Assembly Regular Meeting of March 6, 2025

I call to order the assembly regular meeting on March 6th, 2025 at 6:30 PM in the Borough Assembly Chambers. I would like to call Cadet Joe Durham of the Salvation Army to give the invocation, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this, uh, partial sunny day here in Kodiak, Alaska. Lord, I just thank you for bringing us all here together this evening, and I just ask that you be in the room, be with us and everybody, the assembly members and everybody, and the discussions and the conversations, and just be the light and the guidance in the room tonight. And I thank you, Lord, and I say all these things in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE] We are gathered on the traditional homeland of the Supiaq/Aleutic people. And we acknowledge the 10 tribes of the Kodiak Aleutic region. We recognize the Aleutic culture that enriches our community to this day.

Could we have a roll call vote, please? Mr. Ames. Mr. Griffin. Mr. Johnson. Here.

Mr. Ledoux. Here. Mr. Sharrett. Here. Mr. Smiley.

Here. Mr. Whiteside. Here. Mayor Arndt. You have a quorum.

Thank you.

Any motions on the floor for excusal? Okay, we'll go to the approval of the agenda and consent agenda. The sole item included on the consent agenda is the minutes from the regular meeting held on February 20th, 2025. We have a motion, please. Move to approve the minutes.

Second. Voice vote on the motion. Aye.

There are two designated citizen comment periods, one at the beginning and the second one towards the end of the meeting. These periods are intended for general comments as well as for agenda items that are not a part of the public hearing. The Borough Assembly is legally limited in their ability to respond to citizen comments during the meeting. Questions and requests from the public will be referred to the appropriate borough department. We have one public hearing item for tonight, which is for ordinance number FY2025-02A.

Comments for this item will be heard when that item is called during public hearing, so please wait until we get to that portion of the agenda. For those of you in the room right now who wish to speak or on the phone, Come to the podium and sign in. Turn on the microphone. Make sure the green light is on before speaking and speak directly into the mic. State your name for the record.

Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof. If you are calling in, the local number is 907-486-3231. The toll-free number is (1) 855-492-9202. Please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback. Patricia, you're first for tonight.

My name is Patricia Valerio. Good evening, Borough Assembly. I'm here on behalf of the Borough Engineering and Project Department. I wanted to share with you and the public that we currently have a survey out and will be hosting a public forum to collect public opinion on the Signal Hill also known as mental health buildings. Currently, the borough has awarded a contract to partially demolish and conduct an abatement on the buildings, and this forum will help the borough make an educated decision on the future of those buildings.

Please either join us for the forum on Tuesday, March 25th at 5:00 PM at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center, or share your thoughts through the survey. The survey can be found on the borough website. The public voice matters, and we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you, Patricia, for putting all this together.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Good evening, everyone. My name is Tom Lance. I'm here representing Menasha Bay Road Service Area. I wanted to give you a report. I've heard rumor that you haven't been hearing enough from us, and I'd like to give you an update on what's been happening in our neck of the woods.

We have— and by the way, I'm the vice chair. Patty O'Donnell is the chair. He's out somewhere in the Gulf right now fishing. And he tries to participate when he can. We have a meeting coming up scheduled for the 25th of the month to have a— we wanted to have a budget hearing, but we've been told we don't have a quorum, which I'll get into in a minute.

But we'll at least have an informational meeting to talk about the challenges that's facing the road service area and what the plans are for the future and also the outlook for the budget. But the issue that constitutes our problem is that we are— we lack a quorum according to the definition that the borough uses.

Few people want to participate in the road service area. They appreciate being able to drive on roads that have no potholes, but lots of potholes usually because our road materials here in Kodiak are crummy materials in the first place. Graywacke does not make good rock for our roads. So we need to grade potholes, and then the weather this year has been particularly challenging. We didn't get freeze-up.

We always always look forward to the wintertime because the potholes kind of go away because everything freezes up, and we can grade them over, and they freeze in, you know, nice and solid. And then we have breakup in the spring. Well, we've had breakup all year this year. So that's been a big issue, and people aren't real happy. And that's what we hear is, you know, hey, when are you going to do the potholes?

And so that's the other issue we've had. No contract. Our contractor, up until just recently, you know, in September, Brecken was our contractor. They just backed out with 1 month's notice, and we were stuck. And so we were desperate.

We needed road-grade, you know, maintenance work, potholes filled, snow and ice control, planning coming for the winter. Which didn't really happen.

So talking to Dave Conrad and the Engineering Facilities Department, they said, okay, we can do something temporary, but it's only going to be just for snow and ice removal, nothing else. And we were like, well, that's no good because— and I've talked to you before about this, I believe— because we're going to need potholes filled. And lo and behold, it's been a real potholey winter. Anyway, I just wanted to say that we've got those issues with the quorum, and cost of maintaining roads is going up because we've been told we have to follow prevailing wage now. And I don't know, we're all taxpayers, we pay the borough to help us.

It's not why— we don't get money from the state, we don't get money from the burial. And so the taxpayers are the ones that are paying you to help us. And if we have to pay prevailing wage, it's going to cost us even more. And we can't— we aren't very happy about that part of it. So I'll stop there.

And—. [Speaker:CHAIRMAN BRYANT] Thank you, Tom. [Speaker:COMMISSIONER MAY] Yep. And introduce Darlene Turner. She's a former longtime supervisor, board supervisor of the Menasha Road Service Area.

So, thanks, Tom.

Yeah. Hi, it's wonderful to be here with you tonight. It wasn't too long ago— well, maybe it was like almost 20 years ago that I was sitting here. Pardon me? Could you state your name, please?

Oh, I'm sorry, Darlene Turner. Thank you. I'm sorry, Darlene Turner. And for those that aren't my friends, hello. We'll make new friends.

Those that are, it's wonderful to see you all. Um, so I served on the Borough Assembly. I was on the Planning and Zoning Commission for a number of years and then served for 18 or 20 years on the Road Service District. I got rounded up into it very early on, just almost as soon as I got to Kodiak, to help out with the roads. So I'm familiar with the Menasha Bay Road Service District intimately.

I've walked those roads a number of times, um, and we have the same problems today that we had 32 years ago when I got here. They're the very same problems, the very same potholes, the very same areas. They've never been fixed. The roads, when they were given to the road service districts from the borough because the borough didn't want to manage the road service districts, they elected to have new elected officials run those areas. And that's what we did.

We took that on, that responsibility, and we were very serious about it. So you have elected officials working with elected officials and working with staff. And what's happened is, is over the last 10 years, things have kind of kind of falling apart. They're not getting contracts. Nobody wants to be on the road service district because it's such a headache to work with the borough, which I personally like very much, but it was a real— it was real labor to do it, and they're not getting paid for it.

So they're doing this because they're volunteers and they love their community. They want to live there. They want to live on those dirt roads, but We need to come to some sort of understanding about how we as a borough are going to treat our fellow elected officials and how we're going to work with staff to make sure that we are getting what we need. And that comes into the proper training, proper education, proper understanding of how things work, proper understanding of wages and how contracts are let and all that, because we, we used to do the contracts. And work with the borough to do them back when I was on.

