North Pole: Regular Council Meeting September 21, 2026

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We're good. Thank you. Welcome to council meeting, the City of North Pole, this evening, September 21st, 2026. It's gone by quickly.

Happy fall. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Mr. Brandt. Miss Rolf. Mr. Skips. Here. Mr. Williams.

Here. Mr. Schuster. Here. Mr. Claus. Here.

Mayor Church. Present. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation.

Congratulations, United States of America, the Republic for which— Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together this evening to help make the best decisions for the city of North Pole, the North Pole area. And its employees. Please allow us as decision makers to make the best decision for everyone involved. In your most holy name we pray. Amen.

Madam Clerk, do we have a spotlight on new business this evening?

We do not. Hey, that brings us to citizens' comments. Item 5.

Good evening. If you'll state your name and area of residence and just make sure you're signed in on one of the 3 sign-in sheets for items not on the agenda. So, um, Jordan's the one who's brought me here today. So did you get that paperwork? Okay, so I've got another copy of it here.

Um, he asked me to look into find out what it was, uh, be for the borough to rename Nordic Street to Tobin Street. And so to get the compliance of the citizens that live on that street, to ask if they want to change their address. And it's probably a good one that you, you chose because there's what, only 8 or 9 houses or residents on there. So, but like I said, I've got a copy of that if need be. Did I state my name?

I did not. Greg Corbett. I'm on the Planning Commission for the borough. You—. I'm your representative, as well as Badger Road and Salchow area.

I apologize. Um, but, uh, and also, um, to go along with that, really not a whole lot going on. The plaque extension has been paved. I know I was down there yesterday, and, uh, they're finishing up with the actual gate, uh, inside China Lakes and stuff. So hopefully they're going to get that completed here shortly.

They did get all the aprons into the driveways and stuff, and there's some elevation differences there. It's down at the very end, there's about an 8-foot drop from the road to down into the ditch. So if you go out that way and look, I would highly advise it. The other thing going on too, of course, the flood project bridge, and I know there's some concerns right now with the floodgates and with all the equipment out there, whether, how that's going to affect both. I mean, we've got the river rising in town and now, uh, the folks who are working.

So, but we, we shall see. Um, switch hats real quick. I am also a member of the Santa Senior Center, and this Saturday we will have a barbecue from 11 to 2. It's a fundraiser. We need a new roof, and so we're trying to raise So if you— area, please come out and join us for burgers and dogs and then a few condiments.

So you have anything for me to take back to the Planning Commission? I have a meeting tomorrow night.

Thank you, Mr. Corbett, for all that you do, and, and thank you for working on that name change. That's a big one, right? Well, and yeah, and Mr. Schuster, if there's anything I can help with on that. I will. Thank you.

Mr. McCray, thank you for joining us. Good evening, Mayor, Council members. My name is Scott McCray. I'm here in my capacity as President and CEO of Explore Fairbanks to give you a brief update on how the regional tourism industry has been doing here for the first half of 2026. I believe I do have— wunderwelt— so Madam Clerk has a presentation up, pulled up.

So let's go to the next slide. So going in, going into 2026, we had kind of similar trepidations as we did going into 2025. There's a lot of uncertainties within the world that could have impacted the tourism industry. When you look at this year, the cost of, cost of fuel, how that could impact airfares, how that could impact RV travelers, economic uncertainty, international tensions, quite a few things that we were kind of scratching our head to see, okay, how's this all going to play out? Play out, but at the same time, a lot of positive things working in the favor of our industry, as we will see with some of the numbers that I'm going to present to you tonight.

Next slide.

So looking at some of the various numbers that we track, looking at the Fairbanks International Airport, this is all through June of this year compared to June of last year. Airport slightly down but relatively flat when you look at combined arrivals and departures on the major air carriers. Hotels have performed quite well this year. The occupancy rate through June was at 68%, which is up over 63% for last year. Short-term rentals continue to perform well as well.

One trend that we have seen in short-term rentals is there's been a decrease in supply of listings, which was needed because we were getting to a point in the short-term rental industry where the supply was exceeding the demand. You can see in the Alaska Railroad, they've done quite well. They had a pretty good month of June and July, performed quite well. Visitation at our Morris Thompson Center was slightly down over last year. And then border crossings, despite my concerns that I said about how fuel prices might impact RV traffic, did quite well.

So some good numbers there in general. Next slide. So probably the most impressive stat is what's been happening within the, the bed tax collections, especially right here within the, within the city of North Pole. So across the borough, bed taxes are up quite a bit over, over last year, already at the $5 million mark. So it looks like when all is said and done, the total bed tax collection will be about $10 million.

But boy, you guys are killing it out here in North Pole, uh, 137% increase in bed tax collections over last year. Um, 50— almost $54,000 he had last year, $128,000 for this year. So I think when all is said and done, you guys are going to have a record year as well. My speculation, as was the case with the other two government entities, is a lot of that is coming from short-term rentals and the ability to collect, um, those that have been out there that haven't been collected before. But I'm open to hear otherwise if you think what else it might be.

Next slide.

So we've been— the ability to track what's happening in industry is much more sophisticated these days thanks to geolocation data and the ability to kind of track movement from where our visitors are coming from, where are they going once they're here, and how much money are they spending. So it's pretty— it's incredible what we're able to find out, and for us as a marketing entity, it really helps us understand specific markets that our visitors are are coming from and really nail down to if we want to, which visitors from which place are staying the longest, what's their here, who is spending the most. So really do some targeted marketing for those type of visitors that we think are going to benefit our industry the most there. So you can kind of see the heat map there where you can see visitors who are coming here, and this is across the entire borough. Yes, there are some markets that are bigger than others.

You can see, you know, Anchorage, because in-state people are counted as visitors too, is the top one. But you can see literally in the map there, it goes across the, across the entire country. And then just some breakdown there of Total visitors, again, these are estimates. I mean, geolocation data is not a perfect science, but it gives us more data than we've ever had before. So it's, it's pretty cool stuff.

Might seem a little intrusive with itself with tracking the cell phones and stuff, but I think it helps us at the end there. Next slide, please.

Certainly one of the, as I mentioned, a lot of positive things happen in the industry. Big one is the growth in new tourism products that we're seeing across the borough that are just, just beyond impressive. What Mr. Brown's been doing with the Santa Claus House, the expansion there is fantastic. The new Antique Auto Museum, they've moved to their new location in the old camera building. Now that old space is being converted to a convention center, which will open up next month when we host the Alaska Travel Industry Association annual convention.

If you drive down Airport Way, there's always something at Pike's Landing. Jay's always doing stuff there too. And then up at the museum, the new planetarium. These are all year-round attractions. So as a year-round destination, it's crucial that we have these type of products to offer our visitors.

And then last slide. So we do a lot of work with travel media, and our PR manager was contacted by a reporter from AFAR magazine. She was doing a story on the most charming small towns in every U.S. state. Jerry pitched them Fairbanks and North Pole. Fairbanks was too big for them, so congratulations to the city of North Pole, you were one of the 50 most charming small towns within the country there.

So But that, that concludes my report. I'm happy to answer any questions. I'll make sure this information gets sent out to you, as well as the link to that, that story there. It needs to be updated because it still has Little Richard's Diner sadly listed as a place to go to eat. I would—.

