Kodiak: September 8, 2026, Work Session

The September 8th, 2026 work session will now come to order. This work session is open to the public. For those who are listening, meeting agendas and packets are available online on the City of Kodiak's website. Public members are encouraged to web stream from the city's website portal. Audience and council members, please silence your phones, and council members, please put your phones away for the duration of the meeting.

First item on the agenda is public comments, which will be limited to 3 minutes each. If there's anyone who wishes to address the council as a whole, please approach the podium or call in at 907-486- . And please note, this is the only opportunity to comment during this work session. And due to a slight delay in broadcasting, I will be pausing for a moment to allow some time for public members to call in.

For more than 70 years, uh, we have collaborated with the FBI, and today our question storage capacity in the Metro Center's existing building.

So rather than— so as you can see in front of you, the project—.

Sorry, Brandy. And over the next year, we hope to focus on public engagement, planning, fundraising, and further design for this concept. And finally, regardless of who occupies the Griffin Building, the Kodiak Historical Society advocates for its continued public use and preservation as an important community landmark. And if anyone is interested, I'd be happy to share the National Register of Historic Places nomination that the city's Historic Preservation Commission sent off for state and national review. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Bob.

Would anyone else like to Oh, there we go. I'm, I'm green. And you all know that I was the harbormaster for a number of years. And back in around '97, I think it was, uh, I was involved in disposing of a lot of old wooden vessels.

They were just everywhere. Nobody could afford to use them, uh, or fix them up, and nobody wanted to take responsibility. So the city was getting rid of one after another, and I was taking a lot of heat from the general public about not saving any of them. And you know, it bothered me a little bit because I kind of grew up on old wood boats and I like them.

About that same time, Miss Jeffrey and Virginia Absinthe started thinking about maritime stuff and I started helping them out a little bit with the interpretive sign project, and those are still in existence downtown. That's turned out to be a very enduring thing now. They've been there over 20 years. It's, it's been great. And I got involved with the Maritime Museum.

We've had 2 or 3 directors. Toby's been with us now for what, 15 years? Yeah, right. So, you know, we've been pushing the noodle along. We got those interpretive signs up.

We finally found a boat that was worth saving and restoring, thanks to, to Mark and Brian Johnson. We got that restored, and with some help from the city and a lot of other members of the community, we got a building put up over it, and it's pretty doggone good display. I'm really proud of it.

But we never have had a building, but we've got collections. We have the Uganik Collection and the Alektak Collection is soon to be ours and soon to be moved to Kodiak, and it's a real gem and we don't have any place to put it except in storage somewhere, and that's a bit of a conundrum. So we've been kind of waiting for that day when a building would be would become available, and the Griffin Building is becoming available, and it certainly would be a great place for the museum. At least I certainly would like to see it there. Now, some of my best friends in the community are Orthodox, and they have other plans, but I would certainly like to see it there.

I think it would be a great place to have it. It's, it's near the other museums. It's on the waterfront. It's a sturdy old building that could be there a very long time. And, you know, I hope you'll give consideration to helping us make that happen.

As I've served on this museum over the last 30 years, I've been all over the West Coast looking at museums. Lots of little towns have small museums. Some of them are getting bigger. But the only way they get done are for people like Sue and Toby and Marty to push the noodle along. And it is difficult.

You know, funding is always short and, you know, everybody wants a museum, but nobody has a maritime museum in the state of Alaska. If we get one going here, we will be the first and probably the only for quite some time. So, um, I think that would be a real feather in the community of Kodiak's hat. Thank you. Thank you, Martin.

Thank you, Martin. Anyone else like to address the council?

So my name is Gail Armstrong. I'm here representing Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church. As you can see on the agenda, we also had a— threw our hat in the ring at the time that we did that. We understood that the, the other project had pretty much withered on the vine. So we're not in direct competition.

Matter of fact, we've been having some very interesting and lucrative conversations with both of the museums. And if the decision is made to not to lease but to make a sale, we would like to be considered. And if that would be considered, we would like to do something cooperatively with the other two entities here. Just to review, Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church was founded 1794. It was the first Christian organization of any kind in the state of Alaska.

At one time we actually owned the property under the Griffin Building, so historically it'd just be returning to the parish, something that we sadly were forced to sell in the 1930s. We are desperately short of space. We have a growing congregation. We have a lot of children. We desperately need a parish hall where we can all eat together and, and, and come together, and also Christian education classrooms and, and maybe an office that we can There's a, um, it would be a tremendous boon to our community.

I think the whole community, and we as Holy Resurrection would certainly be delighted to share what, what that building, you know, to the, with the public and make it available for other purposes also. Thank you.

Anyone else like to address the council?

Good evening. Hi, I'm Toby Sullivan, Executive Director of the Kodiak Maritime Museum. I'd like to express my support for the lease application for the Griffin Hospital building we and the Kodak History Museum tendered to the city back in June. The History Museum needs collection storage space, and the Maritime Museum needs both storage and exhibit space. The Maritime Museum currently operates out of a small residential building which has no room for exhibits.

Leasing the Griffin Building would allow us to tell the stories of Kodak's maritime history, particularly with some of the treasures from the Aleutak Cannery Museum. For years I've had conversations with people in Kodiak who ask, when are you bringing that Aleutak Museum to Kodiak? And my answer has always been that it depends on finding a place to put it. Silver Bay Seafoods, which manages the Aleutak Cannery, and Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, which owns the facility and the collection inside it, are both on board with moving the collection to Kodiak if the museums in the city can come to a mutually agreeable leasing terms for the Griffin Building, we can make that happen. For the Maritime Museum, this would be an institutionally transformative event, but a new museum would also remake the cultural landscape of downtown Kodiak.

I've recently talked about this project to the Rasmuson Foundation, the largest single source of nonprofit funding in Alaska, and the word from them is that they would consider a funding application from the two museums to do necessary upgrades to the Griffin Building if the museums had an appropriate lease agreement with the city. In other words, the city would retain ownership of this historic structure, see it refurbished with grant funding obtained by the museums, and end up with a major addition to the interpretive infrastructure of the town. The devil is always in the details, of course, but conceptually, this would be a win-win for both the city and museums. I should mention that other large nonprofit funders like the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust also fund capital projects involving buildings owned by municipalities and leased by nonprofits. It is a known framework for getting museum projects done.

And the audience for a maritime museum in Kodiak is not strictly local. We've done so far this summer in our harbor walking tours, we've done tours for 624 cruise ship passengers. And we'll likely see another 100 people before the season is over and the last cruise ship sails over the horizon. The most asked question I get during our harbor tours besides, "Will we see any bears in the harbor today?" is, "Where is your museum?" There is a need to tell the story of Kodiaks and Alaska's maritime history, and there is an audience to tell it to. People would line up to visit a maritime museum in Kodiak, and with your help, We can make that happen.

Thank you for your time and effort on this and all your other city business. Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Carleen. Yes, it's green. My name is Carleen McChesney, and I was born there at the Griffin Memorial Hospital, January 1951, and so were my brothers. And that's when they used to keep the mother and the baby for 2 weeks. Yeah, that's the way they doctored back then, but I think often of A Holmes Johnson and Frosty and just call me Bob Johnson.

He didn't want to be called Dr. Bob. He said, just call me Bob. But, and Marian. But I've been waiting in great anticipation for what's going to happen with this building. And just, I've also been reading the newspaper And the articles by the Maritime Museum and some of Toby Sullivan's articles really speak to me because all of my family were fishermen.

My dad, my mother had a fishnet site at Kuganuk Bay. My brothers all fished. My daughter fished to make money for college. I made pizza. But I long to see this be a museum and bring all that out of storage where people can enjoy it.

Thank you. Thank you.

Would anyone else like to address the council?

Good evening, everyone. Pardon my back. Um, I'm grateful to be here. My name is Sue Jeffrey, and I appreciate all your time and energy and making this Kodiak beautiful place that it is. Thank you for the weather.

Um, uh, I'm usually not this nervous, but anyway, um, I've lived here— I guess this is relevant— for— I just added it up, I think 54 years. Yeah, I moved here when I was just a baby. And I don't know, I've just ever since I've been here, I just grew to love the history of Kodiak. It's pretty fascinating. The more I learn about it, the more interesting it gets.