And again, that's been a while. It's been 10 years since I was on the service district. But, you know, it's making a budget. And then, and as Tom said, it's having a quorum. A quorum, a quorum is equal to those divided by themselves.

So if you have 16 members on your board, 8 does not make a quorum. 9 Does. If they're all serving. If you have 7 on the, on the assembly, you have to have, what, 5, 4 to make a, to make a, to be one more than even. It's not happening.

There's only 2 people serving on our board of directors. So 2, 1 makes 2. You have to have 2 to have a quorum. It shouldn't be you have to have 3. When you don't have 3 on.

And so I'm asking you, if that's the way it's read and that's the way it's in the, in the law here in the borough, change the law, you know. And, and it's that whole part of common sense. If, if you can't have 3, then you need to have 2. And if 2 works, that's what you should have to be able to make a budget. I thank you for your time.

You all have a wonderful evening, and I appreciate you listening to me. Thank you very much. Thank you, Darlene.

Any others on the phone or in person that would like to testify tonight?

Hello, Joseph Delgado.

Welcome to our land. I'm here to say thank you, actually. I read the paper the other day and I noticed the CIP list was in there, and I have to say that I'm very impressed with the way that you guys have changed your procedures to more accurately or to better include some of the villages. There's been many villages' projects included in the borough CIP list over the last few years, and I know that the villages are very happy to see that. When this happens, it makes them more willing to come and speak with you, to let you know that you guys are doing a good job, to let you know what they need, rather than calling all the time just to complain.

So that is good. Also, a number of years ago, I was the tribal transportation director in Eezinki. I got granite from Shakmonoff to put on our roads. I've been told here in Kodiak by a number of people that the granite was too expensive for Kodiak to get to use here. When I was getting the stuff for Eezinki, The quarry operator told me that the leavings on the side of the hill was enough to take care of Kodiak's gravel needs for the next 10 years.

That was like 7 years ago. And for the stuff that you need for fixing your roads in the service areas, that's all you need is that. I think that it would be a good idea for people to contact Kodiak and find out what kind of price— or not Kodiak, but the actual— the guy, the quarry operators, to find out what kind of prices there are. They told me that the more people that want the granite, the lower the price is going to be, and that makes sense. There are 6 villages around here that have tribal transportation programs that get money, or they get money from the state to, from the government to buy this kind of stuff.

So if Kodiak, the borough, the city, and the villages can all work together, there may be a way to get some of that stuff out of that quarry.

So I would encourage you guys to look into that. And again, thank you for listening to us on the CIP list. Those projects really help the villages, and it doesn't only help one or two, it helps us all. So thank you. Thanks, Joe.

Any others who would like to testify tonight?

No phone calls? Okay. We will move right along then to awards and presentations. And we do not have any awards and presentations, so we will move right to committee reports.

Bob? Thank you. I am making this on behalf of Mr. Johnson, who I am grateful for a really robust agenda that they put together with the Solid Waste Advisory Board. I attended their last meeting, which was on the 26th of February. It was a really good discussion.

I'll skip some of the other details, but really what drove discussion was how do we handle our solid waste, including recycling. So the topic of the feasibility of waste transfer station was discussed at length. And Jenna came and presented on behalf of the borough for engineering facilities, gave us some great information on what other communities in Alaska are doing with their solid waste. And the reason for looking into this is I was curious and requested that this was brought up as well. And until the Solid Waste Board has this discussion and then brings it up to our attention, there's really nothing we can do to advance it.

But it was really great. Jenna showed us what Anchorage is doing, Juneau, Fairbanks, different options we can consider. And the reason for behind— the reason behind that is we're burying large— pretty largely burying all of our waste. A little bit of recycling is happening through Threshold, but ultimately electronics, some hazardous things are likely getting buried, and ultimately we're going to run out of room. Best case scenario sounds like 30 years, we're going to have to create a new landfill.

So, and the only thing we can do to mitigate that is to increase the amount of recycling we do to separate out what we're burying. And it's just, it makes sense to me, is, is wanting to be responsible stewards of our land and water, we need to do a better job of recycling hazardous waste and electronics. These are things that we discussed during the meeting that It's only going to increase. And then we heard testimony recently about EV batteries, electric car batteries. That's going to be a problem we're going to have to look at.

They're very expensive. You can't recycle them here. So I'm anticipating if we don't get ahead of that particular issue, folks are going to be abandoning cars with these batteries that we can't do anything with, and it's going to cost many thousands of dollars per vehicle to dispose of that. So it evolved from actual transfer stations where you would drive a truck in, empty the garbage onto the floor, have it sorted, and then one go— you know, trucks go off to the landfill, other ones go to different recycling services. And that discussion advanced into, well, maybe there's other ways we can be more efficient with what we have now that wouldn't require building an actual facility that would cost quite a bit of money.

And that, that— so now that's where the Solid Waste Advisory Board is heading. So exploring options that'll be more cost-effective that might meet that same need of increasing the amount of things we recycle and burying less of our waste. So that's, that's where we left it. I want to thank the folks that have joined recently to the Solid Waste Advisory Board and those that have been serving the community for a very long time. And encourage them.

And I'm thankful for Mr. Johnson pointing out that the folks sitting on that board, they, they should feel empowered and emboldened to make suggestions to us. They're an advisory board. They're not just educating the community, but there's Kodiak Island Borough Code and the Solid Waste Advisory Board bylaws have certain language in there that folks should look at and then think about how they can make recommendations to bring to us that we can then bring to the community. So a little long-winded there, but I was just really excited about the discussion. I think we're heading in the right direction with it.

I look forward to what the advisory board brings to our attention, and I appreciate Mr. Johnson facilitating some more robust agenda items. It was fantastic. Thank you. Any other committee reports?

Okay, we'll move along to a public hearing tonight. We have For a public hearing, ordinance number FY2025-02A, amending ordinance number FY2025-02, fiscal year 2025 budget, by amending budgets to account for various revenues that are over budget, providing for additional expenditures, and moving funds between projects. Is there a motion?

Move to adopt ordinance number FY 2025-02 Alpha. Second. It's moved and seconded. Can we have a staff report from Ms. Gerolt? Thank you, Assemblymember Ledoux.

This ordinance presents the net changes for additional funding requests which occurred during the current fiscal year for items or circumstances not known or expected during the initial creation of the FY 2025 budget or project estimates. This ordinance contains amounts for both funds and projects, and Dora Cross, our finance director, is here to explain everything and answer any questions that you might have. Dora. Thank you. Good evening.

Um, we do quarterly budget amendments. This is one of them. For this one has mostly projects that are closed. There's 5 projects that have been either completed or the project has been redirected somehow and we're closing it out. There's 2 items that are being moved the money is being moved either into a fund such as the economic— the fisheries economic money and the addition of more money to the landfill treatment plant aeration project.

So for funds, the general fund will decrease by $20,000. The solid waste collection fund will decrease by $227,000 and some change. Hospital facility fund will increase by $700,000. The KFR KFRC, the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center, will increase by $82,000. For particular projects, the Fisheries Development will increase by $20,000.