I was just going to ask, where is that article placed? And if you could send that out to us. Yeah, it's an online publication of far.com, so I'll send that link out to you so you have it for your bragging purposes. Thank you very much. Any other questions, Council?

Thank you, Scott, for the update. I really very much appreciate you coming out to North Pole and letting us know what's happening in the industry. I'm happy to do so any time. Thank you all.

Mr. Su, welcome. Thank you for having us.

Get down there, please. State your name and area of residence. Thank you. Uh, yes, hello, my name is Jomo Stewart and I'm the president of the Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation. And actually, my staffer was supposed to be here, but this would be her very first time coming to City Hall.

She may be lost, so I'll be going to look for her soon. Uh, but yes, I wanted to, uh, that's actually Sue or I will start. Uh, the primary reason for my visit is the fact that the Alaska Small Business Accelerator, the Alaska Interior Small Business Accelerator, is going to be having its 10th cohort starting at the very end of this month. And so I want to let you all know, and so we could let your listeners know, uh, that that opportunity is available. So the Alaska Interior Small Business Accelerator, as some of you know, um, it's an 8-week 101 essentially on how to effectively start a small business in Alaska or in the interior of Alaska.

And it really is very, very good basic information. So it doesn't matter whether or not you want to start a construction firm, a hairdresser, an ice cream stand. It's those nuts and bolts, things like you'll need to keep books, you will need to make certain filings if you're in a municipal district, say the city of Fairbanks, city of North Pole, you know, get a business license, file with the state, those kinds of things. It's been extremely effective. It gets rave reviews.

The people who go through it have a tendency to give it, as you know, an 8 or 9 out of 10 as far as quality of curriculum. They also give it— we have done this thing, a confidence survey, like an entry confidence, you know, how do you success— or, ah, here we go, here's my staffer. I'm stealing your thunder, sorry. Why don't you go ahead and come on up? So this is Miss Julia.

She is actually our most recent Alaska Fellow. Last year we had Alaska Fellow, and the Alaska Fellowship Program is— it's almost like an AmeriCorps in the United States. They get really bright new graduates from college, they invite them to the state of Alaska and they come do really good work for us for essentially a fall semester and a spring semester. And so Julia is running the accelerator for us this year. And so again, it's an 8-week course.

We try to make it as accessible as possible. So it runs in the evenings on Tuesdays after work, say 5:30 to 7:30. The instructors are both at the university. It also includes, however, the Alaska Small Business Development Center. We have legal from Ms. Mamie Brown, attorney at law, on the legal aspects.

Kelly Ward from Ward of Associates is our usually our instructor regarding the accounting section. It will be someone else from her office and another small business owner so they have their peers. We try to do it in person, but again, we try to make it accessible. So it's held primarily, it's being broadcast from the UAF CTC building downtown Fairbanks. However, we are again partnering with the Chamber of Commerce, North Pole Chamber of Commerce, so that we have a satellite site here in North Pole.

So North Pole, Sultra residents don't have to drive all the way into Fairbanks, just come to the Welcome Center and that way the students get not only the benefit of the curriculum, but they also get the benefit of working in a cohort, that one-on-one and the networking. So please, again, if you'll just say if there's anyone you know who has been doing this out of their garage or out of their living room or kitchen and they are thinking that they maybe would like to step it up to the next level or even just be more effective there out of their kitchen, garage, this is a really great program. And again, we also try to schedule it so that it doesn't conflict with school schedules. So we try to make it between summer and between the holiday breaks. So that's that.

That's the Accelerator. If you have questions, I'll let Ms. Julia— we're again, we're ramping up. We do have more spots for students, so let everyone know. As far as FEDC, I wanted to let you know the big one for us relative to North Pole is the ARDER committee. If you recall last year, you all were gracious enough to give us your blessing to become the Alaska Regional Development Organization for the Interior, and I want to let you know that that is moving forward.

So a lot of my efforts over the course of this year have been relative to that enterprise. We did stand up an independent an ARDER committee that was fully blessed by my board of directors. Your representative on that ARDER committee is Anton Keller. We are meeting monthly. We started with some really nuts and bolts kind of stuff, like what is an ARDER, what do they do, what are they expected to do, what are they required to do, what does FEDC do.

So, you know, the kind of things that we've been good at and have historical track record of success. And then really what people really, really want us to do is start bringing federal outside resources to our community to help us do the things that we have historically done just on local horsepower. And I'm happy to let you know that we've entered a partnership with AML, Alaska Municipal League. They offer grant writing services. After looking around, they were the best and most cost-effective option, and we are working on our first application right now, first grant application.

We hope to learn from that enterprise and the next couple we're going to do over the next few months so we can start to be that, that aspect of economic development engine for our community and region. And that's what I got.

Council, any questions, please? Mr. Williams, program, the Alaska Fellow Program. It depends on the, I guess, season, but for right now we have 11 signed up and we're aiming for about 15 as our goal. And so every single year I think we get about 15 to 20. Oh, you mean for the accelerator?

The accelerator, right? Yeah, usually between 15 and 20. When we first started doing it, because it was all in-person only, we had to keep it a fairly limited pool because it was how many people you could manage within a classroom essentially. But we've also added now an online option. You can do it fully by Zoom.

We've even had now the last couple of years, we had a couple of accelerants from as far afield as Delta Junction. I believe we had one from Nanana last year. And so the number of spots that are available has, has really widely opened up. So don't, don't, don't tell anyone to feel inhibited about class count. Just go ahead and sign up if you're interested.

We keep it low cost. It's only $75, and the vast majority of the funds go right back to the students. So at FDIC, there is one textbook. We buy the textbook that comes out of the $75. We take the rest of the money and we actually hold it as a prize pool.

The last class of the accelerator is a pitch competition. Where the students, they've learned a bunch of stuff, they've worked really hard on formulating their business, and now they get to give that 3-minute— practice at that 3-minute elevator speech they would give to a potential investor, potential lender, potential client. And that rest of the money becomes the prize pool to the first and second place finishers. Thereafter, we have a partnership with the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce where once a year we do a pitch luncheon at the Chamber of Commerce in Fairbanks where the top 2 finishers from the spring cohort and the fall cohort get to pitch to the full chamber membership, a whole room full of potential lenders, investors.

What we're hopeful for is, again, through this, the ARDER, we might be able to again get some additional funding to do even further expansions of this program. It's ripe for expansion across the Interior region. Everyone has been doing it volunteer. They probably should be getting paid. For the— for some of their time.

And in fact, we've heard that some of the locations we might like to expand to would require us to pay, and we'd like that to not come out of the— again, the funds that we're accruing that we're currently giving back to the students. And these are individuals that probably come from the lower 48 and come up here and get— the Alaska Fellows Program. I'm sorry. Okay, we answered the wrong question. The Alaska Fellows Program is There's 12 fellows in Fairbanks, there's 6 in Sitka, I think 8 in Anchorage, and 7 in Juneau.

And those are people who come from the lower 48. Sometimes it's also open to anyone in Alaska to do the program. So it's partly to advertise young people coming from the lower 48 to understand Alaska better.

