Assembly Work Session of April 10, 2025

Okay, we'll go ahead and call to order the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly work session of Thursday, April 10th, 2025, at— what do I have— 6:39 PM, and we are in the assembly chambers. The first item we have is citizens' comments. The local number here is 907 486-3231, and the toll-free number is 855-492-9202. And I ask that you please come up and sign in, turn the microphone on, and direct all comments to the assembly as a, as a body, not to any individual thereof. And We'll begin.

Who would like to come up and speak first? Sure.

You might have to turn that thing on, Jason. There would be a green light that comes on. Push the button. All right. How much time do I have?

3 Minutes. Okay, I'll try to make it, make it fast. All right, thank you, Chairman Art and Assembly members. For the record, my name is Jason Bond.

I have served on the Service District 1 board for the last year and a half and was recently selected as vice chair. I have 3 items to speak to you and will attempt to get it done as quickly as possible. I'm a hunting guide and I'm leaving for the field soon. I won't be back and I'll miss the rest of your meeting, so I'm trying to squeeze it all in. Proposed change for Ordinance 415040-A7, that's the vacancies.

This proposal reduces missed board meetings by a member from 3 to 2 and does not provide for a formal excuse by the chairman, which I think is a little bit weird. Uh, this is unnecessary for the Service District 1 board. It places undue stress on its volunteers. Last time I checked, there aren't too many folks who are volunteering these days. Our board doesn't have a problem reconvening when a quorum is not met.

I believe 6 or 7 of our board members We have— are currently self-employed and already juggling many responsibilities a normal 9-to-5er doesn't have. For myself, I'm seasonally out of town and will surely miss a meeting or two while in the field from April to May and September to December.

Ordinance 415040C is termination if the board fails to meet for 2 consecutive quarters. This isn't necessary. Engaged board members are kept up to date between meetings. That's not an issue. It's fairly simple to make decisions concerning the upcoming year's work and call a meeting when a non-scheduled issue arises.

As stated, these are volunteer positions compromised— comprised of self-employed folks who are already living very busy lives or seasonally making a living.

41507A calls for quarterly meetings. Service District 1 has no issues calling for a board meeting when any one of its members feel it's necessary. Contrary to belief, this board is fully functioning and up to date with as little as one meeting per year. I understand you all have heard from a couple disgruntled Service District residents, um, uh, their complaints. The board was made aware of these complaints very early and unanimously agreed to action when time, money, and resources allowed them to do it.

This appears to be— this could be possibly a knee-jerk reaction to these complaints and likely a surefire way to disincentivize future volunteers.

I have a spreadsheet here that I'm going to skip over because I only got 30 seconds.

Keep in mind that all the service district work, and it takes money, availability of a contractor, weather, and a chairperson or board member willing and able to communicate the scope of work and provide quality assurance to the project. This entails consistently driving the roads to recognize required work, discussion with contractors, ensuring financial scope, communicating to the board, communicating with residents when required, working with the contractor, and providing quality assurance. Add all of this for every project— I got 5 more seconds, sir. Add all this for every project and then add driving the roads at 3:00 and 4:00 AM to make decisions on snowplow and sanding requirements all winter. The amount of volunteer effort and personal cost is off the charts.

For this reason, the board has unanimously agreed on a request to increase the $400 monthly stipend to $800. Keep in mind, the $400 stipend was put in place over 10 years ago and has not increased since. As a resident of Service District 1, which I am, it's the least I can do to ensure the person taking responsibility for our road maintenance is doing so with their vehicle costs covered— fuel, tires, shocks, brakes, etc. In addition, this stipend also provides the board a mechanism to hold that person accountable for the responsibilities that they volunteered for. With that, I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you.

And I would love to answer any questions that you might have about Service District 1. Thank you, Jason.

Anyone else wishing to come forward, please do at this time.

My name is Fred Roberts. I'm a board member of the Bayview Service Road District, and I got a comment on the proposed changes To 4.15.040 vacancies and 4.15.070 meetings quorums, there's some changes here and none of them really make any sense whatsoever. I've been on this board for at least 25 years, maybe a couple years more. We don't need any changes. What we have has worked just fine for at least the past 25 years.

There's never been an issue like this to come up. It's not broken, don't mess it up. So that's my comment. Thank you, Fred.

Okay, go ahead. Good evening, members of the assembly. My name is Mike Sarovchuk. I'm a member of the Service District 1 board. I'd like to point out that I'm an elected member of the Service District 1 board, and where it says seats will be terminated and vacated if the board fails to hold a meeting for 2 consecutive quarters, It seems to me terminating and vacating elected seats is pretty dangerous territory, and I think you may be venturing into a territory you shouldn't be in.

One wonders if it's even legal to do so. I'm not a lawyer, I don't know, but I think, uh, that's not a good idea. I think missing two consecutively held meetings but not being able to be excused for meetings doesn't recognize the realities of Kodiak, Alaska, travel, weather. There are a number of reasons that members sometimes can't make it to meetings. So I think that that's unfair, and certainly to not allow the chairman or the district board itself to vote on whether or not to excuse an absence seems to me very unfair also.

Jason mentioned that at our last Service District 1 meeting We, uh, passed a resolution to increase the stipend of the chairman, and he listed a lot of the stuff that our chairman is doing— the hours, the vehicle wear and tear, and so forth. That money, of course, comes out of the Service District 1 budget. It would not affect the Borough Assembly budget in any way. So it seems to me that that's something that we hope you will support. Um, there was something else I wanted to say, but it went away.

So, oh, I know what it is. Um, if, if some people have been upset because we don't hold meetings, I can speak to personal experience with residents of the service district who came to me with some reservations about some work that was being done. And I contacted Scott, and we got together with the residents and worked out those those issues. And that's happened more than once. So there don't have to be meetings for residents to contact service district representatives and for us to work with the chairman and so forth to try and resolve those issues.

So I'm not sure quarterly meetings necessarily are, are necessary when we are doing our best to meet the needs of the service district residents outside of the meetings. So thank you. Thank you, Mike. Anyone else wishing to come forward or call in, please do so at this time.

Hi, my name is Andrew Finke. I'm here with my wife Bernadette de Plazes. We are here to encourage you guys to give us the easement so that we can do the work on near the shoreline of the Russian River near our property at 522 Lita Street in Bell's Flats. Bernie has been working tons with the Corps of Engineers, NRCS, the State of Alaska Fish and Game about all of the work we can get so that we can get permits to do this work. And it all comes down to us having right to use the land, which is this easement that we're trying to get.

Without that, we can do nothing. So we are just here to try and move things along so we can try to protect our property from washing away from changes in the Russian River. Thank you very much. Thank you, Andy and Bernie. Thank you for both coming.

And planning it for the assembly's information, Planning and Zoning Commission met at their work session last night, and that was gone over. So— and it'll be in the manager's report.

By the looks I got, I can tell.

So with that, any phone calls? Oh, Joe?

Hi, Joseph Delgado. I'm here to say that I'm in favor of, and I'm happy to see that the electronic participation for the mayor and assembly members is on your agenda. Agenda. I think that the more people that you have taking part in this, the better results you'll have, and we'll be able to get a lot more different views if you can get some of the village people to start to participate. So thank you guys for that.

Anyone else wishing to come forward under citizens' comments? Any phone calls? Seeing none, we'll move on. First item is, uh, introduction of Emergency Management Manager Rich Gonzalez. Amy, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Unfortunately, our new emergency manager is at a structure fire and has been since this afternoon, so I'm unable to introduce him to you tonight unless he suddenly walked in, and I have— no, I have not. So, uh, in the packet tonight, you're going to see an example of the weekly sitrep that Rich is putting out. It's the blue on the second pages of this item. Then also attached to your packet is a memo that he wrote giving you a summary of what he's been up to since he started at the beginning of the year.

And we will try to reschedule him for a different work session where you can actually come in and ask him questions. Thank you. With that, we'll move on to second one, which is vision statement for Plan 2045. Comprehensive plan. Staff report, Amy.

Thank you. Plan 2045 is the name of our comprehensive plan that we're currently working on. Community Development Department is working with the Planning and Zoning Commission to come up with a vision statement that would be appropriate for the 2045 plan. They had some good drafts. I recommended to staff that it comes forward to the assembly so the assembly could be a part of the process.

What planning and zoning passed is in your packet tonight. However, on page 8 of your manager's report, there is a submission by Assemblymember Griffin that I think is an easier place to start the discussion. It's shorter and kind of meets the description of what a vision statement is a little bit better than what's in your packet. But what should—. What page?

Page 8. Thank you. Uh, and Chris is here, uh, back there if you have questions about it. So the idea behind this is that it is supposed to be a statement that inspires us to move forward over the next 20 years, and there are all kinds of different, uh, setups and values listed in different communities throughout the state of Alaska. I think you'll see both the one that Chris has in and the one that Assemblymember Griffin wrote have a lot of good qualities.