And so I have written a book about it and then also done some stories about it and also served on the— and I do serve on the Kodiak Historic Commission. So just recently, a friend of mine gave me a photo of halibut schooners. He said, look at this, it looks like it— this photo could be taken 40 years— or in the 1940s because they had all these halibut schooners in front of it. So of course I had to do a story about, you know, halibut history here and all that. But there also was the Griffin Building here, and so I did a little bit of, you know, writing about that.

And it's, um, as you've heard, it's on the historical preservation checklist for being recognized. And it's, um, and so I wrote a little piece, uh, accompanying this. And what was interesting to me is I, I kind of started it saying, if you've lived here, you probably were born here, you knew somebody was born here, or you, you know, took your kids to get shots there, whatever. And it was just kind of fun telling about the history of it because it's kind of a humble little place over there, just— but it stands out too in its design. Um, and, uh, and there was a lot of response.

Um, I got a call from— I wasn't in town— got a call from the, um, or anyway, email probably, from the editor of the paper. Said, boy, people are really you know, passionate about that building because they, you know, just like I said, knew somebody there or they knew there was a history. It—. So I started thinking about that. And what I also thought about when I was looking at this photo, I went over and looked from the near Islandside.

And when you look at that part of downtown Kodiak, it's probably the only piece of public property that withstood the tsunami or urban renewal. That, not just that piece, that stretch. There's the, you know, Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian American Magazine, the tanks. They withstood it. I read a story, wrote a story about them waving around.

And this, and so it really is looking, it's like a living history. And that's what I think about this building. And then from the reaction from the public. People really do care about this building, and so I hope you do consider it. I think it would be an excellent— it would remain as a public building serving the, you know, the community and also everybody's visitors that would want to come.

And of course, we'd hold events, probably oral histories. Okay, I'll be quiet. I heard the bell. Thank you.

Interesting being on this side of the microphone.

Good evening, Mayor Haynes, city council members, and staff— city staff. My name is Pat Branson. And I am here to testify where the city should lease the historic Griffin Building to the Maritime and Kodiak History Museums. I have a dozen reasons for you. The Griffin Building is a historic Kodiak building that should be preserved and not sold.

Due to its historic nature and background, the Griffin Building should be open to the public and for public use. The city should not be selling Kodiak history. Once the city sells a property of this historic nature, the city has no control over that building, the outside, the interior, what goes on in the building, and if the public can access the building or if it's closed for other private purposes. Leasing the Griffin Building makes more sense as leases can be canceled or renewed. Selling a building or land is permanent.

And there could be many sellers and buyers in the future of that building. Both the Kodiak Maritime and History Museums need more storage for their collections, which are part of our history, and the city has successfully partnered with both museums for years. This building is the perfect site for that specific use. Dallitak historic treasures could be preserved with the museums leasing the Griffin Building as well as making way for other exhibits and collections. Kodiak should be proud of our history and we don't celebrate it enough.

Kodiak Maritime Museum is the only maritime museum in the state, as was mentioned earlier. With this space, the Maritime Museum could house exhibits and collections and complement the Kodiak History Museum and the Aleutic Museum exhibits and collections. The Griffin Building is a great site for a Kodiak Museum Row, if you will, where Kodiak residents as well as tourists could walk along Mission Road and experience the Kodiak History Museum, the Alutiiq Museum, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Griffin Building. The Griffin Building being leased to the two museums would be an educational showcase. For Kodiak history and for residents, our residents of all ages.

I would ask the council to move forward and negotiate a lease agreement with the Kodiak Maritime and History Museums and keep our history open to the public. Thank you. Thank you, Pat. Would anyone else like to address the council?

And we have no phone calls.

In that case, the next item on the agenda is presentation from the executive director of the Kodiak Economic Development Corporation. I'd like to turn it over to interim city manager Tim Butney to introduce executive director Melissa. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, city of Kodiak, and Kodiak Economic Development Corporation. Uh, had a 3-year agreement which just expired on June 30th, 2026. City partners with KEDC to support economic development activity that the city is not otherwise positioned to carry out directly.

KEDC maintains dedicated board and executive director focusing on challenges like advancing local workforce development, housing implementation, downtown property revitalization planning, community, uh, facing economic forums. This allows the city to leverage KEDC's capacity, community relationships, and specialized expertise rather than duplicating that function in house. Staff has been meeting with KEDC's executive director, Melissa Schoenwetter, on a new agreement. While the agreement's not ready tonight for review, she is here to give a presentation. Melissa.

Thank you all for your service, first and foremost, to our community. Realize that you guys spend a lot of time listening to people, and I appreciate the opportunity tonight to be one of those to share with you what I hope is an explanation of what the city has invested in for our community, our neighbors, our friends, the people that live and call Kodiak home.

The city's agreement has provided core support, as the manager mentioned, for economic development work affecting our economy. We've used the city's support to build local economic development capacity, such as building stronger relationships, useful information, and practical structure that the community can continue to use. Tonight, I'm going to show what this investment has produced. Also, what we plan to carry forward now and why the continuity matters for this next phase of our work together.

So, as you see, one of the things that KEDC has done is economic development work with surveying. Economic development work becomes more useful when local knowledge and relationships stay in place over time. Each project that we've undertaken helps with a better understanding of what Kodiak businesses and residents need. It also strengthens relationships with organizations that can ultimately bring funding or specialized help to our island. One of the things that we did was the business climate, the Kodiak business climate analysis, where we gathered input from 127 business leaders representing approximately 3,500 workers across 21 sectors to give a clear understanding of what businesses locally were truly experiencing.

This wasn't just information that we had in a report. It was something that we shared. It's available online for all to use, and we presented it at the AML, um, meeting that was held last year.

Other things that we have worked on that allow us to gather data was an outreach committee. Which ran a separate community survey. We were able to connect with 292 local representatives to share results that were in regards to when and how meetings should take place, which on the surface sounds not as important as it really is. This allowed us to share with other organizations, with you all, with the borough, when people were saying was the best time to meet. And how that helps is when it's time to talk with the community, you know when it's better to schedule something.

We took time to also ask them what were the issues that they were facing, or the hurdles that prevented them from attending activities and conversations that the city, the borough, other organizations might have. So that was another report that we did. We worked on the Recharge Our Community's Economy workshops. We did 4 full-day activities, and residents were able to carry shared priorities that came out from these workshops forward. Um, we recently in April, April 28th, held the Kodiak Workforce Forum.

And we surveyed before, during, and after more than 80 people who attended. That gave us a lot of data, which I'm going to share a little bit more about as we progress. Next slide, please.

One of the key focus areas that KEDC remains responsible for is coordinating selected priorities, and bringing decisions forward surrounding housing.

Housing directly affects the city's ability to recruit and retain employees. Local businesses and public service providers experience that same pressure. The city's support gave KEDC the base capacity to pursue a $95,000 Denali Commission grant and then manage a planning process across Kodiak Island. We were able to engage with not just city, the city residents, but we were able to go to the villages and survey them in person, which was the preference of several villages. They didn't want to do an online survey, so we made the survey information accessible We also held a public day where people could come and give comment in the Kodiak Marketplace.

Um, we spent a lot of time connecting with residents so that we could create the housing action plan. So you see that we got $95,000 of outside funding to create a space for local input. And then out of that, we created the housing action plan. We created a housing action dashboard, which is available on our website. And then we continued work with a housing steering committee, um, that meets monthly except over the summer.

And, um, it is our posture that we remain responsible for coordinating these conversations in order to bring next step policies forward.

Something we're incredibly proud of is in August, KEDC and the Rural Community Assistance Corporation completed no-cost private well testing and assessed 15 Kodiak homes. Each household received testing and an individualized assessment valued at $750. Another 97 households, remain on the waitlist. With the city's support, we would be able to continue working towards gathering potential funding partners to support a second round, which we have tentatively slated for early 2027. Now, I know what you're thinking.

These people are not on the city's water, but what KEDC would like to share is that As we have such a limited supply of housing, we see— our organization sees the value in making sure that the limited stock of housing is as safe, as pristine, as accessible for people to live in as possible. So while the people are not on the city water, We did survey them, and the majority of them are all business owners or workers in the community. They shop within city limits, and so it's very important that we see some of the work that KEDC does while outside of city limits definitely supports the city's interest. Um, The waitlist that we have also gives clear, clear statistics on how much work is left to be done.