And at least the lower 48 has Alaska, so it's easier to bring young people to Alaska to work here and understand it better. But there are fellows fellows in this program who are also from Sitka, and then they go.

Oh, I wrote this one in for Virginia. Yeah, great state. Are you going to stay? I'm from Virginia. Are you here in Alaska?

I have the opportunity to stay in Alaska, and I'll stay in Alaska. But it's a good program because I'm actually an import myself, and a number of us are. Yeah, you know, from Virginia, found opportunity —or the order. Only when you do the elevator speeches. Will you send us an invitation so we may attend chamber and watch that happen, please?

Actually, I'll do you one better, Mr. Mayor. We were just discussing last week judges. For the pitch competition just at the accelerator itself. So if any of you would like to potentially be one of the 3 judges, you serve totally with it, make the all-star panel, Mr. Mayor, please do let us know.

Thank you very much. Any other questions? Thank you for your time. Thank you for coming to North Pole to present. Appreciate that very much.

Anyone else for citizens' comments for items not on the agenda?

Madam Clerk, do we have anyone online? We do not. With that, we will close citizens' comments, item 5, and move on to item 6, approval of the agenda and consent agenda. Can I get a motion, please? Motion to approve the agenda and consent agenda.

Second. Skips. Moved and seconded. Any discussion on the agenda? Councilman Brandt to make a motion to remove items 13A, B, and C from the agenda.

Second.

See any discussion on that? Yeah, so, uh, we're still waiting for clarification from our attorney on some stuff in these ordinances. Um, have not heard back from them, don't know when we're going to hear back from them. So, um, this is how our new clerk, uh, suggested we deal with it, just to take these off the agenda for now.

Okay, Madam Clerk, could we get a roll call please on that amendment?

On the amendment to remove New business items. A, Ordinance 2026-23, Duties of the Mayor. B, Ordinance 2026-24, Mayor Timekeeping Compensation and Payment Controls. And new business item C, Ordinance 2026-25, Travel and Host Reimbursement. Miss Rolf?

Yes. Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes.

Mr. Brandt? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Schuster?

Yes. Mayor Turch? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Yeah, pass 7-0. Thank you, Madam Clerk. A further amendment, Councilwoman Raulston? Uh, yes, I would move to amend. I spoke with, uh, our new clerk on this, uh, Ordinance 2026-08 should actually appear as new business, so I would move to amend amend the agenda to move Item 12C to, I guess, now be 13A at the top of new business.

I will second that. Any discussion on this? Councilman Brant.

Uh, the issue with this is that it was an ordinance that passed back in June. June 1st has passed. Um, we can't just bring it back and amend it. It should have been brought forth as a brand new ordinance and put under new business and have two readings of it. Um, we would have to also rename the ordinance if we just move it to new business, and I don't know if we can do that.

We will—. We're not there yet. Pardon? We will. We're not there.

Okay, that's what I'm asking. I, I don't know when we do that, but we will have to— when it comes— business. Okay. Any further discussion?

Madam Clerk, please call the roll on that amendment. On the motion to move unfinished business item C, ordinance 2026-08, foreclosed properties, to the top of new business. New business, um, Item A. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Brant?

Yes. Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes.

Mr. Schuster? Yes. Miss Rolfe? Yes. Mayor Turch?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Any further amendments from the council on the agenda? Councilman Brandt, like to remove item 13F from the agenda.

I'll second it.

So moved and second. Council discussion. So item 13F, um, in its current form is a resolution. The final form— that was just a rough draft that was turned in.

I rewrote it as a resolution and an ordinance. All the wording is exactly the same, but the ordinance would establish a permanent fund and the resolution would make the first payment into the permanent fund. I did get those in in time, but our, our acting clerk chose not to put those on the agenda and put this one on instead. Um, so those will be on next, um, meeting's agenda.

Thank you, Councilman Brandt. Any further discussion? Madam Clerk, please call the roll on the motion to remove new business item F, Resolution 2026-17, Permanent Fund. Mr. Schuster? Yes.

Mr. Williams? Yes. Miss Rolfe? Yes. Mr. Brandt?

Yes. Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes.

Mayor Church? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Sorry, that passed 7 to 0. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Any other amendments to our agenda this evening? Councilman Brandt? I would like to postpone item 13D until the next meeting.

Second.

So the— that particular ordinance works in conjunction with the ordinance and resolution for the permanent fund. Um, those two would have to be done first before this ordinance, and that's the order that I asked for them to be on the agenda. Um, so next meeting we would do the, uh, permanent fund ordinance and the resolution, and then this particular ordinance.

Okay, Madam Clerk, please call the roll on the removal of that item for postponement. On the motion to postpone new business item D, ordinance 2026-26, general fund reserve, to the next meeting. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Claus?

Yes. Mr. Brandt? Yes. Miss Rolf? Yes.

Mr. Schuster? Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes. Mayor Church?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? That passed 7 to 0.

Any other amendments to our agenda this evening?

Hey, seeing none, Madam Clerk, please call the roll on the agenda.

On the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda as amended.

Miss Rolf? Yes. Mr. Brandt? Yes. Mr. Skips?

Yes. Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Schuster? Yes.

Mr. Williams? Yes. Mayor Church? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Yeah, that passed 7 to 0. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We have an approved agenda. Very exciting to move forward. We— item number 7 is the minutes.

That's consented. For item number 8, we have communications from the mayor, and with that, I'd like to turn it over to Madam Clerk and Mr. Clerk. Mark for the oath of office.

Raise your right hand. I, Derek Ball, do solemnly swear. I, Derek Ball, do solemnly swear. That I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States. That I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.

The laws of the state of Alaska. The laws of the state of Alaska. The charter and the ordinance of the city of North Pole. The charter and the ordinances of the city of North Pole. And that I will faithfully and honestly perform the duties of city clerk, so help me God.

And that I will faithfully and honestly perform the duties of the city clerk, so help me God.

Mr. Ball, thank you for joining us. Very happy you are here. Um, that brings us on to item 9, council member questions of the mayor. Councilman Brandt, where are we on the search for a new director of city services? We are no further than we were last meeting, Councilman Brant.

So last meeting you said basically you decided not to hire a Director of City Services, is that correct? Correct, Mr. Brant. And you do know that that position is in our charter? You do not have a choice of whether or not we have a Director of City Services, right? That position isn't in our charter, that position is in our Code of Ordinances.

It is actually in our charter, sir.

You plan on re-advertising that position? Not at this time.

Any other questions?

Thank you for your questions, Councilman Brandt. Moving on to communications of department heads and borough representative.

Councilwoman Rolfe, did you attend a borough meeting and would like to give a report? Uh, yes, I attended a borough meeting. It occurred on, uh, 10th. It's actually a pretty short meeting, so unlike, uh, the next meeting, which will not be short, and rather entertaining. Sorry, um, there wasn't a whole lot on the agenda.

They did a rezoning, uh, out in the Cripple Creek area. To make some acreages recreational now. So the idea is they're going to put some trails and stuff out there. And then they approved funding for a lawsuit along with some other municipalities challenging, challenging the valuation of the pipeline. They've done this in prior years before.