I prefer the brevity of Assemblymember Griffins, but that's up to you. And this doesn't have to be decided tonight with only 4 assembly members present, of course, but it's something that I'm hoping that we can start talking about and come up with something that makes sense. I think it's a good idea that we bring it up again, kind of a— kind of like a first, first round on it. Jared, I'd let you speak because I like the shortness of your yours much better. Sure.

So I will speak shortly about it. I really liked in the original vision statement that was distributed, I appreciated how it was very— it was historically grounded. I think it captures our community values really well. And there are a couple of kind of forward-thinking elements to it with the Coast Guard and our self-sufficiency, resilience, things like that.

My understanding of a vision statement is that, yes, it is shorter and it is very specific about looking to the future. At what date? What do we want to look like in 20 years? And so, yeah, so my version there I think takes all of the great writing done in the and the first draft just gets it down to something that's biteable and chewable for people. We can put this on a banner or a poster, and I think when people read it, they get the sense of what the vision is.

And so, yeah. So that was just my submission to the effort. Thank you. Any discussion, questions?

The only thing that I question a little bit and would basically put it in there for discussion later is the 7,500 years, the having that in here. I like the Supiak heritage, agree with the rest of it. That's the only question. In my mind. So we'll put it on a future agenda and bring it up again.

Amy? I was wondering if one of you would mind reading it so that if people are listening online, because it's not available. Thanks. Good point. You want to read it, Jared?

Sure. Let me take the gum out of my mouth. Okay. By 2045, Kodiak Island Borough is a thriving, resilient, and inclusive island community rooted in 7,500 years of Sugpiaq heritage, sustained by its maritime legacy and empowered by innovation, independence, and stewardship of its wild and rugged environment. Thank you.

All righty. Moving on, we'll go to— next item is discussion of Oscar Stock Design and Improvement. Staff report, Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I was asked to gauge the interest of the assembly regarding helping the city with a project they're looking at doing on Oscar's Dock.

The city of Kodiak is asking us to use funds from the Kodiak Island Borough's commercial passenger vessel fee collection. The project would be similar to the previous project that utilizes these funds to assist with the installation of the Portland Looz. I attached the email from Acting City Manager Josie Benke. The fiscal impact would be from Fund 278, where we keep our commercial passenger vessel fee. As of the 4th, we had $121,608.22.

I was able to speak with Assemblymember Johnson a little bit about this yesterday, and he gave me the handout that looks like this in front of you with the cost of the project. So they are looking at doing a steel building and an overhead— so it will be— Oscar's Dock will now be covered. And so the idea of using this money, the CPV money, would be that it would be for cruise ship passengers who lightered in and hit the floating dock there at the end of St. Paul Harbor and walked up. And while they were waiting to go on excursions, they would be able to wait under a covered area. And so I don't— the email says they are 35%.

This sheet says the costs are based on 100%. I am not exactly sure where they are or when this project would take place, but I wanted to talk to the Assembly and see if this is something they would be interested in using those funds on or not.

Discussion? Questions? Jared. Uh, yes, Madam Manager, can you, um, tell us about the commercial passenger vessel fee? Is this a restricted fund?

What are the restrictions, um, around this? How is it collected, etc.? Thank you. The commercial passenger vessel fee fund is restricted. Uh, it is a fee that the state of Alaska pays, uh, to the first 6 ports that a cruise ship is in when it's in Alaskan waters.

The fee goes half to the borough, half to the city. So we get— so if we have $121,000 since the last time we used it, the city also has $121,000 since the last time they used it, assuming, you know, an increase of the same amount. So it goes half to the city, half to the borough. That money is set up to improve the experience of the cruise ship, not necessarily the Always the cruise ship passengers, like Juneau did their big boardwalk and the whale statue, which was gorgeous, but they got in a little bit of trouble for using the money on some of that stuff. This is supposed to directly affect the experience of the cruise ship while they're in your port.

So because we often anchor, because the Oscar Dyson has priority at Pier 2, so a lot of— or if we have two ships here at once, which doesn't happen very often, but does happen. One of the ships is anchored, and so when they lighter in, they come into St. Paul Harbor. So it would be for their experience coming in there. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Thank you. So with— if this were to get installed, you know, it's a small fraction of the year that cruise ships would actually have people standing on that dock.

What would be any potential secondary benefits to the community for that structure? If any. Fixing nets. It is designed actually to be a net mending area.

Okay. A little discussion I'll throw in here. It says that this was— what was the date on the one from Josie? I don't— oh, March 27th. It says the city is currently at 35% design with improvements to Oscar Dock that would include a covered area for cruise ship passengers lighting into the water dock.

Current estimated cost is $1.3 million, and we have identified approximately $1 million in revenue from various sources. The borough has $121,000. New information handed out here. Puts the cost at $1,837,000. They do not have the money to start this, this year.

They're at 35% design. If we're going to be involved, we need to have some input potentially into that design. And the other thing is, I'd like to potentially save the money because this is not going to happen this year. And see if there's some other projects that they identify. I wasn't very impressed with what happened with the Portland LOOs.

And I questioned in the joint committee that the borough and the city had about those units freezing up, was told that would not happen. It has happened. There's been problems with them. They're out of commission more than they're in commission. So I definitely would want to see more information, but we have no— I have no idea what the design is on this and that.

But I'd also like to see what are the other options, because I can see right now at this estimate, the city and the borough would be saving for another 2 years to potentially get there on it. And so that's my input at this time. Any other discussion?

Steve?

Um, looking this over, I'm just— as a net maintainer, I Deck strengthening.

Is that because of cruise ships, or are we going to be able to say that? Are we saying the dock just— because the dock is a multi-use dock, so therefore is it—. It's definitely multi-use. Yes. And therefore, is it going to qualify, or are they going to want to say that a percentage should come out of— one fund and a percentage for cruise ships because it's only used by cruise ships, a small percent.

I think we are very safe with our $121,000. If this— I don't know what pot of money the city is using for what, but I think that just like with the Portland Loup installation, ours was a very small percentage. We—. Our money just went for installation. So if we were using that as percentage of cruise ship passengers, I think we'd be safe with that too.

Thank you.

Jared. Thank you.

So I agree, if we are going to put some money into this, then yeah, we should be part of the process too. If we don't spend—. What do—. What have we usually spent this money on? We spent a little over $240,000 on the Portland Loo project.

I— and that's the only thing since I've been in this job. I don't know if there was anything before that or not.

Dora is not here. She would be the one we would have to ask. Scott? Do we use it in part for the narration at the tank in the Fishery Research Building? We use our accommodations tax for that position.

Thanks. Yeah, I mean, as is, I don't think I can support this either. It's incomplete information from the city. I agree with that based on what we're looking at here, that the money's not there. I am receptive to the project if it would provide some cover for our harvesters to work on their gear.

I'm sure at some point they get tired of getting rained on, but— With this extra half a million dollars unaccounted for in the proposal, then yeah, there's no way I could support it without more information. Would you be interested in this coming back to the assembly once we're closer to figuring out the funding source?

Or with design. There's nothing here. Or see all of the above. Yes. Or see all of the above.

Yes. Scott. Yeah, I'd like to see us involved in part of the design stuff, maybe participating in 65% level, and also have a better, clearer understanding on where the funding is coming from. Okay, thank you. With that, we'll move on to the next, which is the FY 2026 budget review for several general fund departments.

And a special revenue fund. Staff report, Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We're going to start tonight with information technology, uh, and then— so Fred is here— and then after that, uh, Chris will come up for community development where we'll cover community development, the building official, economic development, parks and recs, and emergency preparedness, along with animal control. And finally, Sima will come up and we'll go through assessing.

Good evening, Fred. Good evening. Just kind of walk through it line by line. Yeah. Do you want line by line?

Yes. Well, I— so yes, Fred, but it doesn't have to— you don't have to go through every salaries over time like that. Yeah, understood. Yeah, um, when it comes to the salary section, basically nothing's changed from last year other than the normal rate increases, steps that we— that occurs. Um, uh, when it— the next line item is 430.140, the contracted services.

Uh, that is a— that's a budget that we use for paying for contractors to augment our skill set when it comes to performing different work at the borough in the IT department. Also certain— they're called MSPs. So in other words, service providers. Sometimes you're required to go through them in order to make changes, such as our Mimecast, which is our email archiving system. For example, if I wanted to make a change with that, we're actually required to go through a service provider, which incurs costs.

So that's what that line items for. Office supplies, nothing's changed there. That's there for your miscellaneous office supplies. Operating supplies mainly comprises our backup tapes for our backup system, which they can be spent because we're backing up about 12 terabytes a shot. So they're about $25 a tape.

The next item is— For computer software less than $5,000, this is mainly for software such as Adobe Acrobat that we use for KABE staff, um, you know, the monthly cost for that, those sort of things. Um, Canvas or Canva for our creative side for community development, things of that nature. Um, next item is COVID-19 expenditures. I don't see that that would change. Excuse me, no, that's zero.

Printing and binding is basic for when we want to put together a proposal, you know, for us to cost— the cost incurred for you want to go to take— go to printer and get things bound. Excuse me. Next item is furniture fixtures. That is— excuse me— that is for office chairs for the staff. We don't have any ergonomic chairs, so I put in a budget for 4 chairs.