The Seawater Storage Filter Vessels will decrease by $30,000. Exterior, the KFRC exterior project will decrease by $52,000 and some change. Baylor Building UST will decrease by $22,000. The Treatment Aeration Plant will increase by $250,000. And the Structural Analysis Project will decrease by $11,000.

The fire alarm and replacement upgrade will decrease by $692,000 and a little change. So these are done quarterly. I already have the next one started, so I am excited about that. Any questions?

Thank you, Dora. Just for the public. During our work session, we ask a lot of questions, and so when we get to the regular meeting, we don't necessarily repeat all those questions. I'd like to open a public hearing for those in the room who wish to speak. Please come to the podium and sign in, turn on the microphone, make sure the green light is on before speaking, and speak directly into the mic.

State your name for the record. Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any individual member. If you are calling in, the local number is 907-486-3231. Toll-free number is 1-855-492-9202. Please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback.

Are there any comments tonight?

At this point, I will close the public hearing and ask for Assembly discussion.

Roll call vote on the motion, please. [Speaker:COMMISSIONER HART] I'm sorry. [Speaker:COMMISSIONER DIXON] That's okay. I'm in your peripheral. Again, I brought this up in our work session.

Give a big shout out to Dora. She does a fantastic job illustrating money in and money out, and I appreciate that transparency. So I do support this. And again, thank you, Director Cross, for all that you do.

I think the entire assembly feels that way. Thank you for sharing it. Any other comments?

Okay, can we have a roll call vote, please? Mr. Johnson? Yes. Mr. LaDue? Yes.

Mr. Sharrett? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 5-0. We'll move on to the Borough Manager's Report. Tonight we have filling in for our absent manager, we have Sima Garot, who will be sharing the manager's report tonight.

Good evening. I am not going to go through all of it, just a couple of things.

There is the DNR aquatic farm— farm site lease is open for public notice. We did put a larger map into your packet so that you could see with kind of our landmarks where the landfill is, where the VFW is, so that you'd be able to see a bigger map of that. And then also included in your package or packet are the alarm updates from the emergency management staff, the updates that Patricia talked about, and updates on the legislative report, because he updates all the time. If anybody has any questions about specific departments, we're all working hard Do you want me to go through each one? No, I think you're doing fine.

Okay, thank you. Any Assembly members have comments? Dr. Smiley. Uh, thank you for the expanded map of the kelp farm site within Manasheka Bay. There's a lot of recreational activity in Manasheka Bay in addition to commercial fishing activity.

Close to where the site has been proposed. I think we need to look at that pretty carefully in the work session coming up. Thank you. Any other comments? Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Dr. Ledoux. I don't expect an answer tonight because it just happened at the Supreme Court level in the last, like, 72 hours, but the Supreme Court ruled that The EPA should be prescribing process, not results, which caught my eye because I recall at my first Solid Waste Advisory Board meeting hearing how many hoops our engineering department has jumped through trying to get acceptable leachate results. And I had wondered if that Supreme Court ruling might— we might find it extending to our circumstances at some point and to maybe look at that with our legal team and see if we've got a path to a a little bit better process where we're showing what we're doing to treat the leche and not necessarily the results from it. So—. I will email the attorney tomorrow to see if he can get us a copy and get that out.

Any other comments?

You know, during my career, I've served on many boards and I have never seen a report as thorough as what we receive every public meeting from our borough manager. Tonight's report is 15 pages long, and if you want to find out about what's going on in Kodiak, you should read these reports. They are posted on our website, and they cover pretty much everything that is going on in the borough, and they put a lot of work into it. So if you're listening to the public or here in person, it's a good thing to do.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you, Mr. LeDoux. Uh, SEMA, I do have one, uh, request on the service areas. Uh, first bullet point item on here is follow-up meetings with the Alaska Department of Labor, uh, from February 25th to ensure new contracts are compliant with wage and hour, or specifically Title 36 prevailing wages. This has been something that I've asked for several times with the legal opinion.

I'm like, I'm asking for the written legal opinion that our attorney has provided with the applicable references. And I realized that there was perhaps some confusion on the exemption that I quoted versus what the attorney's reading. And I'd like to expand on that a little further because, as we heard in public testimony tonight, I am in concurrence with that, that I do not believe that the service district areas and the way that funds are collected and distributed through the— through the service districts are subject to prevailing wages. So I'd like that attorney's written letter, not a— just an email that says this is what he said. I'd like an actual statement now because we're, we're at the point where we need to get a second opinion at that.

So I will get that for you. Thank you. Any other comments tonight?

Um, one of the things that I would comment on with the topic of service districts is I would really like to set up a meeting with all the service districts and listen to what they have to say. I think what I heard tonight was very interesting and informative and frankly very concerning. And we've had concerns raised related to scheduling meetings and quorum concerns and several concerns from our public. And I think it's time that we sit down and listen to the people who are elected to manage these districts as an assembly and I may have to ask for concurrence to do a yellow slip to get this on the agenda. And so it seems that I have a consensus here.

So if we could transmit that to our mayor and DPO when they put the schedule together, I think it needs to happen from my point of view as soon as possible because we need to hear what's going on. And Thank you. Okay, so the messages from the borough mayor— the mayor is not here tonight, so we'll just skip right on through that. And consideration of the calendar, we have no unfinished business. We have new business.

Under new business, we have the contract number FY2025-43, multi-facility elevator modernization with TK Elevator Corporation. In the amount of $677,804.45. Is there a motion? Move to authorize the Borough Manager to execute contract number FY2025-43 for the multifamily elevator— I'm sorry, multifacility elevator modernization with TK Elevator Corporation in the amount not to exceed $677,804.45.

Second. Moved and seconded. SEMA, would you like to provide us an update? I would. Thank you, Assemblymember Ledoux.

The Kodiak Island Borough owns two facilities with elevators that need modernization. The first is Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center and the second is the Kodiak Middle School. Both locations have endured multiple shutdowns of the elevators due due to malfunctions and have system replacement parts that are discontinued or becoming extremely difficult to procure. Modernizations were selected as the most cost-effective way to— to both conserve the existing infrastructure and provide safer, more reliable elevators to the end users. To align with the goal of standardizing equipment controls and related systems, these efforts will be treated as two distinct projects but managed under one single contract.

Um, staff issued a request for proposals for this project January 6th, 2025, advertised for designated 3 weeks, um, per KIBC Code 3.30040, and bids were due February 4th, 2025. There was a mandatory pre-bid meeting held on January 22nd, 2025, to which only one contractor was in attendance. At the proposal opening, staff received one proposal package. Staff sent the submitted proposal package to the Architectural Review Board for review, and following the review of the proposal, staff and the ARB determined that TK Elevator Corporation is a responsible bidder and recommends award to them. Both Cody Allen and Patricia Valerio from the ENF Projects Office are here tonight to give you more information and answer any questions that you might have.

Patricia.

Good evening. Good evening, Patricia.

So I, I'll just say my piece here. The proposal includes an estimated total of $677,804 45 cents. The lead time of parts is estimated to be 26 weeks. The estimated total out-of-service time is 9 weeks. The separated costs— so for PKMC, Providence Medical Center— is at a total of $437,828.45 with a total out-of-service time of 6 weeks.