I think it's been a couple of years since they did that. So they'll be doing that again. They think it's being undervalued. And so there's a— they've joined the lawsuit to value that. So it'll probably be a couple years ongoing, but they dedicated funds for that.

They approved the resolution continuing in the small park replacement program that they've been doing. That's part of what the replacements that are going to happen at the 5th Avenue Park fall under, and they're going to continue that program for other small parks in the borough. So that's cool to see that get approved and continue on.

Wonderful. Thank you for attending, um, the meeting as representing the City of North Pole. Very much appreciate that. Questions for our borough representative, please? Councilman Schuster, you have one.

Is, uh, Resolution 2026-25 on the next agenda?

That is for a collective work agreement. It is for Thursday. It will be—. They're taking public testimony, and that'll be second reading, uh, on Thursday. Uh, there was a work session that occurred on it last Thursday, uh, and there was, uh, some pretty heated questions, uh, because they're not allowed to debate at the work session.

Um, but it sounds like both sides. Uh, all members have been getting a lot of emails from the public, uh, so that'll be on, uh, the agenda. Mr. Crass, uh, believes that it's going to be a long meeting and expects that it's going to carry over into Friday.

Thank you for that. Any further questions, Council?

Mr. CFO? Anything, Council? I've been working on quite a few things. Sent out the monthly budget actuals, usually those sent out the request for the COLA compensation increase versus the proposed to the current. Um, worked on, uh, working on the action plan for HUD.

Um, also working on, got the AR module set up and flowing now in Tyler, working on the credit card. And, uh, any questions?

Good question. Um, Mr. Williams, when you say you're working on credit card, what's the problem with them? No problem. I'm working on the functionality in the accounting system so that the credit card could reconcile properly. Okay.

Yep. Thank you, Mr. Harlock. Appreciate that. Madam HR, welcome back. And do you have a report for us this evening?

I don't have an HR report. Okay, thank you very much. That brings us to our new city clerk. We got a long one. Uh, so early voting started today for the 2026 municipal elections.

Early voting is taking place at the Nulwain Public Library at 1215 Cow Street in Fairbanks. Any resident of the borough of the city of Fairbanks or the city of North Pole may vote out there. Their hours are Monday, starting today, through Saturday, 10 AM to 7 PM, and Sunday, September 27th, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Early voting ends at the library Thursday, October 1st, and then it'll switch over to absentee in-person voting October 2nd and October 5th from 10 AM to 7 PM. The voting location will be closed Saturday, October 3rd and October 4th.

October 4th, um, which is a Sunday. Uh, the City of Fairbanks and the City of North Pole here clerk's offices offer absentee in-person voting starting today through October 5th, Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM. And then just a reminder that regular municipal election day is Tuesday, October 6th. Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM. If you need help finding your polling place, please visit the City of North Pole's webpage, northpolealaska.com.

Under the City Clerk's page, then elections, you can find your polling place. Um, just also a side note, the accessible voting machines are available at the early vote station and absentee in-person stations here at the City of North Pole and the City of Fairbanks. Those machines are not available at polling locations on Election Day, so if you are in need of assistance, please visit us at the Clerk's Office and we can make sure that you can cast your vote accurately and fairly. Um, I wanted to note that you're going to see some changes, uh, in our way that we handle, um, motions, staff reports, and public testimony, uh, this evening. We're going to roll this out.

Uh, I talked with Mayor Pro Tem Brandt and asked, um, if— how he like the process. Essentially, we're going to allow public testimony before you make a motion, because if you make a motion before, um, public testimony and it— you never get a second, it eliminates the ability for the public to testify. That usually doesn't happen, but in the off chance that it does, we would be disenfranchising some folks. I talked with Mayor Turch, uh, and informed him of what I discussed with Mr. Brandt it, and they both like the idea, and we're going to try it moving forward. Uh, and then lastly, on a personal note, I want to thank the council, uh, for offering me the city clerk position, and I look forward to working with all of you and the citizens of North Pole.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Any questions for the clerk? Please, Mr. Schuster. Yeah, hi, welcome, glad you're with us.

I'm curious if you're able to get anywhere on the paving contract for, uh, the city of North Pole? I, I was unable to. I apologize, but that's on my list of things to do tomorrow morning. Okay, thank you.

Any further questions for the clerk's office?

Say none. That brings us on to item 12A. Can I get a motion, please, to adopt?

Mayor, sorry, just let's go ahead and do a staff report first. Thank you. You're welcome. 2 Years I've been operating in the same realm, and I appreciate you calling me out on that, Mr. Clerk.

Um, staff report, Ordinance 2026-19, amending employee pay. Um, it was put forth to, uh, look at doing a cost of living increase for all of our employees across the city. It was suggested 3%. As staff, we got together and, and looked at tables and charts from AML in other established cities across Alaska to make sure that our pay scale, pay range, and COLA was within scope of other communities our size and throughout the state of Alaska, and came forth with a 3% COLA increase across the That brings us on to public testimony. Is there anybody signed up or in the room who would like to, um, move to public hearing this evening?

Don't have anyone online either. Thank you. Um, that brings us on to a motion, please, to adopt this ordinance. Motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-19, amending employee pay. Second, Skips.

So moved and seconded. That brings us on to council discussion. Um, I would like to kick it off with an amendment, please, um, to remove lines. First off, I get— I guess I would like to kick it off with saying that Mr. Harlock and I worked Um, through the weekend and, and this morning to try and come up with a matrix that makes sense. Um, as you looked at the prior change—.

Get a motion. Well, you need a motion first, Mayor. Oh, I was going to—. You need to make a motion to amend and then you can talk.

Okay, sorry.

I'd like to, to move to amend and remove lines 49, 50, and 51 and use the substitute pay scale chart that has been put in front of us, extending the pay scale out to 30 lines.

Tekken skips.

So as was said previous, um, we sat down and looked at the 20-line pay scale that we had put in front of us, and it did not line up with a 3% increase across the board. It also changed the way that professional development played into the steps of our city moving forward.

Um, the new scale adjusts everything above a step 10 all the way to a step 30 at 1.5%, um, all the way out across the board. And instead of doing a one-step movement past a step 10 10. Each year you would do a 2-step movement past 10, and the numbers all line up. On the previously used matrix chart, none of the numbers past a, a scale 10 lined up because they were all at 1.5%. We changed them to a 3%, meaning that employees would have to go back in our pay scale because of the pay increase and the compounding interest at 1.5% for the full 20 steps.

And if Mr. Harlock would like to clarify anything that I said to try and simplify it, that, that would be best. Yeah, this process, uh, streamlines it, makes it easier to understand. Um, it would vary off one employee to the next depending on what step they were in from 10 to 20, to have to go back 2 steps.

Some employees would go back 4 steps, some employees would go back 4 steps and not line up to the exact 3% raise. So we would have to pick the closest one by increasing the steps to step 30 and giving everybody a 3% raise as agreed upon. It stays consistent. Somebody might be a step 16 today, somebody might be a step 11. Well, now they both get the 3% as a 2-step increase and it flows forward instead of going backward.

Forward. It's this— the math is the same, it's consistent going forward.

It's less consistent or less easy to understand by taking steps back for each employee that's specific to that employee. This is consistent across the board. If you have any questions—.

Councilman Brandt.