How much a chair? About $800. Okay, just verifying that. Yeah, thank you. Um, next item is machinery equipment less than $25,000— excuse me, less than $5,000.

This is essentially our line item for things like monitors, hardware for the computer renewals. Industry standard is to renew basically a quarter of your systems a year, once every 4 years. So this represents about 10 PCs, monitors, mice, that sort of thing.

The next item in the list is for staff training. I reduced that by quite a bit. Our staff has been pretty comfortable. They prefer doing online training, which is pretty economical. So I've, I've put that down from last year by quite a bit.

Um, next item is rent, which hasn't— I, I think that's a DORA question. I'm not sure how that changed from last year, but, um, rent is just sort of the normal amount. Telephone communications, excuse me, that is the cost for our GCI phone systems, you know, for to really get a hold of our staff. So that's like the desk phones, things of that nature. It also includes the The, uh, stipend for staff that require cell phones, so that's also built into that.

I noticed it was, um, $1,000. We're now going up to $6,000. Yes, uh, we're including in communications that includes the, um, the Bayside Fire Department. For example, they're expanding their, their ability to use their emergency systems and they decided to go with iPads as that route. Those require account— internet accounts, service accounts for that.

So that's, that's why that's increased.

Um, excuse me. Next item, maintenance repairs. This basically covers items such as we have a big industry-scale battery backup system in the server room. This covers things like controller. They have pieces that fail periodically.

You've got to replace it. So that's what this line item covers is repairs of that nature. Repairs for equipment in here, that sort of thing. The maintenance agreement, that's a big line item. It has a large number of— What that means is, and you probably remember from last year, maintenance agreements basically covers all of our software.

Software companies no longer sell you the software that you own. It's something that you pay on a yearly basis, right? And so this has quite a number of line items. I believe it should be in your packet. We can go over the list of those if you like, but it includes, it ranges from our main PACS, assessing, you know, tax assessing software, that's the older one that we're going to be deprecating.

It also includes the maintenance cost for the new one that we're— we have a big migration this summer in August that we're going to switch over to the new one. So it includes those sorts of costs. It includes our Office 365 subscriptions, that sort of thing. So there's— these are like monthly and yearly costs for the software that we run. One of the questions I'd have there is I remember in running two systems together on assessing software.

We are still, you could say that we're still running two systems because the entire migration, it's an 18-month, it's actually longer now. It was pushed off by 3 months. So it's about, yeah, almost 2-year process. So during that process, we are running both. Because the cost— there's cost for setting up the new system in addition to maintaining the old one.

That said, however, this does represent a reduction in the cost of the older system in that we are expecting to not have to continue to pay the support costs for that once we do migrate. So, um, that particular line item of the maintenance agreements is actually less from last year because I was looking at the '21, '22, '23 Average is about $250,000. Now we're going up to— '24 was $258,000. We budgeted for '25, the current year, $489,000. You're going down $466,000.

So you see these continuing. Yes, out there. Thank you. I thought Jared had his hand up. Any other questions?

Continue.

Scroll down a little bit here.

We're basically at the last item. It's a— it represents what I would consider enterprise hardware, which is a single server that we want to do. We get to upgrade our backup server. It's— that server is from 2016. It's quite old, and which is about $8,000.

And then the $50,000 of that line number is for to replace our existing enterprise storage. It's misleading to say that. This is basically the hard drives for all of our virtual servers. In other words, we don't use— we don't have 50 servers in our rack. We have 4, and then they all talk to this centralized storage.

And so it's high-performing, and it's— I consider it kind of the backbone of our of all of our systems, and the current one is end of life this summer in June, and they run about $50,000. Okay, and that's— it's kind of a one-time occurrence is where I'm going with that. Once every 6 years roughly, yeah. Yeah, because for the current year, budgeted $7,000, you know, and different years were zero. '21, '22, '23 Were zero.

'24 Was $61,000, so there was something major. In there then too. So thank you for that. Any questions of Fred?

Thank you, Fred. Thank you.

Chairs to go. Would you like this chair? Oh, fine. Thank you. It goes up.

Go up. Control. There it goes. That'll work just fine. Thank you.

Go ahead, Chris. Hey, good evening. Thank you. Uh, if we look at the, uh, salaries for Community Development Department, um, that has gone down a little bit from, uh, the 2025, uh, budget, primarily because we've done some restructuring. I think the manager's report items have talked about restructuring of the department.

We've— we had an associate planner position open up right at the beginning of fall of the 2025 fiscal year and unable to fill that position. So we looked at restructuring the department. We did some promotions of current staff, one to— from the code enforcement officer to associate planner enforcement. The other, the permit technician to assistant planner. We recently just hired a secretary position that will be the parliamentarian for the Commission and for the Planning and Zoning Commission and also for the Parks and Recreation Committee and will also do other activities to support the planners on staff.

And so we are doing a lot of training of our staff. So you will notice our training budget is the same this year, for this fiscal year, as it was for last fiscal year. We have a lot of training that we're doing with our promoted staff to kind of get them up to speed on planning activities and planning types of cases and reviews and things like that. So we're doing that. But overall, that budget went down slightly in amount based on, based on that restructuring of the department.

Um, overtime, we've increased slightly just because we anticipate as we ramp up more work on the comprehensive plan, there will be more evening meetings. For example, I think in the Manager's Report we have April 22nd for the Land Use and Housing Workshop. That will be an evening meeting that staff will be— we need all our staff to assist in terms of running those meetings. We will anticipate there will be more of those types of workshops as we go forward through the rest of FY25 into FY26 because our goal is to have the Comprehensive Plan ready by the end of the calendar year of '25. And let me get into here.

Cell phone stipend is the same as it was for last year. Uh, those unemployment taxes and all those things, uh, are things that finance gives us up through workman's compensation. In terms of contracted services, we've reduced that slightly. Last year we had $40,000 in there primarily for anything that we needed contracted-wise for the comprehensive plan. It turns out we only needed a small amount of that, and that was primarily for translation services to get the survey for hazard mitigation plan translated into Gaulic so we could have that for the community.

That's basically all we used it for. We anticipate we may have some more translation services for things that we do related to the Comprehensive Plan, especially since we may have some additional targeted surveys for that plan as well as we move forward. So but that has— Reduced by $10,000 in the proposal. The junk vehicle removal services remains the same as previous fiscal year. Same with litigation— or excuse me, with legal fees.

Those remain the same.

And office supplies also has stayed the same. Printing and binding for our Printing of the hazard mitigation report and eventually for comprehensive plan documents, all that remains the same as the current fiscal year.

Same thing with dues, books, periodicals, primarily those pay dues related to American Planning Association for our planners on staff.

The furniture allotment remains the same as previous fiscal year and for Advertising and hearings, again, those pay for all of our required advertisements that we have to do for Planning and Zoning Commissions related to cases. That amount has remained the same as well as the current fiscal year. Filing recording fees, primarily title search fees, that remains the same. That happens every once in a while. We don't get a lot of those, but it's kind of a case-by-case basis that Code Enforcement will need to look up title report on something when they are doing enforcement actions.

Continuing education, as I mentioned earlier, remains the same at $20,000. That will be— you know, one of the problems we have is that right now the Alaska Chapter of American Planning Association is restructuring, so they don't have a lot of in-Alaska conferences. And so we are unfortunately having to go out of the state to do those. We hope as that gets restructured, and I am actually working with The Alaska chapter hopefully will get those going again maybe this fall. So if that happens, you know, we might be able to reduce that budget for next fiscal year.

Let's see here.

And then for travel per diem, we added $10,000 in there primarily for— and this will be a one-time thing. We are doing that for the comprehensive plan work.

Asked by multiple villages within the borough to come out there and work with them on the comprehensive plan update specifically to their communities. We do know after some, you know, recent cases that we've had in some of the villages that we do need some work on both their future land use map but also their zoning maps in, in, in those areas. And so that's something that we, that we feel is needed to make sure we go out in the community and engage and to get their feedback and assistance to make our Comprehensive Plan the best it can be. And Commissioner travel and training, we have reduced that primarily because in my, you know, first 2 years here, I have been trying to get the Commission to go to training and travel. And what we found is the only thing that really works with them is to do— is to purchase training and have training videos.

And show those at work sessions. And so those cost quite a bit less than what we have budgeted. So, you know, we recommended to reduce that budgeting for travel and training for the Commission. And let's see here. Telephones and rents, those, you know, are provided to us through Finance.

And then boards and commissions, again, that for the Planning and Zoning Commission who is paid, that is their stipends that they receive.

Any questions?

One of the things, Chris, that I would say— I'm— when you talk about contracted services, I'm in favor of keeping that down even lower than what you have. What I look at is the number of cases that the Planning and Zoning Commission has handled, the amount of activity that's been in Community Development. We need to be doing as much of this comp plan in-house that we can possibly do. And, and the only thing that I was looking at was, um, we keep getting asked about, in terms— and we'll see how it goes with this housing workshop— we keep being asked about doing a market analysis for housing and seeing kind of where we're— we have gaps in, in housing needs for the borough. And that would be the only thing that I could see that we would use money for other than for translation services.

