island. It also goes by North Star Island. It's one of the production islands in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields offshore. It's originally pursued in the '80s by ExxonMobil, and then now the current operator is Hilcorp.

Corp. For those that have been paying attention to the back and forth over the last 30, 40 years of that ordinance and the operating— operations of North Star Island, one of the big things was acoustic monitoring of bowhead whale migration to assure that deflection of the migration wasn't happening. And so as the operator has changed over the years since Exxon sold its rights to North Star Island to Hilcorp. We've had challenges in enforcing the acoustic monitoring. And so thankfully, over the last couple of years, we've developed a plan with the mayor's science advisory board committee, SAC, with the wildlife department, where the biologists there, from a political unbiased, make recommendations from a scientific perspective. Perspective on what kind of ecological monitoring or protections need to be put in place.

And so thankfully we were able to disperse the acoustic monitoring array on an approved plan that works for both the North Slope Borough as an entity, AWC, specifically the Nuuksitt Whaling Association, and the operator. And so that inspection was probably a follow-up on the work that's being done out there as they are revitalizing the operations at Seal Island, North Star Island.

Iwa, did you have anything more?

Sorry, I was talking to myself. I was muted.

For— well, I, I was thinking, um, when I read the, the about the Seal Island, I say, boy, that should be nice to have a, um, North Slope retreat. But sorry, I changed my mind.

But, um, for the last one on your police department, you have, um, Coffee with Cops. I just want to thank our PSO, the ones that rotate. There's one, Mr. Donnie, he made, um, he made a big upside-down cake and he went and visited the city staff and also to the store. So, you know, these, these PSOs are making an effort to try to get to meet some of the community members, and that, that was really nice of him to, you know, have coffee with the cop just to get to know, um, the ones behind the badge and the ones, you know, in the community. So we really enjoyed that.

So, um, again, thank you, um, for the fire— not the fire— the police department for pushing Thank you, Mr. President. Arigato gozaimasu. Eva, do we have any other questions from the assembly on the mayor's status report? Mr. President. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, audience. Again, for the remarks, I forgot to mention when you did bring up Seal Island specific to what's reported in the monthly status report as far as the collection of ongoing samples. Aitkak, that it was a plug and abandon well at the— that was on the shoreline of the island when it was plugged and abandoned about 40 years ago. And then there was a sheen discovered a couple of years ago. And then upon further inspection with the State of Alaska and the United States Coast Guard, it was found that there's not an active lease where the plug and abandonment is.

And so we've been working with with the United States Coast Guard and the state DEC along with the planning department to make sure that the recovery of any sheen is done and then the plug and abandonment is finished. And so that's what's being reported here, not necessarily the acoustic monitoring. In addition, coffee with a cop, coffee with a cop, thank you for bringing that up. Kind of the idea and the genesis around that was spending time in Prudhoe with an old North Slope Borough cop who is now working for ICE services, and he would— we had an hour together in the car, and so we did nothing but talk, and he explained how he was an officer for the North Slope Borough in the late '70s, early '80s, was stationed in Unaktuvuk. There was a lot of parachuting in from federal agencies, and he helped the Nahra'umut people try to defend their rights a little bit as the police officer in town.

And he would get up and open the police station early in the morning, 6 in the morning, have coffee made, and the elder men would come to the police station and have coffee with him for a couple of hours. Thomas Roland, Mark Morey, a few of the ones that he mentioned. And then by 9 o'clock or so, you know, the rest of the town would be up and at 'em and be going. And the old men kind of adopted him in. Hey, we need Strongback to come help us hunting.

And so he would follow them hunting, Tŋani kaap. And on his time off, he would follow them hunting and be their laborer, carry whatever for them, and got to know them real well.. And when it came to having to enforce the law with those elder men, there was that relationship that was built to where, you know, it was more amicable with whatever law enforcement had to do. And so the story that he told then was that U.S. Fish and Wildlife came in and told him, you're not a tribal member, you can't hunt with these men.

And they— these men were also Nakhrá Homúd Tribal Council, so they held an emergency meeting. They found he was like a 16th Indian from the Lower 48, and they made him a Nakhrá Homúd Tribal Council member, and he had access to the same land that the Nakhrá Homúd had access to. And so that's the genesis when we recognize that we have to implement a level of law and order. And a lot of the times we want to pursue We want our law enforcement officers to be local, and then you get to the reality of having to enforce the law with the people you grew up with. It can become very challenging, especially when you have to deal with very challenging emotional situations.

And so we recognize that some of these officers have to come from off slope. We need to do our best to acclimate them to the culture of our Inupiaq people and look for ways for interaction between community members and our officers. And that's kind of the genesis of the Coffee with a Cop. So I thank you for bringing that up. Last thing I'll mention on the monthly status report on page 6 of 7, at the top is the search and rescue.

I mentioned it in the last last Assembly meeting as far as the monthly status report, but written here. You'll see the verified tail number, November 681SH, and holds a special place in my heart because I found out you can't do I's in the tail numbers, and so the 1 acts as an I, and ISH is representative of the Book of Isaiah, and chapter 6, verse 8 is the one that asks when Isaiah felt unclean, he was cleansed by the coal and made worthy essentially. And to kind of do the Lord's work, God asks, 'Whom shall I send?' And Isaiah responds, 'Here I am, send me.' And that's Isaiah 6:8. And so, worked real closely with different pilots and response personnel to get an understanding of why they do what they do. And 9 times out of 10, our pilots are up here because of the mission of being able to save lives of our people that are in different situations.

And I think it's good to commemorate and acknowledge that we all operate under the same, the same God. So happy to see that first production First one going into production. The second one, it's slipping my memory now, but I believe it's based on the Book of Proverbs. So I'll look forward to presenting the second tail number to the Assembly when appropriate. Clean up, Mr. President, members of the Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Referencing the word of God. Amen to that. Do we have any other questions? From the assembly for the monthly status report.

Mr. President, this is Vice President. Thank you, Mr. President. A question, just thank the different departments that helped out with the culture camp this year. We had IHLC, they helped out with the beaver hat making with the kids. We had 23 kids attend.

There was 3 kids that got weathered, they couldn't make it from Kaktovik, and the flights were booked up. Um, mayor's office helping out, um, with different things, and, um, search and rescue for picking us up. Um, we got stuck. We were going to be stuck out there if they didn't come and pick us up. The ice came in.

It was— and it was in pretty much all weekend this weekend. There finally getting the last load today. Just a quick update and thank you to the different departments that helped out. Um, we had 6 kids from Nooksit, 4 kids from Point Lay, 4 kids from Wainwright, 7 kids from Barrow. Um, our Koktovi kids didn't make it in.

AKP kids, actually, they were coming and then they told me last minute they were going to go to the Bible camp. It ended up at the same time, so they decided to go to the Bible camp instead. And our two Atkwesuk kids backed out. But these kids, they're— it's hard. They have to break out of their shell.

They're kind of shy. They're kind of nervous at first. And then they come out of their shell and man, they get into their own groups. They find each other, their own people that they're work with. And, um, we—.

They ended up—. We ended up being out there for 6, 6 and a half days, so almost 7 days. And they had a blast. They all want to come back. They always want to come back.

Thank you, Mr. President. Do we have any other questions or comments on the mayor's status report?

Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, Assemblyman Burnell.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Mr. Mayor. For the mayor's status report, you had stated, uh, the NPRA mitigation— impact mitigation funding being restored and not cut. Uh, is there a number to that? Is there a dollar number?

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly. Senator Bernal, we'll follow up on the exact number, but there is first round and second round made available based on the receipts from the federal government on royalties on NPRA production. And so we'll follow up with the number. It's probably around $20 million. $17 Million, I think, is coming to mind, but we'll follow up with a formal number and a list of projects that were approved And so just, just for context for the assembly and listening audience to understand, kind of 3 different issues when it comes to NPRA grant funding.

There's the annual appropriation process that is subject to the legislature and the governor, which is what we're reporting on. This annual process, we were able to salvage, making sure the revenue was put in place as a pass-through grant to the impacted communities from the federal government through the state of Alaska. The second discussion point as of recent has been the change under the Big Beautiful Bill that doesn't come into place until 2034, and it allocates more of the funding to the same pot that the state of Alaska currently funds the impacted communities with. And so it goes from 50% of all revenue to 70% of all revenue. And there's some legal interpretation needing to be done on whether the impacted communities have full access to the 70% or whether there was an intention for the state of Alaska to receive the additional 20% above the 50%.

So that's the big beautiful bill percentage allocation. Discussion, and then the kind of the third discussion is the waterfall effect that happens with the residual money that isn't granted, which is state legislation. So first one is state legislation on the annual appropriation, second one is federal legislation at the CFR level that has to be passed by Congress, and then third is also state legislature, but it would be more fixed law than the waterfall effect. So thanks for asking about it, and we'll follow up with the formal numbers.

Mayor Avaya. And thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that. I think it's obviously just as important to be transparent around that number. That funding impacts so many communities in so many different ways. On different types of projects for the local governments and also for the other types of governments in those villages.

And then just real quick, I wanted to highlight and say thank you once again. Always, it seems like I'm always thanking the Health Department because I really believe that, you know, that healthy communities is such a big moving factor on the North Slope. Um, when they do their outreach and they're listening and giving a chance for the kids to speak, just like we heard from the kid, you know, reading this report, giving them the opportunity to speak, um, you know, that young adult speak. I, I attended the one in Barrow a few months ago And it really is eye-opening because you— I didn't know the two kids that I met, and I'm so glad they're doing this in the villages to give the kids an opportunity to speak and once again break out of their shell, meet new people. I think that's a very powerful movement and moment in these kids' lives, and also for the people that are listening, because it's kind of boots on the ground.

You're, you're listening to what the kids are going through today, and we heard the kids speak of what AKP meant to them and the hiking and being outdoors and finding peace. You know, those are pretty powerful. So I just want to say thank you to them. And also they highlighted— I saw on social media them highlighting a very young individual, young adult, and she's been from afar nice to see her growth, um, Jaden Lampe, you know, understanding her, her akka was a former assemblyman or assemblywoman, and, um, how she advocated for the North Slope Borough and the other entities she worked at. So I, I just want to tell you thank you for that because I thought that was a great highlight.

Um, so just, I just want to say thank you there. And I, and I think I got Maybe a concern when it comes to the Barrow concerns, and it is honestly, it's going to revolve around the police department. You know, when we read this report, we're seeing 521 incidents across the North Slope, 123 of them being alcohol related in this last 30 days, uh, let alone in Barrow, 83. I don't know what the answer is to how to help mitigate some of these problems that we're seeing. I know in the last report we had talked about a detox proposal.

Um, I, I think this is the highest amount of numbers I've seen alcohol-related in any month, you know, and it seems to be the more we do, the worse it gets. It's, it's looking like, um, Be interesting to hear, you know, what the police department thinks about what could help mitigate some of these things that they're seeing. You know, are they understaffed?

You know, just, just pretty mind-blowing to see that many alcohol-related incidents across the North Slope in a 30-day span. You know, we're looking at 4 a day. You pick the village and You know, it's almost 3 a day in Barrow. It's getting, getting to be too much. So I think the highlighting of that and the listening audience and really advocating for others to help, you know, family members, community members to continue trying, uh, don't give up, and helping the ones that really do need this kind of help.

So Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience, uh, Assemblyman Bernal for the line of questioning and the, uh, words of encouragement around the other departments. Going straight into, um, I, I guess the discussion, uh, twofold, one being the preliminary discussion we had last month in regards to a treatment facility here on Slope.

I just met with Health Department leadership yesterday to look at an asset that they believe can help facilitate a more short-term opportunity. It's not a short-term solution, it's a long— longer-term solution, but it's an opportunity that we have in front of us. And so based on kind of looking at the asset the infrastructure as itself and what it would take to acquire that for the North Slope Borough's use. But then now attaching the work plan to the floor plan is what's being done right now to make sure that if we do move forward with the purchase of the asset, that we've done our due diligence into how we would like to operate a treatment facility and then fitting that into the box of what is available from the infrastructure perspective. And so that's happening right now.