So you're saying if somebody's currently a— let's just look at this and say they're currently a step 20. Instead of going back to, uh, taking them back to whatever step is closest to their pay, they would stay at a step 20, and this will— oh no, if they're at a step 20 today, they would go up 2 steps for the 3% increase and get an exact 3% increase.

A step 22. Okay, so we would have to change our ordinance to say that, um, any step over step 10 would be a 2-step increase per year?

Yes. And from what I understand, before, before this, if they would have to move back in a step, it might not align exactly with a 3% increase. Yes. Now if they go up 2, then it will align exactly with the 3%. 3%, Yes.

Okay, that makes sense. It, it was brought to me last week where an employee was concerned about rotating backwards.

Knowing that someone with less experience could come in and be placed at the exact same pay scale that they were placed at by having to go backwards. The money worked out, but the section of time and the numerical hire could be more than what that employee employee was getting with their experience. So by allowing them to stay in their range and move forward in their range, it would prevent future employees from getting in front of current employees when it comes to pay and pay scale, especially when they come to the city with experience.

Councilman Brant, can you restate the actual amendment you made? Sure. The— I believe the amendment was, uh, Mr. Clerk, would you mind reading that since you have the copy that I provided you? Absolutely.

Uh, the amendment, uh, is to remove lines 49, 50, and 51 and use the substitute pay scale matrix.

Charts. Councilman Brandt, so that, that does not address the two-step increase that you're, you're talking about though. So how would you like to—. That's correct, that would be a future amendment, Councilman Brandt, that I, I have right here written down in a line. But the step for the new pay scale needs to come before this future amendment, um, so that it makes sense logically Okay, just wanted to see.

Yep. Councilman Schuster. Yeah, I was just wondering, did you send— you guys said you finished this up this morning. Did department heads get a copy of this? They did not.

No, sir.

Any further discussion?

Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Yes, sir. On the motion to amend to remove lines 49, 50, 51, and use substitute pay scale matrix chart Councilmember Rolfe?

No. Mr. Williams? No. Mr. Skips?

Yes. Mr. Brandt? No. Mr. Claus? No.

Mr. Schuster?

No. Mayor Church?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Fails 2-5. Any other amendments?

Please, Councilman Brandt. I'd like to make a motion to reduce the mayor's salary to $2,000 a month with, uh, no benefits.

Second that. Seconded twice. Discussion? So I've, I've spent a lot of time on this. I've talked to a lot of residents, a lot of business owners Um, the position of mayor in the city of North Pole is basically a part-time job, um, with full-time pay and full-time benefits.

In the past, our mayors have spent very little time in City Hall. We have Basically 4 departments in the city. We have police, fire, public works, and utilities. Our police department and our fire department run themselves. They're very heavy in management.

Utilities— Paul and Marty do a great job running utilities. Same thing with public works. Cody and Mike take care of public works. Um, anything that falls outside of that goes to the director of city services. And despite what the mayor said earlier, um, that position is in our charter, so we do need to fill that position.

Um, by reducing the salary, and what I'm getting from the, the people that I talked to, it may actually bring in people with the experience we're looking for to run the city.

Councilmember Rolfe, for example, would be a fantastic mayor. Is she going to give up her law practice? No. Would she be willing to spend a couple hours a day doing duties that are above and beyond her duties as council? I'm sure she would.

Same thing with Councilmember Schuster here. He runs a very successful business. Um, he would not, I'm sure, give up his, his business to, uh, to be the mayor, but he has the experience that we need as mayor, you know, managing employees and, and a budget and decision-making and, and all of those things that we're looking for. The business owners that I've talked to in town, uh, agree they, they would, um, they would happily be mayor and provide their expertise, but they would not feel right taking, you know, an $80,000 a year pay for doing that, plus benefits. And currently our mayor literally makes more than the mayor of Fairbanks when you take into account that— Councilman, when you take into account that our mayor isn't correct— when you take into account that our mayor gets, um, uh, vacation and about $10,000 a year in vacation pay and unlimited comp time.

Um, the mayor of— you know, the mayor— mayors generally do not get vacation and comp time from, from what our attorney, uh, was saying. So, you know, the, the mayor of Fairbanks does not get vacation or comp time. So literally, we have, we have to remember this is the city of North Pole. This isn't the city of the greater North Pole area. The city of North Pole is 4.2 square miles with 2,500 residents.

We have 51 employees.

So I think going to a part-time mayor would actually be beneficial. To the city.

Anyone else? Please, Councilman Claus. Thank you, Mayor. I agree with, uh, what Councilman, uh, or Mayor Pro Tem, uh, Brandt, um, just said regarding a reduction in salary for the reasons he mentioned.

Anyone else? Please, Councilman Schuster. Yeah, to expand on that, I, I think you have two directions you could go. You could attract qualified, or, you know, qualified mayor candidates by paying $140,000 a year, $150,000 a year, or you do it the opposite way where you move to a more part-time, and it's something other people can do besides is, you know, having this as a full-time job. I think we have great department heads in the city.

I think every one of them I'm, I'm happy to have here at the city, and I, and I trust them wholeheartedly. And I— if you really lean on those department heads, I think a lot can be accomplished with having a part-time mayor.

Councilman Brant, can I ask you, since you made the amendment, and you moved to $2,000. Where did you get that number from?

I looked at the past mayors and how much time they spent in City Hall, and from talking to longtime employees here, it's generally, um, you know, a couple hours a day, maybe 3-4 times a week. They just need to be available every day to be able to speak to the, the department heads, um, check in every day.

Um, basically I figured if you're spending a couple hours a day, 5 days a week, that's 10 hours. You know, that's basically $50 an hour. That's a pretty part-time job. And again, um, as council members, we all have, um, the same duties as the mayor has as far as writing ordinances and all this kind of stuff. So this would just compensate them a little bit above, uh, or quite a bit above the ordinary duties of the rest of the council.

And I would say that across the entire nation and Alaska Cities our size, for the most part, have either volunteer mayors or they're just council members with a, with a small stipend above that. None of them get the benefit, you know, our, the way it is right now, the mayor gets retirement and health insurance and vacation time and comp time and So I would say if this does pass, I will have to amend some ordinances to remove those benefits from the, from the mayor's salary. But again, our, our city— police, fire, public works, and utilities— that's it. We don't have schools and libraries and parks and rec and solid waste. You know, all that's taken care of by the borough.

Um, and so to what Council Member Schuster was saying, I agree. We either need to— to get a qualified mayor, we would have to spend a lot more or a lot less. It doesn't make sense to pay $140,000, $150,000 a year to run a 2,500-resident city. Councilman Brandt, why $2,000 and why not $1,000 or $800 or $1,500? Why did you choose $2,000?

That was just a starting point. We can reduce it to zero if you'd like. And I, I just wanted to point out the fact that this will not affect the current mayor's salary. This does not go into effect until the mayor is out of office next year. So this is nothing about the current mayor This is just looking forward to how we can move forward and attract more qualified mayors to our city.

Any further discussion?

Oh, please. Just a clarifying question, Councilmember Brandt. Where would you like to place this? Do you want to make a new subsection? Is there a certain spot that you would be amending?