Next slide. Thank you. One of the things KEDC is very pleased to share with you is the Storefront Improvement Program, which shows how KEDC can extend the value of a focused city contribution. The city contributed $15,000. Which KEDC was able to get a match from Canna for $15,000.

And then through the work that we did, the total private investment from businesses was almost $80,000, and you can see that comes to a total of $109,000. And so for every dollar that the city invested, we were able to generate and turn that into a $6.29 investment. I think that is something that is pretty remarkable to see, not just that number, but as you go downtown, um, down side alleyways, you can see there's a before on the left and then after on the right. It's transformative. Um, the building that's adjacent and shares the parking lot with, um, the Kana— the Kodiak Marketplace.

That blue building that used to be brown and kind of dark, we were able to help make that look much more beautiful and also install lights. And it just, it does add some, some beautification and makes people want to shop downtown. Next slide. We brought the Workforce Forum together with partners from off-island to Kodiak. The workforce forum reached 85 participants.

I'd like to share that originally we wanted to have 50. That was what we looked at, which was our capacity, because we were not only going to bring people in, but we were going to feed them. And we increased that repeatedly because we had such interest in our registration, and we reached 85 participants in person. We had a dozen online joining, and another 18 people were on the waitlist that we couldn't clear. What we learned at the workforce forum through our surveys, we've been able to take that information and really put it into a solution.

So, As guests visited Highmark Marine, Providence, Alaska Aerospace Launch Site, Kodiak Veterinary Clinic, Kodiak High School, AK Teach, and others, these visitors were able to see the value that Kodiak has, and we were able to talk with them and hear about what resources they could have to support these organizations, as well as the CTE classes at the high school.

We, we took through the survey, you'll see in a, in a slide in just a moment, we took one of the greatest needs that the businesses— you could see a picture, they all have their phones out, they weren't texting. We were asking them in real time to respond to the needs as a business owner. What they were struggling with, and a lot of that was training, and that's going to be important in just a minute when I share with you the training and having outside entities come and help them with things like public-facing roles and public speaking roles. Next slide. We held a career expo.

It was a 3-day event. On day 1, we brought students into the auditorium. We had 28 different business owners and organizations represented. The students spent an entire day, had lunch, did speed dating with an employer, a potential employer. It allowed the students to really explore what is available here in Kodiak for students and, and newly into the workforce people.

So day 1 was employer exposure. Day 2, and these were staggered, so the following week on day 2, we took these same students out for a full day inside Kodiak workplaces. Some students went to be aboard the Cypress at the Coast Guard base. Many of them asked questions that showed they didn't understand how that relationship works. There were questions like, "How much does it cost to join the Coast Guard?" And it was a great opportunity for these students to hear while they're on this ship learning about everything from machinery to being firemen.

It was just an incredible experience that we have the largest Coast Guard base and there were students that we have in our community that didn't realize that they could actually step into a job. And poking a little bit of fun at them, but at the same time it shows that there is opportunity to explain to students. Students went to Brecken— Brecken and Highmark collaborated for a day at the Highmark site. Students got to play with the crane. They got to play with excavate excavators.

Many of them learned what roles they could start in at the ground level and how they can help with the infrastructure, like the roads that are being paved. They could start with holding signs. It was very eye-opening to them. We took them to the hospital. We took them to the vet clinic or the veterinary clinic.

We went to, um, KIBSD. We went to child care centers. We took them all over Kodiak so they could learn. There are many students that don't know there are opportunities for them, and we need them in local positions. Our local workforce really could use that.

So the result was we took all these things that we did. The day 3 was a job fair. Quick side note, we had 2 students that were placed in jobs at the end of the year, starting in the summer. The result came about with Career Connections. We see this as an opportunity, it's an ongoing opportunity that will help instead of having a one event that's, even though it's 3 days, it's, it's such an acute opportunity, and we see that there is a need to continue to meet with and layer students so that way they understand how they can enter the local job market.

We were able to hold Confidence Cafe just a couple weeks ago. Hopefully you saw that in the newspaper. Confidence Cafe came as a direct result of Career Connections and the, the event that we held for workforce in April. We trained them. It was no cost.

It was a $250 value. And we had many people which we thought were going to be just students. It was split. We had students and we also had professional people who had been in the workforce more than 20 years. So we were able to help a lot of different people that work right in the city.

Next slide.

We are coordinating a $205,000 project for WildSource. That directly supports not just downtown WildSource, but it helps with the mariculture industry. Um, through Southeast Conference, the funding has gone to, um, help make a fully shovel-ready project, fully engineered. It's a complete package that will enable WildSource to have a working processing center, a better, a better dock, and now they are working on across the street to have a retail shop, which KADC was able to leverage our relationship with Southeast Conference to make an additional business plan for that. Next slide.

So the next agreement that we hope the council will consider is Our proven work in the past and the things that we want to carry forward would be continuing work with the Housing Action Plan. We want to implement some of the things that the community requested out of this Housing Action Plan. We really see the need for workforce and career connections. So developing our local resources, our talent, not just our students in high school, but at the college and people who are already in the workplace to see where they can take the skills that they have and laterally shift those to be in areas that we have great need. And then we hope to continue to supply the city with economic information you can use.

One of the things we're in discussion with the managers and hopefully for the council to consider is a local economic study that shows how Kodiak dollars are leaving the island and what impact that has. It would help us also figure out a way with you all to educate our community to keep the choices to— the choice to spend your money locally and why that is so valuable and so needed. I think that's the last slide. Okay, um, what we would like to ask is for your consideration to keep the agreement that we currently have. It's the same agreement.

We're not asking for more. We have, um, a lot of activities that we've started that we see great need to continue, and through a 3-year contract, we see that path forward. We look forward to answering your questions, and I hope you've had time to read the report that I shared, um, and I'd be open to take any questions now. Any questions for Melissa? Council Member Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I actually don't have a question. I just wanted to make a comment, uh, as someone who works in a local nonprofit and utilizes the services that KEDC provided I just wanted to share the Confidence Cafe. I actually sent some of my interns that we have to that, and they had a really amazing experience and reported back how helpful it was to them. So I just want to give props to KADC for putting that on and providing that, that on-the-job training, because I think as someone who does hiring in Kodiak, there's two major issues.

That we face, and one is that people need somewhere to live because if they don't have somewhere to live, having a job isn't really that helpful. And that we need to invest more in that career readiness and that training for our students and our youth as they grow up in Kodiak so that they want to stay. So I just wanted to say thank you. And to that point, I'd like to just add that the Confidence Cafe was a template very similar to some of the other things that KADC does. We pilot something, we test it, we see if we need to iterate, reiterate, reiterate.

But that is a template that we can take and use for the city that we've discussed that there are opportunities to educate. People about what jobs are available in city government, what needs you all have. And then we can also replicate that with other businesses— automotive, healthcare— different ways that we can step in and support people who are already busy and don't have the capacity to do that type of bespoke training.

Council Member West. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can you hear me here? Yes, thank you. Um, Melissa, thank you.

That, uh, we had, we had most of that, uh, presentation in our packet, so, um, I appreciate all that. I got a couple questions. Um, so when I look up on the KEDC website, Housing Steering Committee, I guess a couple of things that I'm looking for that I did not find are like past meetings, minutes or something like that, but also future, future meetings. Maybe, maybe the— what I looked up as I found, I found the agenda, but I didn't find any minutes. No.

So I just, you know, in my question of what's being done, what's being discussed, what's going forward, those are things that I could not. Find there. And then, uh, so I am interested in what is the Housing Implementation Action Plan acting, and I think just discussion for the council. I know $150,000 a year for 3 years, my understanding, and, uh, uh, Manager and Mayor can correct me if I'm incorrect, but this was— came from some COVID money. That we had.

So we had this COVID money, and now I don't see that we have an excess of money, and I'm not— I just, I'm hesitant. I'm hesitant. I'm either more inclined to do a 1-year contract or reduce the amount. So that's our budget. It's time for us to cut back, and those are my thoughts.

Thank you, Council Member West. Just to, uh, clarify, the KEDC was set up to distribute COVID funds, but it's not depend upon COVID funds and hasn't been since. Thank you. Yes, thank you for that clarification. Yes, the work that we did was with a contract with the city, and that was not with COVID funding.