Again, I just had the update with Director Hepa yesterday, uh, looking over the, um, the actual infrastructure. Now we need to marry the, uh, ideal plan to the realistic plan based on the infrastructure in front of us. And that's more so the short-term solution. There's still the the ongoing overall massive capital project need for a real Health Department facility that can take inpatient and all of those types of things. So short-term, long-term plan, more attainable.

One plan is more attainable. The second plan is going to take a lot of work to attain. Doesn't mean it's not attainable.

The idea of instant gratification is almost nothing you can see in the borough gives you instant gratification. It takes a little time to do everything. And so we'll present on the plan probably in a workshop once it's complete and probably right before we ask for authority from the assembly to acquire the property. On the second point of discussion in regards to the police department, before I let Chief Brown go, which I think he's ready to speak to a little bit. I just want to share that as part of our budget implementation back in February, March, right, we did the baked-in budget from the supplemental from the previous year that brought 24/7 police coverage in each of our communities, which was speaking to a little bit as far as the officers that are there.

I know just in Nooksit we had two officers that were in community, meaning that one officer can cover day shift, one officer can cover night shift, as that has been a concern over the couple of years that we've been here and even before. And so we have the 24 police coverage, 24/7 police coverage in each of our outlying communities. We've had a version of that here in Barrow, but to bring that same level of in terms of availability for officers. One of the things that Chief Brown requested from the mayor's office was additional funding for 5 additional officers— 4 additional officers, I apologize— that would help both with the investigative paperwork side of things, but also beat patrol officers. And so he can speak to some of that stuff, but we plan to bring some of that forward in the supplemental budget this year, which would be a new level in the Barrow area after we've upgraded the level in each of our outlying communities.

Chief Brown. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, members of the assembly. Jeff Brown, Chief of Police, for the record. I guess starting with the kind of the recruitment aspect of it, again, we've come close to doubling the size of the department over the last two fiscal years. As of this morning, we are 8 vacancies for sworn police officers which is pretty monumental.

That means we're meeting legacy standards and then we're well into FY— well, current fiscal year in terms of staffing. And that is working to achieve that goal for the 24/7 coverage out in all the, the communities. We've made some adjustments even in anticipation of that to where traditionally speaking we had what we call the call-out list. It's that concept if you call the police department, call into dispatch, that call for service had to meet a certain threshold before we would in essence call that officer and authorize that officer to respond to that call for service. Again, it's threats for life, property, things along those lines.

We've eliminated that. Essentially anybody that calls dispatch lines, we've eliminated that. Essentially anybody that calls dispatch lines lines. We've eliminated that, essentially anybody that calls dispatch lines, we've eliminated that, essentially anybody that calls dispatch up until the point in time we were fully staffed. In addition to that, the concept of just turning on additional positions without the ability to actually fill those does not work out either.

So again, we've been working very closely with the Mayor's Office for any additional staffing needs. Again, those requests will come in with the supplemental budget that gives us breathing room into the existing fiscal year to be able to continue to recruit, retain good qualified officers to fill those vacancies. And again, having the ability to be selective and very selective on who we're bringing up in order to fill those facilities—. It's—. Or those positions, rather.

It's, it's no longer the type of thing where we just need warm bodies to take calls. We're well beyond that to where they have to meet the expectations that we have for people that are going to be employed here, where they could go find employment elsewhere. And my staff is fully aware of that.

It's not that you're needed, it's that you're wanted here. Otherwise, go somewhere else. Um, in terms of specific to alcohol, We have everywhere from wet communities to dry communities, and then Barrow being damp. Uh, obviously the, the vast majority of what the police, police department does is reactive response. Same way with the fire department, it's reactive.

We do what we can in terms of the interdiction efforts, and we work a lot of those. Again, when those numbers that are presented, that could be anything from, again, those proactive interdiction efforts at the airports and, um, baggage and parcels that are coming through. But in addition to that, that's detox removals, that's intoxicated people just on the side of the road, uh, all those factors come into play as well for those numbers.

As a police department, I don't think I'm prepared to say what potentially could help that without some good thought and review. Again, looking at the, the different communities and what works But certainly that, that concept of, uh, helping before there's a problem becomes the, the biggest part there. And it sounds like there's work towards that. I know in conversations with the Health Department, again, partnerships that we have with the Health Department to try to help there too, it's that prevention model is really what we have to look at versus what do we do as the police department to continue just scooping people up off the road. Hopefully that, that helps.

Greenup Chief Brown, hope that helps. It does. Thank you, Mr. President. Any other questions from the assembly on the mayor's status report, Mr. President?

Assemblyman Robin Jonah. Uh, this pertains to the police department. Um, my question is, with the The new officers that are coming, are they getting some type of medical training for— since they're pretty much the first responders on scene? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly.

Uh, generally speaking, they, they at least attain general first aid stuff, but then a lot of them have more advanced. Just depends. Currently, with the fire department staffing the way it is, we haven't made it a requirement because of their, their staffing and ability to respond. Certainly something we could look at, especially now that the fire department is providing a lot of those training opportunities on slope. I know a lot of my staff at least attempt to sit in on that, so making that more of a priority is something certainly we can do.

Yes. Any other questions?

Status report.

I don't think so. Move to approve. There's a motion by Trina to approve the mayor's status report. Second. And seconded by Robin Jonah.

Under discussion. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President. I know, um, it's just part of the normal annual report as far as public works and underground, above-ground water and sewer that we do across the slope in partnership with CIP. I just wanted to point out that, you know, we're aware of various issues with below-ground and above-ground contractors doing work and rectifying those issues as they come up through our— the appropriate channels within the contract, through the appropriate department.

A lot of times CIP And the example that I can give just off the top of my head is when we drove around in Wainwright a couple of years ago in the middle of winter, seeing the open dig-ups without any fencing, right, making that corrective action with the contractor like that. And so in various communities, maybe it's Qaktovik, I know that I haven't been there in since December, but I know that there's been a lot of above-ground and underground water and sewer work that has been done, that as the season changes from spring to summer, we have to go back and do some more additional work on those settling dig-ups and whatnot. And so from that perspective, and then separately from the day-to-day operations across the slope in the Public Works Division.

The framework is that for that community, all of the Public Works work, whether it's heavy duty, light duty, facility maintenance, heavy equipment operations, anything else that Public Works does, all go through central command at that community. And so the community supervisor, the supervisor are the ones that direct and call the shots with support from the appropriate deputy director if they need resources or the director themselves.

But being able to promulgate down that accountability to the community supervisor is always going to be one of the challenges that we have, recognizing that public Public Works is a community service entity, and we don't have the right to refuse service to residents like a private organization might. And so we recognize there are some challenges in all of our communities with the leadership of Public Works, and we are taking appropriate action internally to address those challenges and make sure the community supervisor has everything that they need to get their job done. Before we move forward with maybe identifying other folks to come and take those types of positions from within the community. So, just wanted to share that. I know that there are some concerns about different Public Works operations, and I want to share that we're aware of them.

Our personnel rules and regulations make sure that there's due diligence done when dealing with classified classified employees, and those community supervisors are considered classified employees. So I just wanted to share that, Mr. President, members of the assembly. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any other questions under discussion from the assembly on the mayor's status report?

Anything more there, Mr. Mayor? Yeah, last one. True to form and tradition, I'd like to introduce to the assembly and listening audience our newest mayoral appointed position in the mayor's office, helping with some of the contract work that we do. Ms. Josie Kaler, welcome back to the borough. If you can come and introduce yourself to the assembly and say hello.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Josie. Yeah, you have to. Ms. Josie Kaler.

Come and address your son. Okay. Hi, son. That's my son Robin over here. My niece Trina.

It's good to be back with the borough. Thank you, guys. Okay, bye.

Thank you, Josie. Mr. Mayor, any other discussion?

Question. Question has been called for. All those in favor of the approval of the mayor's status report, do so by saying aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Hearing none, your status report has been approved, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you for the deliberation, uh, discussion, and opportunity to present. We look forward to following up on the items that we will. Next item on our agenda is 6D, monthly financial report. Before we get into that, we'll take a 7.5-minute break.

This meeting is being recorded and summarized.

I'll call the North Slope Board Assembly regular meeting and public hearing back to order. It is now 3:33 PM. Moving on, on our schedule, we have— we're on our agenda. We have 6D, monthly financial report. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. Uh, to begin the presentation on the monthly financial report, Director Lamani can walk us through and answer any questions. Director Lamani.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, members of the assembly. For the record, Fidel Lamani, Director of Finance. For your consideration is the monthly financial report for year-end, ending June 30, 2026. Um, want to point out that generally we don't do the June monthly financial report just because that's usually captured as part of the— year-end audit. However, we wanted to provide some unaudited figures prior to the commencement of the audit process that is currently underway.

So just wanted to give you a snapshot of what those unaudited numbers look like. With respect for the fiscal year '26, we had yet another strong financial stable performance driven by stable property tax. We saw the investment earnings not only for the central treasury but also for the permanent fund also increase. Moving on to the revenues within the general fund, unaudited general fund revenues totaled approximately $578 million, which represents about 93% of the amended FY26 budget. Budget.

The primary source of funding is the property tax collections, which reach at about $523.3 million, or 99% of the budget, which demonstrates that our collections relative to the property tax are in the 99th percentile. Again, on the investment earnings, we see a significant increase over budget expectations by generating $37.5 million or more than 510% of the original budget. Some of that was in establishing the FY26 budget. There was conservative measures within the investment returns relative to Central Treasury. So we outperformed those benchmarks.

And then with respect to the state and federal grants, we totaled at $12.5 million, um, and those are just the actuals. If you look at the actual appropriations, uh, is substantially higher. Um, and then on the charges for services, thus far at about $6.7 million for the fiscal year, and we anticipate seeing some adjustments that are going to be reflected as the year-end process. Now moving over to the general fund expenditures, which totaled about $588.9 million, or 84% of the FY26 amended budget as of June 30, 2026. Um, again, this reflects the normal operating activities of departmental budgets, the component unit funding.

You will also notice the debt service payment that we made at the end of June. That was at approximately $114.8 $128 million, and we had already made some interest payment only as of December 31st, which totals the debt service at— for the fiscal year at $122.6 million. The overall departmental spending is at about 74%, and all things considered, and I want to draw your attention specifically to page 8. Of the monthly financial report, which is the other financing sources and operating transfers. So all things considered, the unaudited operating surplus of $8.6 million before any year-end adjustments.

In building the fiscal year '26, we had assumed that there was going to be a transfer from the the unassigned fund balance of roughly $30 million and approximately $41.2 million from the permanent fund.

Throughout the year, as we had discussed with the assembly, we were going to play it by year in terms of what the cash needs were. We weren't necessarily going to draw from either of those funding sources for the purposes of making sure that we're yielding higher returns on our permanent fund investments. And so we were able to close out the year without the reliance of the $72 million roughly of the transfers, and we still came out at about $8.6 million surplus. So theoretically, if you're looking at it from a resource base, we're close to about $80 million before any adjustments.

Investments. Moving on to the capital improvement projects. As of June 30, 2026, we had appropriated approximately $1.6 billion towards capital improvement projects, which $1.324 billion is invested in active and completed capital— capital projects. This also represents 83% of the total appropriated funding. You will notice that the monthly activity for CIP was at about $19.6 million.

One thing to distinguish here between the capital improvements and the monthly drawdown in comparison to the actual value of the bond proceeds is that there's a little bit of a lag. And you will see that the bond proceeds increased slightly from the last month, and that's just because of timing of when the drawdowns hit the actual bank statements in being able to see the natural progression of the down spending of the bond proceeds. With respect to the enterprise funds, Again, these are done at modified accrual basis throughout the fiscal year. And with respect to Service Area 10 and Real Property Management, we saw operating income at approximately $13.9 million and $4.2 million respectively. With respect to the Power Generation and Distribution reported an operating loss of $22.7 million, which again reflects the BURS continued subsidy for the utility services for outlying communities.

And to date, as part of the operating transfers, we've transferred 75% of it, and the remainder will be a true-up provision, which we'll do that as part of the year-end it. There's also the net position decreased by $5.6 million for the Technical Training Center, which again had an operating loss of approximately $4 million. One thing to note, we had brought this to the attention of the Assembly, is that we're in the midst of a rate assessment that we're doing for Service Area 10. The rates have remained stagnant for the better part of 10-plus years. The borough maintains certificate of public convenience when it comes to the water and wastewater.