Well, the only thing that we could do is amend the pay scale. Actually, you would intend to do that as in the matrix? In the matrix? Yes. And then of course, the— we would have to later amend some different ordinances, but we can't do that unless we do this first.

Just for the record. Thank you.

And Councilman's Claude Brandt— I'm sorry, during your amendment, typically the mayor has moved forward like every other city employee at 3%. Would you like to just eliminate that in, in your amendment and also have that just be a flat rate for 3 or 6 years depending on how long the mayor served for? At this point we would just change— we, we don't have the correct ordinance in front of us to do exactly what I want to do, so at this time just change the this, you know, step 1, uh, on the, the pay scale to $2,000 monthly. Going forward, the ordinance would just be changed to include the mayor's pay in the, um, the ordinance where the council members pay. As council members pay is $400 a month, mayor's will be $2,000 a month.

Councilman Skips had a question about that. So with your $2,000 a month, so will that be each month or each week? Is it just going to be you're working a max of X amount of hours a week? Is that how it's going to be? No, it's the same as council members now.

We don't have set number of hours. I work a ridiculous amount of hours as a council member. Um, the mayor would, would just do the, the number of hours that he needs to do to fill the job. Okay. And I was thinking too, because, you know, people have asked me, you know, family members, stuff like that, if I would like to do it.

And I said, well, no, I'd want to be retired when I did it. But the thing is, if I retire, you know, I kind of want to be all in with it, you know. I don't want to be part-time and then with the amount of hours, I think my time is worth more than whatever the salary is going to be. And I understand you want to do stuff for the community and everything else, but you know, as you're getting up in age, time's important to you, you know, family time, monetarily. So You know, if I was going to be all in on something, I'd want to be compensated for being all in on something, not just part-time.

Well, then you personally would have to take that into account when you decide whether you want to run for mayor or not. Yeah, but that, that would knock a lot of people out of wanting to do this. Um, I, I've literally talked to probably 50 people about this. They, every single one of them to a person, agrees with And I have talked to some business owners in town that are residents that said that they actually would like to do it, but they would not obviously feel right taking— you know, they feel that if they're, they're making $80,000 a year plus benefits, they would have to spend more time at, at the city, and, and they would not give up their business for that. And same with, um, uh, there's a gentleman that I spoke to that was an accountant and he felt the same way.

He thinks that he has a lot to offer, but he wouldn't give up his, his, you know, accounting job for this. So the number of hours that the mayor puts in historically is very low. If, if you talk to any of our longtime employees, they will tell you, you know, Mayor Walsh, never here.

Jacobson, he was a full-time teacher. Um, you look at, um, uh, Mayor Ward, he— I think he's one of our, uh, the best mayors that we've had in recent times. He ran his full-time construction business, um, but he just made sure that he, he checked in every day with, with the department heads and spent, you know, whatever time needed to, to do what they needed from him. And like I said, anything that our department heads from the police, fire, public works, and utilities— whatever they don't handle, the mayor usually just delegates to the director of city services.

Any further discussion on this amendment?

Okay, I'll take my two cents at it. I don't totally disagree that, uh, it definitely puts a new spin on things. I do have concerns of someone running their own business and not dedicating enough time to the City of North Pole, or trying to do it after hours as you have suggested, after our employees have already gone home for the day. I think that makes it very hard. I think if you're a retired person and doing it part-time where you can be available during the day, discuss with our staff how things are going, movements forward, attend all of the meetings that aren't at the city of North Pole that relate very heavily to the city of North Pole, you would have to find someone who was retired to fit that bill.

Um, I'm not totally opposed to a new way of thinking when it comes to the mayor's position, especially with all of the things we have seen out of this council, from an attempt to bring on a city manager in 3 different ways and all of this discussion about a city manager. I think it makes a lot of sense, but I, I do believe that if we are going to reduce the mayor's pay compensation and adjustment, we should have a plan forward forward to have someone in place to take over some of those duties that the mayor would normally hold, especially if they're not here during office hours. Creates a big problem and a huge hole.

Councilman Brandt. And that person is the director of city services, who we should be hiring here very soon.

Councilman Brandt, why do you feel as though the director of city services is a suitable replacement for the mayor's position? It is not.

Okay, so there's— I'm just going by, by talking to longtime employees and talking about, you know, past mayors and how the city has worked. We you know, our last, uh, mayor was a retired mayor. Never here, just tells the director of city services— when that was, uh, Danny at the time— just told him what to do. Uh, when, when Mayor Ward, he ran a full-time business, he relied on Bill heavily for, um, uh, taking care of things that, that, um, the department heads needed. Same thing going back to Jeff Jacobson when he was mayor.

He was a full-time teacher. And he managed to be the mayor of the city. You would not be having them do your duties. You would just be— the mayor would just delegate, uh, responsibilities to the department heads and director of city services. It's, um, pretty simple.

And what happens, uh, Councilman Brandt, when the director of city services, who you delegated all this work to, gives a 2-week notice and, and leaves the city? Who, who covers that, and how do you propose moving forward with a situation like that? You hire a new director of city services, and the department heads are, are quite capable of managing their own departments.

As Councilmember Schuster said, we have fantastic department heads. I don't disagree with that. I work with them every day and thankful to be here. Working with them. Seeing no further discussion, Mr.

Clerk, please call the roll. Yes. And just to clarify, reduce the— on the amendment, or to reduce the mayor's salary to $2,000 a month with no benefits through the pay matrix, correct? Correct. Mr. Williams?

Yeah. Mr. Skips? No. Mr. Schuster? Yes.

Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Brandt? Yes. Miss Rolfe?

No. Mayor Church?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

5-2. Thank you. Any further amendments?

If I may ask, Council, um, since my earlier amendment was shot down, and looking at the pay scale that we have in front of us that is proposed to pass this evening, how would you deal with the difference between what our current employees make now and what is supposed to be a 3% COLA increase, and how that does not line out to be a 3% pay increase to our city employees, and also what your plans are moving forward to handle concerns of our employees who are going to have to go back in range, um, to fulfill that close to, or closest to, 3% step increase. Please, Councilman Schuster. Every department head was aware on the wage rates that we voted on last time, and they all supported it. They all sat here and said, yes, this is what, you know, we're voting on. You went through meetings with it.

I would feel— I wouldn't feel comfortable saying yes, we changed it based on the testimony we got last time where they felt like they were kept out of the loop. And so for us to to then go change it when they just expect us to pass this one that they've already seen and gave testimony to. Doesn't feel right to me.

I understand that concern, and I'm— I am right there with you 100%.

But how do you quantify what could be a 5.5% increase to someone who is already getting paid $65 an hour?

Where they receive a 5.5% increase instead of a 3% pay increase, which was suggested as a COLA increase because we're moving the matrix from a 1.5 scale to a 3% scale above range 10 on every department except City Services, which was already passed last year.

Please, Mr. Schuster. Uh, to CFO, what, uh, was that the numbers you sent in that email that we looked at before the meeting? Was that incorrect then?

Sorry, into the microphone please. Thank you. Thank you. That was 3%.

Issue is sliding the scale back. I think that was what we were looking at.

This amendment.