So if we don't use that, then certainly it comes back. Yeah, it would come back and we wouldn't be using it. Yeah. Good. I just wanted to say that.

Any further? Bo? Thank you. It's nice to see that you are requesting some travel funds to head out to the villages. Just a favor to reach out to us when you do book those if you have an extra seat lead or two and maybe one of us can jump on board with you and head to the Villages.

Sounds great. Thank you.

Any other questions? Seeing none, we will move on. Amy. Okay. We are moving on to the Building Official.

Again, that is based on the current contract that we have and the manager's budget that is listed for $180,000 for that contract for building inspection services. Any questions?

Continue.

Which one you want to do? Next is Economic Development. Oh, good. We are both on the same page with that. For Economic Development, the funds we have in there primarily to do with dues for the For the Chamber of Commerce dues, that's what the $600 is in there for.

I'm seeing zero.

In dues, books, and periodicals, there's a $600 line item? Yeah.

Okay, I'm looking at economic development.

So we're in Fund 100, uh, Department 160, Economic Development. Oh, down, go down one. Okay, thank you. Yeah, no problem. And that's our annual membership to the Chamber of Commerce.

I just saw the Chamber of Commerce up there, and so I wasn't— that's why, rather than its contributions to them though. So thank you.

And then the Capital projects, there are $0 for next year. Good.

Next one. All right, the next is 100-172, which is Parks and Recreation, and some of that is going to be through, um, Engineering and Facilities, uh, in regards to maintenance and repairs and, uh as well as machinery equipment needs.

Do you have this page? You're saying the—. So this is a budget that sometimes our ENF director covers too. So in contracted services, we have $150,000 for the demolition and park install at Harlequin Court. That was the park that we decided that was most in need.

We also have $10,000 in machinery and equipment. That's for replacement of small association items out there. There are— there's one of those kid bucket things where you get to scoop up the sand, chains for the swings, things like that. In continuing education, there's $3,000. That's for for an inspection certification.

Patricia has that right now for our parks and playgrounds. There is also a travel and per diem budget of $1,500. That is the cost of the flight, hotel, and the test wire up in Anchorage to get that inspection. They have $5,000 in there under snow removal and sanding. That is for the bike path that goes through town.

And there is $25,000 in there for maintenance and repairs for single item replacement at all parks if we see things that need replaced. And then there is another $150,000 under 470.100 for machinery equipment over $5,000. That would be for the actual playground equipment at Harlequin Court.

Discussion? Questions? I would— I'm familiar with the park there, but one of the things that I think is going to take a little higher priority—. I did found it—. Is going to be the repair of the pool.

And I would rather wait on the budgeting of a playground until we determine later, after we've gone through things, on what we're going to do for funding of Cool. Amy? So attending the Parks and Rec Committee meetings, this is something that they really wanted to do, is to budget for one park a year and then hopefully ask for money from the state. Or, you know, sometimes we get a $50,000— how can you spend $150,000 from the state? I don't know if that's going to happen this year or not, but I mean, obviously we would love to see that kind of match money come from the state.

If it's the assembly's wishes, we can take out part or all of that. This is something I know Assemblymember Ledoux and others definitely wanted. So you guys tell us if you want to leave that in there or take it out. We're happy to update for level 2. It's one of the things that could be changed later, but I think we don't know what our big-ticket items are.

We know the pool is one of those.

I understand. So anyway, it's just going to— it's going to warrant further discussion either way. We're going to come back to it even if— even if I'm— we don't move on it here tonight, it'll definitely come back up. But because it's going to be one of those areas and looking for funds on there. So, so I'll highlight those items, Mr. Mayor, so that we have that hypothetical PIN to come back and look at those later.

Thank you. Any other questions on those? All right. Our next budget— Chris and I are back in sync. He is going to take over for the general fund for emergency preparedness.

So the main thing here would be under contracted services. We have $25,000 for tsunami siren maintenance. This is for road system replacement of batteries. And then also, $75,000 is in there for the new emergency coordinator, which is shared with the City of Kodiak. We also have information— money in the printing and binding for update of pamphlets and mitigation plan documents for the hazard mitigation plan and those documents for the implement portions of that plan.

We also have— there's in there machinery and equipment under 451.70 for $5,000. Again, that is for battery costs and moisture packs. That's probably something that ENF probably knows a little bit more about than I do in terms of what's going on there. And then same thing with— we have staff training in here for $7,500. That would be for ICS training and emergency management.

Training for staff, and that could include both for the coordinator position and also for the associate planner in CDD as well because they are part of that emergency management duties.

Any questions or discussion? There is one more item there under electricity and the increase you are seeing there is an increase that we're seeing for electricity costs out at the tsunami shelter in Juneau.

We got electric heat out there.

When I look at this, what we, what we have out there, Mr. Mayor, is if we flip the switch and leave the outlets on, on the outside of the building, people are using electricity from the outside of the building. So we just have to remember to keep that circuit off if we don't want that outside use. You're kidding me. Wow.

Any further questions or discussion? Steve?

Um, let's see, we haven't had really any actual costs in printing or machine equipment And what is it, travel for DNA or continuing education? Are we expecting an increase in this? Yes, sir, we are. With our new emergency manager, uh, Mr. Gonzalez, who you were supposed to have met tonight, who said he would stick around for this budget, um, yes, I— we're trying to make some room to share some of those costs with the city of Kodiak to get either him the training he wants or a secondary person My concern here is that if we put all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak, on our new emergency manager and we're not continuing to train other people around him, he's never going to be able to leave the island. And so, or at least safely.

So we're trying to make sure that some of that education gets spread around a little bit. Thank you for explaining. Mm-hmm.

Moving on.

Our next budget is Animal Control. Yes, and we have the, the animal control budget that was for that contract with the city for $156,930.

Continue. Okay, and then, uh, next budget is Fund 234, which is our local emergency planning committee budget.

Yeah, there's—. I, I don't know if we have anything really budgeted in there that we do that show a use of fund balance in there, but I don't really think we have anything budgeted for LAPC unless—. Let me say, it looks like you're just budgeting $21,000. We do have $20,000 listed in contracted services. Oh, and I believe— and that's probably something from Mr. Gonzales to go over, but I believe that was, uh, assistance for the update to the emergency operations plan.

When I did have a discussion with him, he did state that they would be looking to update that plan. Yes, our emergency operations plan hasn't been updated since 2018, so we're very interested in having some outside hands come in and help us and get us back up to speed. Thank you. Any other questions? Continue.

That is the end of Mr. French's budgets, and we will be moving on to the assessing budget with our assessor. Thanks, Chris.

Touch the ground, are they? Good evening, Sima.

So, uh, Sima's gonna look like she's not working as hard as Chris because she's just gonna go over one budget, but we saved the best for last. Yes, we do. Um, okay, so salaries for assessing went down, and that was mainly because we lost our two longest employees, long-term employees, and it does include another trainee or appraiser check for next year.

We did not have any changes in litigation fees or legal fees just because I'm gun-shy and I won't change that.

Office supplies 4 grand. Printing and binding— we send out all of the letters in-house for the business personal property, senior and disabled veterans, and that just keeps growing every year. So that budget keeps growing. Um, sorry, brought this for a reason.

Dues, books, and periodicals, um, are— that went down this year because the first 2 years that you have a new employee, they actually charge us less money for association dues. And then after 2 years, it'll go back up because then they'll be at—. After you train them, after we train them, yeah, they become more expensive.

Machinery and equipment is $1,500, and what that is for is we're getting these new updated measuring tapes, um, with all of the digital— yes, those digital tapes will also work with the new CAMA system that we're getting with Tyler. So just with some of the stuff that went on, you know our measuring, we decided that we would go with the updated.

Food business and lunch— last year when we traveled to the villages, the Kodiak Island Borough supplied all the lunches for the villages and stuff like that, so we did not budget for it last year, and so we put it in for this year. Advertising and hearings is Gonna go down, um, just because that's what we've been using. Title search fees, we did decrease that also. We, we have been using Waco this last 3 weeks, so we will get bills from them, but I think we can limit it to the $500. Travel and per diem Oh wait, sorry, continuing education.

So on these, we left it at the $10,000. So I'll have 3 new employees who will need to complete training. But looking at the AAAO and IAAO training classes, there are no in-person ones that we'll be sending anybody to, but we'll do a lot of online training this year. It's just a little bit cheaper.

Um, travel and per diem is the big one. In— I think attached to the agenda was a spreadsheet. We are going to only see villages this year, so in your packet was a breakdown of all of the properties by area that we were going to try and see. Um, so there's a total of 1,411 that we would like to go to this year. That some of that will be having to charter a plane and just do flyovers.

We're trying to see if we can, you know, just like get a GoPro to be able to take the, um, the pictures from the air. And if we can't attach, um, it will only be 2 employees going but, um, it's all going to be travel this year for us. So we put that at $25,000. I almost feel like I should put it at $30,000, but we'll go with what we got. Rent and telephone doesn't change for us, and I think—.

