Kodiak Borough: Assembly Special Meeting of September 10, 2026

Okay, I will call the, uh, Thursday, September 10th, 2026, Kodiak Island Borough Assembly special meeting agenda to order. Uh, roll call please. Mr. Ames. Here. Mr. Gardner.

Here. Ms. Roberts. Here. Mr. Smiley. Here.

Mr. Viscotcho. Here. Mr. Whiteside. Here. Mr. Woods.

Mayor Griffin. Here. You have a quorum. Okay, we have an opportunity for citizens' comments in this special meeting. For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3231.

Toll-free is 1-855-492-9202.

Please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback. For those in the room who wish to speak under citizen comments, please come to the podium and sign in. Turn on the microphone, make sure the green light is on before speaking, and speak directly into the mic. And please state your name for the record. Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

Hello, my name is Dan Rohrer. I just want to make comment and belabor this just a minute longer. Mayor and assembly, so I ended my comments by saying I'm not an attorney, and although I'm not an attorney, I'm concerned with your attorney's opinion. So I didn't realize you changed attorneys. So I felt very confident in what I said because Scott Brant Erickson, your previous attorney, has written a 55-page paper, a legal opinion on executive sessions and Open Meetings Act, and he does agree with me 100%.

That's where my comments came from. So anyways, so that's kind of funny. He wrote that in 2014, and then ironically, NOVA made me go to AML's new assembly member training in Anchorage. She didn't make me, I wanted to go. But at it, they— if you haven't been, they just beat you over the head with the issue of the Open Meetings Act, and I forget how many hours we sat there.

I sat next to Nova and I was like, Nova, you gotta be kidding me. How in the world are we ever gonna get anything done if we abide by all these rules? And she's like, Dan, it's just the way democracy works. And I was like, no wonder nothing gets done in democracy. So anyways, I, I left kind of frustrated slash overwhelmed by the whole process.

But anyways, it's been pretty interesting. So in the state of Alaska for Open Meetings Act has existed since statehood, but then it didn't get contested for quite some years. But since then there's been like 60 or 70 cases go to the Supreme Court in regard towards the Open Meetings Act, and one of the big ones that's really, really applicable is this one, Brookwood Area Homeowners Association versus the Municipality of Anchorage. And the Supreme Court ruled in that meeting— or that meetings include every step of the deliberative and decision-making process, every step of it. Because the public has a right to hear the— because the public has a right to hear the debate and see how their officials arrived at the conclusion, using a clerk as a buffer to collect opinions or tally votes outside a noticed public meeting illegally subverts the purpose and the substantive decision is made via clerks poll, that action is legally voidable.

So again, it's kind of nice that this came up on a topic that's, I mean, frankly, not a, not a huge deal for us as a community. I just think it's a good warning for us to be careful we don't use this in the future, because it is, it is convenient and it does speed things up. But even tonight, like, you guys struggled to know what type of language to use to not say, well, We actually voted, like, we voted and they tallied the votes and I've got the votes in front of me. And he worked really hard to not use that language, but, but anyways, it was a challenge. So I think sometimes with attorneys' opinions, it's all about how we ask the question.

And I think what was asked, based upon what the clerk said, what if the request was something that we have not done yet, rather than something we've done? So our attorney exists in part to protect us. So when we talk about something we've already done, they have a slightly different opinion than if we talk about it as if it's something we're thinking about doing. So for example, what would the answer to the question been if I said, the Kodiak Island Borough is working to review and rewrite our code section on teleconference involvement in meetings. We had an initial discussion in a meeting, but I'd really like to send out a poll to the assembly members to see where we have consensus and where we need to keep working.

Would this be appropriate, or would this be a violation of the Open Meetings Act? Scott Brandt Erickson would say absolutely it's a violation. Please don't do that. You know, just do it in an open meeting. Your current attorney, who I don't know, may feel differently about that.

But I do think it'd be interesting to word the question in regards to something you're thinking about doing, something rather than something you've already done. So again, it would be interesting. I don't want to see us spend a bunch of money on it. Obviously, I'd mostly just like to see us continue to do as the Borough Assembly has done for decades, which is hold all of their business in public. So thank you.

I appreciate your serving on such a beautiful night. So thank you. Thank you, Dan. Anyone else?