And the Kodiak Middle School is estimated to cost $230— yeah, that's what that says— $239,976 with a total out-of-service time of 3 weeks. So the total estimated time from start to finish is approximately 35 weeks, which would take us all the way down to November. Thank you, Patricia. Any comments from the Assembly? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you, Mr.

LeDoux. I again will repeat my satisfaction for the process that you guys involved the Architecture Review Board. I am a big fan of trying to get as many eyes on a project as possible, especially when we've got one of this magnitude. I appreciated being part of that. I appreciated how you guys involved that board, and that brings a certain level of edification to those volunteers as well.

So let's keep doing that for future opportunities like this, and I really appreciate it. My question is, with an award of $677,804, and 45 cents. What does the borough allow for a change order before it comes back to the assembly as far as a percentage or a dollar amount?

That's a great question. Currently, we have the 5% in our code in Chapter 330. 5%, 10%, And I believe there's another one that's led to a lot of confusion. So at this point, we're still just kind of going with what our change order form states, which I do not foresee change orders on this one right away because we did an actual proposal base. This is a qualifications-based method of procurement instead of an invitation to bid.

But, um, per Borough Code 33100, a change order that does not exceed 5% of the original contract amount or $50,000, whichever is lower, requires approval by the mayor and deputy providing officer, the mayor and one assembly member in the absence of the deputy providing officer, or the deputy providing officer and one assembly member in the absence of the mayor. Change orders greater than 5% of approved contract amount or $50,000, whichever is lower, require assembly approval. So I will let you all decide what that means. Continue. Thank you very much for that very thorough and well-executed response.

I'm going to ask this question of every contract so that we have it on record that the dollar amount that's going to trigger reinvolving the assembly, and this is again for transparency and culpability from both the ENF and from the assembly and for our taxpayer dollars. So I appreciate that response, and I've written down 5%.

Can I make one clarification? That contract is— we grouped that together in one proposal. It's two separate contracts. So I think the $600,000, um, I don't want that to be confused. It would be the individual contracts, um, 5% of those numbers.

I concur. $437,828.45 And $239,976. Got it. Thank you. Any other questions?

Assemblymember Whiteside. Thank you. Through the chair, this is a lot of money. I understand that, that these repairs and replacements are necessary for safety for those people that need to use these elevators. Do we have any sort of estimate as far as how much lifespan are we going to gain out of these elevators, just so anyone listening or here knows how much— what are we getting for $600,000?

How much life are we going to get out of these elevators for that? So this is not only for safety. This is a modernization. So they're going completely through the elevators and bringing them up to date. And so that's new control assemblies, everything that was listed in the proposal.

And I don't have the complete proposal in front of me, but Essentially, there was a few key items that were identified as known issues, and then this contractor identified more and through the walkthrough to bring them up to extend the service life. So in lieu of replacement, this is the method that we went with.

Thank you. Through the chair, do we have just any sort of ballpark estimate on when we'll need to revisit this kind of large-scale repair and replacement again? I do not have a— like, are you looking for a 10-year, 20-year, or something like that? I don't have an estimate of that. I can reach out and get that information.

Okay, thank you. Any other comments or questions? I have a question.

Main Elementary elevator breaks down all the time. Why isn't it included in this? And wouldn't it be more cost-effective to take care of that little elevator there that breaks down all the time? Than to have to redo this next year or the year after? That is a great question, and that's new information to me.

As the project manager, I just went with what the stakeholders had identified as the main issues, and we looked at the best method of procurement to lump them together, and that was a 3, 3 elevator project, 2 at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center and 1 at the middle school. Right, thank you. I see a hand over there. Yeah, if I recall correctly, we had a previous contract that had multiple elevators included in it that we ended up revoking or negating, and I believe the main elevator was identified in that project. And so this project was one that had priority issues that were identified by the stakeholders that warranted, if I recall correctly, that warranted an immediate need for this contract.

Does that ring any bells? That is correct. So when this was origi— so this is technically the revisit to this. When it was originally put out, we did have a couple of other conversations and reached out to the State of Alaska elevator inspector, who I had the pleasure of working with this week as well. And at the point in time that this was being designed originally, I was still at Providence working with them on their elevators, and the intent was the ones that needed the most help or provided the greatest good.

And then Patricia just handed me great information on her handy tablet. The estimated extension of life would be 10 to 15 years. Okay, thank you very much. Any other comments? Roll call vote, please, on the motion.

Mr. LaDuke? Yes. Mr. Sharrett? Yes. Mr. Smiley?

Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes.

Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. We come to resolutions. We have resolution number FY2025-14, adopting the Kodiak Island Borough Multi-Jurisdictional Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan update.

Do we have a motion? Move to adopt resolution number FY2025-14. Second. Seconded. Ms. Garutte, do you have an update for us?

Thank you, Assemblymember Ledoux. The Community Development Department has worked over the last— or the past year to draft the hazard mitigation plan for the borough and jurisdictions within the borough. A hazard mitigation plan focuses on mitigating potential hazards by reducing risk and potential impacts of hazard, such as loss of life and destruction of property. The previous borough hazard mitigation plan expired in November of 2024. The final plan— the final draft plan included a public participation— oh my goodness— component that included in-person and online public meetings, a public survey, and a 30-plus day comment period on the draft plan.

The plan was drafted pursuant to the requirements of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Community Development Director Chris French is here with more information and to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Chris?

Thank you. Attached to your agenda item is just a brief presentation that goes over some of this information that I'm going to talk about. The previous hazard mitigation plan was adopted by the Assembly in 2019. As CMA stated, it did expire in November of 2024. At that time when that plan was approved, none of the other municipalities within the borough had adopted that plan.

We're certainly hoping for a better result this time. With our planning team that's required to be assembled, we included all the municipalities within the borough, including staff of the borough and the staff, of course, from the City of Kodiak. We had pretty good participation as part of the planning team effort. And really, those individuals help us as a sounding board as we go through the planning process. I will say now, with— at the end of the process, I believe the City of Kodiak will adopt our hazard mitigation plan.

I hope the other cities that had participated in the process also adopt the plan as well. And I'll go a little bit at the end here and talk a little bit about what the actual approval process is once we get through tonight's meeting with the assembly. First, we'll talk a little bit about what a hazard mitigation plan is. Sometimes it gets confused with an emergency— the emergency operations plan, which is the plan that's used for, you know, responding to an emergency, which also includes training for the response to the emergency. Whereas the hazard mitigation plan, its primary goal is to reduce risk of both loss of life and damage to property and through the use of potential mitigation tools or mitigation projects to help do that.

And so that's really what we're looking for when we develop a hazard mitigation plan. We're looking for—. We identify the risk, critical facilities, anything that could be impacted by any of the 11 potential disasters that have been identified that could impact the borough. These were identified by both the State of Alaska and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. We use information gathered both from the state as well as from the federal government and several agencies in the federal government as well as universities to develop these risk assessments and what the potential is for what types of damages to critical facilities.