See how easy that was?

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] She even said that the manager can go to one of the introductory online classes for assessing, so I'm pretty excited about that because so many different worlds I don't know about. So I feel bad for her staff because I'll be sitting there with them learning.

Thank you. Any further questions or discussion? Seeing none. Thank you. Thank you.

So that is all the departmental level budgets that we have for tonight. In your packet tonight, there's also just some historical information about the Kodiak Island Borough mill rate, and there is information about the last 2 years of service area rates. So you can see the mill rates from fiscal year '25 and fiscal year '26. Let's take a 5-minute break, please. We lost our quorum.

[Speaker:DR. BROWN] We lost the core. [Speaker:DR. LINDSAY] And that should be all the budget, so. [Speaker:DR. BROWN] Thank you.

I always start again like I've done before because it's not about me anymore. It's all about you now. You have to learn that choice of action—. I know!

Scott, how is, um, Mary's family doing? Well, her mom gets more youthful. She's in love with Paddington Bear. No interest in that. No.

Norwegian, no. Huh. And she's 99? 97. 97.

Oh, wow. So that's kind of interesting. And then she, her brothers are both single and both about 65. And she exhausted her supply of conversation with both of them after 2 days.

Is she back now or is she still out there? She's still there. She'll be there till Wednesday. Okay. And then she's having all kinds of fun with Duncan's stuff.

So there was a, there was a a school board member in Western Alaska, at a school board in Western Alaska, and he was elected but he was convicted of domestic violence. And so he— but there is no legal way to get him off the school board, you know, he's on the school board. Except when his sentencing came up and they put him in jail, he missed his meetings, and that was the way to get them off. But legally, I mean, it's wild, isn't it, for something like domestic violence? Of course.

Well, you know, Sharafchuk brought this up, that it's dangerous to remove elected people, but there has to be a mechanism, and you have to be very, very careful. Yeah, I think for the school board, there is one other mechanism, like they can't be convicted of a crime that involves a child. I think that's in there. I think there is a— you have to go through a procedure. I can't—.

But there's still a procedure or something like that. It doesn't start until 2019. What's that? That the CPV tax doesn't start until 2019. Oh, okay.

So it's pretty darn new. Oh, all right. That's why I'm like, I don't know about anything that's ever used before because those are the only— that's the only thing I know we're gonna pick it up. We can generate lots of traffic. I'm curious how much revenue that brings to our community.

So it's—. Well, you have more insight into that than anyone. That's not going to answer your question, but we can share. But the, um, so community assign, um, head taxes. Um, and that's how Genoa built that boardwalk and they built everything.

They were doing $8 a person. They're getting 1.2 million passengers— or 1.2 million passengers a year. So they're, you know, bringing in $10 million, $11, $12 million depending on the year. So that all feeds back. Yeah, yeah.

Our $121 isn't going to go too far. No. Well, a dollar head. A dollar head is going to bring up $30,000. Yeah, exactly.

I saw that they've already canceled, 4 cruise ships have already canceled. Yeah, we went from 30 to 26. Oh, 2 more. Oh yeah, we're at 26 right now.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and reconvene the work session.

And let's see, Amy, you handed some stuff.

Yes, I did. I said the assembly now has a copy of that commercial passenger vessel fee tax. That tax did not begin to come into Kodiak until 2019, so that Project, the Portland Loo Project was the first and the only thing that we funded so far with that. Okay. Thank you.

Next item is Assembly review of the Manager and Clerk's performance evaluation forms. Jarrett.

Thank you. Yes, it is that time of year again, or it is getting there very closely. So I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the evaluation forms that we that we used last year, and I know that we have maybe some new eyes on the form, but Dave's not here. That's okay. So, I thought we'd use today to take a look at the form, see what works still, what doesn't work for us anymore.

We have about a month until the— is it the managers review, and then a couple weeks after that for, for the clerks. So my hope is to get some discussion and feedback today, and then we will discuss and decide and distribute at the next work session for the managers, and then kind of go from there. It gives you a couple of weeks to fill it out. My initial thoughts on the forms that we have now, generally I think they are good. I think they are fine.

I would like to see some— I sort of— this is probably like the 5th time I have used this phrase today, more forward-looking development sections.

Even like yesterday with the economic workshop. That's just—. Yeah. So either a section like an employee self-assessment or something for us to respond to what are our goals for the next year, what are the specifically areas for growth or something like that. I'd like to turn or add this kind of spirit of develop, helping our clerk and manager to develop themselves in, in the position.

So looking for ways to maybe invite more dialogue with the manager and the clerk on their evaluations, perhaps maybe some places for general impressions or a place for assembly members to make recommendations about contract renewal, about merit pay or merit increases, things like that. As far as the individual items go, I like these. I think we worked a lot. I think Scott worked a lot on these, and I like them.

But I will let y'all discuss and take some notes, and if I need to revise, then I can work with the clerk on putting something together for us next week. Scott, I like these two. I think they're pretty clear and everything. I also very much like the 3-point assessment. I think that's a heck of a lot better than the 10-point we used before.

Of the new ideas that Mr. Griffin has just brought up, I think self-evaluation is a really good one. I think that we should ask them to state what they think they're doing really good at and where they think they could use improvement. I think that's pretty straightforward.

Further discussion? Bo? I agree. It's— I like this system. I worked at Dr. Smiley, so I'm a little biased on the current format because this works well for me.

But I do think we— there is room for improvement as far as areas for professional growth. But I also agree that this leaves very little to no room for input from the folks we're evaluating. It should be a multidirectional process where we're soliciting input from those we're evaluating, factoring that into our eval, and then discussing with staff after that. So it could be potentially a 3-part process. But would there—.

There is— I don't know. So I suppose if it's not inappropriate, I would prefer to ask pose this question to the staff we're evaluating, see if they have ideas for us, if that's okay.

That's okay. Like on, on how to—. As far as—. Okay, let me—. Yeah, good.

Um, I suppose I, I should elaborate. Um, I'd be curious to know if Madam Clerk and Madam Manager have suggestions for us on better ways to evaluate that are more meaningful Um, it's one thing to know you're doing well, but it's a completely different thing to know where you can grow. And I like the idea of folks letting us know where they think they can grow. And that doesn't mean we don't need to view this as an area for improvement. An area for growth is something completely different than that.

But I'm curious, as far as the current format, does it give staff a a clear picture of their performance for the year. Is there suggestions for improvement for us? I would prefer to ask them how we can improve the process in addition to some great ideas that have been proposed already on this side.

Amy, I guess I let you go first. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, um, the scale of 3— either you're good and you get 100%, or you miss a point and you're fit, you have a D, right? And so I, like, I do everything depending on your scale, right? Academic, right?

Whatever. Um, so like, the numbers don't bring a lot to the table. What brings a lot to the table is the comments, for me personally. Um, and everyone wants a pat on the back to say, yeah, you did a good job. But like, the stuff that really is good is, hey, I, like, you were— I saw you were in this situation, you did this 'If you would have done this, it would have been better,' or 'It would have met the community's needs better.' Like, that kind of feedback is super helpful.

Um, as far as like, what can we tell the assembly that will help us do our jobs better? Um, I think the biggest thing that I struggle with is that there are 8 of you, and having 8— well, 7 assembly members, right, and one who acts like an assembly member. No, but having Having 8 bosses and having 8 directions, and it's not all— it's not 8 people every day, but different times throughout the year you are sent off in different directions because of different personalities and different wants. And so trying to be able to meet the needs of the assembly sometimes becomes hard because you don't— like, I can have someone come in and give me like, you will do this, you will do this, then I'm like, so whoever the DPO is, you can ask Scott and now Jared, I'll be like So this happened today, how would you like me to handle this? So it is nice to have that person that you come to.

I'm sure Scott misses all my phone calls.

So, but having that consensus just amongst yourselves on how direction is given to, and I think Nova will probably agree, right, on how to proceed. And I think those yellow sheets have really helped instead of, you know, when I do miss a meeting and I go back, I hear, well, we should talk about this and we should talk about this. And now I'll be like, was there a yellow sheet on that, because that kind of gives us direction and that really helps. I think that everybody in the assembly, when they have an issue, feels pretty comfortable coming and asking about it, and so that's great. And I hope that that continues, because without that, there's no way to gauge what the assembly actually wants.

So those random pop-bys when people are walking through the building are really helpful. But to bring it back to what we started with, I think the written comments and just You see the community different than we do, and so when you see things that maybe we're not seeing, that, that kind of feedback is really helpful.

I think it would be the same for me. The written comments, I sometimes I don't even pay attention to the numbers anymore. I focus more on the feedback coming from the assembly. That's what I focus on. And I think this is outside the, the evaluation process, but it would be nice if you have any questions as assembly members, it doesn't matter what time of the year it is, just come and talk to me.

I think that's more helpful to me than— or even before a meeting, you know, instead of holding off on certain things and then you blurt it out at at the public meeting, and then I try to follow up and I don't get a callback, or I don't get a conversation, or I can't get clarification on what was just said during a meeting. So I think that's very helpful to me. Thank you. Bo? Thank you for our pseudo evaluation.