Like to make a motion to postpone this to our next meeting. In that time, we'll have a staff meeting tomorrow in which we can discuss this further with the possible amendment. Is the council allowed to go to the staff meeting? I would second the postponement, but my request would be to have a work session for this to be discussed.

Please, Councilman Wynn. Session is the best way to go.

Anyone second that? I second her, what she I didn't make a motion. You can't second me. Okay, Miss Rolf, is—. Are you still— I, I second the mayor's motion to postpone because I agree it needs to be postponed based upon the information we've received about the issues with the, the scale, uh, and how best to move forward with how employees will align.

I just differ on how I think that should occur, but I think a postponement regardless this is needed. Thank you. Thank you, Council. Discussion? Mr. Williams.

Whatever we do, we need to do that at a, at a work session. There ain't no ifs, ands, or buts about that. You don't need the staff to get involved in this. Need— do we need to do it as a work session?

Councilman Schuster? I agree on a work session. I don't agree on your last comment of saying we don't need the staff involved in their wage rate Is that directed at me or Councilman Williams? Okay, thank you, Mr. Schuster.

See no further discussion. Please call the roll on postponement of this. So we were— may I, before we do that? Please. Thank you.

Um, if we do over here, if we do notice a work session Um, I believe we would have to have public testimony at that work session. We couldn't stop anyone from publicly testifying, I don't think, at that work session. So, uh, just to address Councilman Schuster's concerns, but there would be—. Staff could come at that point in time. In our work sessions, we typically have not taken comment at our work sessions, which is why I feel like having an open public discussion on everything that we do so that we can hear from our employees.

Um, this is the proper place to do it rather than a work session. Anything we can discuss at a work session, we certainly can discuss here and get public testimony from our employees. Is there anything in the rules that prevent us from taking public testimony at a work session? It's just been what the city has Correct. So we could hold a work session on this and take public testimony at that work session?

I believe so. Okay, thank you.

Councilman Brandt, I just want to say I made the exact motion at the last meeting to postpone this until we had a work session, and your exact words were, um, that it was would— well, not your exact words, but you said that it would really upset all of the employees having us kick this— excuse me, kick the can down the road more. And you said no, that we can't postpone this anymore. But now when you want to change something when your amendment did not pass and you want to further the discussion you are recommending postponing this. So is this going to upset the employees like you said last time if we postpone this? Thank you for your question, Councilman Brant.

I appreciate it. If you didn't put words in my mouth, um, what I did say is we shouldn't postpone this and that we should discuss this so that employees don't think that we are kicking the can down the road. Um, so thank you for that. Seeing no further discussion, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

The motion to postpone, uh, to the October 5th, 2026 meeting. Mr. Skips? Yes. Mr. Claus? Yes.

Mr. Brandt? No. Mr. Schuster? Yes. Miss Rolfe?

Yes. Mr. Williams? Say no. And I'm also want to put in there that we need to do a work session before we do anything. Mayor Church?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Yes, Mayor, I'd like to change my vote to no. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Mr. Clerk, where does that leave us with the count? 4-3, Passes. Okay, thank you for that.

Brings us on to 12B, an ordinance amending the business license transfer, um, put forth by me, um, due to a local business owner who was concerned that they, as they sell their business, that the new owner would be required to come to come down and pay a new license fee, which seems like double taxing for that business. I don't disagree, and the code that we have in front of us, um, didn't make a lot of sense. Um, so I proposed a change, and that is what is in front of us this evening.

Brings us to public testimony. Is there anybody in the room or online who would like to sign up and talk about this this evening. There's no one online. Okay, that brings us to a motion, please, to adopt. Motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-20, Business License Transfers.

Second, Skips. Moved and seconded. Brings us to council discussion.

Seeing— oh, please, Councilman Brandt. I just wanted to make the same point that, that I asked you and you clarified last week or last meeting that the new business would still have to obtain a new license, but they would not have to pay for the license for the remainder of the year. Is that correct? That is correct. That new business would be required to come in, fill out a new business application.

As long as the business that they are purchasing paid for a license, they would get the updated license for free so that the city has a record. The fire department and police department have a record of who the owner of that local business is, barring anything that may happen. Yes.

Any other questions?

Mr. Clerk, please call the roll on the motion to adopt Ordinance Number 2026-20. Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Williams?

Mr. Schuster? Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes. Miss Rolfe?

Yes. Mr. Brandt? Yes. And Mayor Turchin? Yes.

Would anyone like to change their vote?

7-0. Thank you, sir. Um, Item C has been moved to Item 13A. Um, this is an ordinance of the City of North Pole that had already been passed Um, we put this out for bid, received bids on, um, said property, but they were far shy of the minimum bid that the city put on those, um, on, on one lot. And, uh, we put forth an amendment to the ordinance, although it was not done quite correctly.

The public Um, notice period is essentially the same per our attorney, that no real language is going to change in this except, um, an ordinance number and then the word amending.

Um, which brings it to a new item of business.

Is there anyone signed up online or in the room who would like to publicly testify on this ordinance?

I don't see anyone online. Okay, thank you.

Um, Mr. Clerk, if I may ask a question, if we have not assigned this a new ordinance number, um, how do we move to introduce this ordinance as though it's already been publicly noticed as an amendment to a prior ordinance? How do we introduce a new ordinance that is essentially the same thing? You would make a motion to introduce as it's noted, and then we'll move to amend afterwards to amend the title. Okay, thank you for that clarifying question.

Um, so with that, I am looking for a notice, please, to introduce, uh, motion to introduce Ordinance 2026-08 for Closed Properties. Second, Skips. And I would move— so moved and seconded. Thank you. Move to amend, uh, the title, uh, to change it to Ordinance 2026-27, an ordinance amending Ordinance 2026-08 for closed properties.

Second, Skips. Most—. Oh, it's— it would be 2026-28 because 27 is already but I will note it for the record. Mr. Skips, that doesn't change your wish for a second in concurrence for the number? Okay, thank you.

Um, 2-8. Okay, any council discussion on that language change? Yeah, run that by us again. Maybe 2026. What?

So we're amending the title of the ordinance. The ordinance still does the— but what you see in front of you in the packet, it's still going to do the same thing. We're just amending the title of it. So now the title of it will be be Ordinance 2026-28, an ordinance amending the prior ordinance. So it's going to amend Ordinance 2026-08, uh, which was the ordinance in which we sold the foreclosed properties.

Any further council discussion? Please, Councilman Brandt. Um, no, I'm just going to ask a question now. It doesn't pertain to that, but, um, that, that it, it's moved in new business and will have two readings. Is that correct?

Yes, it would be required to have two. Yes, this is reading number one.

Clerk, please call the roll on that amendment. Correct. On the amendment— uh, excuse me, on the amendment to the title to amend, to add Ordinance 2026-28, and ordinance to amend.

Et cetera. Uh, Mr. Brandt? Yes. Mr. Claus? Yes.

Miss Rolfe? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Schuster?

Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes. Mayor Church? Yes.

Would anyone like to change their vote?

7-0. Excellent. Now that we have amended the title Are there any further amendments that anyone would like to make to this ordinance?

Are we at discussion now though? Okay. Um, So this doesn't say anything about how we would get new bids. Are we going to put this back out to bid? Because it says the council may approve and accept the bid of lesser value.