However, with respect to the solid waste rates, that's maintained within the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. And so we are looking at making some adjustments to the rates on the water and wastewater. Relative to all of the investments that have been done for better part last 10 years, and also some of the new investment that needs to take place with respect to the reservoir improvements for the water source that need to be made, coupled with the carrying loss relative to the technical training. It's something that we'll be able to recoup as part of the rates. We anticipate on having that that in front of the assembly here in the next few months.

And then with respect to the solid waste, that's going to take a little bit more time because it's going to go through the regulatory process, and generally there's hearings, we have to engage outside counsel, and ultimately those end up being a multi-year process to see the rate adjustments. If you're thinking about the revenue measure with respect to Service Area 10, it's about a 55-45 5% split between water and wastewater versus solid waste. So it's not an inconsequential from a rate adjustment on the solid waste, but procedurally it just takes a lot longer to see those rates being adjusted by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.

Um, with respect to the investments and fund balance, the Borough Central Treasury investment totaled at $1.3 billion. At the end of June. This is an increase of roughly $438.5 million compared to approximately $898.9 million in May. This is again due to the advance funding that we get from the property taxpayers. You know, one of the few municipalities that we receive the payments in advance of the commencement of the next fiscal year, so that's why you're that significant increase, which $524 million of that is pledged for fiscal year '27 revenues.

The intermediate account remains at very strong at $200.7 million and also the bond proceeds at $537.8 million. With respect to the permanent fund, we saw a slight increase decrease for the month of June of approximately $12.3 million or roughly 8.87%. Again, the month's performance was primarily driven by the global equity, including the fixed income. Again, this is the tailwind of the activity that was taking place in May. We're starting to see that in June as well.

The portfolio saw— somewhat of a decline with the real assets and— or private credit and absolute return collectively at about 2.4% or maybe 5.2— 2.4 million and 5.2%. And this is just as a result of some of the adjustments that were made with respect to the credit spreads. And then also, There was not as many strategies within the absolute return. And so we saw a lot of the hedge funds recognize some losses within the month. All of these things are relatively short in nature, meaning the volatility, and because of the diversification that we have, we anticipate in seeing these things rebound.

With respect to the grants, I do want to stress out a correction from the former month. We had nearly $40 million that were reported on both ends of the report. From the grants report, they were included on the technical training category, and then they were also reflected on the CIP side. From our accounting systems, they're correct. Just the reporting from grants was overstated by $40 million.

So that's why you see that delta if you're comparing it to prior month. From a spending perspective, we're looking at 55% completion from expenditures and total awards. Again, in general, Mr. President, While these figures are unaudited as of June 30th, we again had a strong financial position, and I want to extend my appreciation to the mayor for his leadership, to the assembly for your guidance, for your stewardship, all the department heads and their involvement throughout the fiscal year '26 budget and the discipline associated with all that. Also want to thank the, um, finance staff for their commitments and dedications, especially as we start to get into the, uh, audit cycle, which is going to entail a lot of long hours and a lot of work in putting the audit, um, prep together. With that, Mr.

Chair, I'll yield for any questions the assembly may have for Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Dr. Lamani, do we have any questions from the Assembly on the monthly financial report?

Hearing none, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. Um, Mr. LaMonica, so, um, for month end of our liabilities for our bonding— what, correct me if I'm wrong, was it $480,000? I mean, $480 million.

Through the chair, Madam Assemblymember Kinnibiac, if I can draw your attention to the debt service section, which is on page 15. This is a summary, so you will see that as of June 30, 2026, our outstanding outstanding par amount for the bonds are at $410 million, including $70 million of interest, which is approximately $480.2 million. Throughout the year for fiscal year '26, we made payments roughly of $122.6 million. That was both interest as well as the principal.

Mr. Chair, Mr. President, yeah, yes it does. And with the $122,000, did you— and you also mentioned at June 30th that there was another payment. Is—. Did I hear you correctly?

After the $1.5 $122 million, then there was $114 million at June 30th. Through the chair, Assemblyperson Kiviyak, the borough makes two payments a year with respect to the bonds. The first one is, is as of December 31st, which are interest-only payments. So that spread across 10 different maturities. When we made that payment, it was roughly $7.8 million, and then the June 30 payment, which ends up being the substantial one, that was $114.7 million between principal and interest.

So if you're looking at the debt service for the entire year, it was the $122.6 million.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. Thank you, Mr. President. Do we have any other questions?

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to kind of reflect back on a conversation we were having, uh, in 2025 during our budget compilation in March, and really the idea of the authorization so that we can pass a balanced budget as presented versus actually following through with the operating transfers from the permanent fund or the unassigned fund balance that Director Imani was speaking to. And the process in which when money is allocated and budgeted and for whatever reason it doesn't go to work or maybe we saved money in operations. At the end of the year, the remaining balance of the ILACUs go into the unassigned fund balance.

And so where we've seen in the budget that I inherited a $22 million transfer to the unassigned fund balance of that ILACUs, the next year we had a little higher, I believe closer to $38 million or something like that. And again, looking at that unspent revenues from a percentage perspective where we are hovering around the 6 to 8% of the budget that was adopted didn't get spent, and that's what was sent into the unassigned fund balance. What we're reporting on, unaudited obviously, is about a 10 to 12% underuse of the budget, which accounts for everything that we would have used from the unassigned fund balance in addition to the 4% transfer from the permanent fund fund. And so kind of what I was speaking to when we presented the budget, not this last March, but the March before, the one that we were reporting on, was this is going to take trust between the administration and the assembly that we'll have the authorization, but we're going to watch our spending, account for every dollar, maximize efficiency, and only do the authorization— only do the transfers that were authorized authorized to do if we need to so that we can maximize those dollars that are sitting in the unassigned fund balance and the permanent fund to yield interest up until the point we absolutely need them. So this is the tail end of that conversation, and once we get to the audited financials, that will be the final tail end of the conversation where we've asked for that trust to authorize us.

That doesn't mean that we're going to go and do it. We're going to operate in the best interest of the borough, and this is the result of that.

Roughly $80 million of the anticipated budget did not have to be used, and that was somewhere around $70 million between the unassigned fund balance and the permanent fund. And so we have a true ilaku of apku of operating revenues that we didn't use of about $8 to $9 million, and that's what makes up the full $80 million. And so as we go into the unassigned— the supplemental budget that we're about to adopt, all the excess revenues from the supplemental property taxes go into an account. We're having the ilaku $9 million from the budget come into the unassigned fund balance. We're going to present a supplemental budget that allocates the additional property tax revenue in addition to some policy discussion decisions on do we want to dip into the unassigned fund balance to pay for these other items.

And so that's how these fiscal years kind of can overlap in a sense, knowing that the pressure relief valve is the unassigned fund balance. So look forward to the conversation and around all of that, but it is important information to be aware of as far as the 30,000-foot view of what's happening. So, Corino. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I take it those glasses are just to read the small font on this report.

Fidel couldn't find any smaller fonts, right? Fidel. Thanks, Mr. President. Just to add one last item with respect to the mayor, compounded to that $80 million is that, as you all know, the mayor's taken a huge initiative on the environmental cleanup measures, that those financial commitments have never been evident or made, committed in the years past. So when you compound $30 to $40 million that's been allocated on top of that, that gives you sort of a true depiction of what that, surplus ideally would have looked like, all things considered, for the year, which is again in a good position for the borough to be in.

You know, we have any other questions in the assembly? Monthly financial report.

Move to approve. There's a motion by Trina to approve. Do I hear a second? Second. Second.

It's been seconded by Robin Jonah. Any discussion? Any further discussion?

Question. Question has been called for. All those in favor of approving the monthly financial report, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Having none, the monthly financial report has been approved by the assembly. Mr. Mayor, Bring it up for the consideration, discussion, and acceptance of the monthly financial report. Bring it up for deal. Next item on our agenda is the community assembly comments and audience participation.

An individual with a concern must go to the teleconference center in their community. Be respectful. No obscene, obscene or vulgar language. No threats or language that may defame the character or reputation of another person. No language that may incite violence and no fraudulent comments.

Please note that the North Slope Borough will refrain from making public comments on matters under ongoing investigation or pending litigation. Please state your name for the record. Each participant will have a 3-minute time limit unless exception is granted. We'll start with the Anaktuvuk Pass, City of Anaktuvuk Pass. Yes, do we have concerns from the Gates of the Arctic?

Hello, good afternoon, Mr. President. Good afternoon. With the mayor's office, there's just myself here and Lawrence Burris. There's no one from our community that has come to attend the meeting. No concerns.

How do you go in the Have a good afternoon. Good to hear you, Susan.

Moving on to City of Atkwasuk. Do we have any concerns or comments from Atkwasuk?

Good afternoon from the Mead River. Just myself, Jenny Akipe, here. There's no comments or concerns, but I just want to say thank you to the Behaviour Health Health for all that they do. That is all. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Jenny, and good afternoon, City of Cocteau Vic. We have any concerns from Barter Island? Good afternoon from Cocteau Vic. I have Officer Clements here and George Collier Sr. From the mayor's office, and we have Benton Expert and Annie Tikalook and Sheldon Brower and myself, Marlene Kaliaq.

And here is Benton. Good afternoon, Mr. President, Chairman, Mayor, Assemblyman. How do you copy me over? I'm good. They got your pictures.

Oh. Can you hear me? Okay, good afternoon. Yeah, we can hear you. Yeah, before I start, I appreciate your sharing with the good word.

I do have, uh, like 5 verses I want to read. It's about each one of us have special gifts to up each other.

It's found from Romans 12:3-8. I'll be briefly read this. This was written by Paul, and he went through a lot of stuff and conversion of putting people putting them in jail and so on and so forth. So Paul was converted and God gave him a— God has given me a special gift and that is why I have something to say to each and every one of you.

Don't think that you are better than you really are. You must see yourself just as you are decide what you are by the faith God has given each of, each of us. Each of us has one body, and that body has many parts.

These parts don't do all of the same thing.

In the same way, we are many people But in Christ we are all one body.

We are part of that body and each part belongs to all others. We all have different gifts.

Each gift came because of the grace of God who gave it. Whoever has the gift of prophecy should use that gift in a way that fits the kind of faith they have. Whoever has the gift of serving should serve. Whoever has the gift of teaching should teach.

Finally, the word— word thing— whoever has the gift of comforting others should do that. Whoever has the gift of giving to help others should give generously.

Whoever has the gift of leading should work hard at it. Whoever has the gift of showing kindness to others should do it gladly. So I thank God for reminding us that we each have gifts to help each other. So with that, I want to begin by reading the preamble to remind you of the Home Rule Charter and how it was adopted.

We The people of the North Slope area, in order to form an efficient and economical government with just representation, and in order to provide local government responsive to the will of the people and to the continuing need of the communities, do hereby ratify and establish the Tongue Rule Charter of the North Slope Borough of Alaska. I'll continue with the certificate. Undersigned members: We, the undersigned members of the North Slope Borough Charter Commission, Duly accord— duly elected in accordance with Title 29 Alaska statute, state that the Charter Commission has prepared the above charter of the Home Rule North Slope Borough and do hereby adopt this charter and direct that it be filed in accordance with the law We further direct that this Charter be submitted to the qualified voters of the North Slope Borough at a special meeting which will be held for approval or rejection in accordance with the law. In witness whereof, we the— we hereto subscribe our names On the 28th day of February, 1974, David Bosworth Sr., Frank Matumiah, Billy Nashwolook Sr., Walter Nayake, Roosevelt Panac, and myself, Anthony Rexford. And I need to get someone to identify who the clerk was.

That was filed on the 28th day of February, and the Home Rule Charter and Preamble and Title 29 was adopted in April, and voters were in favor of, and started taxing the industry. And that's how the world began.

So as a reminder It's the will of the people. Leni Leni. We're continuing to meet, whether it's in AKP, Ataxuk, Windride, Point Hope, Point Lay, Newstead, and Coxtonville, Barrow, and Broadville.

I have many concerns here and Aussie town with hazardous material, solid waste disposal.