Uh, the Housing Steering Committee meets month Monthly we meet on Thursdays. Uh, we did take time off for the summer. Uh, currently we were working on, um, a path to bring forward the ADU, um, and, um, the ADU policy. There were some things that we recognized through the Housing Action Plan that needed to be updated. Um, and so that is something that we are currently working on.

There is information on the website. I'm happy to share more with you all in a follow-up if that would be helpful.

I do want to just mention that the city did give us core support of $150,000 every year for 3 years, and KDC can document at least $523,000 $1.16+ in outside awards, partner and business investment, and even sponsorship connected to work begun or advanced during that period. So that's, that's for each dollar, you got your dollar returned plus an additional $1.16. So I think that's really important to see that the investment made was returned And then some.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm curious on the different— you've spoken a little bit about the collaborative relationships, you know, on different projects. Can you speak a little bit more that and also your staffing of, uh, who, who is it? Just you, or is it, uh, who is staffing? So right now, staffing is me.

Um, the board is, uh, the board is very engaged, but it is just me. Um, the grants that were, um, chased and awarded for us when I came on board, there, there hasn't been— there wasn't, um, all of the money for those grants were to go to the project. And so the, the internal capacity building wasn't the focus. That's what we're hoping in the upcoming years. We're looking forward to implementing an internship program where this fall we'd like to bring on some interns to help.

And we would like to, if we had a contract that was not an annual contract, but one that we could actually count on. We would develop staff. And then the collaborative efforts for— are you in the local schools? Can you talk a little bit more? I mean, we know about Canna and the housing.

I'm just curious, what are the other— what are the other collaborative efforts that we may not know about? You know, is there— you talked about staffing maybe with internships, you know, that could potentially be with schools or How do you— what do you see there? For the, the work that we're doing in the schools, for example, with the career expo, we went into the schools, we talked with the students, and so we were directly engaged. As we move forward, one of the things that KADC is working actively with is with Teaching Through Technology, which is T3 Alaska. They are associated with the University of Fairbanks, and we had a couple representatives come to the workforce event.

If you were there, Adam Lau and Gabe Lau came and they were talking about the work that they want to do. They need a partner in order to move that forward, and that's something that KDCC sees that we're working with. With them and with the school to hopefully bring that here. Um, in addition to that, we see opportunities. Would you like to clarify?

Would you like what we're looking to do, or would you like past examples of collaboration? More past or current collaboration, you know, particularly because you mentioned the schools and interns and the city needs, you know, employees. And, you know, I mean, you see different, you know, holes in the city, you know, workforce development, quite frankly, but different things. So I'm curious, is there, is there current stuff going on or is it just plans to go forward? No, we have been working with training.

We've, we've done the Confidence Cafe. Before that we had Career Expo, and in between we were doing direct outreach to talk with businesses on things that they needed. Through our grant with the RCAC group and the work that we did through what we call value chains, or what they called value chains, we had a business support value chain that met every month. And the chamber from that, the chamber was supported with technical assistance for a business support and pathway. So if you were interested in starting a business, It gave you all of the steps.

So that's one of the ways that we, we didn't write that, but we worked with the chamber and other businesses to see what needs they had to navigate how to start a business. That meant monthly. We meet with the Career Connections meets monthly. The The Housing Steering Committee meets monthly, obviously not for the summer. Um, we also had a walkability group that we tried to get up and moving.

We realized that that came out of the workshops. That was something that there are other organizations that could take the lead on that. Um, we tried to work with other organizations to do a seafood market, and those came right out of the workshop. So the collaboration over the course of a couple of years, we held no fewer than 8 community groups and gatherings to train people to, to see what the needs were. And then once we do that, we follow it up with an activity or training, something that during our conversations the city mentioned how it would be very useful to have city members trained or city personnel trained.

So that is something we could use that template to redo. So actively, we have numerous groups that meet monthly, frequently, even, even more frequently, some cases, than just monthly. And we offer technical support. We also help steer those We do collect and put forth on a dashboard so people can see the information. We do some not very bells and whistles types of things.

We do a lot of surveying, creating data, creating reports, all available online. Something that's huge that we've worked on collaboratively is working with WildSource, Shuniac Tribe, to put forth this incredible package for them to have funding for a building that's going to be down downtown for a processing site. So that is, that's another thing that we've done. It's a huge project and a multi-year project that we hope to have wrapped up by the end of November. Okay, thank you.

Any further council comments or questions?

Well, Melissa, um, how do you see the Housing Action Plan implementation going forward? Is that something that the next step need to be determined by the steering committee, or is— do you have an idea what those next steps? So on the dashboard, um, we have a list of the priorities that the local community said were important to them. A housing trust fund. While some, some people may think that it's— it may not be the thing that solves the problem, that was by far and away the most identified need and the biggest response that we got from the community.

So we're, we're looking at ways to develop that. The Housing Steering Committee is also looking, like I said, to, um, we're looking over the current ADU policies, which one of the hangups that we see is the parking issues. We're looking into that a little bit, and our goal is to, by the end of this year, at least bring forth one policy that we can share with you all that could be improved to help open up some housing. Um, when we reconvene, apart from those two items, We're looking to see what grants are available, not so much for KEDC to do that work, but how can we be that partner with another organization to create some new housing? Um, we had also identified, um, a couple of places that, uh, is blight.

You know, we have some homes that are not being used, they aren't being properly cared for, and how can we look to other communities throughout our state and across the country who help re-resurrect those, those one or two homes that could be redone. We also see some of the work that we're doing for housing is the need for the current, the current houses on the market that people are actually living in. How do we elevate those? And how do we make sure people want to live in those? We spent a great deal of time coordinating, collaborating with people to bring in those resources for the wells, not only the wells, but we're looking at how do we help people with testing for issues with their wells?

And how can we look for Grants that help, um, no-cost grants that help with needs that people have, not just here but also in the villages, for having something as simple as, um, it was proposed a, a shop or a place right there that if you needed something that you could get it right then rather than having to fly it in. So there are a number of things if If you all have time, I really encourage you to read the Housing Action Plan. It seems like it's really a lot of information, but it's good details that came specifically out of hundreds of surveys and hundreds of conversations with people in our community as to the needs that they have. So we're just taking those identified needs. The Housing Steering Committee takes action.

To move forward each of those. Does that answer your question? Thanks. And as far as the economic information the city can use, you're, uh, envisioning another study. Uh, can you kind of describe a little bit on what that would entail?

Would that be a survey of consumers? And is the idea to try to figure out how to keep our dollars recirculating in town rather than leaving town? Yes. And the, the term for that is leakage. And so that, that financial leakage that comes not just for people and the spending that they make.

I know sometimes people think it's like buying something off of Amazon rather than shopping locally, but it's also bringing in workforce to do things like electricians, plumbing, things that we need, but bringing them rather than having a workforce here. So it studies that as well. It also would look— um, Miss Dorinda, Mayor Dorinda, um, actually got this idea rolling when she said it would be great for the city and the borough and all of our island to know what money is coming in where, and then a trail of where it goes. Not just, um, our, our spending, but what businesses leaves, and then when that vacuum happens, when a business leaves, where does the money that is associated with that goes? As we see the, um, the, uh, Coast Guard base growing and developing, we'd like to study that money, how it comes in, how can we as a local community have access to supporting the work for the growth of that.

Same thing with the spaceport. How, if these people are going to be coming here and developing things, how can the city see where we can capitalize on these opportunities and, and create jobs and create a way to bring the revenue in and keep the revenue? So it would be a study not just on the way people spend their money, but how the money comes in and that full circulation. Another component to that would be not only do we do the study, but we educate people on the study, kind of like with the housing action plan, not to just have something that sits on a shelf and collects dust, but how do we broadcast the information that we learn?

Council Member West. Yeah, Mayor Haynes, you have your mic turned on. I didn't really hear the question that you asked Melissa.

If you could repeat that. It's too far away. The question was for the study, what do we see the study as covering? Would it just be the way the money circulates through the community, or was it something a little bit more? Okay, now I have another question, Melissa.

I know that, um, UAA, Small Business Administration, and CANA. They do a bunch of studies and SEDS. How is this different?

To my knowledge, we don't have anything like the study we're proposing at all. There's nothing that the Center for Economic Development has done. Now, we partnered with them for a number of different studies, and so I know in the last 3 years this hasn't been something that is done. Canna is creating the SEDS, but that is not the same as a study in a circular economy leakage from an economic perspective. Um, the city members could probably share more.