And then we develop, as part of the hazard mitigation plan, a list of projects or action steps that can be taken to help mitigate those risks. As part of the planning process— and Seema mentioned it a little bit— we did conduct public meetings, both in-person and online meetings. We did have a community survey that we received information on that helped us develop the plan, especially the mitigation measures. And then we also had about a 40-day comment period on the draft plan that was submitted in September. Once all those were conducted, we certainly amended our plan and put it in its current format.

And the current plan is about 364 pages in length. The State of Alaska and federal governments conduct assessments for hazards, as I mentioned. So as I mentioned earlier, they identified 11 hazards that could impact the borough and the communities within the borough. And, of course, we identify our critical facilities and which ones could and how they could be impacted by those potential disaster events. The plan is also required to meet specific sections and outlines of a hazard mitigation plan.

So every hazard mitigation plan around the country basically has these 8 sections that are required. So if you look through our, our hazard mitigation plan, you'll see these 8 sections that are mandated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They have to be included. In all plans that are submitted. A little bit additional things were included in this current set based on the— some changes in 2023.

We do have to look at climate change's impact on events or on particular disasters. In particular, that would be storm events have the major impact from climate change. And also, we have to make sure that we include an executive summary. In our final draft of the plan. And that, of course, is included, one of the reasons why it's 364 pages in length.

And then on our approval process, we're before the Assembly today. Once the Assembly acts on this plan, hopefully approves the plan in that resolution, it will be submitted to Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for their review. And then it will go on to Federal Emergency Management Agency for their approval. We will also— after tonight, we will transmit the plan to all the cities within the borough for their adoption. Typically what happens is once the community has adopted it, it goes to the federal government.

It's in a status called approval pending status. And once the federal government adopts it, then it becomes approved. And then for the other communities within the borough, they'll have that pending approval status until they adopt a resolution. For what, like, we're doing tonight. And let's see if there's anything else.

And other thing, I would just like to thank everybody who participated, both in the public, Community Development Department staff worked hard on this project. Joe Grokmoll, who is our Associate Planner, is no longer with the Bureau, did a lot of work and get our initial draft submitted for that September comment period. So I want to thank him. And then I thank the rest of the Bureau staff who also participated in our planning team, those members of the other municipalities that participated. So if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer those.

Thank you. Assembly comments? Mr. Whiteside.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is just— I'm really impressed. I mentioned this last week, but I'm going to say it again. This is a really complex process.

It's really nice to know how many stakeholders provided input to you and how hard our staff worked on this and how critical this process is to make sure that in the event of disaster, we can receive federal assistance. So I'm really grateful for all the effort you've done. I said this last week and I still feel the same way. You make a really convoluted and complex process look effortless. So I'm really grateful for your expertise.

I think the Borough has a great asset in having you on board here. I am just overflowing with gratitude with what you have provided us so far. I certainly am going to support this. I encourage my fellow Assemblymembers to do so as well so we can move the process along. Anything you need from us, please let us know.

But thank you for your leadership. It is fantastic. Assemblymember Sharrett. Thank you, Mr. Ledoux.

Chris, last— during the work session, uh, you had made a comment that I wasn't 100% sure of, and I was hoping you could expand on it. The way that I received the comment is that if a surrounding area did not have their own, they could adopt this one, or they still had to make their own in order to receive grants. Could you expand on the surrounding areas or the tertiary areas that And that was something that I had to contact DHS on before, just to clarify with them— DHS being Division of Homeland Security for the state— to ask them, you know, if one of our local municipalities didn't adopt the borough's hazard mitigation plan, could they apply for grants? Their answer to me was they couldn't unless they did their own hazard mitigation plan. In other words, it wouldn't be a multi-jurisdictional plan, it would just be a single jurisdictional plan.

That they could do on their own and still be eligible. So, for example, the City of Wazinki did their own plan. Actually, their plan was a little ahead of our plan, so we actually got to comment on their plan during our initial beginning of our process last year. And so they have an approved plan, so they could get hazard mitigation grant dollars if— even if they didn't adopt the borough's plan. And there are a few others, I believe, of the other communities that have a plan or are in the process of trying to get a new plan, a new update on their plan.

But as we've tried to— when we've talked to all the other municipalities, we've urged them, please adopt this one. Even if you're going to do your own plan, please adopt this one because it does help you get or be eligible for hazard mitigation grant dollars in the future. Thank you. You're welcome.

One quick question. As you look at the plan for Kodiak, If there isn't any federal dollars or state dollars, are some of the items on the list that we need to be thinking about taking care of ourselves as a community? So certainly there's always for mitigation a lot of information. Information itself can be a mitigation measure. Making people aware of evacuation routes or making people aware of disaster packets or packages they can put together in terms of if you know, if something happens that knocks out people's access to food or water, they should have, you know, emergency packs together.

So there's informational things that certainly that the borough can do, and now that there's an emergency manager between the borough and the city, you know, we hope that there will be more ability there to do those kind of things, whether it's, you know, public service announcements about hazards or whether it's information that can be given to people to help them prepare or be better prepared for disasters. There's always that, you know, but in terms of the hazard mitigation grant dollars, when we're talking about studies like the Russian River, Sargent Creek hydrology— hydraulic study, that certainly is going to require funds to do, and certainly any kind of hard infrastructure that could come out of that project or any other project, certainly having a state or federal grant is probably going to be needed to do that. [Speaker:COMMISSIONER MILLER] And just so I understand, the new emergency services coordinator if we wanted more tsunami signage, we would wait for them, or is it something that we would take a look at and budget for? I mean, who budgets for things like this if it's not FEMA money? Well, there are— in the borough's budget, there's a budget for emergency preparedness.

So, you know, it could be in there. It could be shared, of course, between the city and the borough, those funds. So I think in terms of budget time, if there is a— a project that the emergency coordinator would like to do, I would suspect they would ask for funds from both the City and the Borough to do that. If there's something that they felt could be a grant project, they certainly could write a grant proposal. All right.

Thank you very much. Any other comments from the Assembly? Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Very much. Okay. We'd ask for a roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Sherrod. Mr. Smiley?

Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes.

Mr. Ledoux? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 5-0. This brings us to resolution number FY2025-19, designating the individual who will serve as the designated administrative official during the absence or disability of the Kodiak Island Borough Manager.

Move to adopt Resolution No. FY2025-19. Second. It's been moved and seconded. We have a staff report from Ms. Garrett.

Excuse me. Thank you, Assemblymember Ledoux. Bureau Manager Amy Williams nominates Assessing Department Director Seema Garut to serve as the designated administrative official during her absence. A separate resolution will be presented to the Assembly which will appoint a temporary administrative official during the manager's absence and that of the designated administrative official.

Thank you. Assemblymember comments. Mr. Sherrod. Thank you. I asked for this to appear before us and I think that the nomination for Seema is fantastic.

She is more than capable. I wish she saw herself through my eyes. However, that being said, I can't think of a better acting official in the absence of our manager to stand up and hold this position down. So I defend what I brought forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Other comments?

Thank you. Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes. Mr. LeDoux? Yes.