We had 2 bids for $10,000. So are we going to put this back out to bid to allow everybody to rebid, or are we just going to pick who we want to have it and negotiate with them? That doesn't seem fair to to, um, the taxpayers or the, the other bidders.

So I can't answer the, the fairness of that, Councilman Brandt, but the intent is to make sure that the city capitalizes on the money that they have lost through this foreclosure, um, allowing the city clerk to negotiate that. Um, we've already had 2 bids that are very close to that, and then the final approval, um, as long as it was above what was mentioned as to what the city owed, that deal could be made by the city clerk, correct? Correct. Please, Councilman Brandt. Again, that doesn't answer my question.

Who are we going to— how are we going to choose who to negotiate this sale with? Um, again, we, we had, from my understanding from, from the testimony from our acting clerk at the last meeting, we had 2 bids of $10,000 each. So, um, I think the cleanest way to do this would just put it back out to bid. Bid with this language, because when we put it out to bid before, it was a minimum bid of $35,000. If we have— again, I think it would just be fair to put out to bid again with whatever minimum bid is necessary to pay off the debt to the city.

If we're going to do it that way. But I also feel that we did the bare minimum, uh, to try to sell this property. We just posted on our website and put it in the want ads in the, in the newspaper. Um, that doesn't necessarily mean that the bids that we got are market value for for the property. Um, when Mr. Schuster and I put this forward, he himself is a realtor, and he determined that the, the market value of that property is, is at least $40,000.

And, and that's how we determined— we, we made it less than market value for the minimum bid. If we're going to do something like this, I think we should put it back out to bid at, say, you know, $20,000 or something like that, or we can just hold on it onto it and keep advertising it until we do get something closer to what market value is. Um, the way that this amendment is written does not tell us exactly how we are going to go about determining who to negotiate with. So I, I don't know how to fix that at this particular moment though.

Thank you, Councilman Brandt. I'd like to propose an amendment, please, to remove lines 23 through 27, removing, um, property number 2. I would also like to remove items 33 and 34 on lines and line 74. 4, Um, removing Marquette Loop from the ordinance.

Okay, Mayor, do you have that in writing, sir?

No, sir, I do not. Could you repeat it one more time, please? Sorry. No problem at all. Lines 23 through 27.

Lines 33 and 34 and line 74. That would wipe, um, 984 Marquette Loop out of this ordinance.

Thank you. You bet.

The reason for that, um, that piece of property has been been repurchased by the original property owner, um, so there's no sense in having that be part of this ordinance or sale. Any further discussion? Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Mr. Skips?

Yes. Miss Rolfe? Yes. Mr. Schuster? Yes.

Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Brandt? Yes. Mr. Claus?

Yes. Mayor Church? Yes. Would anyone like to change vote? 7-0.

Thank you, sir. Councilman Brandt, uh, in that case, we would have to amend line 12 also to remove, um, and 984 Marquette Loop and the word all. Wouldn't you also have to remove 2 foreclosed properties out of line 11? Would you like to restate your Mr. Mann. Out of line.

Yes. So on line 11, remove the word "to." Change the word "properties" to "property." And on line 12, remove move the words 984 Marquette Loop all.

Second.

Okay, other discussion? Any discussion?

Mr. Clerk, please call the On the motion to amend to remove 2 foreclosed, change, uh, properties to property, and remove 984 Marquette Loop. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Brandt?

Yes. Miss Rolfe? Yes. Mr. Schuster? Yes.

Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes. And Mayor Turch?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? 7-0.

Any further amendments to this?

Councilman Brent, um, again, I don't know the right way to do this, but, um, in this amendment amendment, it does not say how we are going to determine who we negotiate with. So I would just make an amendment that we repeat the process of putting this out to bid. I think that would be the cleanest way. And then from the bids received, then we would be able to negotiate with those bidders because that language was not in this ordinance when we first put it out to bid. So now if we put it out to bid once more with this language in there, then I think everybody's on an even playing field.

I would like to make the motion that, that we advertise this for bid.

Second. Mr. Clerk, um, would the council entertain, um, a 5-minute recess so that we can work on language so that we can get a proper amendment?

Anyone opposed to a 5-minute recess?

Okay, thank you. Just a reminder that the microphones art life. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

Can— if we just pass this—. I'm with you. I just want to make sure that we get the right language here. Right. So I'm just asking though, if we pass this as amended, does it automatically go Does it say the date?

Um, I don't see it.

You were the second back on the record. Thank you for being back with us here at the City of North Pole for our council meeting this evening, September 21st. 1St, 2026.

Thank you for the recess. Um, Councilman Brandt, you had the mic. Yeah, I, I would like to withdraw my motion. Second. Withdrawing his motion with concurrence of the second.

Um, please, Councilman Brandt. So, talking this through with our new clerk, um, we would not have to amend anything because this ordinance already states that this would go out to sealed bid. And, and, um, so if we pass this ordinance as amended, uh, we would put this out to another, uh, sealed bid as it's written now.

Councilman Brandt, knowing that, as council here, would anybody on council be opposed with noticing that and getting that started to accept those bids so that we are aware of what those bids are prior to our next meeting or shortly after our next meeting so we can move forth with this? It does say 15 days in the ordinance ordinance. Um, but we would be moving on this very quickly compared to kicking anything down the road any further. I don't see how that would be legal. The ordinance would have to pass before we could act on it.

Please, Councilwoman Rolfe. Does ordinance state when the sale or bid times would be?

No, it doesn't. It says it just needs to be advertised for at least 15 days, um, in Section 4A.

Any further discussions on this ordinance?

Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.

So this is going to be to adopt 2026-08 as amended. It's going to be with the new— we'll republish with the new title moving forward. Uh, Mr. Schuster? Yes. Mr. Brandt?

Can I clarify? It's to introduce, not to adopt. Adopt is after the second— I apologize, it is to introduce. 5. Thank you.

Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Miss Rolfe? Yes.

Mr. Claus? Yes. Mr. Skips? Yes. And Mayor Turch?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

7-0. Thank you.

Brings us on to 13E, brings us to staff report. Mr. Harlock?

13E was consented. Oh, Evans, actually, I think that would take us to 14, Mayor. My apologies. Yes, that—. Nope, yes, takes us to 14.

Council member comments excluding myself.

Where shall we start this evening, Mr. Clerk? Mr. Bryant? Uh, nothing for me, thank you.

Mr. Williams? I'll pass. Mr. Claus? Thank you.

Uh, elections are coming up, so please read the, uh, bullet that's been, uh, comprehensively and, uh, well prepared by the, uh, borough—. Fairbanks North Star Borough—. Uh, regarding the elections. Thank you. Mr.

Wolf? I just want to say welcome aboard to working with the city. We look forward to many more meetings with with you. Thank you. Mr. Skips?

Yes, well, um, I just want to let you know the 1st, 2nd, 3rd of October at North Pole High School is going to be the high school girls flag regionals tournament, and that's qualifier for state, which would be the next weekend. 1St, 2nd, and 3rd. Thank you. Your daughters are kicking butt, by the way. Thank Thank you.

Council Member Schuster? I don't have anything tonight. Thank you.

With that, move to adjourn.

So be it. 8:14 This evening. Thank you for joining us.