I do not know of a study that you all have had for that. And, um, okay, thank you, Melissa. Um, What was— who was the mayor that you referred to that talked about this being a good idea?

Who is the what? I thought, I thought you referred to a mayor. Oh, um, Mayor Dorinda McEwen. Dorinda McEwen, she is from Port Lyons. When we went to visit, um, it wasn't just something— so it wasn't—.

I was wondering where it came from. I didn't recognize her name. Yeah, um, what I was saying is it wouldn't just be the city that would be interested in something like that. The villages have— there's been a voice in the village that said that. That was what that was.

Thank you. Any further questions or comments? Thank you very much, Melissa. Thank you.

The next item on the agenda is review of purchase application from Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church. And lease application from the Kodiak Historical Society and Kodiak Maritime Museum for 316 Mission Road. And I'll turn it over to interim city manager Tim Putney for a review.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Griffin Memorial Hospital was built in 1937 and functioned as Kodiak's first hospital. In later years, it was utilized as the public health office by State of Alaska. The state vacated the building in March 2022. And in 2023, ownership of the property was transferred to the City of Kodiak.

The hope was that that might be a good City Hall location at the time. The building has been empty since 2022. On May 10th, 2026, the city clerk received an application to purchase the Griffin Building from Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, and on May 26th, 2026, the clerk received a joint application from the Kodiak Historical Society and the Kodiak Maritime Museum to lease the building. The clerk announced receipt of these applications during comments on June 11th, 2026, regular council meeting, and following the announcement, uh, clerk published a notice of these applications in the paper 3 times over a 45-day period ending on August 3rd, 2026, and at the conclusion of that 45-day period, no additional applications to purchase or lease the property were received.

Thank you. Just for a point of clarification, um, it doesn't have to be and/or. You could proceed with both, uh, from this point, right? We don't have to make the decision as to which one to proceed with. They're not mutually exclusive.

Is that correct?

So moving forward, Marit, you can Yeah, I think moving forward, I think I'm looking for a consensus on one or either or neither of the ideas for land disposal. What I'm asking is, uh, I don't think— do we have to decide?

I got a dud. Um, it's way better now. Do we have to decide tonight, uh, to pick one or the other?

I don't think you have to decide tonight. No, thanks. Any council discussion or questions? Councilmember Stanford. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I think, first of all, I think the entities involved and interests, I think, are all the right players, right? I think the church, the Maritime Museum, the Historical Society, I think these are all the right players for that. I don't think it's a good place for City Hall myself. I never thought that. So, you know, some of the concerns— sometimes you get stopped in your mind because of the concerns.

You know, I think when we did the study, it, you know, it's potentially $5 million to renovate this building and get it back. And probably that was dollars a while ago. I'm sure it's going to take it, you know, it's definitely going to take help outside, funding, grants, a lot of these different things. But But I personally believe all three of those players are key to what's going to be successful. If you look, when the cruise ships are in and tourism and historical, you know, honestly, I don't even feel— I've only been here 40-some-odd years and I feel like I haven't been here even remotely long enough to make, have an opinion maybe of this.

So I think the key is it is historical. So Hearing that we may have an opportunity to get that Maritime Museum, I've been an advocate for that for a very long time. You know, from Alataq, I've been through that. I'm in probably the sole possession of the person that put that together, Woody Niebel, filming him for 15 minutes, standing there with my phone as he gave the very last tour. And, and it's something that's just incredibly you know, near and dear to my heart as far as that, that, that collection is, at least in the maritime area, is very important, uh, to this town, you know.

And of course, the history of the church, the history of, you know, how many people have been born there, right? I mean, it's just a jewel for, for, for Kodiak. How you pay for it all, you know, I don't know. It's going to take— but then I don't think we knew that when the Baranoff park was put together either, right? It was just a steady, continual thing.

So, uh, I, I don't think it should be sold. You know, I do think the city should maintain the control and direction. I mean, it says— gentleman says it was sold once before because of a, you know, and, you know, I think we've all sold things we wish we'd have kept on to. So, so anyway, whatever we can do to progress incrementally the, you know, each of these entities there and gather the support. Maybe it's something that even KEDC could be involved in or whatever, but I think it's going to take the whole town collaborative efforts over time.

So I'd like to see it moving forward with, honestly, with all three of those entities and whatever else the council would foresee down the road. But, you know, it's— if you look at a cruise ship, where does everybody go? And the people, our museums are there. We've got the Fish and Wildlife Museum, the Historical, you know, Society. It's just all, you know, and, you know, does anybody not come to this town to get a picture and to take in the Orthodox?

I mean, I recently got to experience the Orthodox history in Belgrade, Serbia, and my son just got married there in a chapel that was thousands of years old. So it was, uh, it was, you know, we come and go, but this history is important. So thank you.

Councilmember West and then Davidson. Thank you. Um, I do like the opportunity to postpone this for a little bit. Um, that would be my first bet. I am not in favor of selling the property.

I do know that it is, it is historic. It's historic to be preserved and open to the public. I am very keen on, um, rehabilitating the building and making it a city hall because of the financial savings. The reason I asked for the, um, lease of the borough space to be made public is because, um, it's, it's, we're spending over $200,000 every year on rent, and if we could use the Griffin Building as City Hall, which that was the original idea, and I understand it will be costly, but for the finances of the city That is what looks to me like a good idea at this time. Leasing the building, selling the building do not help our budget.

And that making our budget strong helps everybody in the city.

It's a historic place. I love the museums. I'm members of the museum. I appreciate all that they do, but they do serve a smaller portion, a portion of the community. So I think that us working on our budget and getting our budget solid and not dipping into our savings is really in the best interest of the people of the City of Kodiak.

Selling it will not fix our budget problem. Leasing it and then having to keep up with the maintenance is also very likely not going to fix our budget problem. I, I do believe we are about one catastrophe away from a major catastrophe. We don't have our, um, the funds that are, uh, necessary if something were to happen. I— if this is a city hall it is open for public use.

I do super much appreciate how the church and the museums have worked together. My goal is to serve the whole community, and I think that that is by working on our budget and spending the money. Yes, it will cost money to get it rehabilitated and move City Hall into there, but we will be saving on paying the rent. So that's what I'm coming up with, and I would like to postpone this for a bit. Thank you.

Councilmember Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Um, I, like many of us, have a lot of thoughts and feelings about the Griffin Building. I was not born there. I did get shots there. Um, I Tend to agree with a lot of what Councilmember Stanford said about the value historically of that building and about the natural progression of it to be a part of Kodiak's cultural corridor with the Alutiiq Museum, the History Museum, the Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, and also the Orthodox Church. Um, I am not in favor of selling the building.

I am in favor of looking at selling city property in general a little bit. It, but I'm strongly not in favor of selling this building, partially because of its historic value. I'm very excited that the Historic Preservation Commission has moved forward with nominating it for the registry as a National Historic Building. I think that that is something that would be a boon to Kodiak, and, um, I also agree with Council Member Sanford that all 3 of the entities— the church, the History Museum, and the Maritime Museum— are all, um, good organizations that are serving the community of Kodiak. They're serving different needs for the community of Kodiak, but they're all valuable.

I think if there is a potential lease agreement or arrangement that could, could support all 3, I frankly don't think that building is big enough for all 3, um, for the needs, especially as someone who works at a museum and knows the, uh, storage capacity needed for a museum is far vaster than what anyone who hasn't worked in a museum will ever realize. And even with compacting shelves, um, that building is not really that big. Um, I agree with Councilmember West that neither selling nor leasing the Griffin Building will fix our budget problem, but I don't think this conversation is at all about whether the Griffin Building is going to fix our budget. Um, nothing is the one thing that's going to fix it. It's every choice that we make.

And one of the things that appeals to me personally, um, on behalf of my role as a city council member in supporting museum, um, residency in the Griffin Building, um, is, uh, I didn't know the thing about Rasmussen that Toby had brought up, but that's That's very interesting. I do know a thing or two about Rasmuson and getting funding for nonprofit organizations through Rasmuson, and I don't know what nonprofits in Alaska or even people in Alaska would do without Rasmuson Foundation. But the fact that they have even indicated a glimmer of interest in supporting the preservation of that building for use as museums And also noting that there are— and I don't know enough about the specifics of it— but that there are state and federal funding streams to support preservation and rehabilitation and renovation of historic properties, especially if they are designated as historic properties. I feel like there is some good potential that moving forward with some sort of lease to support use of that property as a historic property, um, could actually benefit the city and could actually help us pay for the very expensive repairs for a very old building. I also want to note, speaking of the budget, that one of the ways we theoretically balance the fiscal year '27 budget— and I only say theoretically because you can propose and present and approve any budget at the beginning of the year, but you don't really know what your budget is until the end of the year.