Title 19 talks about a pelvic industrial storage district. When the charter was being drafted, Mayor Edmund Hobson wanted equality.

I would like to see the Assembly start a Kahtowic Industrial Storage District to be able to fill in the village sinkholes, placement of fills.

Homeside Road belonging to the Inupiaq have been untouched and grading and maintaining has not been done.

We need culverts. I took a ride with a village supervisor and he told me that they do not have enough culverts. They have some few available but not enough to carry on and maintain the roads within the city of Qaktolik. There's need for gravel. There's a need for new for Port Authority to consider visiting Kaftowin to talk about transportation and other matters that the Port Authority has power to work on these needs that we have in each of the villages.

Streets, water sewer pipelines creating sinkholes, from the heat, unleveling homes and facilities, borough facilities, education facilities.

Snow fences are damaged on the east end of the island, have disappeared into the lagoon and not being repaired.

Health clinic phone number does not work.

Your binders for the code of ordinances are outdated. Need help in filling those out. But I think the main thing we need is to exercise the board authority to visit Cocteau and actually see in person I do have some PowerPoint that I wanted you assemblymen and the mayor to see if someone could help me in bringing those pictures to you.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, and I just seen briefly the a slide, or— and someone could bring those up again. And you can see unleveling of the houses, cracked corners, and doors can't open because the house is unlevel. You can see the crack on the door, on the roof, back up again without feeding too much bleach You can see up at the ceiling vertical cracks. The doorways can't shut inside the homes. Next one, please.

Next slide. These are sinkholes from the utility door. Just back up again. That, that must be a double picture, but you see the bladders, but these are sinkholes from the utilidor, from the heat creating sinkholes that reach the ice and they get deeper every, every year. Next one.

Next one.

This is a senior citizen's home.

Disrepair, window falling off, snow going in in the winter. Next one, please.

Again, you can see the blue board in the middle of the picture that are showing up.

These need to be filled As soon as possible or within the near future, because every spring there's a big runoff because we're in a slanted land on the island. Next one, please. Should be a couple more or so. Again, this is the wall near the What do you call these? Switch or the fuse unit, power breaker.

What? Breakers. Breakers. You know, the power breakers inside the house. Next one, please.

Again, cracks going toward the living room. Next.

Insulation, hazardous material, fiberglass left by past borough work, possibly from RELI, Resident Employment Living Improvement project. You can see exposed fiberglass. Open door, there are rusted doors there, can't close the car next. Next one.

You can see an original home that came from the second location. The condition of the stairways completely is out of whack. Next one, please.

Another picture of tin coal or the utility door across former telephone and TV cable pole.

Next one.

Continuing.

Water sewer.

Boxes, unlevel, and it causes backsplash of sewer and water into the house on the hallway near the bedroom.

I mean, sewage comes through the bathtub and goes back into the toilet and overflows.

Still has not been fixed. Next one hopefully will be the last.

That might be it. But I hope you see my point that Title 19 is the Barrow Industrial Storage District. There should be a Katowic Industrial Storage District. There should be a name called Katowic in your same title. I see the city of Katowic only being named there and the others being called villages.

Again, I'll just remind everyone how Cynthia wanted to call it.

You know, it looks like it's faction to me that Barrow has more zoning than Village District applied to the City of Barrow. It should be the same for each village instead of calling it a village maker. They need storage sites for these hazardous materials. Described in Title 19 for Calumet Industrial Storage District.

I'll conclude by thanking each and every one of you for your time, and I appreciate the work that you do, and thank you very much.

And the clerk said 1974. Lenny Lane was the borough clerk.

Lenny Lane.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly, listening audience. For firstly, your service to the borough as a founding Charter Commission member I want to acknowledge your longtime dedication to the region, not only the entire North Slope, but to the community of Qaqtoqvik. Thank you for that.

To address some of the concerns that were brought up, I will look into what the intent of the reasoning of the Utqiaġvik Industrial Storage District.

And, and how that's applied in the title. I know that there are some powers that, uh, we elect to take over from the state and maybe don't actually perform as a service, but we have the authority to do so. So I will look into what that is and the difference between City of Wutkowicz industrial storage district versus any other communities. I do know that for the traffic and zoning, that was at the will of the city council to participate at that level based on whether they're a first-class or second-class city, and so So we can look into what partnership powers the City of Cocteau or any other city for that matter has based on their class level.

As far as the reclamation of the water sewer digups, that's something that I will follow up with CIPM on, making sure that our contractors are backfilling to a quality that is expected in the engineering of the backfilling. I know you mentioned the blue board. I know that when they do the cut-ups, the blue board mixes with the spoils, and then it's standard when they, when they put back that there's another new layer of blue board used for covering the Directbury. And so I'll verify with Public Works that— I mean, uh, CIPM— that that is happening. And then as far as the economic kind of development perspective that you spoke to, I agree with you on looking at those long-range capital projects.

And so we've had the initial PAR and scope done for dredging in the community of Qaktovik, recognizing that not only from being able to pull up the whales in the deeper area that's more accessible to town is a benefit, but also being able to get barges in and out at the proper location has— gravel has migrated from different ocean activities over the years. And so CIPM and Public Works are looking into the PAR and the design scope for being able to dredge that up, which would allow deeper water, but at the same time recover some gravel that can be used in the community. In addition to that, we are aware of the longstanding priority of bridge access to the mainland, and it's something that we're figuring where to incorporate into the planning process to, to get the PAR and potentially engineering done for that. We have not pursued any of that quite yet. We're focusing on the dredging as it is now.

As far as supplies for Public Works, I will follow up with Public Works to make sure that they have adequate supplies based on the requests of the different community supervisors. And to your point of equality, that's something that I think is important also. You'll see and hear, and the assembly has, I'm sure, taken note that I make it a point to refer to all of our communities as communities because they're all the same. The same, whether it's any one of our cities and/or villages, we should all be considered the same in the eyes of the borough. And so I refrain from using the V-word, village, because it indicates some type of separation from the city of Barrow and the village somewhere else.

And so I refer to them as communities. We're all villages. We're all cities. So I, I take your point of equality very seriously.

In regards to the home leveling and the elder homes that are in disrepair, I will have Director Franz follow up with the homeowners of those different community homes to see which program would work best. We have a variety of programs that are in different situations right now. We have the general GHR emergency repair program that is focused on life, health, safety. We have just concluded receiving the funding for the home renovation program, which the— half of the funding is coming from NPRA grants., through the DCCED for the 4 impacted communities. The other half will come from borough funding to make sure that each of our communities have equal access to the home renovation program, and details will come out with that rollout now that we have the funding secured.

Um, the home leveling program was prioritized for the community of Newukset based on their significant experience with blasting and whatnot that may cause cracks and disleveling of homes. And I know Director Franz has gotten NPRA grants secured for that, focusing on the city of Newark residents' homes and then broadening the scope if there are other communities homes in other communities that need to be leveled. So home renovation, home leveling, two separate programs. And then for the, uh, resident— any resident who experiences home damage from borough operations, whether it's snow removal, water truck— or a septic truck having an issue, we process those types of claims through the risk department all the time. And so I will make sure that Department of Administration reaches out through the mayor's office there with Tukuk and Cynthia to get the information of the resident who experienced the blowback on the septic truck.

And make sure that they follow the risk process so they can process a remodel, a claim. All of that has to be vetted, but that's the standard practice. So I want to thank you again, Fenton, for voicing these things at the assembly level. And again, thank you for your service to the North Slope Borough. And it was good to hear your words in Iqaluit at ICC as far as making sure that communities have local access to their lands despite who may own them.

So, Kwee Nok, Kwee My Lok. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Hope that helps.

Honokan, do we have it?

Just—. I don't know how the Port Authority works, but I know that part of the transportation issues that we have, there's trails that we need to reach, possibly a new home village site because we're in a few houses out in the, in the slant. I don't know what the degree is, but the doors start opening up when by themselves. House can close. So it's a slanted disappearing tundra, and there are higher grounds to possibly move the houses.

I don't know, it's a plan that the borough and housing need to, or whoever has the authority to help us. Thank you very much.

And do we have any other concerns from Cocteau? Yes, uh, Sheldon Brower, Cocteau Fire Chief and homeowner, for the record. Um, my major concern as a homeowner is, um, the windows and doors.

Um, they were supposed to come over and change windows and doors in the houses, and that hasn't reached Octoviik yet. I've heard of the villages getting theirs, so I know we're way out, way out on the east side, but I'd like to see this happen before freeze-up because my house is needing at least 4 new windows and new door.. And also, the water sewer on that last picture on Fenton's, my house is like that with water all the way around that box and it's been leaking for years and I have been calling power plant, I mean not power plant, water plant and reporting it and that nothing has happened. So I need that work done. Those are my Two main concerns as a homeowner and also as fire chief.

I know I brought this up before, but we need reflectors going down to the airport. I've mentioned in the past that, you know, the, like, the road from Prudhoe to Fairbanks, that you can see those reflectors, they go up and at an angle. Something like that would be very helpful because sometimes we have to bring patients to the medevac plane during a storm, and those would be very helpful. Thank you. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly. Kiesik, for voicing your concern on the last one. I know I directed Public Works when the issue first came up to find the appropriate reflectors, so I will have a follow-up conversation and hold the appropriate mayor-appointed position accountable based on not following up on that request from, I believe, a year ago. As far as the water can, again, falls under the above-ground, below-ground water sewer contractor. I know that that is an issue across the slope where you have sloughing in of the dig dig ups in the summertime and have to come back through and either backfill or sometimes re-dig up and make sure that the back freezing is happening below the direct bury.

So if we can get the house number, we can follow up with that based on what may need to be done on the water water sewer side of things. And this whole conversation links back to a little bit of what I was saying earlier in the monthly status report, that for us to promulgate down accountability at the local level through Public Works, since those are classified positions, it is a paperwork process that we need to follow that It takes time and we are working and aware of those kinds of things. So thank you for bringing it out. On the windows and doors program, the needs assessment was done and that's what the measuring and taking notes of everything was done. There are orders that have been processed, shipments that have been received across the slope.

I will check with the community to make sure that the funding has happened, but last I recall, it was something like 1,000 windows across the entire North Slope. And so, as you can imagine— as you can imagine, working through the 1,000 windows is going to be a little bit of time. And part of that windows program is that it's a minimum of 3 per approved qualified household. Installed, but there's nothing stopping the homeowner from purchasing their own windows to be installed at the same time as the other 3. And I believe that's for every community except Barrow, if I might— no, it includes Barrow.

Thank you. If there is any further discussion needed on the housing programs, I'd bring down Director Franz if there are follow-ups. Mr. President, thank you. Mr. Mayor, Sheldon, I hope that helps.

Hopes. Yes, director France. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Jack France, director for the Housing Department, for the record. And we also have hired on extra staff for this fiscal year.

We were approved for one extra carpenter, and we've also were approved for extra labor. So we intend on ramping up the program here in the near future. So I just wanted to throw that out there, that we expect to to install more windows over this fiscal year. Thank you. Director France, any other concerns from Cocteau?

That's everybody. Good afternoon to everyone in Cocteau. Moving on to the City of Nuxit. Do we have any concerns from Cook Peak Good afternoon, Nuxalin. This is Olivia Cabin Boy, and I've got Christine Bennett with the mayor's office.

And, um, those are good points that, uh, oh sorry, um, good point that, uh, Pak Tovi brought up, because an individual came into the office this afternoon, um, saying that, uh, maybe I'll just go do this and get— try to get somebody to level my house out of my own pocket because, um, the North Lowborough is not doing anything about it. Well, that's what I heard this afternoon. That's a comment that somebody made.

And that home has been unlevel for years. And at one point, 7 years ago, he passed away. But it was like maybe 20 years ago. That he had to go in and, um, repair a glycol leak because one of the pipes busted in a corner where that house is coming up and busted that glycol pipe. So he repaired that, and that was quite a while back, and that home is still not level.

It's to the point where it cracked the living room window right down the middle, right down the center of the window without anything hitting it. It just cracked, just happened right there.

Yeah, those are the issues that we deal with too also in this community, and I'm glad that subject was brought up.

An individual just walked in here too, just a minute ago, and Christine is working with her on submitting a general housing request for the leveling of her home.

