Nome Common Council Regular Meeting- Sept. 14, 2026

Yes. Council Member Green? Yes. Council Member Lusk? Yes.

Council Member Johnson? Yes. Motion carries. Agenda is approved. Next item is approval of the minutes, August 24th meeting, which is in the packet for you.

Make the motion. Motion by Council Member Johnson. Seconded by Councilmember Lust. Any further discussion on the minutes?

Hearing no discussion, clerk may call the vote on the approval of minutes. Councilmember Henderson? Yes. Councilmember Miller? Yes.

Councilmember Green? Yes. Councilmember Lust? Yes. Council Member Johnson?

Yes. Council Member Martinson? Yes.

Motion carries. Minutes have been approved. Next item on agenda is communications.

Item A, August 14th, 2026, NSCDC Community Benefit Share Distribution Energy Subsidy.

That's information. B, September 3rd, 2026, NSCDC sponsorship letter for the City of Nome's Fall Hall. We appreciate them doing that, by the way. It's very nice, very nice. $1,000 Contribution from NSCDC for that.

It's great.

Item C, September 5th, 2026, letter from Stephen Longley. So they're in the packet.

And then there are some other laydowns, just information. We have one from, uh, Kwerik, and it's on the, um, a letter that went to Secretary Burgum, acting secretary.

Uh, let me see, this was on September 11th. They've sent this, so this is just for information. Also the wellness form, I went ahead and got that out. I didn't know if Councilman Miller wanted to say something about that. Looks like a great agenda.

Yeah, we're meeting this Wednesday. Um, would love to see either the clerk and the manager meeting at the, um, Cultural Center. Uh, it's just an opportunity for local partners to come together and talk about wellness, some sometimes issues in our communities, how we can partner, um, what that looks like, what needs are we meeting, not meeting. Um, yeah, okay, great, looking forward to it. Mr. Mayor, since this is in, uh, in a letter to the council, is this something you can discuss or have a discussion at a later time regarding items that are in the Item C. I, I guess the question is, are we going to have some further discussions about some of the points that are in this letter?

Are we going to talk about further taxi charters, motor buses at a later time, or is this something we want to talk about now? We'll bring you something back. One of the things I'm putting the response together for that particular letter. Okay, I've been addressing folks that have questions that they please submit things in writing. I appreciate Mr. Longley doing that, you know, that way keeps record for the citizen, for the business, and for us.

And so anyway, we'll bring something back to you at the next meeting. I do think based on and with Mr. Lonely on a couple things. And I saw RJ and a couple— I'm talking about definitions of some things that there's some clarification that needs to be made, and I see that. So we'll bring that back to you because I did send something to the attorneys too. So yeah, could you look—.

One thing I was looking through the ordinance and the references in this letter, one thing I couldn't find very much information on those shuttles. Is there not a lot That's why we've got a— we're pulling some information, and I think it's more than just semantics. I mean, I think we've got to clarify those things. It's not clear. Well, but in our ordinance it says there's taxicabs, there's motor buses.

Well, am I talking with the attorneys and AML? They say it's— they are synonymous, you know, and you can define them as such. It really depends on our definition, and I don't think we've gone to that next level that we need to, you know, define what they are, how they're impacted, what it means, collection of money, sales tax, all those kind of things. Because typically the shuttles that are in this town are basically given a free service from A to point B, or— yes, and like the hospital, the hotel, XYZ, right? They're, they're shuttles that are basically for a service to their constituents or to their customers, right?

And not charging a fee for that, different than a taxi cab would charge a fee. Yes. And the motor buses, as far as I can see, are For instance, Morgan's bus does go on a regular route for their school. Yes, I know it was referenced in here that Morgan's, um, takes people from point A to point B for tours, and that's not true. They're on— they're actually on a set predetermined route.

It's not— it's not— it's not a get in the— get in the bus and say, hey, take me to here. It's—. You're on a predetermined route, so Discovery Tour as one of the tours. They are very exact in that, know when they leave there, where they're going to go. That has to be coordinated too with the cruise line, so they do a good job.

Right. Well, it's all interesting to have further discussion on that one. Yes, we need to. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, sir. There was some other communications. That were laid out? One, I know I've got my.