And, you know, whatever emergencies have come up, or, you know, but one of the ways that we balanced our plan for the fiscal year '27 budget is to remove the Griffin Building rehabilitation and renovation as a capital project out of this coming year's funding because we didn't know what we were going to do with it. And that was done before the leases came through and before all of these community discussions about how that building could potentially be used because we had to pass that budget. Um, so I think that we should continue to inch forward. I don't think we should completely shelf it because things like this take tons of time. And so I think if we just completely shelf it until we figure something else out, um, it's just going to take us longer and longer to achieve anything.

I think I'm done. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member D— Council Member Walker.

Well, microphone.

There we go.

Everybody has a lot of, uh, ideas, and a number of us have looked at this over and over from City Hall, found out, you know, getting in there and look at the concepts in there, it wasn't really going to work very well. I think that we should look at, uh, a place that the—. I—. What I've understood is a lot of the museums in that right area are always looking for a rectory to put their, their items, you know, like a warehouse to back them up, because a collection vault And at this time, I'd say, you know, we've done enough work on it now to make sure that the heating was still working right. And, you know, there's been a lot of other things like that that we've just been kind of maintaining.

I'd say that if anything, that we lease the building to one or two of the museums and have it as a vault. And we can help that way. And in the meantime, going into the future, we can think more about what we really want to do.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member West. Yeah, one thing I want to consider, and I'd like the staff to bring forward, is what has the Russian American Magazine, the history museum, cost us in maintenance? In the last 5 to 10 years, and how will maintenance be managed if there's a desire to lease? Those are questions that we are obligated to look at.

Thank you.

And those would be questions that would be worked out during any lease agreement.

Well, Councilmember Davidson, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I'm not gonna say a lot because I already said a lot, but I do want to Also add that I, I really appreciate the intended use that the church has for the building. I am not a member of their congregation, but I think having a place for them to have preschool and education and a fellowship hall. And one of the things that was not mentioned tonight, but was mentioned at another time, was the idea of them potentially having a small space to do sort of their own museum of, of their history. Which I think is really cool.

And like, you know, maybe this building's not big enough for all of their needs, but maybe there is some sort of in-between, you know, maybe it can't be the fellowship hall because they need a bigger room for that, but maybe the History Museum can have their collection stored and the Maritime Museum can have an exhibit. And wow, there's also a really cool Orthodox exhibit. I don't know, I just want to— I feel like I didn't really acknowledge that I do see a lot of value in what the church is hoping to do as well. I just think that it's going to take a little more work to figure out what the best way to move forward is. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember. Well, I think I'm hearing consensus to not proceed with the application for purchase. Is that correct? Yes. Yes.

And I would suggest that we do proceed with the application to lease, with the understanding that it's still pretty fluid. And that even suggestions like those are just floated by Council Member Davidson might even be explored. But I think, as Council Member Davidson did point out, this process is going to take a while anyway. So I would suggest that we do proceed with the application for the lease, but not purchase. Is that— oh, Council Member Mangini.

Can you guys hear me okay? Yes. Okay, sorry, I was— said a few things earlier and I didn't feel like I was heard. So, um, I think a bigger issue that this also brings up is just our current, like, application process for lease and buying. And I think it's something that we really need to— we really need to dig into.

I know that that's been brought up before, but, um, rather than— I feel like waste people's time. This is 2 meetings in a row that we're saying that we're not interested in selling something and I just think it brings up that bigger issue. So that's what I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember.

Any further comments or questions? Mr. Mayor, I do want to chime in with what Nick said, and it's true. Our process is pretty loose and wild. So I would like to have a chance to take a look at that. Thank you.

Well, I would suggest it works okay, but that's, that's a, that's another discussion to discuss our process. Um, any objections from the council? Councilmember Sanford, you had something? Yeah, just one more thing too. I think with a new council coming on board and having a full council looking at the future, right, with, uh, they're going to be here for the next 2 to 3 years, you know, I think that's important too.

I do agree, and I really like hearing Councilmember West Bringing the budget up each time, I think it's incredibly important. It's going to dictate how we go forward in many areas. You know, I mean, all the different tax discussions we're going to have and, you know, but what, what would people want to spend their money on if they're, if they are being taxed too? But I, I do think that's important. And, and also parts of your leases too.

It could be, you know, conditional on getting other funding through, you know, Rasmussen, like Councilmember Davidson has said, or different things. But. You know, we may not see the whole thing, but I think those first steps going forward in that way and not selling it, but trying to figure out how to make it one of the crown jewels here in Kodiak is important. So thank you. Well, I think we've heard a lot of great ideas, and it's obviously— it's obvious that there's— this building could be of great use to our community.

And I certainly was impressed by the rather detailed renovation plan that was presented by the museums.

So is that enough direction for staff?

That won't sell. The next item on the agenda is review and discuss sales tax survey results from the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, and I'll turn it over to interim city manager Tim Putney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Kodiak Chamber of Commerce assisted the city by conducting a sales tax survey of local businesses The survey was available for approximately 2 weeks beginning on July 27th, 2026. A total of 67 completed surveys were received from a cross-section of Kodiak's business community. Overall, businesses reported largely manageable experience with the current system. Nearly 90% described their compliance as ranging from neutral to very easy.

There was noticeable gap between the questions of easy to comply with and fair and consistent. Perceptions of fairness were more mixed. Only about 39% agreed the system is fair, understandable, and consistently administered, while 30% remained neutral and the last 30% disagreed or strongly disagreed. According to the survey— I'll wait for that noise to stop.

So according to the survey, most time-consuming administrative burdens that fall onto businesses were verifying exemptions, about 35%, preparing returns, 34%, and recordkeeping, another 30%. Exemption surfaced as the single largest theme in open-ended comments, mentioned 15 out of the 67 surveys. With the senior citizen exemption drawing particular attention around verification and consistency and how it was applied. Respondents' top requests for improving our system were online filing or payment modernization, a clearer written guidance, and email reminders. While when asked to prioritize the purpose of any code changes, things like simplify administration for business was a third of the responses.

Another 25% was improved fairness and consistency, and then the third most mentioned was stronger enforcement.

And this survey was done as part of our sales tax discussion that we've been having the last few months.

Thank you, Mr. Putney. Any questions or discussion items? Councilmember Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, well, one, I just want to call out and thank the Chamber of Commerce for helping us conduct this survey, because I think that it did gather some pretty useful information.

Um, uh, 67 completed responses is great. It's not, um, all as many as I would have loved to see from Kodiak businesses, but, um, I'm really glad that we have a little bit of data to work with.

And I guess the only thing that I would kind of question around it is the stronger enforcement rating, like a little lower. I'm wondering, is part of that because the businesses who took the survey are businesses that are already engaged and so they are doing their due diligence, they are turning in and remitting their taxes. So they believe that it is fair and equitable and being enforced fine because they are already participating. You know, does that make sense what I'm saying? Like, I'm wondering, like, did any of the businesses that owe us 3/4 of sales tax take the survey?

What would they say? And I know that we can't really make people do it, but that was the only thing that was kind of interesting to me because in so many of our discussions about sales tax and exemptions and things like that, a lot of community comment was about the enforcement and remittance. Um, but overall, it's pretty encouraging response. So thank you to everybody who took it.

Councilmember West. Yeah, thank you. Um, I was just, uh, good job. It was great. It was great getting it and gathering it, and I read through it.

It was interesting that 25% of the respondents were nonprofits. So yeah, I guess that's a— anyway, I, I don't really understand what all that means, but I thought that was interesting. And how much are they a vendor? I don't know. So, um, I'd like to know maybe a little bit more about that.

Councilmember Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, well, I think I might be able to speak a little bit to that because a lot of our nonprofits have retail. The Aleutic Museum is a nonprofit with retail. The Kodiak The History Museum is a nonprofit with retail.