Any calls? No calls. Okay. We will move on into business. First is the confirmation of the mayoral appointment to the Planning and Zoning Commission, Borough seat, by Mr. Landon Durand.

NOVA. Um, oh, first, I'm sorry, is there a motion? Move to confirm the mayoral appointment of Mr. Landon Duran to the Planning and Zoning Commission borough seat for a term to expire December 31st, 2028. Second. It's been moved and seconded.

Uh, yes, uh, staff report, Nura. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. There are currently two vacant seats on the Planning and Zoning Commission, one borough seat and one city seat. Mr. Duran submitted his application on August 4th. At that time, there was no vacancy for a borough seat.

With the recent vacancy, um, of a borough seat, this appointment will place Mr. Duran on the borough seat for a term expiring December 31, 2028. The impending vacancy was advertised per borough code in the newspaper on September 2nd, and then again on September 4th and September 9th. There are no other applicants received. Thank you. Thank you.

Any questions or discussion? Mr. Gardner. I have known Mr. Durand for decades, and in my opinion, he is a great guy. I am sure he will do a great job.

Anyone else?

Okay, roll call vote, please. Mr. Ainsworth. Yes. Mr. Gardner. Yes.

Ms. Roberts? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Biscocho?

Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes, 6 yes.

Okay, next is Resolution Number FY 2027-05, accepting and appropriating funding from the Alaska Rural Health Transformation Program for the Kodiak Island Hospital chiller replacement project. Mr. Whiteside? Move to approve Resolution Number FY 2027-05. Second. It's been moved and seconded.

Manager Williams. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. On September 4th, the borough received a notice of intent to award a grant from the Alaska Rural Health Transformation Program for the Kodiak Island Hospital chiller replacement to ensure access to care project. This resolution allows me to accept and appropriate the funds for this project. The fiscal impact is taking $149,055 from the hospital R&R fund instead of $3,999,324 from the R&R fund.

Um, and look, I know you're going to say yes, and thank you, but just a little explanation. Um, the— when we get grant money, it's accepted by resolution if it has a specific purpose. If it doesn't have a specific purpose, we do it by ordinance. So that's why there's a resolution in front of you tonight. And I really want to thank Providence and the amount of work that has gone into not only writing the grant, but the pre— we're on a very short deadline for this, and so the amount of work that is going into it already before the money has even got to us is pretty impressive.

You'll see Tyler at the back of the room there. Please thank him on the way out. He's been doing a lot. And I really want to thank Megan Christianson. She was our main point of contact here at the borough.

She did a great job coordinating with Providence's grant writers They put in a lot, and to see Kodiak get this and KCHC get 5, you know, smaller ones, this is an incredible win for Kodiak. So we're really excited. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

Any questions or discussion? Ms. Roberts. I agree. It's a heck of a win. Thanks to Tyler and Megan for all the work that's gone into it.

Mr. Gardner. Also just wanted to say thank you. Tyler, looking at you, and I'm sure there's a lot of people I don't know that worked on this. This is a big win. It's great.

Anyone else? Okay, roll call vote on the motion. Mr. Gardner? Yes. Ms. Roberts?

Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Viscotra? Yes.

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

Motion passes 6-0. All right, thank you everyone. That concludes our business tonight. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Mr. Whiteside?

Move to adjourn the meeting. All right, it's moved and seconded. Voice vote on the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Any opposed, same sign. All right, we are adjourned.

Amy, there was a seat for you. I've never heard about it.

Oh, I was like, oh, yeah.

Meeting, but I pulled up my phone and I started doing screen notes. Do you know if there's a way for me to combine? I do not know, but, um, you can talk to ID. Yeah, maybe, you know, if anyone's like, hey, where's the audio? Or if I end up having to only post the first part.

And I also started it after I had already done a roll call, like, cuz I went to hit it but it already turned off, you know, cuz I turned it on. Yeah, that happens. So there was a couple mistakes with the audio for the ARB. I just wanted to let you know since you're the main clerk. And I'm going to talk to IT tomorrow about hopefully providing those audios.

There's only like, it was like 5 seconds of gap and I don't think anyone else spoke. Yeah, okay, well, yeah, um, you can even ask Irene if IT is not available, you know, she may know how to do it. I think it's possible. I just got to find a way to get the audio onto Right. Yeah, I think so too.

Okay.