That has been very helpful for me. Thank you though. Joking aside, that's very helpful. Thank you.

Steve, any comments? No, they've been asked. Jared. Let's talk about scores. I'm kind of torn on the scores.

I think scores can help.

I know that there are some certain assembly members that like that kind of objectivity with the scores.

The only way for me scores are useful is for comparison. And so like year over year. But if the mechanism changes, then those scores aren't useful at all. The scores by themselves, probably not very useful. I know I'm a teacher.

I hate scoring things. I like to just write notes and feedback and just let them work on from there.

And so I, from where I sit, I mean, I would be okay with getting rid of scores, except I think we still need a way to quantify as an assembly things like contract renewals, or not that really, but merit increases, or— salary increases. I think it would be difficult for the public to understand why we are taking action without some kind of measure like that. So I think the scores might be useful to us and we should do them and not so much worry about our staff. Yes. I am sorry.

Nova? If I may, I didn't— with my comment, I didn't want you to disregard the scores. I think they're helpful. It's just that I focus more on the comments because I take a lot out of the comments rather than just a number. That's what I meant.

Thank you. I would like you to leave those in the document. Thank you. Jarrod, one of the things I wanted to say is I have a problem with only 3 score. 3, It needs to be at least 5 in my mind.

Scott? I think the real— I think the real benefit of the numbers is with new personnel. I think that's where you're going to see the greatest use of needs improvement and doing great, you know, but Once you get a senior person in there, they're all 2s and 3s anyway.

Any further discussion?

Let it go at that. You got enough? I think so. I will—. I realize we got 3 people missing.

Well, you know what, we're on a timeline, so— Move on. Move on. I think I will put a couple of options in there for summative comments, areas for growth, and then maybe just a modified version for a self-eval opportunity.

But we probably should have a discussion if we want the staff to do a self-evaluation, then how is that considered in— our assessment, do you want the results of that self-assessment before we do our own, or compile all of them all at the same time and then just look at everything together? Scott? I'd like them all at the same time. That way your brain is in the right mode. At least mine is.

Bo?

[Speaker:ANDREW] I agree with that as well, but really how I use the self-assessment when I'm evaluating staff is it's an opportunity for folks to highlight duties or tasks or achievements that we may not be aware of. That's the value I get out of those. So those really help me inform my assessment. So a self-eval, in my opinion, isn't necessarily I— bring up my position description and I accomplished clerking, I clerked awesome all year, I managed everything awesome all year. Of course I'm putting it that I'm being silly, but really the utility in that exercise is to let us know as your evaluator, did you do anything exceptional beyond your standard package of duties?

So that's how I can weigh those and did someone go above and beyond for the community in their position. So that's how I use those. But I do appreciate the comment about, you know, getting everything at once and just kind of weighing everything together. It wouldn't be difficult for me to do that altogether, but if there's some information in that document that could help inform our evaluation, that's how I use it. Amy.

I hate to bring up my previous military experience over and over, but in the military you are required to fill out your own performance report and you hand it in to your supervisor. I don't want to do that. But one thing, because you know that's coming, you keep a file on your computer or a literal file. I used to— I called it I Love Amy, right? And anytime I got a good comment from the community or whatever, I stuck it in that file.

So it was time to write that evaluation. Because people do not like, in general, to be like, look how great I am, right? So you go to that file and you take all that stuff out and then you have all of that documentation. If you're going to ask for something like that, I need a year. I mean, like, please tell me that you want that from me next May so that I can, and I'll do whatever you want.

I'll talk about myself, sure. But if you want like a good, eval of like what happens to us during the year and what comments are coming from the community, that would be nice to have a little more notice. Like the easy, like, it's very easy for me to, like, we can totally do, I'm sure Nova can too, like, this is where I think I need work, here's where I think I'm doing well, like that part of stuff, easy. But if you're looking for a, like, these are great things that happen throughout the year, like, I can probably go dig some of those out, but if we know that's coming, I can do a a much better job if I know that that's going to be the request come May.

Jared. That's how we do it at the college when you have tenure files that you have to submit. I have a whole big file cabinet and that's—. All of it? No.

But that's all it is. And I recently just had to do one that covered the past 10 10 years, um, because I'm going up for full professor. Um, so yeah, 10, 10 years. Um, so that is completely fair. Um, I, I agree with that.

So, um, I think we would— it sounds like we would still like to see some sort of self-evaluation, but not with the expectations this year that you present all of this evidence of how amazing, um, you are. But I don't know where we would record this request to, but now starting for next year, you know, I know. I don't know what kind of action that takes, if it's just consensus to say we intend next year to evaluate. Yeah. Though, this additional kind of evidence, I suppose.

Simple consensus.

Got it. Okay. All right. Any other comments? Then moving on to packet review.

Mr. Mayor, if we could go back a little bit. Would you like me to email you the Word document? Or are we good? Do you want me to just change the number? Oh, yes, please.

Okay, all right, thank you. I'll send you the Word document. Thank you. Thank you, Nova. So, packet review.

We have awards and presentation update from Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center Administrator Carl Hertz, who we found is I absolutely did not just ask him to do that today. I did, and he is going to come. And, uh, Carl has made it known that he is going to be leaving to take a job promotion off island, so he will be bringing his interim administrator with him next week so that the assembly can meet him—. Her. Thank you.

Public hearings, we have ordinance number FY 2025-15, amending Title II, Administration and Personnel, Chapter 30, General Rules, Section 2.30.020, to allow electronic participation of mayor and assembly members to meetings. Um, staff report, Nova. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, we— you discussed this at the last work session, and then also you introduced it at the last regular meeting. There were amendments made at the last regular meeting, and I hope I captured all those changes.

So now it's up for public hearing. We've advertised the public hearing, and at the next meeting— at the meeting next week, if you want to propose more changes, you can do that. If you would like to send me your changes ahead of time, that would be great also, because then I can distribute like paper to the rest of the assembly if they're complicated changes. So, but for now, this is the version that's going to be before you next week, which will be up for public hearing and adoption. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Bo? Thank you. I have no suggestions for edits to make or amendments to make. Currently, but I'm just going to reiterate a statement I made last week in that if this does pass, or if this ordinance passes, I'm going to be open to amending it in the future should members of the villages, villages wish to run for election and are elected.

I would allow— I'd be open to allowing full remote participation for anyone living in the village.

Moving on, contracts. Contract number FY2021-1, extension 5 and optional extension 6 with Threshold Services for recycling. Staff report. Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

The current contract with Threshold Services is set to expire on June 30th this year, with all available extension options under the existing agreement having been exhausted. To ensure continuity of service, staff is proposing a 1-year extension of the contract through June 30th, 2026, with an additional 1-year extension option that would take us through June 30th, 2027, subject to assembly approval at that time. The extension would align the timelines of the recycling and solid waste contracts, facilitating improved coordination between service providers and enhancing long-term strategic planning for waste management services. Staff initially presented the proposed extension to the assembly during the February 27th work session, seeking guidance on how the assembly would like to proceed. The assembly directed staff to engage with the Solid Waste Advisory Board for input before making a final decision.

In response, staff consulted with the Solid Waste Advisory Board chair and distributed relevant contract documents, including the current contract, all previous extension agreements, and the proposed extension to the SWAB board. Staff requested that SWAB provide any comments or feedback by March 28th in advance of their regular meeting on April 2nd. During the April 2nd SWAB meeting, staff formally presented the proposed extension. The board engaged in discussion during which the mayor expressed concerns about the complexity of the issue and the need for additional information. Following deliberations, SWAB voted to not provide a formal recommendation but instead referred the matter back to the assembly for further consideration.

So we're playing a little bit of ping pong and it is back at the assembly. Patricia is here tonight. And in addition to the items that you had last time, she's also giving you more numbers. It's in front of you. It's a spreadsheet that looks like this with orange, blue, green, and yellow showing you the cost of the contract.

She has some tons recycled graph. And tons recycled compared to tons of waste that is landfilled. Very nice, Patricia. And she's happy to answer any questions that you might have tonight.

So one, one thing I would ask Patricia, what, what is the cost per ton recycled versus the cost per ton landfill?

I don't have that.

Okay, I'm just— okay, I just wasn't— I was seeing these dollars and cents and trying to, trying to understand it. Is that—. So for 2024, the cost per pound for recycling was $0.33, so 33 cents per pound. Not ton, but—. Okay.

I wouldn't mind something in the form of tons because we charge a tipping fee based upon per ton. And when we're sending things out for recycling, it's per ton. So I'd kind of like to see a comparison there a little bit.

$660 Per ton. $660 Per ton. And Jenna and I did a quick math earlier. It's about— what do you say— 18 cents per pound of cost for waste at the landfill. So $360 per ton.

Per ton. $1.18 Per pound.

Thank you.