The Salvation Army is a nonprofit with retail. So there's a good chance that any of those 3 nonprofits took this survey. So that, I mean, to me it makes sense that a lot of nonprofits took it because our nonprofits, in my experience, are some of the most engaged businesses in the community outside of the fishing industry, but that's like a whole other separate creature. Councilmember West, did you have something else? Well, I would just, um, yeah, anyway, that was curious.

It said 25% nonprofits, and then I see 21% retail, but is there an overlap? Anyway, I don't know. I just, I don't know if we can find out or break that breakdown of that, but that's like, I appreciate what she said there, that the nonprofits that she just listed are also retail, but I was just wondering what the crossover is. Thanks. Councilmember Davidson, you had something in addition?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You may know the answer to this more than me, um, Interim Manager Putney, but I— because I looked at the survey, but I believe that you had to pick one or the other, that you could not pick multiple different things that you fell under. So that might be why.

Thank you. Well, it looks like some of the things that were sent, that were— they focused on are things that we're also focusing on, uh, too, which is, I think, a good sign and stuff. And then some things that we can't really implement until we make certain decisions about our, uh, tax code going forward. So any further discussion? In that case, the next item on the agenda is review and discuss draft ordinance and land acknowledgement, and I'll turn this over to City Clerk Brandy Wernicke for a review.

Thank you. This item being— being presented request. Can you hear me? Yes, thank you. This item is being presented at the request of two council members.

There's been, um, a request to add a land acknowledgement to the city's order of business when conducting council meetings. At this time, the council can discuss if they would like to add a land acknowledgement, uh, to their agendas and how they would like to do so. Um, we've included in your meeting packet, we've included folks from the Kodiak Island Borough as well as the Municipality of Inbridge, um, who both currently do land acknowledgments. We've also included current Kodiak City Code on the council's order of business and an option for a code change to include a land acknowledgement. Um, we reached out to the Aleut Museum, Dr. Kessler, and were provided, um, this draft land acknowledgement that she encouraged council to review and edit to, um, to fit the Afghanistan Tax Council.

Um, so it currently states, the city of Kodiak is located on the traditional lands of the Alutiiq Sugpiaq people. We acknowledge the Chinook tribe of Kodiak, whose tribal territory encompasses the city of Kodiak, and the 9 other tribes in the Kodiak Archipelago. We commit to honor tribe self-determination and will continue to educate ourselves about the history and culture and rich Kodiak that today. Um, so at this work session, we kind of want to determine if it's council's wish to determine if you would like to add the land acknowledgement in code, uh, which would be a code, an ordinance to change code, um, and a draft ordinance is within your meeting packet. Um, we can also add a land acknowledgement, kind of, if you look on your meeting packet for the regular meeting, which I believe I believe is also in your meeting packet.

It's where we have underneath call to order, roll call, there's an invocation, Pledge of Allegiance, and land acknowledgment. So, it kind of just is determined how council wants to do it. If you want to add it to code and make it more of a permanent thing, or if you would like to add it underneath that order, call to order, and the roll call. Um, and if that is Council's wish, we could also bring it back in another work session to then look at the actual land acknowledgement itself. I just wanted to give Council the opportunity to look at both.

So just to be clear, the Council could add the land acknowledgement to the agenda, uh, which will enable them to change that if they chose in the future without changing the code, or we could— you could do it in code, which would make it permanent unless again it's changed in code. That's correct. So like right now, your invocation and your Pledge of Allegiance aren't codified. Um, they're something council has added to the— underneath the roll call, um, and call— the call to order and then the roll call within your meeting packet on your agenda. And that's an option we could, um, if council wants it to be a more permanent fixture, fixture, then we would have to So I guess the question is first whether a land acknowledgment is something we want to pursue and add to our agenda, and then second, if so, um, do we want to make that in code or just as part of the new part of the agenda?

Council Member Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I feel like I'm talking a lot tonight. Um, I'm so excited to see this come before the council. I think it is past time for us to include a land acknowledgment, uh, because I think that honoring the traditions of the people who lived here long before any of us ever did is a very respectful thing to do.

And it is, um, I'm just really happy to see this come before us, and I think it'd be awesome to make it a part of code so that it was theoretically permanent. But if we— if other people are opposed to that, I I'm okay with it not being code. I just want us— while I'm here, I want to make sure that, um, that we are acknowledging the people whose land this is. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Davidson.

Councilmember West. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, I agree with, uh, Juna. I would like to see it codified. Um, also, I'm just going to say one more thing, and then I have to go to the ferry.

Or I won't be able to get home. So it says on the— I think it was at the last part— the Municipality of Anchorage. I like their last line. I just want to, you know, I don't know if we're doing the specifics tonight, but I really do gotta go. But it says, it is with gratitude and respect that we recognize the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspectives of the local native people.

So I think that that was— that's all I got to say. Thank you. I'm sorry, but I gotta go. All right, thank you, Council Member West. Any further discussion?

Council Member Stanford.

Strong opinion one way or the other, but it's new to me. And I remember when we went through naming the Walmart Park, right? So it would be nice to have You know, one, I'm curious how the public, you know, the city of Kodiak, have we asked to, you know, put it out in public so it's, uh, you know, it may find overwhelming support and or not, I don't know. But they—. It would be nice to make sure that the public process is done.

You know, of my 6 years on the council, I think I have more than anyone in the last 6 years have always brought up the, the villagers, trying to include them even though they're in the borough. Right? Not our city, not to— most of my close friends when I travel or live in the village, that's real property. So it's— but I, I would like to— sorry, didn't have it on— but I would like to just make sure that this becomes, you know, it would be nice to see the city, you know, support behind this so it's not just very quick and, and done, you know, rapidly. And however we do that process, you know, So, you know, I'm not real sure, but it would be nice to discuss that and make sure that the city is on board.

I was told once, if you put it in code, you gotta do it. So it's, you know, I— that's another question. Do you really— do you want it in code to where you do it? You know, you may. So, but it would be nice to have some of these questions at least put out and give us a chance to talk to people and ask them.

I just remember how the Walmwick Park had, you know, brought off a lot of interest from a lot of people. So, and I know I've been gone for a couple of months, so maybe some of this has already been done, but I'd just like to bring that up. So, thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. And the only question we have to answer tonight is whether to move forward or not, and that seems overwhelmingly yes.

I certainly think that the, the draft language that the staff worked with the Lutic Museum with is a good start. And I agree with Council Member West that that's some pretty good language in the Anchorage Land Acknowledgment too, that might— we might look at as well. So it looks like— oh, Council Member Walker.

Thanks for—.

Thank you, Council Member. Uh, Council Member West, are you having your hand up there? I think she's gone. No, yeah, he's running after the ferry.

I think that's all for that item. The next item on the agenda, understanding items, is to discuss city revenue and finance and And I'll turn it over again to Interim City Manager Tim Putney.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just one quick update as, uh, we're getting ready for the FY26 audit in October. Uh, the fiscal year of 2026, we were projecting a $3 million deficit after the sales tax allocations. It looks like we'll be closer to $1.3 to $1.5 million, so we're roughly half of what we were projecting. Uh, so for information, that brings our unassigned fund balance closer to $9 million, or roughly 4 months of operating expenses.

That's all I have.

Thank you. Any questions of the city manager?

That brings us to, uh, Council Member Stanford.

There, that'll stay on again. So how, uh, are there figures that we're waiting for that still need to come in, or how, uh, with those figures, what's forward-looking that we still would be nice to know, and when are those going to happen? Just the last of the processing the invoices for that fiscal year, which, and waiting for some of the last remote seller sales tax that they seem to be— they run a quarter behind sometimes, just it seems like from my experience so far. So, um, but $1.3 to $1.5 is the finance director's best guess at this point. What, uh, what, what was that attributed to?

What was the surprise? Why, why going from $3 million to, to half of that? What, what caught your attention? I, I didn't— I haven't looked at it line item for line item yet. Um, that was just an update at the end of the day today.

Okay, so it'd be nice to know what that is at some point here, that we could find out what, uh, I'm—. If I had to guess, it's probably staffing vacancies. So vacancies, uh, I'm curious if interest income was any— was that higher? Was sales tax, you know, some of the really big items, right? You know, so maybe that could come to the next meeting or something.

We could find out.

Yep. Any further? Uh, Julie had her hand up. Oh, Julie, did you have something? Uh, yes, Mayor.

