Kodiak Borough: Assembly Work Session of June 25, 2026 Part 2

I was looking for it. I could—. It's also in the regular meeting agenda for next week. That would be why. Are you in the work session?

Yes, I am. Yeah, I'm sorry. This is part of the— yes, still part of the packet review. And we can still talk about it next week. Oh, yeah.

When we take a vote on it. Yeah, that'd be my preference. I was looking for it. I'm like, where the heck is it? All right.

Thank you for that. So that ends packet review. So we're coming back to the work session agenda for clerk's comments. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the assembly. Um, we're now gearing up for election.

We held a Zoom meeting with the State Division of Elections staff on Wednesday, June 10th, regarding assistance for the August 18th primary. We're going to have 3 elections this year. Um, August 18th for the primary election, October 6th local municipal election, and November 3rd general election for For the primary in general, we're going to be conducting absentee voting 2 weeks before. And then also for the local municipal election, there's going to be early voting and the voting will be in this location. Nominating packets, my target will be to release those on July 13th.

And the filing period runs from August 1st through August 17th. The notice of offices to be filled will be advertised on the Kodiak Daily Mirror. They will be on the Kodiak Island Borough website. They will be mailed to the villages and also, uh, posted on Facebook. Uh, the updated by-mail election envelopes are due for delivery next week.

Um, the polling site agreements for the Harbor Master Teen Center, Bayside Fire Hall, and Women's Bay Fire Hall went out yesterday. And then I have a list of all the seats that will be coming up this upcoming municipal election. In addition to that, it looks like we're going to have a proposition on the ballot. So records update, we— it's the end of the fiscal year, so our staff, or my staff, are busy coordinating the archiving of records from the different offices to be transferred to the records center. We're also collaborating with the borough attorney for this year's records destruction.

We are reviewing records in the clerk's office. A big thing, big project that we did the past few months is the comprehensive code rewrite of the Borough Records Code, so that should be coming up soon. It's being reviewed by the attorney. We're also— we have processed We have had 37 public records requests to date. We are currently getting bombarded by a records requester, Mr. Zurado.

At first we thought that it was a bot, but it's an actual person. But these are— we have quite a few from him, and they're pretty extensive. So we're working with staff, and if they're— if the requests are exceeding 5 hours per month, then we're gonna have to charge him. But he's insisting that these are of public interest and that he should not be charged. However, he's using the records for profit, so we are working with the attorney on how we should appropriately respond to this requester.

Liquor licenses— we're processing two renewals, Tony's Bar and Tony's Liquor Store.

I have attached the agenda item request, uh, forms, the status of those requests, upcoming events calendar. I just want to note that for the July 16, 2026 assembly work session to hold the interviews, we're starting a little early. We're starting at 6 PM for that one. Please don't miss it. I just wanted to point that out.

Miscellaneous, um, the assembly application for the upcoming assembly seat is attached in case you know someone that would be interested in applying, so I attach a copy here. We're going to also make the electronic copy available tomorrow on the borough website. We are currently drafting the 2027 assembly annual meeting calendar We're planning on possibly doing a— holding an iCompass and agenda management training for staff, and also considering Open Meetings Act and parliamentary procedures training for our boards and committees. And there was an invitation to meet the finalists for the Kodiak College director, June 23rd, 24th, and 25th. If you're planning to attend, would you please shoot me an email so that I know if we're running into a quorum issue— Oh, it's passed.

Yeah, that's right, it's June 25th. But, um, we— the— if I can jump in for that, because that's part of your request, uh, the one, uh, the candidate that's supposed to come yesterday had to postpone, so he will be here on July 7th. Oh, okay. So, well, if you're attending that, please let me know. Okay, and then, um, we have the updated calendar for, uh vacant assembly, filling the assembly seat.

And then I gave you a little handout here that you can read if council members or assembly members can speak during public comment. So just thought it would be fun to read. And that's all I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Any questions for Nova?

Okay. Seeing none, we will move on to Assemblymember comments and we will start with Mr. Woods down at the end.

Thank you guys for the dialogue tonight. And then Cody is not here, but Madam Manager is. So thank you guys so much for taking so many steps ahead with the appearance of issues. I appreciate it greatly. And I appreciate how open and transparent you made a potentially contentious and may still be contentious process.

So thank you guys so much for your work. Thank you. Mr. Weisheit. Thank you. Kudos to Director Allen as well.

It's really nice to see us following best practices with procurement processes. Makes me happy.

Mr. Ames. Nothing that hasn't already been said, so no comment. Thank you. Mr. Smiley. I want to encourage people out there to run for office.

There are a number of spaces for assembly, new assembly people, and I encourage somebody other than old white guys. Thank you.

And Mr. Johnson, this is your final stab. It is. Yeah. So I apologize in advance. I've got a few things, but I also agree that you don't speak during special meetings, so I'm going to get it out of the way now.

As I prepare to step away from this seat, I want to take a moment to reflect on where we are, where we have the potential to go. We recently concluded a difficult funding debate. While I ultimately lost the argument regarding the uncollected revenue towards the tax cap, I want to be clear: I do not believe our positions are nearly as far apart as the final vote may suggest. Every one of us at the dais is wrestling with the same heavy burden: how to best steward this community through very challenging economic headwinds. Our disagreement is not about the destination.