One of the things that I think Scott's the only one, other one that was here when the contract was originally let, and Dave Conrad, Engineering and Facilities Director, said that these were not going to be automatically increased on the percentages there. It would come before the assembly, and has not come before the assembly until now on there when we're looking at an extension. I have a bit of a problem with that, and I realize he's not here, and I'm not looking to put you on the spot for that, but it— I do find that irritating. So there's nothing written in the contract for the extensions that are in the original contract to come to the assembly. Yeah, that was the discussion from the engineering and facilities director to the assembly when we were asking questions about that.

I have a problem with a full increase on the CPI. We don't do that on our garbage contract on there. I don't think we should be doing it on a recycle contract. But we are now looking at an extension and we have an opportunity to decide if we want to increase these or whether we want to try and hold the line.

So—. Go ahead, Patricia. Okay. So it is in the contract for thresholds cost proposal for each year to get the 2% plus the CPI amount every year. So that is written into the contract itself, which was approved by the assembly at that point.

Yeah, we just had an engineering and facilities director mislead. That's what I'm getting at. But Amy, Mr. Mayor, I think that at that time when that contract was signed, the assembly agreed to the 2% plus the CPI increase. So I, um, I fail to see how—. We were told it was still coming back to the assembly.

Okay, so I apologize for it not coming back to the assembly, and that's something that we could write into the extension or however you want to fix that now. But I think with a contract that's coming forward that it's going to expire on June 30th, we're in a place where we need to take action and talk about is this something that you want to do, like The— I remember when this last contract came up and the assembly— Bill Roberts was mayor. I came in and I said, I am not in my job, I am a mother, and I just want to say I want my child to recycle. I want to teach my child to recycle. We're an island.

Like, recycling cannot be a ledger item. So when we're comparing the cost to landfill versus the cost to recycle, man, the— there is more in the cost pound to landfill than the price of putting it in there. As we're expanding Cell 2 and we have that leachate treatment plant and we're worried about PCBs and all the stuff, like, it's a, it's a much bigger subject of the landfill. So I, I feel bad that you feel like you have not been given the right information, and we can work towards making that right in the future. But I think what we're looking for now is, do we want to continue this contract?

And it's important for us to get an answer so that we know how to move forward. Because if we're not going to extend this, and I know that we're out of extensions and this is inappropriate behavior, but it would be very helpful for this contract to align with the new solid waste contract because we start work on that this summer. And when that starts in— on July 1st, 2027, it would be amazing if those took off at the same time. Scott, and then Steve. I think we do have a responsibility towards recycling.

My wife was on the Solid Waste Committee for a number of years, and so I got to hear a lot about it. And I've been browbeaten enough to know that we desperately need more recycling, not less. So I'm— well, I really think the idea of having a recycling function is really important. I think also there are conditions that are challenging on an island, especially one with a small— relatively small population, but we need it. And I think we need to go forward.

I think we need the extension. This right away. So thank you. Steve, I will be in favor of supporting this. If there are things that need to be ironed out, that's fine, we can iron them out.

Um, if they were not required to do things in the past, even though you were told they would, I don't feel if they did lived up to their part, they should be punished for the assembly being given bad information from the engineering department. Also, it may only be a small percentage, but we need to take into account that anything is— that is recycled is not taking up space in the landfill, which is going to run out sooner or later and need more cells put in and I'm amazed in the period of time I lived here that there used to be auto part recycling in the bottom of a pit that is now a mountain. And so that's not something that should be just ignored. Um, anything we can dispose of in a different way is a good idea, and doing it per pound is not necessarily a direct correlation. I mean, does that take in the cost of expansion of the landfill and other things?

So I don't think tipping pound versus recycling pound is a direct comparison. Thank you. Po?

Thank you. I have quite a bit to say on this one. I'll echo the previous statements that this isn't an apples-to-apples. I mean, we're looking at What is it going to cost to expand our landfill? You know, I have— I moved here for— I'm in the profession of conservation management and being stewards of our fisheries and mariculture and wildlife resources.

You know, we have a tentative comprehensive plan statement that specifies being stewards of our land and water And that's what this is— that's what this relates to, is recycling. We need to quit burying all of our trash. I appreciate fiscal responsibility, but this is not an apples to apples. And I'm also concerned about this getting sent back to us. I listened to that recent meeting and just want to remind folks that attend these meetings that if you're not appointed to represent the borough, even, even borough representatives, no one can direct this Solid Waste Advisory Board.

They are in place to advise us. So I'm disappointed that's how that happened. I encourage folks on the Solid Waste Advisory Board to stand firm in what their role is for our community and to advise us as the subject matter experts. I need to learn from them, not the other way around. So I'm really disappointed how that happened.

I will support this. We do need to figure out how we can reduce our waste, and this is one direct way we can do it. It's expensive, but so is solid waste, so is expanding our landfill, leachate treatment. All of these things cost money. So if you're— if we're going to quantify that for an apples-to-apples, I would much rather recycle than bury everything.

I think that's what we're looking at there. But, um, but really, uh, my messaging here, in addition to supporting this extension to align us with the solid waste contract is to empower those on the— embolden those on the Solid Waste Advisory Board to continue their work. And please don't feel that you can't come forward with recommendations. I really appreciate the folks that are on that body and the time spent. And thank you, Patricia.

This is really useful. You are the pro at infographics. Which these really just kind of help us digest things quickly. So thank you for being thoughtful and proactive and putting these together for us. Thank you.

Go ahead, Jen. As we're talking about space with the landfill, I highly suggest you guys check out in the manager's report, there is a Juneau study that was recently done. Juneau is filling up. They have like 7 years left of their landfill, and they're trying to determine what to do next. So as we talk about space, they are already looking into it.

And some of those numbers for the options they looked at is very eye-opening. So I really highly recommend. It is not super long, but it is very informative and could possibly, could possibly show where we will be in a couple of years. Thank you for that. Patricia.

So I just have one more statement about the annual increases that I wanted to make. In support of Chris and Threshold Services. The increases per year allow Thresholds to continue to provide services while dealing with inflation, the fluctuation in the commodity values, and increases in the minimum wages. So I just wanted to voice that out loud. I know it's written on your packet description, but I just I just wanted to make sure that I voiced that for folks.

And for folks at home that might be listening, every year that we have one of the infographics that I provided shows that we are saving space about— we save in recycling, we save about 5% in comparison to the waste that's going to the landfill every year. 5% Of the overall trash that's taken, about 5% of it is saved. So we are—. Is recycled. Yes.

Thank you. Just want to clarify. Thank you, Patricia. With that, we'll move on to the next one, is resolution— amending Resolution 2023 to extend the sunset date of the Health Facilities Advisory Board to June 30th, 2027. Staff report, Amy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Health and Facilities Advisory Board was formed for the purpose of reviewing, evaluating, developing, and issuing criteria requirements used in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of Providence Healthcare facilities here in Kodiak. In February of '23, we formed the board. It was supposed to remain active for 1 year. In December of 2023, We, we extended that until June of 2025 via Resolution Fiscal Year '23-20A, and now we are asking, um, the assembly to extend that again to June 30th, 2027.

Um, as we thought our ownership status of the hospital might change over the last few months, the HFAB was kind of falling off, but now we know that's not the case. We'd like to restart those meetings again and make sure that we have a good future and get that set up again with the new staff as they come in to Providence. And so the resolution just extends that till June 30th, 2027.

Any questions? Jared? Yeah, I support, support the extension. I was the chair until we kind of went on hiatus as we were having some of these big discussions, and with the leadership changeover at Providence, I think this will be a helpful board, advisory board for that transition too. We also need to keep in mind that I know we have North Star and swimming pool and the old mental health buildings, but the hospital facility is like banging on the door too.

Peeking around the tree and like, oh, I'm trying to think of all other memes of someone hiding. But is the Homer Simpson coming out of the bushes saying, don't forget me? This is going to be— this is going to be huge. And the more that we are an active part of discussions about the facilities with— cooperatively with Providence, the more informed we will be when we have to make the big decisions about what to do with that facility when that comes due, and then the public too. So this is, I think, one of the more important advisory boards at this particular moment.

So yes, I support keeping this one going. Thank you. Any further discussion? Moving on to the next resolution is Resolution No. FY 2025-21, establishing a North Star School Facilities Working Group staff report.

Nova. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At your, uh, March 12th, 2025 joint work session with the school board, um, you discussed establishing North Star School, uh, work group, facility work group, to address specific issues related to the future use of the North Star School. So we, um, at the input, input coming from the mayor, I drafted the attached resolution that's in your packet. Um, the purpose of this board would be to act in an advisory capacity to the, to the Borough Assembly.

It will be composed of 5 members.

The mayor will be chairing the board. Assembly members Larry Lidu and Bo Whiteside are appointed, and then we have from the school board Mike Litso and James Pryor. I added a sentence there because Assemblymember Larry Lidu's term ends in October. Just in case he doesn't run again, then we have the ability to appoint a replacement until the end of the year. This, this board is set to sunset at the end of the year.