Mr. Sharrett? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 5-0. Now we have resolution number FY2025-20.

Designating the individual who will serve as the temporary administrative official during the absence or disability of the borough manager and designated administrative official. Move to adopt Resolution Number FY2025-20. Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Ms. Garutte. Thank you, Assemblymember Ledoux. Borough Manager Amy Williams nominated Assessing Department Director Sima Garutte to serve as designated administrative official during her absence. This separate resolution is presented to the Assembly to appoint a temporary administrative official during the Manager's absence and that of the designated administrative official. This resolution appoints ENF Director Dave Conrad as temporary administrative official.

Thank you. Thank you. Any questions?

Thank you, Mr. LeDoux. Um, so I am not in favor of Mr. Conrad taking a secondary position. What prompted this entire discussion, uh, was his extended leave of absence. And I would recommend at least 2 other people for this position rather than Mr. Conrad. So I am not in favor of Mr. Conrad serving in this capacity.

21 Months left.

Other comments from the assembly?

Mr. White. Thank you, Dr. LaDuke. I'm curious if it would be appropriate to postpone. The reason I say that is we've had a pretty skinny assembly recently. I would prefer to have more members of the assembly weigh in on this particular one.

I am sensitive to extended absences. However, I feel that a secondary, you know, a temporary administrative official in the absence of the borough manager and the acting administrative official, I think, is adequate for this particular resolution. However, I am not ready to vote on this yet.

Move to amend this resolution to postpone to the next work session. Second. Let's get the proper motion here. Yeah, I would recommend making a motion to postpone to a later date. That would be appropriate at this time.

Okay, do we have to specifically say the date?

Um, you can say, uh, to the next regular meeting of the assembly. Unless you would like it to be on a specific meeting date. So I move to postpone this resolution number FY 2025-20 to the next regular assembly meeting. Second. It's been moved and seconded.

Discussion on the amendment, if you will, or the postponement?

Mr. Sherrod. Thank you. Yeah, I actually appreciate that. It was a little awkward, actually, to negate this resolution, and given more time with more information, this could be a moot discussion. We just don't have enough information at this time to be a disqualifier.

I think that if we move this forward, I agree with you, we can get additional input from the assembly and hopefully gain some additional information on the— the leave of absence. So I appreciate that. Thank you for reconciling my discrepancy.

All right, could we have a roll call vote please on the movement to postpone? Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes.

Mr. LeDoux? No. Mr. Sherratt? Yes. Mr. Smiley?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 4-1. I'm not sure there needs to be another vote. We're done with that one.

Okay, we're going to take a short break for 7 minutes and we'll be back in 7 minutes.

He's not going to be here. Okay, we're coming back online.

We do not have any new ordinances for introduction, but we do have tonight under other items an abbreviated and informal hearing of the State of Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office AMCO Liquor License Transfer of Ownership from Souk Siu DBA, 2nd Floor Restaurant, License Number 3293, to Nunak— how should I pronounce that? Nunak Cafe and Deli, and Transfer of Location from Current Location of 116 West Rezanov Drive to 113 Lower Mill Bay Road, Application.

Lena, want to briefly over— let us know how this was working. Thank you, Assemblymember Ledoux. At the February 20, 2025 Assembly regular meeting, the Assembly voiced protest to the transfer of ownership and location application for a restaurant eating place license number 3293, as required by 3AAC 305.085(d), the local governing body shall allow the applicant a reasonable opportunity to defend the application before the local governing body. Both the transferor and the transferee were advised of the assembly's decision to protest by mail and email. A copy of the letter has been added to your packet for reference.

Just as a reminder, after the informal meeting The assembly's decision to protest the application shall stand unless the majority of the assembly votes to withdraw the protest. So no motion is needed at this time. Okay, during the, uh, um, during the presentation tonight, if assembly members want to ask questions, they can during the informal process. When people are done sharing their thoughts, if there is no motion at the time, then the hearing will close and the protest will fail, or the motion will stand that we voted on last week. So I see that we have people present here.

So do you want to come forward and sign in?

You have an opportunity to defend.

You're not restricted to 3 minutes.

I know, but—.

Thank you for having me here tonight. Sorry, okay, can you hear me now? Okay. Thank you for having me here tonight, and I'm just here to— on behalf of Núñez, I am the owner, co-owner with my husband, and I think that through all this process, we— I looked at this as a learning lesson, and since then, I think we've remedied all of the problems and the concerns that were regarding my business. And I want to thank the staff here at the borough and at the city.

They've been really, really helpful and teaching me more about like the community development process and building permit process and all that stuff. So I think today was the last piece I finalized getting a new building permit, and we are going to be adding on a deck and finish up our exterior of our building. This spring. So we're really excited. And so that, that side has been taken care of.

And yeah, Ted was wonderful to work with, and he will continue to work with us to make sure that we address accessibility for that, that building and that deck so that it can be enjoyed by all of our community members. So I think I'm just here if you guys have questions of me or of my business. I know that that the issue of the current owner is, is the, the main concern that you guys have. And I respect that you guys have constituents to answer to, and you guys are, are doing what you need to do. So I'm here if you have any further questions.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other folk here who are going to speak tonight?

Okay. Thank you. Assembly discussion. Mr. Sherrod. Thank you, Mr. LaDuke.

This is an interesting one for me because in my career, I have to look Um, in the occupational safety and health field, I have to look at root cause and causal, um, factors. And the root cause of this, in my opinion, is that we have a license that shouldn't have been issued or maintained from the state. In my opinion, that's a root cause. Everything else is a causal factor. Uh, With that being said, I guess the short version is the— I do not support withdrawing this motion.

I appreciate Melissa saying that she respects the position we're in. I've actually never received more phone calls about an issue than this, and that, that was definitely a new one on me. And I, I almost wondered if it was because I originally messed things up in the very beginning, and I think people are taking notice of that. And, uh, so I, I feel like I bear a lot of responsibility on this. So I am not in support of withdrawing the motion to protest and think that the root cause of this is that there is a license that was not properly maintained, it was not properly revoked from the state and therefore should not even exist.

So that's my position, and thank you. Any other comments?

Dr. Smiley.

Unfortunately, I agree with Mr. Sherratt.

I'll agree with Dr. Smiley that agreeing with Mr. Sherratt is always a little painful. I wish there were a way to assuage both concerns, but there's not. So I agree with the process. I look forward to having an adult beverage at Nuneak sometime in the future when the REPL is awarded to a very deserving local business. So, you know, I— I hope that you'll keep plugging away at it, and who knows?

I have little faith that Amco is going to care about what we have to say about this anyway. So roll the dice and see what happens.

Excuse me. Mr. Whiteside. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I just want to express my gratitude for folks coming out here, and I truly am Sorry for the torment our business owners have experienced for far too long on this issue.

It's creating rifts in the community. People are concerned about it for good reason. Yeah, I— we have great new restaurants here. Expanding offerings to the community is something in everyone's best interest. I really am optimistic that that's going to happen, hopefully sooner than later.