And it's good to hear that the renovation has reopened. I was not aware of that, and I'm glad that was mentioned because we're in need of bathroom renovations, and it's really hard to try to do on your own when we don't have easy access to contractors.

And there's some of us that are willing to pay a contractor to do some of these home renovations, especially in the bathrooms where there's leaking going on. If your bathtub is cracked and there's leaking going on under, under the house, then there's nobody that you can call up on a whim. To go repair that, and it's been a while yet. So I'm telling my daughter, I've said, well, we need to start demoing it on our own and work on it. We can YouTube it and work on it.

And that's what I was told by one of the carpenters over here that are doing work for another company on building a home. He said, I'm so sorry, we're so backed up and so busy, we, we couldn't even come over to take a look at it. Well, okay, we can YouTube and try to do. But yeah, I'm glad, um, to hear that the renovation is restarting. And with the leveling of homes, um, Another thing that comes up is, oh no, we ran out of funding for that, so we had to put a stop to it.

Is that what's going to happen also with, um, once these programs get started?

And then, and then, um, it just comes to a stop and then nothing, you know. Some houses are done, but there's some that because of no funding, that program got stopped.

Also, I'm glad to see that the driveway renovations have started.

I went to— once I heard that through word of mouth, I went to Public Works and filled out a service request. Question. So thank you for all that you're doing, and, um, for bringing out these good points. Um, um, there's an individual here that would also, um, like to voice her concern.

Hi, good afternoon. My name is Alberta Apollock for the record. Um, I wanted to bring up, um, we've been— the City of Nooksack has been working with the borough, um, trying to take over maintenance and operation of the, the airport terminal here, and it's been held up in legal for over a year, probably longer. I just wanted to see if you guys could probably get a push on that to see where, you know, we could try to make an agreement or come to terms so that we can open up the hangar to the community and to people that are traveling. And then also, I forgot the other thing.

Oh, I understand that you guys are not a part of the process when it comes to to the data center that's out of Prudhoe Bay. But I do understand that you guys have a little— a lot of political influence. And the Nooksack Trilateral Committee met recently, and we have a joint resolution that we oppose the Prudhoe Bay data center, and we would like to request the North Slope boroughs support in the opposition of the data center because it's going to be really detrimental to, you know, our Inupiat lifestyle, hunting, our lands.

So we would really greatly appreciate it if the North Slope Borough would consider supporting our communities in opposition of the data center. Thank you.

Queen Alberta and Olivia. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly, listening audience. Olivia and Alberta for voicing your concerns just on the items that were brought up from Ms. Cabin Boy in regards to the leveling program. It's a million-dollar grant.

And so, Mr. Mayor, sorry for the interruption. Um, there's another individual that just walked in.

We know if they want to voice their concern, and we can have the mayor answer their questions after. Go ahead. For the record, this is Bernice Carrillo from Nooksack. First of all, I want to thank you guys, and, um, I would like to bring the concern about Transparency and accountability and funding that is approved by the Assembly and that should move forward. Several years ago, there was funding that was approved for a water duster buster for Nuxit, and still to today, we don't even see it.

And I'm not sure how your allocations move and whether your PRC committee has more power than the assembly when it comes to approving budgets and where they go in the communities. Um, I would like to see some transparency or accountability when, when they're passed by you guys as assembly members. And, um, where did it go? I don't know.

And the other concern I have is your aging buildings. Even with NUC, our utilities, I know it's on your list of CIPM upgrades, but I don't know we could wait that long.

The system that we have, it uses microwave to communicate from the PRC building to Alpine And those things are getting outdated and obsolete. And it required additional manpower to do fire watch when that wasn't working. And those really seriously need to be updated. And I don't know how you rate your criteria for life, health, and safety. And I would like to see that in place because some of these issues that we bring to you are high up there and that there should be some backup funding for those kind of emergencies.

And I still would like to see a road to our lodge.

Out there with light and power. There's no way for us to expand our growing population without that. Dobra. Thank you. Oh, there's one more, one more.

Sorry. Thank you. Hi, this is Alberta Pollock again for the record. I just wanted to mention that Recently there was some waste removal that was done in the community and NUC had purchased over 100— over 155-gallon drums from Barrow and had them transported over on the Siwat Trail and now we can't find them. Those drums were going to be utilized to help with the replacement of our backup heaters, our diesel-powered heaters, in case our natural gas distribution goes down.

And we had them stored. And during the winter, they had some consultants come in, or contractors coming in to waste removal of all of the waste that was collected by North Slope Borough facilities. And we have a feeling that those 155— the 155-gallon drums might have been used in that waste removal, and we would like to see if the borough would be able to replace that since it was a borough project, and this would be really beneficial to the life, health, and safety of our residents. And to add to that, I want to know why Nooksack was excluded from the, um, diesel tank upgrades like the other villages, just because we have natural gas, I assume. Um, we have shutdowns, and sometimes the shutdowns are 2 weeks, and we still need the diesel backup.

And why Nooksit was excluded from that home tank repair, I don't understand why.

Thank you.

Do we have any others from Nooksit? That want to share any other concerns?

Okay, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience, and residents of Nunavut for voicing your concerns. First, going to Ms. Cabin Boy's concerns. In regards to the leveling contract, the work that was done by the housing department in community to get a scope of the number of houses and type of work needing to be done, that's what was— that was what was done last year.

And then we put together an NPRA grant that just got adopted by the state legislature, signed by the governor in this new fiscal year, and we were awarded the grant— notified that we've been awarded the grant for the home leveling. It's $1 million, and so that's what the housing department is going to start doing now that we have the funding available from the Department of Commerce. And to the home renovation discussion on, on the Home renovation program.

If anyone that's interested in that can go to the housing department website, get a hold of the GHR folks and the housing department folks, they can walk you through kind of the parameters of the program. But essentially, it's a cost sharing that if a resident takes the initiative both for the home home renovation and the shipping assistance. If a resident takes the initiative to ship in or begin a renovation, um, uh, they're capable of being reimbursed for half of the amount, up to $7,500, of the borough participating— up to $10,000. We just updated it— $10,000, um, as a partnership. But the homeowner has to take the initiative to do that.

Um, and then to the point of, uh, contractor availability, uh, it's common practice that, um, contractors that are doing work in the community, uh, are working with, um, the housing department. And then what they do to kind of alleviate the costs is, uh, we can have, uh, material shipped up. The, the borough will pick it up, uh, store it, and then, uh, verify that it's all there. And then If the contractor needs assistance with a vehicle, heavy equipment, or lodging, the borough will partner with that contractor to make sure that that's available either at low cost or no charge because then they would pass the charge on to the resident. And so that's kind of how we are working with different contractors to make sure that they're available to work in the community.

With that being said, They're third-party contractors not affiliated with the borough, and so they have to want to do the work. We've had examples in other communities where a homeowner was kind of intimidating with a firearm, and the contractor packed up out of there and left. And the complaint came to the borough housing department that, hey, the contractor left that was working on my house. And it's like, well, we can't We can't force them to work on the house if they don't want to. And so that's part of that relationship with the homeowner and the contractor specifically that needs to be made clear, I guess.

And then on the driveway program, I'll follow up with Director Danner to the parameters of it, but it's emergency services access. Is the basic level that we're making sure is made available to all the residents. To Alberta's comments in regards to the property on the runway, we have a meeting set up for Friday with Public Works and the Law Department. There is a want to increase the share of the borough's responsibility to pay for maintenance items within the building. Right now, and as you recall, Assemblymembers, when we brought the authorization approval to the Assembly, it included a $300,000 renovation amount.

And so between the city's lawyer and our lawyer, they're working on the details of what it's going to take to execute that MOU. So that's, that's in the works.

In regards to the data centers, those things all fall under public process. I will follow up with DNR because I know that the lease that Stack Energy is planning to work on— work out of about 20 miles south of Prudhoe is DNR leased land, and so we'll begin to continue to look into that. Last we heard, they were having some issues with making investor relations happen in order to move the project forward, so we thought it was put on a pause, but we'll, we'll follow up and verify with the various departments that it takes to do that. In regards With regards to Alberta's other comments regarding the waste removal overpacks, it's the first we've heard of that. We'll follow up with both our environmental department who is doing all the waste removal based on the Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects that are dictated by the EPA consent decree, and then simultaneously I'll follow up with Deputy Director Aiken who manages the contract relationship between NUC, who is our utility facility operator.

I believe that's all that Alberta had. Going to Bernice's questions in regards to transparency on the funding, I believe we have one fairly new duster buster in community. I believe when I went last year in July, I was outside taking a break and there was the potable tanker converted to a duster buster.

I'll follow up with them to see what the community need is for duster busters. But as far as transparency and accountability on the funding, beyond the funding, we build the capital budgets in— through the PRC process in March and April from the PRC committee, then eventually on to the Planning Commission, and then final stop is the assembly. And through that process, there may be changes that have to be incorporated at the respective body, depending on the timing of it. And then once it is adopted by the Assembly in June, it goes through the general election process. And so it'll get finalized in October and then the money's made available typically around December.

And then we begin doling out that money based on the projects that had been worked on. Now, if something changes between February and the following February, then there may be reallocation of the funds because they're authorized based on section, not based on project. And that process happens through ordinance change with the assembly when it needs to happen, if it needs to happen. And so that's the level of accountability and transparency. All of that has to happen in an open public meeting.

Now, if it's in an area-wide section, then it's at the discretion based on need because we can't anticipate what emergencies might come up as they come up. And so in the example of water sewer connections, we have a big— water sewer maintenance, we have a big bucket of money that's area-wide. For all communities for the water sewer underground contractor, and then as leaks occur, that's funded. And so there's some vague pots of money that are based on as needed, as requested, and then there are more specific pots of money that are allocated for a project. But if something changes between the time that it happens in February and the time the money's made available the following December or January, then there may be redistribution or reallocation of those funds.

To the point on the communications line of the PRV, I know that it was brought up during our community meeting with the Nooksack community a few days ago. It was made— I was made aware after the meeting that Deputy Director Director Saxton had been working on that for the last week with NUC, and as far as I know, it's either completed or has a path to completion. And if you'd like to hear more, we can have Deputy Director Saxton speak to it.

In regards to the block extensions with utilities and the existing road infrastructure that's there with vacant lots that doesn't have any utilities, as I stated during the community meeting We've made the commitment that if a house is being built on the road system, that we'll make sure that the power and light crews incorporate that into their plan to get power and light out to that block as it's needed. Typically, we'll track those things in a permit that goes to the planning department. If we see a permit for a house in a block that doesn't have water and sewer or light lights, then we'll start the notification process to the Power and Light Division to make sure and get a power pole out there. Example seeing that in place is in Wainwright. We had a resident that built a home without a permit, so we weren't made aware of it.

And then the following summer, we didn't have access to drill in the summertime for the power pole. So then that following winter, we were able to get the power pole drilled, put in have power lines brought out to that resident. And so if there are residences that are— residents that are looking to build and there's no power to their lot, at least fill out a permit application, and if not, talk to the community liaison so that they can make the appropriate department aware so we can get the power pole out to them.

The other one on the diesel tanks, we don't equally spend money on diesel tanks in every community. It's based on need, and so— and then quality of the tanks. The example is in Anaktuvuk, the diesel tanks are fairly in good condition and don't experience the same amount of tilting that other communities might based on on the good rock that they have there. The other aspect is that they don't weather as bad because they don't have salt corrosion being on the ocean, and so a diesel tank might last longer in Unaktuvuk than it might last on a coastal community. And so it's based on the need of the tank, and we have annual inspections that we go through.

Once those annual inspections trigger a problem, we either work to level the tank it's something like a half inch out of spec or something like that. If it's tilting, then we'll have to either level it, coat it, the inside or the outside, and it's a full coat or a partial coat. The example is in Nuxit, we just finished the epoxy coating on the interior of the water tanks, I believe, just this last summer. And so it's not based on making sure everybody gets the same chunk of money for diesel tanks in every community. It's making sure that the community demand needs are met.