It's simply about the mechanics of how we weather this storm. I firmly believe during economic downturns, municipalities must embrace a deliberate strategy of retrenchment. Retrenchment is not a retreat. It is a vital consolidation of strength. It means stripping away the periphery to protect the foundation.

In a downturn, we must remember what the borough was built to do. History shows us this is the right path. Academic research following a rash of municipal bankruptcies in the 1980s showed that rural areas protected their healthcare and education systems, weathered the storm of fiscal downturns better than those who didn't. We must protect— focus our limited resource— resources on our core functions: education, hospital, economic development. Please do not take this as an insinuation that we are not.

The assembly delivered a noteworthy increase to the school district's budget this year and was able to do so because of this strict fiscal discipline. If we fail to adequately resource these key indicators of a community's health, we will be entirely unequipped to capitalize on the future. That third core function, economic development, brings me back to the very reason I ran for this seat. On my campaign flyer, I wrote that Kodiak was at an inflection point. I noted our cost of living is pricing families out of town, our housing market is in crisis, our fisheries are rapidly changing before our eyes.

I said then and believe just as fiercely tonight, so long as our working families spend $8 on a box of cereal and $300,000 on a 900-square-foot home, that should be the primary focus of our elected officials. Officials. If we do not embrace change and decide as a community how we want to face these challenges, someone else's vision will be forced on us. I grew up in Seward, watched the pivot to tourism after the Exxon Valdez spill. Having experienced that, I still do not believe that low-paying seasonal jobs are the future we want for Kodiak.

We have to carefully balance our emergency— emerging tourism economy against the undesirable effects it could have on a housing market. We have an opportunity right now to be a gateway to the Arctic. I know that that has generated laughs in the past, We're getting 2 major Coast Guard icebreakers. The upcoming Coast Guard expansion is our vehicle to seize upon it. We cannot allow— we cannot view the arrival of these new families and cutters as a routine military rotation or another simple matter of assets moving around.

It is a premier economic development initiative. If we are business-friendly and challenging the status quo, we can build a resilient 12-month economy achieved by skilled labor, high-paying jobs, and allowing tourism to be what it should be: a very complementary driver of our economy. When those incoming families learn they're being stationed in Kodiak, I know the exact calculus they will make. They're going to be looking for capable— excuse me— adequate, capable healthcare facilities, a vibrant community, and strong schools. If we don't meet those needs, service members will come unaccompanied, leave living in government barracks, leaving their families behind, and failing to become part of the fabric of our community.

Please heed the warning from one of our elected officials at the national level. I was at a conference last— 2 years ago. He spoke of how Fairbanks knew for years that new fighters were coming, and that didn't change. The new fighters showed, and Fairbanks hadn't made infrastructure investment commensurate with what was needed to house those. So the Air Force was instead rotating temporary assignments up to, uh, up to, um, Ilsen, um, to fill that need.

I mean, that is just such a wasted opportunity to, to not have the infrastructure ready for the growth.

Um, the focus on my discussion on schools earlier brings me to my final personal point. My entire journey into local government began with a simple desire. I wanted to advocate for increased academic rigor for my own children. The advocacy led me to serve as Coast Guard's representative to the school board, turned into an appointed seat, an elected term, and finally here on the assembly. Now my family is entering a season where we must again prioritize that same core value.

We've decided it's best for my children's education to step away from Kodiak until they have finished school. But let me be perfectly clear, we are keeping our roots planted here. Our house will remain ours. It will be occupied by a long-term renter because after standing publicly for 2 years making my position on short-term rentals perfectly clear, even as a politician, that is a level of hypocrisy in which I cannot abide.

I'm stepping down from the assembly. My investment in Kodiak is absolute. We are coming back. I look forward to returning to the community you will continue to build, a community that has protected its core, chose proactive leadership, and built a foundation for the future. Thank you for allowing me to serve alongside you.

And thank you, Mr. Johnson, for that. Uh, Mr. Garner, you get to follow up.

Uh, it's kind of— even though it's really nice outside and I'd rather not be here, it's kind of nice to be back in this room with all of you. And Dave, we don't always agree on everything, but, uh, you have continually opened my eyes and made me change my point of view, and I appreciate you. Good luck in your next endeavor.

Thank you. Um, and Mayor's comments, I don't have a whole lot. Uh, I mean, I do have a lot, but I think I'm going to save them all for my formal report, um, for next week and I just want to echo Mr. Gardner's statements and, uh, uh, gonna miss you, Dave, and, uh, thank you for everything that you've done. I appreciate your metaphors that you seem to kind of pull out of nowhere, and, uh, always, always appreciated it. Always appreciate that.

Um, and, uh, yeah, so, uh, with that, I'll adjourn the work session here at 9:01. We're just going to take a very, very short break Can we do this in 2 minutes? 2-Minute, 120-second break before we move on into our special meeting. I would. I am getting more cake.

That is good cake. It was really good.