2026 NSB Mayoral Candidate Forum

Evening. Stay tuned for that.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Frank Paiuk Damiano. On behalf of the Rotary Club of Barrow New Voke, welcome to the 2026 North Slope Borough Mayoral Candidate Forum. Thank you to everyone joining us here at the Barrow High School auditorium, everyone listening on KBRW, and everyone watching online. Tonight's forum is an opportunity for our community to hear directly from the two candidates for mayor of the North Slope Borough under the same format and the same timing rules.

Please rise.

Tonight we're going to have students of Barrow High School recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Inupiaq.

Ata'wsi nina'rot nina'amerikami. Kuchikso'ge lu'vulu. Aangalaa'chi'net. Sibu'neri'ronga. Ata'wsi rot nina'pukkaunaptaaniigarem.

Ilawataneni'chot. Ata'neri'kakto'ot. So'li aangalaa'chi'kakto'ot. Ativlu'ich Inu'ich. 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.

We are pleased to have the sisters Marina Catherine Herrmann and Callie Alicia Herrmann, who will lead us singing the Star-Spangled Banner a cappella.

And the home of the brave. Thank you, Marina and Callie. Please remain standing as Pastor Darryl Serino offers tonight's invocation. Pastor Darryl.

Right, let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to sit here and to listen to these leaders express their goals and visions for the snowslope and the communities, uh, the people here. I pray that you bless them both, give them wisdom to answer. Lord, I pray, God, that you would raise up godly leaders in our villages, Lord, to lead our people, Lord. Thank you so much for the men that have, in the past, led these communities, Lord, and not only been an example physically, Lord, but also have been an example spiritually, Lord.

We thank you for all of your blessings, God. We are blessed to live here, uh, in this North Slope region, and you have prospered the people here. And you have supplied so many needs, Lord, year after year. One of the greatest needs that we have right now is godly leadership, Lord. And so we pray for this election coming up, Lord, that you would just empower our leaders, Lord, through your Holy Spirit, God, to make wise decisions, to pave the way for our young people and to establish a future for this North Slope.

Built upon the precepts and principles of your word. God, we thank you and praise you for the accomplishments of these leaders, Lord, already in, in office, Lord, past, and, uh, Lord, present. And we just pray, Lord, for the future leaders, Lord, that you're going to rise up, or that you bless them, Lord, with that heart to follow you, that humble heart to seek you with all of their being, Lord, to, to know which way to go. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you, Pastor Darrell.

So again, good evening. The Rotary Club of Barrow-New Book is pleased to welcome you to tonight's forum. We thank the North Slope Barrow School District and Barrow High School for making the auditorium and its technical facilities available to us, and KBRW for carrying tonight's forum over the radio. We also thank everyone working behind the scenes to make tonight's broadcast possible. Our two candidates this evening are Harry K. Brower Jr. and Josiah Alaksarak Potkatuk.

Gentlemen, thank you both for participating. Tonight's purpose is not to tell anyone how to vote. It is to give the community an opportunity to hear directly from both candidates, consider their responses, and make their own informed decisions. Throughout tonight's forum, I will address our candidates as Mr. Brower and Mr. Potkatuk. Both candidates may be known to members of the community by different titles and honorifics.

Using the same form of address for each is simply a consistent and respectful moderator convention. Before we begin, I will briefly, briefly explain tonight's format. There will be no audience questions during the forum. We also ask everyone here in the auditorium to hold applause until the conclusion of the evening. This will allow both candidates to speak without interruption and help maintain the same environment for each candidate throughout the forum.

Tonight's format follows the timing rules provided to the candidates in advance. Each candidate will have up to 3 minutes for each response to tonight's questions. For opening and closing statements, each candidate will have a separate period of up to 3 minutes for an Inupiaq translation, either personally or through a translator. The timer will reset for each separately timed period. Unused time does not carry over from one period to another.

The countdown timer will be visible throughout each timed response. It begins in white. When 1 minute remains, it turns yellow. When the allotted time minutes expire, the timer turns red and begins counting upward to show the amount of overtime. When time expires, I will ask the candidate to conclude.

If response continues to approximately 30 seconds over time, I will intervene more firmly so we can move forward and preserve equal treatment and timing throughout the forum. Tonight's initial speaking order was determined by coin toss immediately before the forum, and the candidate responding first will alternate with each successive round.

The coin toss— it will be Ms. Potkotok will give tonight's first opening statement.

So starting, Mr. Apodkatak, you have up to 3 minutes for your opening statement in English. You may start now. Good evening, Frank, and to the Rotary Club for the work in putting this together. And I want to thank my opponent for coming out and participating in this opportunity for the voters.

Can you hear me, Aka? Okay, sorry.