The governing body for these licenses moves extremely slow, and that's been my main cause of frustration. I love these restaurants. They are both great. For the ones that have presented to us anyways or testified, it is unsatisfying to push back against any of these restaurants trying to expand and do better for our community and provide service and increase offerings for tourists as well. It is a win-win for everybody.

My hope is that this process moves quickly. Both licenses are freed up for the community to utilize. I really just— even though it's, it's, it's not our body that has slowed the process, I do truly apologize for government bureaucracy in this case that has made you lose a lot of sleep, without doubt. And I can't even imagine what you all have been going through. Thank you for providing your services to our community.

Please keep going. Your food is awesome. Your restaurants are amazing. I'm not going to say what I'm going to have with what just yet. I have a lot of ideas for all these restaurants.

They're great. So please keep working hard for our community. Thank you for enduring this horrible process. But yeah, I too will not be moving to withdraw this.

I'm not going to repeat what was said by our fellow assembly members. Um, clearly the process, at no fault of the applicants, has been flawed, and it's been very discouraging because I want to do something other than how I voted, but it wouldn't be right because the law and the regulations are clear, and if I ignore them that I'm giving the impression that the assembly is arbitrary, that we throw out the rules whenever we don't like them. And I don't think that's a good message to send to the public when they distrust government already, is to make decisions that, because of emotion— and there's clearly a lot of emotion here, at least on my part, on this decision— I Um, but what I wanted to say too is that just like I was concerned with talking to, um, our service district folk to find out what's really going on and the challenges they faced, and I heard some of them tonight, I'd really like to know the challenges that you're facing in terms of our own bureaucracy. Some of you mentioned everything from code to— and I don't want to lose that. If there's something out there that's standing in the way of people starting businesses in our community, then I want to know about it and see what we can do.

Because governments tend to create more bureaucracy all the time. I've been saying that. We create bureaucracy, but we never get rid of it. And we never really have a chance to see how it affects people. And clearly, uh, state regulations our ordinances, maybe things that we don't even know about may have stood as barriers to you putting together a business, and we have to know that.

And I hope maybe I can get some— I wish we could do more informal things, but that's what our work sessions are for. And I wish we could go on the agenda and, and really have a conversation with the public and not limit you to 3 minutes to talk about the challenges you have, but to really find out what they are and to see what we can actually do about them. Because we can all feel bad about what happened. But unless we do things to change as a result of that, it's just going to continue to the next people that run into these walls. And I can't do anything for the state, and neither can the Assembly.

Okay, but we can do something in our hometown if it's getting in the way of folk. And so I'm hoping that we can move to an agenda where we can just sit and talk and find out what we could do better as a community. And what we need to change so that this isn't a problem in the future. I'd have to find somebody to agree to put it on the agenda, so I'll see if I can do that. In any case, thank you.

Um, we'll then move on to the next item of our agenda, which is the nomination of Mr. Elijah Jackson for the Kodiak Village Mayors Association seat on the Prince William Regional Citizens Advisory Council Board of Directors.

Move to confirm the nomination of Mr. Elijah Jackson to the Prince William Sound Regional Citizen Advisory Council Village Mayors Association seat. Second. Simply discussion.

Mr. Whiteside. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to thank Mr. Jackson for stepping up to continue helping our community. These are important seats.

I know that people who volunteer for these take it seriously. And so thank you, Mr. Jackson, if you hear this at some point. We really appreciate your service. Thank you. Any other comments?

Roll call vote, please. Mr. Ledoux? Yes. Mr. Sharrett? Yes.

Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Johnson?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 5-0. That brings us to citizen comments, which means I have to repeat what I've already said twice tonight. For those in the room who wish to speak, please come to the podium and sign in, turn on the microphone, make sure the green light is on before speaking, and speak directly into the mic.

State your name for the record Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof. If you are calling in, the local number is 907-486-3231. The toll-free number is 1-855-492-9202. Please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback. Our lines are open and Good evening, assembly.

My name is Lana Harrington. Um, I want to say I appreciate, um, code being understood and rules being followed. I know it's not easy when you have two business owners watching you guys like hawks on this one. Um, it's hard. We are all put in a really bad position in general.

Um, but I do want to also play off of what Mr. Ledoux brought up. It is hard to own a business here. It's getting harder. Um, not necessarily this government, but the other in our town implemented codes off of this whole fiasco that honestly make it harder for us as business owners. It's just another step for us to go through.

Um, and I would appreciate— I'm sure other business owners would— I mean, Melissa stood up here 2 weeks ago and spoke about how they were having troubles with the building inspector and things in our town. And I can, I can speak on that and say that I was held up for 6 weeks over my commercial oven. That's 6 weeks of revenue that I lost when I was trying to open plumbing in an extra bathroom, being told last minute that the other businesses were grandfathered in and I wasn't. That was added time to my business that I couldn't open. It would be nice to address that in our town because we do fund a lot through our taxes, what we bring in.

We try to employ people, we try to provide opportunity. For our town. And it would be nice to talk about how hard it is to actually own a business and the risk we take, um, and the problems we have. Because Melissa said she lost money, I lost money, um, we've lost money fighting this whole fiasco. Um, it's hard.

And it would be nice if we also did focus on getting an extension of those REPLs because I think our town could use it. We want to see more restaurants, and I can't in this position I'm in right now, I can't see anyone wanting to come into our town and wanting to open up a restaurant without that added easy revenue because it is— you're popping open a bottle of wine, you're serving beer. That is easy revenue that you know what you're going to make off of it. This town makes more money off of it. The state makes more money off of it.

Food's fluctuating. We just put through minimum wage increasing and paid leave for part-time jobs. We're going to start seeing our businesses go away. It's getting harder and harder and harder. So it would be nice to start focusing on that and how the governments can help us to stay in business and support us and see our money going towards things that do come back and make our lives easier and make us want to stay in business as well.

I do appreciate you guys. I appreciate the decisions. I'm sorry this has gone on so long, and I too don't ever want to hear the word REPL again.

It's hard, but I appreciate everything, and I hope to see that discussion go a little bit further. So thank you for recognizing that. Thank you. Any other comments?

Any on the line?

Okay, now we'll move to assembly member comments. Mr. Johnson.

Thank you, Dr. Ledoux. Um, the assembly was recently made aware of the Go Big Farms wanting to lease almost 32 acres of water in Menasha Bay, very close to the mouth of Pillar Creek. Living in that area, I know I see commercial fishing vessels, I see sport fishermen, I see subsistence fishermen all in that area, pretty much right where this, this kelp farm is going to go. And also concerning is where will our inflatable flamingos enjoy the water if there's a kelp farm there. So I would encourage anybody who's got an interest in that area to go on, go ahead and look at that.

I hope maybe we can get that posted to the borough website since finding it on the DNR website took me quite a while. So if we could link that maybe on the, on the borough's website and get the word out so folks can express their opinions on whether or not they think that's a good development idea. That's all I have tonight. Thank you. Thank you.

Dr. Smiley. I want to second that. And as for the DNR website, what a nightmare. A nightmare. I mean, it's the tiniest print you could imagine that you have to find in order to type into the code for the website forum.