Mayor, um, the— so the, the, the number that, uh, Interim Manager Pani mentioned, uh, has already included the sales tax for the fourth quarter. As well as remote sellers. So we came in, we budgeted $15.8 million in sales tax, and we've collected about $16.1 million. That's also got to do with some of the sales tax that were collected by the vendors at the craft Fest and also the marketplace vendors as well.

So right now we're still working on finalizing some of the year-end transfers and journal entries, tidying up all the, the financials, so The goal is to at least have a near-final report to the council at the next work session. Probably that'll be next month, I believe.

And that's—. Julie, could you— and do you know how many FTEs we are short for the year overall? I don't have the number, but I can get the number to the council. Okay, thank you.

Any further discussion or questions? Thank you, Julie.

The next item under standing items is elected official travel. Are there any requests to travel on behalf of the city?

And we will be traveling with the other mayor, other city manager, and Nick, uh, to DC at the end of the month. So cross your fingers, we're going to ask for everything we want there. Oh, I'm sure. Uh, any additional—. Uh, I'm going to King of the Hammers in February.

I don't know if the city wants to donate to that or something. Watch the, uh We'll ask the, uh, so no.

The next under agenda item, understanding items, is update on city manager recruitment, and that goes to City Clerk Brandy Wernicke for an update. Thank you very much. So in your meeting packet, you have, um, an application, an additional application received. Also in front of you on your spot, on your table spots, should have been 3 additional applications that were received, um, after the public packet was published. Those applications are, uh, posted on the city's website as well for the public to view.

Um, but that is the update on—. Thank you very much. It's good to know that we have some interest, at least.

Next item under— next item in the agenda is the packet review for the September— oh, I didn't see you, Nick. Go ahead, Council Member Mangini. Um, after reading that, after reading that last application, I'm just wondering if that individual was aware of the engineer position as well, or if there's a way to reach out to them and let them know that if they didn't qualify for this position, or if people weren't interested in there, it seemed like they had done enough work that was similar. Um, just, just first thought off the top of my head. Roger.

I was, I was wondering that myself. We will, we will look into that.

Yeah, he was wondering if, uh, one of our applicants might also be qualified to be, uh, to— for another position with the city. Oh, so thank you.

Um, okay, now we're on to the packet review for the September 10th, 2026 regular meeting. It's quite the hefty packet.

And of course, first is the approval of minutes for the August 13th and August 20th council meetings. And then under persons to be heard, public hearing for Three Sisters doing business as Wildflower for license number 21069. and public hearing for Aquamarine, doing business as Aquamarine Cafe and Suites, for license number 3458. Then reports of boards, commissions, and committees. Under new business A, we will be looking at adopting a Parks and Recreation Master Plan as prepared by Corbus Design, which is in our packet. B, we'll be naming election workers for the October 6th, 2026 regular municipal election.

And thanking them. Under C, Resolution Number 2026-30, formally submitting a harbor facility grant application to the State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities in an amount not to exceed $5 million for the St. Herman Harbor recapitalization project. And cross your fingers. D is Resolution Number 2026- -31, accepting a State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources Office of History and Archaeology grant for a 2020 NAPC membership and camp training grant in the amount of $10,025.

E is Resolution Number 2026-32, authorizing a lease of property on Pillar Mountain to the Kodiak Electric Civic Association.

Under F, Resolution Number 2026-33, appropriating and transferring $803,000 from the Oscar's Dock Covered Area Project, PN850047, to the St. Paul Harbor Launch Ramp Renovation Project, PN24-05/850047.

45 And authorize a construction contract with Beckman Construction LLC. Under G, authorization of a professional services agreement with Kodiak Construction Services for professional engineering services. Under H, authorization of a professional services agreement with P&D Engineers Incorporated for the Lift Station 5 geotechnical investigation and report. No question on that. Uh, yes, Councilmember Stanford.

Mr. Mayor, so is that, uh, it looks like that's the proverbial deep hole, you know, Lift Station 5. Is this, uh, can you give an update on, is the hole getting deeper? Is there light at the end of the tunnel with this?

I've got Chris Lynch with us tonight, our contracted city engineer, uh, who can answer more technical questions. But so this is some value engineering to understand exactly the subsurface that that we're getting into to help for the contractor's engineer to know more information about the rock and the recommendations they're going to have for how deep pilings need to go for walls to hold back the soil. I think it's still— we're looking at like a 30-foot, 35-foot hole to install the new lift station. So the part that we've already— the, the coffer or the case on or whatever, I mean, I don't know what it is, but what we've read about, is that, uh, is that still viable and practical? That's definitely going to— or could that change?

Or, I mean, the, the Smith and Lovelace wet well, it actually ships this week. That stays the same. What we know is hydraulically, it has to be 35 feet deep. What we don't know is that the original geotech— we had 2 geotech studies done during the whole design of this back from when we did the original bidding, and it was just regular soil borings. Now that the house has been demolished and we know that that the, um, the, the soldier piling alone is millions of dollars, not just half a million or so.

It's a major portion of the project. So we thought that in the interest of value engineering, it would be a good idea to do some more specific drilling and evaluate the rock that we do hit. We know we're going to hit rock, but Anyone that knows that Kodiak rock is more like a shale, so it's— the term is rotten rock. It's not always sturdy enough to hold these soldier pilings. We also have been in touch with the adjacent property owner on the other side, and they are starting to think about letting us cut into their slope.

So that would change possibly the amount of soldier piling. All these things are allowing us to gather more information. More information means that we could get a better price. The $159,000 commitment to P&D gets us then a full-blown report and design for the soldier piling that will be required to hold up the walls while we install this wet well. It's a 72,000-pound unit.

That we have to place in this hole. And so that means we have to have a crane sitting near this, this soldier piling. I believe that we will fourfold see our money. And it'll improve our price fourfold, the $159,000. So, so does this wall, is it temporary, the, that's going in and then it comes out?

It's just holding the water back until you get this holding the the soil up. And then that in turn, we will have constant pumping going on during construction. So all of that destabilizes the soil, the water, the lake, everything. We're trying to minimize the distance that we have to be away from the wet well so that we don't get too close to the lake. If we were to just go in there and, and open up the ground so that we could place this wet well, we would have to have huge slopes that would take us into the other neighbor's property and this hill gone and into the lake.

So this allows us to minimize our footprint for the construction. Do those pilings stay there? So if we ever have to do this again, can they be used again? Oh, please. It doesn't work.

No, because what happens is that we would, be backfilling and compacting all the way up around the structure that's there. So these are wooden soldier piles with steel. It's kind of like you have two pieces of steel and wood falls between them. So that's— this would eventually disintegrate before probably the wet well. So it's not anything that gets left in place.

All right. Thank you. Very interesting.

Thank you, Chris. That brings us to G, authorization of a professional services agreement with Kodiak Construction Services for professional engineering services.

H is authorization of a professional services agreement with PND Engineers Incorporated for the Lift Station 5 geotechnical investigation and report. I is consideration of B&R Fish Byproducts Incorporated request to purchase land with a legal description of ATS 1408 TR C-1, 1011 Gibson Cove Road. J is consideration of marijuana retail store renewal application number 21069 for Three Sisters LLC doing business as Wildflower. K is consideration of the renewal of restaurant and eating place license number 3 2458 for the Aquamarine— for Aquamarine LLC doing business as Aquamarine Cafe and Suites. And finally, L is authorization for the City of Kodiak mayor to become a signer to the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference Resolution Number 2026-06-01, a resolution of the municipalities and federally recognized tribes of Southwest Alaska calling for fact-based dialogue on the future of Alaska fisheries and coastal communities.

That will bring us to staff reports from the city manager and city clerk, mayor's comments, council comments, audience comments, and then adjournment.

Any other questions? Councilmember Stan? I hate to go back to one, but on the Gibson Cove, because I wasn't here during a lot of these conversations, is there— is this still buying the dock and all that kind of stuff. That's what this discussion was, what I read as far as that 5-acre. Or was it— is that— can you give a report on that?

Maybe tell me what's— explain that a little bit more. Yeah, I think the consensus at the meeting was not to sell the property, so this is, uh, this item's on the agenda to basically close the application. Okay, well, that's kind of my opinion, so I was just curious. Is there something else that's happened? So thank you.

Any further discussion on the packet? If there is nothing further, this work session is adjourned.