Master their Inupiaq culture while navigating the demands of the Western world and our cash economy before us. And for those that don't know, I've had the humble opportunity and responsibility as serving as your borough mayor over the last 3 years, with self-determination and local control at the forefront of all of the decision-making that we have done. And all of this is in order to honor and serve our older generation and give real opportunities and hope to our younger generation so that in every community on our great North Slope, those people will want to lay the foundation for their future right here at home. The rest of the evening, I intend to lay out the job that we've done so far and make a case to you all that I should have the opportunity to continue this job for the next 3 years. Koyina.

We will now allow up to 3 minutes for Nanupiaq translation of a statement of your opening statement.

I mixed them together, Frank. Thank you. Okay. Wow, quick. Good.

Mr. Brower, you now have up to 3 minutes for your opening statement in English.

Frank in the Rotary Club for putting this on, the mural event. So thank you. My name is Harry Brower Jr. I live here in Barrow, married to my wife Laura Brower. We've been together for 41 years.

I'm the son of Harry Brower and Harry and Annie Brower. My wife's parents, Kathleen and Daniel Originally from Point Hope, but moved to Barrow many years ago. So thank you again for bringing this on.

My wife and I have 4 children here, raised in here in Barrow.

Joanne, Unatuwa, Tirza, Brower, married to Martin Everton. We have Justin Nukupiak Brower and then Sadie Nukupiak Brower. We have multiple grandchildren, so it's been quite the task raising children and grandchildren in the same time. But in regards to why I'm Since showing interest campaigning for mayor, has been a call by many from the outlying villages and some from Barrow too. The problems that are identified through the areas of concern were in regards to alcohol and drugs in the outlying villages, the problematic areas they're causing to the community members, which is something that causes disruption for education and family life.

Thank you.

So we'll now allow up to 3 minutes for an Inupiaq translation or restatement of your opening statement.

So our first question goes to you, Mr. Brower. If elected, what will your goals be as the North Slope Borough Mayor?

I think that our community stands for itself. Frankly, it's been my goal to make sure that unity in our communities is foremost. We see division at times, but I think that's something that we need to keep in touch with, touch bases with, believing in God, having faith, to making sure that we're all in the same unity in the community. In my first year of being mayor in 2023, we made a significant investment to support the well-being of our residents across the North Slope.

We've made strides, but I feel we have become stagnant.

In my final year, my team restored the fire department's accreditation.

We strengthened the search and rescue with the new offices equipment coordinators in every community. We greatly expanded behavioral health services with more clinicians hired and additional positions being added. Soon we will also have a new in-region inpatient voluntary treatment center that it began discussions in the in back of 2019.

Our seawall is finally being constructed here in Barrow. Thank God for that.

In many final years, in 2023, I also created a police coverage in our community.

Partnered with ICES in cultural sensitivity training.

We created our trilateral with ASRC and ICES back in 2021.

We also empowered the villages with self-funding. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Patak, you have up to 3 minutes to respond, same question. Thank you, Frank, for the question. When I, when I get sworn in, I plan to continue to build on the success that we've seen in the last 3 years, maintain the momentum in all the departments that we've worked very hard to bring up to snuff. Aside from the day-to-day work in the borough, we've identified, me and my team, 100 strategic priorities, more than 100, across all of the borough departments, whether it was to physically, literally clean up environmental messes with our environmental management team, where we have seen a massive investment in getting that work done.

We've employed many people across the slope to do it, and we've cross-trained them to make sure they have the skills to do so, whether it's remodeling or rebuilding our infrastructure, the social services work in the health department, whether it's behavioral health for the youth, but also for the adults in the community. We restored veterinary services made available to all community residents across the slope, even down to making sure that there's funding available for our CIS projects. When they were running that and I inherited it, they were being asked to serve rice and beans to the kids over at the CIS, and due to lack of funding— and that is no longer going to be the case since I've been in charge, and as I continue to work as the borough mayor. In addition to that, with the housing department, we've established more than half a dozen programs that meet the real needs of the residents based on the feedback and work that we did through our housing summit early on in my term.

And last but not least, I plan to continue to strengthen the relationship with the North Slope Borough School District. Uh, there was a time at, at at one point when the North Slope Borough was ready to sue the North Slope Borough School District over funding issues. But since I've been in place, that relationship has flourished. I think those listening and those here in the building that have school-age children like I do see the results of that when your kids come home from school. I plan to maintain and embolden and protect our way of life, and we do that through various departments in the borough, but more specifically the Planning Department, IHL-C, and the Wildlife Department.