At any rate, I think that the location is difficult. We have until April 3rd to make a statement to DNR about this and organize our acceptance of it or disagreement with the, with the approval that DNR has already made on it. I, as I understand what they've written, I think that that area is pretty heavily handled recreationally and, and also commercially. And so I'm a little worried about the location of it, especially with 300-foot chains for the anchor lines on it. That's a long ways away from the surface and pretty close to land at that point.

I've fished at the mouth of Pillar Creek before, and it doesn't seem to be that far away from it, so they might be collecting lures as well. At any rate, that's one point. The second point is that I hope everybody understands that in the case of the liquor license I think we had to do this because of the failure to follow standards in keeping that liquor license even though they didn't have a business for virtually 10 years. And I think that was the big constraint on us. I know it's hard for others.

I wish there was a place in the borough where people who wanted to start a business could come and ask questions about things, because there's a lot of information in the borough amongst the staff that could help them. I suspect some of that is also due to the city, and they're different from us, so they— it would—. We would—. The people of the community would profit from having some sort of an ombudsman in both locations, and that's what I'll say about that. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Sherrod. Thank you, Mr. LaDue. As I was sitting here trying to collect my thoughts, a couple things really resonated with me tonight, and it was the level of professionalism that ENF brought to our firing squad. I asked difficult questions and received immediate responses without any preparation or notice thereof.

And I think that that is something that I could get used to. I think that that is phenomenal work, and really want to give a shout out to Cody and Patricia for the work that they put into this, and Jenna for the work that she puts into the landfill and the management thereof. I also found it interesting for Mr. Whiteside and Mr. Johnson's update on the Solid Waste Advisory Board and the committee's discussion regarding transfer stations, which has always been something near and dear to my heart. And I look forward to participating in future discussions there with that.

One of the public comments that I believe we need to address in a rather expeditious fashion would be redefining or at least looking at the quorums or what we define as a quorum through our service districts. I think that as a quorum from an assembly, that definition, we just had that discussion not too long ago, and I think we owe it to the service districts to look and make any adjustments thereof. As Darlene Turner eloquently stated, it's a stipulation that we define. And we can absolutely make those changes. So I think that if I could get some head nods and have the clerks start preparation for looking at what that quorum looks like, and I will ask through my comment time for staff to give us an update on where they're at with the service district contracts for road maintenance outside of the snow removal.

We did push that snow removal one through very quickly, knowing that there would be a follow-on discussion, and we have yet to have that. Winter hasn't happened, and I'm not complaining. I guess it did snow today for a little bit, so there's our winter. And anyway, I appreciate the conversations tonight. I appreciate the public comment and the testimony tonight, and I could also go another lifetime without hearing REPL as well.

So thank you. [SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a lot of thoughts. We'll see how I can package these up.

So I'm really happy to hear a lot of really good suggestions coming from the community. From solid waste, we've had some great suggestions on how we can solve some of our problems. We've had members of the community come forth and provide suggestions on how we can improve our processes for the service areas, which I'm going to circle back to here in a minute. Housing issues, we've had many suggestions on how we can address that issue from the community. Liquor licenses, how we can improve how we approach that to include expanding or perhaps combining efforts with the city to offer additional licenses for our restaurant owners.

But coming back to the service area boards I think we have some room for improvement across the board there. I would like to see a more structured, for lack of a better word, complaint system to where if someone from the community needs help from service district, there's a centralized location where they can submit their concern. Maybe that's a better word, submit their concern. It's captured with a date and timestamp, anyone can see it, and there's fields that the borough and the service area can address address, their service area chairs can address, and the borough manager's office with ENF can address. So the complaint is lodged, there is a time and date stamp associated with it, with the outcome and the justification for the outcome.

So having that not only provides transparency for folks who are asking the borough to address their concerns, but it also helps the service area chairs in that If you provide justification as to why you can't meet that concern, it's all there, it's all for the public to see, it's transparent, and it's timely. We have date and timestamps associated with it. The quorum issue, I agree, we need to look at that. And I think the public is interested in knowing the balances of these service areas. Forgive me if I'm ignorant in not knowing where that's contained, but I feel some folks aren't sure if the level of taxes that are being levied for service areas is appropriate without knowing what the balance is and what the large carry-forward balances are going to be used for.

So I think service areas are coming up to the front here as we look at ways to improve. But again, thank you to everyone in the community. We've had so many great suggestions and so much participation in the past 2 months that you're, you're energizing me and wanting to to do more, but I can't do— my knowledge is limited. I'm ignorant on a lot of these topics. So thank you to everyone who is trying to help us.

It certainly helps me, and the more people that show up, I think the faster we are going to get there.

Thank you. I was going to talk about service districts, but I am going to turn in a yellow request that it goes on the agenda. And we can— because almost every meeting somebody has got a concern and I don't think we're really well aware of what the assembly's responsibility is and what we can do. So I'm looking forward to that discussion on it. And I want to reiterate, you know, the school board twice a month has a staff report on a topic.

We never do that. I mean, if we want to talk about about the building codes. We could talk about that by a presentation. We can inform ourselves, and by informing ourselves, we're informing the public. Just like with service districts, how many people in the service district— we'll just pick one— know exactly what the powers of the service district are, or how much, where the money goes, who actually have the time?

How many know that what it means to be elected when we have elections, where people really know what it means to be elected. I don't think people know. I think if they did, we might get more discussions. But I really believe there are issues that we need to talk about. The fact that we're going to have a forum on our housing structures that are there with 2x4 walls, um, is really great.

But why can't we have in our agenda built-in topics of interest that will educate ourselves, give our, our staff an opportunity to share their knowledge and go forward. Just a quick comment on kelp farming. I don't know enough about it, but I know it's an emerging moneymaker in our community. And when I was a child, there were billions of shrimp and there were lots of crabs of every kind. Can't really call them crabs.

That doesn't seem right. But we've gone through cycles. And kelp may be a part of the cycle. And I'm not saying yes or no where it goes. I'm just saying We probably need to find out more about it.

That would be a good presentation, perhaps. The borough is kelp farming and its impact on economic development in Kodiak. And again, I'm not advocating where it's going. I fished there as a kid. But finally, I want to thank you for stepping in.

I think you do a great job. I'm sorry I mispronounce your name. It's Ryan's relatives who ruined it for me because they were always carrots. And it looks like the same spelling, but, uh, and appreciate that. And I, I candidly admit my Aleutic skills— I should know a lot more than I'm able to say at this point in time.

So I wish I did a better job with that. So I hope Scott's back for our next work session, and I'm looking forward to the joint meeting with the school board and the borough assembly coming up on the 12th, which would be next Wednesday, I believe. I think that will be a good meeting, and it would be hope— uh, really important for people to listen in because it's an opportunity for— to hear from the school board and the assembly and lay out a pathway ahead as we look at schools and closures and budgets and the quality of schools and what our role is in that. Thank you all. I would like to see a motion for adjournment.

Move to adjourn. Second.

We're adjourned. Aye.

Pardon?

So how do you like the fact that I didn't pick the two end people to start? I've always wondered why they go one or the other. Yeah. Maybe it's because they don't want to give you too much time.