And so for the community of Nooksit, we recognize that for the first time, the power plant is now running off natural gas. Notwithstanding the cut that— the cut in the gas line that we saw yesterday, there was a brief disruption, put the services back up. Um, and we recognize that there was higher diesel use, uh, when the power plant was running. Obviously, the power plant's running off of natural gas now, less diesel use, and that led to the, um, brief short on diesel. The, uh, diesel delivery that's planned every year across the, uh, river during the ice road season was delayed by a day, which then, because we were running off of diesel on the generator, we ran very close to low.

Thankfully, we were able to get the diesel delivered, obviously. But in addition to that, even though we're going to use less diesel this next year, we just got online the 30,000-gallon tank in the community of enough that will serve as residual. No, no, no, not a 30,000-gallon tank. We went— we got the bigger tank back online. That'll go to diesel.

We'll revert the smaller tank back to gasoline. And so we shouldn't see any, any kind of low fuel issues in any of the communities. So, Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity.

Alberta, Olivia, and Bernice, thank you for bringing those items up. And then Deputy Director Saxon, I guess if you could just speak to the detail of the communication issue that you were working on with NUC, or the, the PRV rather. Mr. Mayor, can I follow up?

Bernice, um, thank you for the response. Um, we still have annual shutdowns with Alpine and their annual cleanup or whatever they have to do on that end. And some years it's, um, 2 weeks, um, some years it's 3 days, 5 days. And we've had times where there'd be abrupt, um, they turn it off when they have issues. They say they've corrected the issues, but but it seems uncertain at times.

But the backup heat is still important because we're really cold. So please keep that in mind. And also the gas always runs out like clockwork every December. We're always on a limited 5-gallon limit. And a couple years back, the corporation had to use their tuckers to haul gas gas so the emergency vehicles could, you know, be gassed up.

In that light, we just had a call to the school saying it was burning and found out it wasn't the school. And we were running the ambulance, the doorknobs don't even open. In words, two doors on the ambulance. I don't know who does those checks checks and report to you about those because those are life, health, and safety things. And the last one I forgot to mention was Narwhal.

At our Nooksack Whaling Captains meeting, how many months ago or last year, all of us voted no except for one person for Narwhal. And I kind of heard that Nooksack Whalers agreed to it and I just want to go on record record and say that we, we did not agree to it. It was just one vote that agreed to it, to all of us.

So that's a little concerning there, but I wanted to bring that out.

And there's, uh, Alberta.

Thank you for the lease. Um, Mr. Mayor, Alberta here. Um, sorry, but I, I wanted to bring up the lease, um, the memorandum of— what is that agreement? Um, the MOA between the City of Knox in the North Saltboro that was proposed. Um, one of the things that we were pushing back as— because I'm a city council member, by the way— one of the things that we were pushing back at is that your legal team is expecting the City of Noxet to obtain property insurance for property owners.

We would not be an owner. That would increase the amount that we needed to pay for, you know, for insurance significantly if we were an owner. And I just wanted to make that clear that I know that there was a lot of back and forth April 4th about the agreement, and it's been in legal's hands for the past over a year now, and I don't think that's fair that the Northdale Borough should be pushing some, like, a tenant. We should be paying tenant insurance, not property owner insurance. So our attorney, Joe Evans, did state that he will be meeting with Stephanie and Scott on Friday, and I just wanted to make sure that that was addressed.

Address that. I don't think it's fair that a tenant should be paying property owner insurance. That's a significant increase in the cost. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly, this is Joe Saxon, Deputy Director of Administration, for the record. To address the concern on the communication issue between the PRV and Alpine. Just want to give an update that, uh, once we found out the comm line, uh, issue, we were able to work with Aztec to find that there was a broken copper line between the PRV and Aztec's building. They were able to find another, uh, clean pair and move the service over to it. Furthermore, um, Aztec has been working to get that line upgraded from copper to fiber for some time..

So now that this is on our radar, we're going to work with Aztec, Alpine, and whoever to get this escalated and get the circuit converted to fiber and not copper. Yeah, we actually, we found out as soon as the comm line went down, we got, we found out as much details. We were able to get Aztec up there sooner than they were actually planning to get up there to to get the services restored. But yeah, as soon as we found out, we've been on it. So it's been going on a couple weeks now.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly. And to the points of fuel, I just want to clarify what's going on with the increase in use of fuel that we saw. So about a year ago, we went to two shifts and weekends based on community requests, and that drove up the use of unleaded, which we anticipated, but we didn't know that it was going to be so much. And so what we've done since then is we've converted the 60,000-gallon unleaded tank to the old 150,000-gallon diesel tank, and so we'll have capacity for 150,000 gallons of unleaded, which is more than double of what we had before. We've had the shortages in December a few years back that you're mentioning.

And then from the diesel perspective, we're not decreasing the capacity there either. We're doubling it from 150,000 to 300,000 gallons. And so to the point of the scrubber shutdown coming from Alpine, that has to happen every summer. Uh, we, we do coordinate those things with NUC, uh, Power and Light, and, uh, uh, the operator, um, to make sure that, uh, it, it goes over smoothly. And so what happens there is, um, there's enough volume in the gas line to meet the needs of every home in the community without a shutdown, uh, at the home, uh, at least the last 2 years.

And then the power plant reverts back to diesel operations when that happens. And so thankfully, we've seen a block of like 10 days for the shutdown. But we've, we've been able to see from, from the operator that they're able to get the scrubber cleaned out and done within under that 10 days. So we've seen shutdowns of like 4 or 5, 6 days versus the 10-day days or 2 weeks that we've seen in the past. But either way, we have the backups and the backups to the backups in place to make sure that there's limited downtime, at least for the power and light distribution and generation.

And then we have plenty of capacity now in unleaded and diesel to avoid the rationing that we have seen in Atqasugnuk and Anaktuvuk. And solutions are in place for all those communities to make sure that we don't have rationing happening like we have in, in 3 or 4 years ago, 2, 3 years ago. To the points of the ambulance doors not working, I'll follow up with Heavy Equipment Shop and Fire Department to make sure that there's functioning emergency response equipment. And I know just based on the discussion that we had in community, Bernice, about the asbestos in the fire department. I did have risk department and FMS go and take a look and talk with the chief there, and they'll be working on any kind of work that needs to get done in the fire department, if there is any.

Aside from that, we have the comprehensive fire apparatus PRC request that didn't get approved, but we're planning to break that out. It was something like $30 million for all fire apparatus across the slope to get updated. And so what we're looking at doing is updating each apparatus, uh, on like a 3-year block. So one year we'll get to, another year we'll get to, another year we'll get to, until we've replaced all the apparatus, whether it's fire trucks or ambulances. I couldn't tell you when the time is due for the ambulance in New York City, but I'll follow up with the fire department on that.

And then just added notes, I know another thing that was brought up in the community while we were there was the replacement senior van, and it was brought to my attention that that night that the senior van had just arrived in Pruddhoe Bay, and so we're getting it into the community to get put into service. The senior vans for all the other communities that are getting new senior vans should be coming off the barge this fall. So on the Narwhal exploration that's happening, I know that that was brought up in community. I've yet to follow up with the planning department on what kind of public comment there was was what kind of authorization was given from the feds, the state, and then concurring borough permits for the planned exploration that is proposed to be happening in the West Harrison Bay. So I'll follow up on those.

I've got them all written down. Thank you for voicing those items.

Mr. President, I forgot. It's not the apparatus I'm concerned about, it's the ambulance. The door can't even open on the side for the patients to go in, their escorts or whoever. Even the driver's side door has to be open from the outside. The latch don't even open from the inside.

Thank you, Mr. President, and Bernice, for clarifying that. I will have the fire department work with FMS to get the doors working on the ambulances. What I was speaking to was the overall both fire trucks and engine— engines and ambulance replacement schedule that we are working on implementing based on funding. So short term is we'll get the existing ambulance functioning with the public workshop there. Long term is, is that at some point we'll look to replace the actual ambulance and the actual fire department, but we've yet to conclude what that plan is going to be.

I forgot to speak to Alberta's clarification on the comment in regards to the City of North Lys. Sounds like that that's a risk department pro forma boilerplate stipulation. I know that we've updated the language on the different contracts that clarify that certain types of coverage are optional based on the type of contract and that the mayor's office has the ability to waive them. But in the same breath, making sure that there is some type of appropriate, uh, insurance coverage on the building. And so I don't know what the resolution of all of that back and forth will be, but Friday I'm sure that they'll come out with some sort of agreement.

I'm not going to overstep the work that Director Danner and Director Kim and Director Evans have to do and commit to anything on here now, but they'll work on it and we'll see and see what comes of it. And those come— those types of negotiations come from lessons learned in the past where we've had a slip in a school district leased facility that resulted in a multi-hundred thousand dollar lawsuit because there wasn't any liability coverage on the stairs portion of the building, stairs and parking lot. So, um, We will follow up on all of those items. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

We're not— no, it's all mute— for sharing your concerns.

Moving on to City of Point Hope.

Who's that? Who's that?

Wasn't there funding for the renovation for the reliability for the airport approved at one point too, as well? Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience, Assemblymember Junior, for the re-clarification. Yes, as I spoke to earlier, there was $300,000 allocated to facility upgrades as a part of that lease. What is being negotiated right now is the insurance coverage, it sounds like, and so they have a meeting already in place Friday to bring that to final resolution before we can authorize the facility use. Use authorization.

So the lease—. Moving on, on our concerns to Point Hope. Do we have any concerns? Art of Tikila.

Good afternoon, President.

We have Nancy Atingana and myself, Popsi Kinnimak, here, and we have no concerns. Thank you. Arigato gozaimasu, Popsi. Good afternoon to everyone there in Tikiluk. Good to hear you.

Moving on to Native Village of Point Lay. Do we have any concerns, Artukali?

Hi, this is Dorothy with the teleconference. There was somebody here, but they left already. No concerns. Good afternoon to everyone in Kali. City of Wainwright, do we have any concerns?

Good afternoon from Wainwright. This is Verna Phillips with administration. I have one from the mayor's Office, Officer Stevens from Police Department, and there is no one here for concerns. Thank you. Good to hear you, Verna, and good afternoon.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, just want to share, uh, over the airwaves— I know we've been working on it, uh, for the community to Point Hope, uh, making sure that we can legally handle the rabies quarantine that's happening in the community. We're still following up on that, and we'll follow up with Popsy and Nancy in the office there to make sure that's communicated to the community. And then, good to hear you, Verna.

For the community of Wainwright, as it was discussed earlier, we've had a series of senior vans that needed replacing all across the slope, and that was part of last year's funding So I'm happy to report that the senior van for Wainwright should be coming off the barge any week now, so we don't have to keep bandaging the heat on the senior van that's there. So thank you. Good to hear from you guys. Kweyenuk. Kweyenuk, Mr. Mayor.

Moving on to Deadhorse. Do we have any concerns from Audience participation, Madam Clerk. We have audience participation. We have Clarissa.

Clarissa, if you can state your name for the record.

Okay. Good evening. I just wanted to state my name, I guess. Clarissa Patangona. I was on the agenda.

However, since I'm here and you are doing concerns, I'm, I'm here. So I'll just talk about the things that I wanted to talk about and include them with the concerns. Also, Clarissa Panangona, for the record, local community member.

Um, my letter of concern was the BCI water increase. I don't know if the public is aware that they increased and the board is responsible for that.

BUECI. I try to go to their meetings and talk about it. For the February outage we had was a very long outage, um, and the increase just doesn't seem fair to local community members, you know. And, um, I am requesting for a refund for February because I had to have no water for a long time. The BUECI came by and then they left, and then they took care of their friends and relatives first, it looked like.

Anyhow, that was upsetting. And, um, I was without water for a long time in February. I don't know how long people were out of water, but this was not the first time. I've had ice freeze-ups in the past, and I think that it's— I'm just requesting the borough for the whole month of February, I want a refund for that situation. I don't know if anybody remembers that catastrophe that happened, but I have other concerns that I wanted to mention besides that one, so I'll just keep going and then you could take note of that.

Okay, um, the North Slipper is the biggest employer, yet they're hiring a lot of outsiders off the plane, not locals. That's another concern that I have.

I noticed that whenever I call local businesses, I know you noticed that you guys were talking about, uh, you know, housing. They have like electricians or whatever companies, construction companies, and I feel like that they look at us like a— like we're an ASRC check. That's all they look at us like, you know. They don't care for our house, you know, whatever concerns we have for our home, and we live here. And that's just one concern that I wanted to bring up here, um, to you guys as true leadership.