Whether it's for our permitting, where our Title 18 and 19 powers are kept intact to make sure industry doesn't slip anything through the cracks. We've been doing cultural workshops in all of our communities with partnership with the Village Trilaterals, and we've expounded Inupiaq language programs that are vibrant in our schools. And I believe we just had a very successful Elders and Youth Conference this last week that highlighted that none of this is possible without strong financial management and stewardship of the borough resources. I've been able to work with my team in the assembly to establish record-level operating budgets, not only for the North Slope Borough but also for the school district. But in addition to that, we've leveraged to make sure that we can have record-level capital budget.

Gone are the days of Band-Aid capital budgets that barely keep things running. We've established $600 million worth of projects that have gone out over the last 3 years. And all of this is in pursuit of making sure what I mentioned earlier, our younger generation has the opportunity to please write that out of life, etch out a life here on the North Slope, and our moms can spend time with their great-grandchildren with those opportunities in the community. Queen. Thank you.

So our second question turns from overall priorities to the challenges facing the borough and how each candidate would address them. What are the borough's top challenges and how will you address them if elected? Mr. Patakatak, you have up to 3 minutes to respond. Thank you, Frank. Mr. Patakatak, for the record.

I think there are 3 things that are the main pillars of what our residents are looking out for. It's affordability of living, and I'll go into detail on that. It's making sure that hardcore drugs aren't scourging our families, and it's to make sure that outside influences are controlled and that whatever comes to our doorstep, we're, we're not just sitting at the table, but we own the table. So as far as affordability goes, me and my team have put together education and training opportunities, not only formal where we fly students, whether they're in high school or young adults, out for training opportunities. We also bring contractors into the community and have them teach kids different skills— welding, small home building, etc.

And we've done something different as far as employees, both in the fire department, housing department, and public works, roving across all the communities so that they can see how the different communities function at those service levels. And it's those 30- and 40-year-olds, the men and women that are in the bulldozer, that are driving the ambulance, They're setting the example for those 17- and 18-year-old kids that are fresh out of high school to show them that you can do this, you can run your community and earn a good living while doing it. And I think another aspect of affordability obviously is the cost of living. Not only have we expounded different subsidies for fuel, for power generation, for shipping, but we've done it in a way that is not a handout, it's a hand up to where we want to help you succeed and carve out that living here in your hometown. And that's also why my team and I have put together the ordinance a couple of months ago waiving all personal property taxes for all residents.

So in tax year 2027, you shouldn't see a single request for property tax payment as long as you get your exemption form turned in, and those will be made available to the public here shortly. As far as the hardcore drugs go, we've done extensive work with the Police Department making sure that we have 24/7 coverage in all of our communities where we've brought in 2 officers, not just 1, for every community. We've made sure that they've done cultural training with ICASS. The first group of officers to come out of that just happened in the last month. We've doubled down on drug interdiction where not only did we have the Drug Enforcement Agency MOA, but now In the last 3 years, we've established a Postmaster General MOA where we have our officers screening the mail sorting facility in Anchorage to make sure that drugs aren't coming into our communities.

We've also secured an MOA with Homeland Security to make sure that we have strong partnership with the federal government on cracking down on these hardcore drugs in our communities. Lastly, outside influences, whether it's the state, the federal government, or the industry. We need to lead with self-determination and local control, and we rely on the leadership within the communities to elevate their voices to make sure that we establish that ownership of the table, not just sitting at the table. Huiyinak.

Huiyinak.

Mr. Brower, the same question. You have up to 3 minutes to respond.

Thank you, Frank. I think the reduction in transportation costs and improved access to commercial communities and natural resources is an important issue for the borough. There is a need for both permanent and seasonal roads in, in the development of the North Slope borough.

Instead of building roads through the, through the current administration, it was wasting millions in, in cost litigation with industry while the borough profits are in at a high time. Borough revenue is great, so why are the services we tasked with providing not being delivered and achieved.

We must continue the transportation improvement that will lead to a lower cost of living and improved access to our communities and responsible development of natural resources that our future depends on.

My administration will start construction— constructing roads immediately. Thank you.

Our final question is intentionally broad and gives each candidate an opportunity to identify important issues that may not already have been addressed tonight.

What are the other critical issues that the borough faces, and if elected, how will you address them? Mr. Brouwer, you have up to 3 minutes to respond.

The job of the North Littlebourne Borough mayor is the North Littlebourne to define the interests of our 8 Inupiat communities, protect our ancestral lands, and safeguard our culture, cultural traditions. Subsistence, the ability to care for ourselves and our families, is one of the most traditions The environmental extremists seeking to stop all development of our oil and gas in our region are trying to rob my people of our rights to self-determination. We must provide the services that are promised. Nepotism creates and overexposition are clouding our mission. This will end.

This will stop after my election, if I'm elected. Thank you.

Kwee Nak.