Uh, also another concern that I wanted to bring up was that CIPM road that they were making. It halted after they let go of Mr. Acker. Nothing has happened since then. I'm wanting to know what was going on with that. Um, Another concern is, I don't know, I don't think it's the borough that does it, but you know, you fund a lot of the school district, right?

And the swimming pool has been out of service. You know, what, what do we have going on for kids? You know, I was listening to what they were talking about, the training for the police officers. Are they really being trained? Are they really being talked to about how they deal with situations.

Why don't they use— make use of other besides just shoot to kill? I mean, they have tasers, they have access to all these other equipment, you know. Why aren't they being used? Why, why aren't they being used? People are dying, and the young— the youth are dying.

If you drive by, it's so sad to drive by the, the new graveyard site Every time I drive by, it's so sad because it's already full. I'm sorry. And, um, that's very upsetting to see.

Um, I think that's about it that I had concerns for.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, and Clarissa for voicing your concerns as a resident of the North Slope. Before I have Director Danner kind of speak to the historical aspect of how the rate structure works between the relationship between the borough and BUC, I'll I'll try to hit all the other ones and maybe ask a few clarifying questions to what the concern is.

So aside from the Bucyrus rates, I know the February outage was caused by a power plant, power distribution grid issue that then resulted in no power to the heat trace to the water and sewer that then resulted in multiple homes being frozen and backed up. And if I recall the numbers, the normal— Waitlist for backups and freeze-ups that BUCY was— goes through every year was about 30 to 40 members, and then upon the freeze-up caused by the power distribution system, it jumped to somewhere in the 90 to 110. So there was an additional roughly 70 houses that were affected by that. We stood up the emergency response during that time. There were multiple uses of the emergency declaration to expedite the needed parts, the needed manpower, the needed contractors to come and help with all of that.

Ground Thai units sourced from UIC. We authorized a couple of local contractors to head over to Wainwright and pick up a few units that we had there that can help during the Siwat run. And so we remember the outage in service that then resulted in the outage of water and sewer and the response to all of that. In regards to the outsiders coming in to work, I don't really know how to respond to that other than there's a need for service here in the North Slope, and if we can't meet the need for service with local hires, then that need for service is still expected across the communities, and we need to meet that need for service. A good example is Pointe Lae, where there are a few folks who we appreciate, dedicated public works employees, both at the power plant, at the operations facility, all across all of our operations there.

And then when they go on leave, right, there isn't coverage. And so we need to have a balanced staff to come in and do that. And we fly in roving water sewer plant operators, heavy equipment operators, mechanics, power plant operators as needed from anywhere. The example in Pointe Lae is we had a resident that was living in Point Hope at the time that would come in and be the community supervisor. He now lives in Wasilla, I believe, to be the community supervisor.

The example in Nuurksuk is that, you know, there's a need for heavy equipment operators there. And so what we did was we got a roving operator from Atqasuq who was willing to go and travel, brought him to Barrow, let him spend a week here or so to get the appropriate training and exposure to the different types of equipment, bigger community, etc. And then he's currently working in Nuuksit on a roving position. So I guess this idea that we can't work with outside people is a fallacy. We can't meet the needs of the demand internally, and there's just some jobs jobs that we don't want to work, right?

I mean, there's— in a majority of our wastewater plants, we are dealing with raw sewage and the bugs that are needed to maintain the raw sewage. In almost every community, there's a guy from Arkansas or a guy from wherever he's from doing that job, and that's fine.

If—. I don't want to go to a water sewer plant every day as part of my career, I would be looking for other type of opportunities. So I don't know. I take exception to this idea that outsiders who are willing to come and assimilate to our culture, respect our culture, and provide a service to the community, I think, should be invited. As it relates to the contractors' care for House Is that what the concern was?

Well, when I mentioned outsiders, if you go into some certain divisions or departments, you're going to see one population of one ethnicity in there. And that's just what I'm talking about. If you don't just answer that question and assume things, we have to look into it. That's what a true leadership does. Yeah, I'm not going to look into the different races No, I'm talking about your, your human resources should look into that.

Why is that happening? I'm a community member and I should be able to voice my concern. I'm probably not the only one. Can I clarify? Is your concern that people that don't live in the borough are working, or that non-natives are working?

Well, that's, you know, that you should look into. You can't just assume one thing. Thank you. I think— thank you, Mr. President and Clarissa. I'm trying not to assume.

Is your concern about non-residents working or different locals? Okay, because you brought up ethnicity, so I wasn't sure if meaning ethnicities, like you said? Well, people are hiring their friends and family members, and that's a lot. That's been a concern for a very long time, and nothing's being addressed about it. I mean, this should be looked into, a matter that, you know, people are hiring their friends and families from out of town.

That I'm just— I just don't feel, you know, this shouldn't be happening. I mean, this is something that I'm a local resident, and I'm sure there's other people people that have the same feelings, but they won't voice it and I will. Okay. Thank you. So I guess as it relates to friends and family, we have a nepotism waiver.

So what we'll do is go back and verify that we have the appropriate disclosures met based on the municipal code and any nepotism waivers that need to be transmitted to the assembly and the listening audience based on the concern. As it relates to ethnicity or race, case. That, that's not anything that, um, legally we can discriminate against. And then going to the contractors, Care for Your House, is it a borough program that you participated in, or is it just a contractor? Just contractor, just overall, overall.

I will circle back with the team to kind of look at ideas of how we can hold contractors that aren't borough contractors accountable, kind of like a— what may be considered like a better business bureau type thing. But I do know that with the housing department, as we've engaged different contractors to work on different things, that we track the performance of the contractor, and if they're not a contractor that performs to the standards that the housing department the borough has as a whole, then we disengage with them as the borough. And if a resident wants to ask questions about a specific contract performance and the contractor, we can speak about the specifics on that contract and lack of performance, but we can't tell a resident that so-and-so company is not a good company. That's a disparagement of an organization, and it will likely result in the borough getting a defamation lawsuit. In regards to the unfinished road that you spoke to, is that the Wewaksaaweh road that you were speaking of from Kakeeder going out to Pirineet?

So the Wewaksaaweh road was initially funded from a federal grant that eventually fell short and now needs funding to complete. And so it wasn't a borough-driven capital project. It was heavily funded by the federal grant. I do know that there's been various uses of either capital dollars or operating dollars to do some work on that because it does include a— is it effluent water that spits out at the end of it? And so there's a wastewater function that is a part of that road that we pay for to get the effluent water dumped out into the lagoon for runoff.

I know that there was other funding requests more recently to try to finish the Road, but I don't know the status update of that. It's not a borough-led project from the genesis, but like everything else, we're glad to pick up the slack and try to figure out what we can do to make it work. In regards to the school district operations and the swimming pool, we concluded the remodel work that was undergoing over the last several years and turned over the fully functioning swimming pool to the school district.— we fund, as you were mentioning, the different extracurricular activities with the school district in various different ways, either through grants, through staff. There's also city partnerships that— like in the community of Akwesasne, they work with the city to have rec kids made available. So the physical infrastructure, which is the borough's responsibility, is functioning fine in the the high school as it relates to the swimming pool.

I know there was some discussion more recently about having lifeguards on duty and where they are paid for. I leave it to the school district to determine how they allocate their different funding sources for the different extracurricular activities. As I know, they try to implement a level of fairness fairness across all of the communities, meaning if they're going to put a lifeguard in one community and pay for it, then they have to do that in the others. In addition to that, I do know that there has been conversations with the City of Utqjaqvik to try to fund some positions to help with opening the swimming pool to the community. So I hope to hear positive things in the next little bit about what that looks like as far as getting a swimming a lifeguard made available to the community.

In regards to the police operations, I think it's a good thing that you bring up, and it isn't something that we take lightly within the borough, and there's a balance to be struck as it relates to law enforcement presence and how situations may escalate and efforts to de-escalate, and then using less lethal is the category of the tasers and whatnot that you were talking about, using less lethal weapons to de-escalate a situation. But at the end of the day, it's at discretion of the officer. And so if an individual has a firearm or a weapon or a knife, typically what I've seen in the different reports is that that the officer is going to bring a weapon of similar lethality to defend themselves and stop the situation. And if there are others that are involved, hostages or anything, obviously the officer's priority is to make sure that those innocent bystanders are kept safe.

And when I get to the balance perspective that I'm talking about, the example that I lean on is enforcement of the curfew violation is always a good one to talk about, where I hear concerns from elder residents at 3 in the morning of somebody playing in their vehicle, and then in the same breath I hear concerns of police officers pulling over minors who are walking at 3 in the morning. And so we can't have both. Either we want police enforcement in the middle of the night when folks shouldn't be perusing through other people's property, or we want the freedom for anybody to break the curfew code that's put in place at the city level. And so as it relates As it relates to trying to balance that law enforcement, I think it's an important discussion, and I work very closely with Chief Brown to make sure that that balance is pursued and hopefully struck. And then as it relates to something that wasn't brought up but that I think should be talked about, there are oversight oversight type panels that municipalities who employ a police force or even a standalone sheriff's department style organization implement to where there's community oversight over police conduct.

So if there's a complaint about a certain thing, a certain incident, that there's a panel of community members that are able to to kind of investigate the incident, looking at statements from officers, statements from whoever may be filing a complaint about the incident, whoever was involved in the incident, and then consulting body camera footage to assure that there's accountability in the police department. And so as we look to to pursue that accountability. It's something that I think the officers want also, right? Because we can't have outstanding allegations of something that either did or didn't happen, and video doesn't lie. And so over the last couple of years, we've been working on the digital transformation aspect because there's so much— in the older technology that we use currently under the body cameras, it takes so much to process footage, and sometimes the footage isn't available for technical reasons on the physical body camera.

And so we've been working pretty diligently over the last couple of years to upgrade the connectivity of borough assets, including squad cars, and body cameras. And so the kind of the cloud infrastructure is there so that the connectivity can happen, and now we're implementing the physical component of that where we should have a contractor this month actually coming up to install the new body camera systems, get officers trained on making sure They understand how they're used, and what that allows for is that the idea is, is that if there's an incident that an officer is involved in and anything is drawn from his duty belt, it automatically triggers activation of the body camera. So cuffs, maybe not to the detail of cuffs, but the less lethals and the lethals, or, you know, the activation, uh, different activation parameters for when they leave a vehicle, whatever. And then once that incident is concluded and the officer hopefully returns to his vehicle, the capability of the network in the vehicle to auto-upload the camera footage, and then we have the software implemented on the back end to where it can do auto-blurring or blacking out of individuals for privacy reasons, which at the end of the day creates this system that's less labor-intensive to bring that police accountability. And so the idea is, is that we've got the network in place in the cloud.

Now we've got the physical infrastructure coming, and now we need the oversight component that can review the appropriate incident body cameras, because as it stands right now, I personally view the unredacted body camera footage of the incidents to make sure that there's that accountability down to the police force. And so that's what's in the plans to addressing that. At some point, we look to taking letters of recommendations or letters of interest from community residents to be on that oversight panel to see firsthand the truth around these different incidents that happen. So with that, Mr. President, I know we owe a discussion on the BUC rates and the request to reimburse Klumsa for her month of February utility charges. I will say that the borough has nothing to do with the utility billing that BUCY does.

That's all a function that they do for their customers on the electric, which is their responsibility based on the certificate of convenience and area of influence, and then the shared responsibility for natural gas, which the borough owns the infrastructure that comes in. It's distributed by BUC and metered and maintained by BUC. And then the discussion on the difference between the ownership of the bus utility versus the operation of the bus utility. So, excuse me, they told me I went to the BUC meeting, the board meeting, and they told me the borough is responsible for the water and I had to come to your meeting to address that. So that's why I'm here primarily.

However, However, I did want to— I just wanted to thank you for all that detail. I didn't want to look for all that detail. I just want you to consider all these things that, you know, first of all, these are— these kids are our future. The kid that just recently passed, it wasn't just the only reason why I brought it up. There's several kids out there that have been passed on at their early age.