Miss Patak, the same question. You have up to 3 minutes to respond. Thank you, Frank, for the question. Uh, in regards to other important things that I believe our residents are really looking out for. And first, I think it's important that we share that under my administration, we haven't lost a legal battle with oil and gas since I took place.

As a matter of fact, we reversed a few of the issues that I inherited as far as reducing the tax payment from industry to the borough. We made sure that that was made whole and increased. The borough has a record assessed value now, from $23 billion to $34 billion, more than $10 billion added to the assessed value, which at the end of the day boils down to more resources made available to our residents. And I believe one of the things that has been a hallmark of my administration, and it's— the proof is in the pudding— in each of your communities you either have heard or are seeing infrastructure being majorly renovated or rebuilt. I believe infrastructure is the main pillar of the affordability and quality of life for all of our residents and all of our communities.

Gone are the days of minimum funding. When I took office, I asked the borough as an organization to kick everything into high gear and to make sure that we can thrive for the next 30 years, all for the point of making sure that our next generation has hope an opportunity to want to live in our communities and practice their traditional way of life while at the same time dominating on the Western world as far as economics go. That opportunity for homegrown young men and women to run the infrastructure that we build in our communities. We'll make sure that we'll train you on how to run the vac station, how to run the power plant, how to build your home, how to work on your kanitscha, how to s'masik the loaders, the trucks, garage doors, the boilers. As long as you can apply yourself, you don't be scared to fail, and you will fail, you'll slip up, but you need to get up when people want to knock you down again.

You need to get up and get back at it and keep on keeping on. And so making sure though those opportunities are available to all of our residents. Across the slope to provide for themselves. Thank you, Frank.

Koyaanisqatsi both. We have now completed tonight's 3 questions, and we will give each candidate an opportunity to make a closing statement. Each candidate will have up to 3 minutes in English, followed by a separate period of up to 3 minutes for an Inupiaq translation or restatement of the closing statement. Spaut Kitak, you have up to 3 minutes for your closing statement in English.

My job as mayor over the last 3 years has been to manage the borough and its finances, be a wise steward over what God has placed in our hands and give us the opportunity to do. And we do all of that, as I mentioned at the beginning, to inspire hope, provide opportunities for a quality of life that's rooted in our Inupiaq values for all of our generations that are living now But most importantly, the ones to come in the future. I'll say that all of you here in the room, all of you listening on the radio or even on Facebook, that I'm gonna need your help with that mission. Just like we do in whaling, not one man can do the job. Somebody's gotta establish and go out and do it though, with a team helping in all of the different subject matters of the borough.

So I would ask you all to go out and vote next week on Tuesday, October 6th. And as a friendly reminder, my name is Josiah, and I approve this message. Kika sivun mukta. Not for me, not for you, but for our future generations. Huyina.

We'll now allow up to 3 minutes for an Inupiaq translation or restatement of your closing statement.

Mr. Brown, you have up to 3 minutes for your closing statement in English.

Again, thank you, Frank. I think it's important to reflect on some of the past accomplishments that we had within my administration at the Times. But I think to focus on more serious issues are the education factors that we have to identify within our North Slope Borough School District. We need to continue assessing the, the grade valuations at each level. I've seen that in, in just from reading on what grade averages are within the North Slope Borough School District.

It's improving, but it was at its lowest point several years ago. It made some strides in making improvements to the education of our students. I think that we need to continue promoting that for our students, working with our students to making sure that they're comprehending the English language in ways that it becomes more important. Too much of the new technologies have been applied and carried out or carried forward. The problem areas that are only increased, even though the new technologies is a plus, we must also consider how to evaluate the effects of learning through, through the new tools.

I think the, the borough has provided resources to the school district in outlining higher education providers, ilisalvik, kakinawik, to help with the problem that we've been identifying over the years. Thank you.

We'll now allow up to 3 minutes for Nanupiaq translation or restatement of your closing statement.

It's something that I have to continue to promote. It's something that helps the community. Mr. Brower, in Nanupiaq, please.

Thank you. Kweinak.

That concludes the 2026 North South Flower Mayoral Candidate Forum. On behalf of the Rotary Club of Barrow, New Book, thank you to Harry K. Brower Jr. and Josiah Alaksarakpaktutak for participating and sharing their views with the community this evening. Ladies and gentlemen, please join us now in thanking both candidates.

We also thank— we also thank Marina Catherine Herman and Callie Alicia Herman, Pastor Darryl Serino, the high school students, the North Slope Borough School District and Barrow High School itself, KBRW, our Rotary members and volunteers, and everyone who joined us here in person over the radio, and online. We hope tonight's forum has provided useful information as voters consider the choices before them. Thank you for participating in this community event. On behalf of the Rotary Club of Barrow-New Book, kweinak, good night and safe travels home.