That's our future, you know. This is not the first time. The villages in Barrow, this is not the first time. It's an issue. And with all due respect, I don't mean to attack Mr. John Hobson Sr., but I remember one assembly meeting I listened to, he did bring up and how he said it on the air, you know, I heard it.

He said he called the North Slope Barrow. He called it that. And now I'm seeing a lot of things happening in Wainwright. Right? They have more things going on, better things in their community than Barrow does.

How did that happen? I mean, this is supposed to be the hub, and it has a higher population. And, you know, our kids are our future, and this is happening to our kids. And the swimming pool is just one issue that they don't have anything to do. The roads need to be addressed.

You know, you can't even drive to Pignik, and that was like a place to go have a picnic clinic, you know. What else is there to do in Barrow?

You know, you got to think about that. As, you know, a leadership, you have to think about everything, not just one thing, and just try to find a reason. You have to evaluate the situation. And, you know, like you said about your police, you're going to have to have a community member be involved in your decision-making or your panel. But, you know, that's not in one— only one area you need to do that.

You need to do do that with all your community events and your, your, you know, like your swimming pool, your activities. That's just one item. And then having an assembly member say that on the air, calling it the North Slope Barrow, I was just appalled by, you know, that just happened like that. I'm just— that was crazy. I'm just sorry that that was just off the wall for me to hear from a leader.

Thank you. Thank you for your concern. Did you have anything more to add, Mr. Mayor? Yep. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Clarissa, for clarifying the different things.

I don't want to, I guess, get into an argument per se. I'm open to have a discussion with you afterwards to try to explain a little bit of my thought processes on things. But as it relates to the North Slope Barrow comment, I agree that we should work on empowering communities to run their communities. It's what true self-determination is and local control is. And so as it relates to different community activities, we've adjusted the operational idea as it relates to healthy community type events that a city might do.

An example is Piraa'akta. Traditionally, when Barrow was having Piraa'akta, we would make half days for all of the North Slope employees, even though a lot of the employees aren't in Barrow. And so what I implemented through the office is that the city organizations, or in the case of Point Lay, the tribal organization, they have the opportunity to host any kind of Easter event that they want, just like the City of Barrow hosts Pīraa'akta, and they communicate to our avas and tell us, uh, this is when we would like the half day for our community, and they're going to be in different weeks, maybe different months, um, but that's the kind of change that we've implemented as it relates to community-driven efforts at the city level, um, to host recreational-type activities in their their community. And so I don't know if the comments around Wainwright specifically were in regards to maybe their jamboree or their cultural camp that they're at, but I do know that that is all led and instigated, began by the community leadership, and they put the different things together and then they fill out a a donation request, and then it goes through the donation policy where we treat all of the city entities the same as it relates to donation requests. The other thing is, is that we make money available through the EIAP process where the city councils and the city mayors, and in the case of Point Lake, the tribal organization, have the ability to determine what they want to spend their share of the EIAP money on.

And as it relates to the comment made around population, EIAP is distributed at a baseline. If you're an organization, if you're a city government or Point Lay Native organization, you get a baseline amount, which is roughly $750,000 or $1 million right off the bat. And then there's a calculation formula that's done based on population that adds to that. And so a higher population community might get a little bit more, but the baseline amount is the same thing. And those priorities are driven by the community.

And so I think it's important to— when we say self-determination, local control on those things, that we actually empower. Self-determination and local control. So Director Danner, I think it would be appropriate to kind of explain the whole water— I guess water ownership process as it relates to our relationship with Bucy. Director Danner. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, members of the assembly.

For the record, Scott Danner, Director of Public Works. Speaking to the whole issue of the water rates, a couple things need to be clarified. So the North Slope Borough owns the pipe system, the bus. We take responsibility and subsidize for the delivery of water from the water plant to each of our homes. Furthermore, we take responsibility for delivering truck haul water.

We pay for the contractor to haul water from the water plant to the tanks in people's homes. So, and there was a price set years ago, 2001 I believe, that covered the cost of making the water from Bucy, and that's largely what it was, to pay for the cost of making— the borough just absorbs the cost to deliver the water. Earlier this year in January, Bucy increased the cost to— not the cost to deliver, the cost that went into the pipe, the cost that went into the truck, the cost to make the water— they increased it from 6 cents a gallon to 11 cents a gallon. That's where the cost increase came from. It did not come from the borough.

Borough. Cost to deliver water in both the truck and the pipe has gone up every year and continues to go up every year, but the rates never go up. The borough does not raise the rates to meet— to follow those costs. Um, what happened this year was Buseep charged more to everybody in the pipeline and the truck haulers— the truck haulers for delivery of water water produced at the plant, and then we took it and we paid Bucy to deliver it through the bus, and we pay the truck haulers to haul it for us. So that's where we're at today.

I have— I, I'm in discussion with Bucy. They would like to do another cost survey so we can together discuss what the cost should be, because I disagree with the cost survey where they increase their, their price, um, basically doubling their price in January to, to make the water. Uh, so they're conducting a, uh, cost of service survey, uh, that we will revisit once they have that completed. And then I will have something, per the assembly requested this, uh, to discuss with Bucy about the rates, uh, and I've been directed by the mayor to do so, and which I am doing. Uh, so I, I, I hope that helps.

If there's any questions from Assembly members or anybody about this, I'm available. Mr. President, Madam President, Vice President, thank you. Director Diner, do we have any— did you have anything to add? Mr. Mayor, thank you. Madam Vice President, members of the assembly, listening audience, the only thing I'll add on the discussion around the police department is that since we've built up the capacity in the Health Department over the last year and a half or so with grief counselors, counselors, therapists, etc.

We're looking at ways to integrate some of them professional staff to accompany officers on certain calls where they might be needed with a— to, I guess, help intervene in a situation where there might be a mental health crisis happening with a resident or something else. And so we're looking at what that— not rules and regs, but standard operating procedures would look like so that we can begin to try to implement that partnership. Partnership between anyone that may be having a mental health issue in response to the police department having to be— having to respond to those types of incidents. So we don't have that fully fleshed out yet, but knowing that we've utilized the Health Department for grief counseling for affected residents from a police incident, uh, instead of only offering that after the fact, trying to figure out a way to offer it ahead of time to potentially prevent escalation of situations, um, that happen in our community. So I hope that helps.

We have any other audience participation?

You can state your name for the record.

Stephanie Lozano, for the record. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and board members. I'm a member of Barrow, born and raised here. I've seen firsthand of an incident where there's a police-involved shooting, but my— I wanted to come up and say thank you to the Health Department for being able to provide the support heart for those that are in need of this. However, I did see the change, and I did— I do appreciate that change that has happened.

24 Hours after an incident is a good time to communicate with people, not within hours.

The first 8 hours are the most hardest times to deal with somebody coming in and saying, here's a packet of paper, fill it out, and you can get the help. 24 Hours after that is the best time when you're able to comprehend everything.

I've received feedback from family members in the villages that have dealt with suicides, and being communicated in that first 10 hours was the hardest time to deal with the paperwork, the packet. If you're going to hand over a paper packet to somebody within the 10 hours of somebody passing in front of you, help them fill out that paperwork instead of dropping off the paper and saying, here, here's the packet, I'll see you in 5 days, and never come back.

You were talking— I, I've only heard bits and pieces memories throughout my day of listening to the meeting and the situation that happened in the last 2 weeks, you know, that brought back memories of what I had to deal with back in February of '25.

De-escalate. To de-escalate a situation, that's what we need more of. We need somebody to be there to de-escalate any type of situation, whether there when you're dealing with mental health and/or dealing with somebody that's outside in a public space like that. Not just to those that are directly involved, but to the people around you, the people that seen it, um, the people that are holding the camera. Those people also need help.

Not just the people of the direct family.

And again, I appreciate the health department for the help that you guys do now, and I have seen the changes since the incident that I have gone through, and I just want to say thank you guys.

Bueno, Stephanie, do we have any other audience participants? Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly, listening audience, Stephanie, for voicing your concern. We'll take the constructive criticism as it relates to the follow-up with the family, as it correlates to the paperwork process. And I will say that when just on a paperwork process that's, I guess, maybe not Health Department related, related, but When we are made aware of incidences where we know the family is going to need some type of financial help, I have my staff in whichever community it is go and make available the donation request forms, and they're instructed to follow up, sit with the family, help them fill it out, and depending on the status of the family member— an example is the incident that we just had in New Nur-Sit, uh, they identified a family liaison that then we worked with and, um, uh, kind of helped fill out the form. And so the lessons that we've learned in that aspect, I think, is what we can work on transitioning to the health department paperwork process, because obviously there's two different sets of folks that go and work with families based on trying to recover from that.

So I hope that helps.

So what you had mentioned is the financial side of things. It's not the financial package, it's the health department packet, that the intake packet per se, or the health, the mental health side of things, where those affected by it have to fill out a packet paper in order to get that help that they, that they don't know that they need. Having somebody there to either answer the questions for them or fill it out after the time being, you know, you have it. It's a weeks-long process to deal with an immediate death. Yeah.

And the paper packet that you get is more than 13 pages long. You don't have time to sit there and fill out that packet while you're dealing with multiple other things and the funeral arrangements at the same —Thank you, Mr. President, Staff Dean, and what I was saying was in our experience with the financials, we'll apply that same process that we've learned with the financial packets to the Health Department to make sure that they're taking into account the fact that family members have just gone through a tragedy, maybe, and that they may not be in the best frame of mind, so either wait or have help do the packet, so I appreciate that.

And I will say that as we respond to these different tragedies and incidences, I'll just say this generally, for the most part, the Mayor's Office is involved with addressing the situation and and working on kind of the recovery aspect of whatever emergency may have happened, depending on the details. And what we do afterwards is we'll come together as the appropriate departments and team to reflect on lessons learned.

The example in Nuuk with the response that we had to respond to there was that one of the lessons learned was that we need to stagger the therapeutic professionals to make sure that they're available a little longer after the incident. And so as we develop these new programs or processes, we know that we're gonna, we're gonna do it, and then there's gonna be lessons learned that we have to reshape escape from. And so that's actively happening. I just want to assure folks that. And then on the point of the incident here in Barrow that involved a neighbor with a video camera, Health Department did reach out to the person in question and offered the same services.

It's up to a resident to decide if they want to to have any kind of debrief or grief counseling services. So thank you for bringing up those concerns constructively, Stephanie. Mr. Mayor, do we have any other audience participation? You can state your name for the record.

Herman, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. My name is Herman. I'm a resident of Barrow. And I'm here to advocate for my comrades, my fellow first responders.

If any of you get the time to go look at the Browardville Fire Station, every time they have to respond to a fire call or an ambulance call, the end of the ramp has a pretty big bump. And they have to deal with it every single day, every single call that they roll out on. I think it would be prudent for Public Works to put gravel in front of that ramp so they could ease that daily apparatus going over that pump at the end of the ramp. Also, I know it's not part of Public Works, but the same thing, even just a little bit. I know a lot of the North Slope Borer staff travel through right when they go out on business to other villages.

Even the entrance to the right, the end of the cement, when you start pulling to right, it's a pretty big bump also that could use a little bit of gravel. I know that probably doesn't come with the bore, but I just wanted to come and state those concerns. Thank you, Mr. President.

Queen Herman, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, members of the assembly, and Neighbor for voicing those concerns. I'll follow up with Public Works on the bottom of the ramp for the fire department and make sure that that gets addressed. And then in regards to the Wrights ramp, on their side of the parking lot, obviously that's their responsibility, and you would assume that on the roadside that it's the borough's responsibility. But that road is probably the more unique road aside from— that was brought up earlier, that the DOT was in charge of the design and engineering for the paved road, and so that's why the big lift happened.

And then we do the maintenance. What I'll have to double-check is who's responsible for major maintenance, which, if it's on the roadside of it, that's where the issue is, is a major maintenance item. So So I'll follow up with Director Danner on that. Thank you for bringing that up, Herman. Green up, Mr. Mayor.

Do we have any other audience participation?

Hearing or seeing none, green up everyone for your participation and concerns. Moving on, on our agenda, agenda, we have Since nobody pulled any of the resolutions, we have item 9, public hearing. But before we go into public hearing, let's have a 7.5-minute break. Thank you.

Dear Lord, I pray.