The manager and I will be tag-teaming the administrative part of this board, administrative support. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

I failed to read this deep into the—. By the look on your face, I saw that agenda packet. I'm, you know, ultimately I serve at the needs of the community, but did want to point out that I will be gone for the better part of next month. So I don't know how soon folks intend to meet, but however I am needed, I'm happy to serve. Well, I went through and wanted a diverse group on here, and between the borough and the school board, that's what I come up with.

So that's what I would like to do. Jared? This is fantastic. This is exactly what we asked for at the joint work session. I am a little concerned about Section 6, that is line 41, that the workgroup will convene as necessary, and tying back into Section 4, line 32, that the Mayor serves as the chairperson for the group.

I think we have gone— I think we need a stronger requirement for meetings to keep both sides accountable for moving this forward. I think we got a sense at the joint work session that there is a sense of urgency. Urgency around this.

I don't know exactly what to suggest right now because I hate to force, you know, monthly meetings or even— but maybe, you know, but it also depends on, you know, what the school district is expecting out of this workgroup too. So that's my only concern with that is making sure that the workgroup does convene when necessary and that there is more than just one person deciding if a meeting is necessary or not.

So, yeah. [Speaker:DR. BOLL] Okay. I would address that a little bit. One of the ex officio members are the manager and the superintendent. Attend it.

And part of that is, is because they're, they're the ones bringing a lot of the information to the table. And in working with Amy, that's going to have to schedule around her, her situation. So I, I look at— I lean on her very heavily for that. So I don't know if you want to say something to that effect on there, uh, Scott, and then Bo.

One of the issues is that Mr. Fryer's term ends this year, so if it's going to extend past October, then you're going to need somebody else from the school board at that point. If he doesn't run. Yeah, I think it— there's a— the community is very concerned particularly about the gym. And the gym was built differently than, and to a greater size than other elementary schools in the district. And, uh, it's a full-size gym, and there's quite a bit of community participation in that.

And the people who are concerned about it are pretty seriously concerned about it. And, uh, two people on the school board were very concerned about it. So I think that we want to have meetings more frequently if we can. Maybe monthly is a good idea. I think it's a concern that Mr. Whiteside won't be there for a month, and maybe we should have an alternate in there to cover that part so they can— the dialogue can continue.

I think it's a really good idea to do this. I suspect that we're looking at strange and new compromises for us in terms of handling that building if the school district is not in there. Thank you. [SPEAKING GERMAN] Just, I guess, a couple— so if regarding next month, if it were at the end of the month, I would be good there. I can If you're— anyone's interested in my— NOVA has my absences somewhere, I believe, but if not, I can share that with whomever.

But to an earlier point, as far as Section 4 on line 32 structure, perhaps we could consider a co-chair scenario with the, with the mayor and the chair of the school board co-chairing with the mayor. That's one way to kind of If we are sharing the responsibility as far as the makeup of this workgroup, perhaps a co-chair scenario would be helpful, but just an idea to toss around. But as far as availability, if it is helpful, Novi can send you an accurate schedule of my absence next month. I would lean towards no, not doing the co-chair. In the absence of the mayor, it would be the manager.

No, she'd be the most knowledgeable. And it's a borough committee, not a school district committee. Yeah. And then, um, first one, one quick thing, monthly sounds reasonable to me, at least to get started. If we decide to expand or lengthen beyond that later on, I would be comfortable—.

No one's making those with monthly. Amy, you had your hand kind of up. It would be very weird to have an ex officio step in as chair when they're not the actual, an actual member of the board. So the, um, like when we set up HFAB, like I'm like the manager and the ENF director are members of that board. Um, that is an all borough board, so it has assembly members, ENF director, manager.

So we could, we could first meeting could do a assistant chair, vice chair, so that in the absence of the chair—. Nova, would you like to include wording then that at the first meeting, on the first meeting of this board, that there's going to be an election, selection of a vice chair? Yes, from the regular members. And then also that we look into alternates from both the borough side and the school district side. I'll look into that with you too.

That's a good suggestion, I think, on there. And I didn't realize you hadn't read it, Bo. Funny.

Any further discussion, questions? Okay, Steve, and then Jared. Um, well, one thing I think I heard Amy requesting that people from the borough staff be on the board, but I'm not sure if I heard that correctly. Saying is they are going to be involved, so I'd like to ask that question first.

That's just one option. No, I just, I think it is going to be important to have borough staff there because we're going to have the discussion about maintenance around those buildings. I'd also want to have school districts to staff there, not just borough staff. Um, and then having— I know that the superintendent is going to be there. I mean, like, I feel like I can crystal ball this.

The, the assembly is going to need to decide, are we going to charge rent for that space? Do we want to be the landlords if we're going to rent it out, or is the school district going to do that? And so just planting those seeds now so you guys can think about that, because I think we're going to go through a few months meeting and we're going to come back with those exact same questions. I agree. Let's see, Jared.

Well, oh, Steve, and then Jared. I have—. Yeah, I think we need a clearer answer to what the school district is expecting or wanting. I mean, it sounds like they want us to take care of the building and manage it, but them have enough of a foot in they could take it back at any time. And that's a bit of an issue if anyone's going to do any renting, how long a term.

I mean, if someone wants to set up a daycare and they put money into it and things, they're going to want to know that they have it for at least X amount of time. So I think we need a little more, at least as assembly members. You may have this information of what the school board is hoping to happen. Thank you. Amy, go ahead.

I did attend all of those meetings, and I, I, if I could, and I, I think that, um, the, from what I heard from the school board members was that they are very interested in the school as an asset, with the, um, specifically about the gym because that's used for a lot of different programs throughout the year. They didn't— I didn't hear any strong preference to the actual use of the wings of the building, but there's a lot of talk, especially by one school board member, about the gym. So I don't— I think they are trying to minimize their impact of the school closure on the community, right? So they're trying to allow people to use that space in the same way that they did before the school wasn't closed. Just from the management side of it, we need to know that someone's gonna walk through that building and take care of it and make sure it's not being vandalized and it's heated.

And so we have requirements on owning that building now that we didn't have before. So I'm hoping the work group will just get together and make a path forward. We'll figure out if the school district wants to keep that in their possession. They have, they know that the average of the utilities for the last 3 years was $140,000 year, and they have $70,000 in their budget right now. I was thinking $75,000.

$63,000 Now. They have some money in their budget for that right now. I thought it was half. I thought that—. I thought I saw $70,000, but no matter what it is, I know they are anticipating, and they don't have to have it at kindergarten temperature, right?

They just need to make sure it doesn't freeze. So I don't know, it'll be interesting to see what thought they've put into that. Um, and then they have a storage problem. And so they, you know, I know they are interested in storing things, and so I think there is going to be some give, or we are going to have to have conversations around rent, if there is any, or if it is appropriate for them just to help with utilities. There is a lot of questions, but I think that is the whole reason for the work group.

But I think it is going to come back down to who is going to be the landlord. Steve, are you done? Thank you for the answers. And yes, I think that is a major— landlord and who's going to be ultimately in control.

Jared. And also, there are some legal issues with the state and, you know, the parameters of use once the school district declares a building no longer a school. I think there— it's kind of limited, I think, even if the the school district can, what and if they can do that. And I know Cindy, the superintendent, was looking into that, but I haven't heard any, um, any information, any information as far as that goes. So I, they— I know the superintendent mentioned something about there is so many— if they declare it not a school and they take a certain pot of money, then they cannot use that school for that building as a school for a certain amount of years.

So there are absolutely— and I would expect that they school board members would be bringing that to the table so we'd have a better understanding. Um, if I may continue, um, is there a companion resolution with the school board on this? Just curious. Oh, okay. No, I think this was just meant to be a borough committee.

Um, and then, you know, we've got two empty buildings right over there for storage. Laverne and Shirley. There won't be any heat in them at all. That's all being removed. Or a floor.

Eh, let's put them in Tupperware.

Alrighty, I think we got enough to move forward with, with that. Nova, could I go over the changes? Sure, Mr. Mayor, just to make sure. Um, it seems like there's a direction to at least put in a minimum of a monthly meeting in the resolution, and then there will be a selection of vice chair at the first meeting. And I heard mentions about alternates, alternates to which seats.

One, what I was looking at was one alternate Um, that I'll come up with for the school board member and one alternate for the assembly member. And you're going to—. And I'll do that. Yeah, those. Okay, so you want me to add language to that?

How about the, um, this dimension about maybe making those ex officios as additional members and it will become a 7-member board? No.

I think I said the same thing. Yeah. Okay, I think those are the only questions that I have, clarification. Is there anything else that you would— that I may have missed? Nope.

Okay, I'll change the resolution and you'll have an updated version. Thank you. By Monday. Thank you. Alrighty, next item is resolution number FY2025-22, authorizing disposal by easement of borough land for less than market value.

Staff report. Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Kodiak Island Borough owns the land identified as USS 2539 Light 1, remainder Women's Bay and Bells Flats, through which the Russian River flows. Several private property owners whose land is adjacent to the borough's land have witnessed the erosion of nearby land due to the river change changing course and experiencing flooding of their land during heavy rain events.

The property owners at 522 Lita Street, or Russian Creek Lot A-5, one of the properties adjacent to the KAB's land, have requested support for their efforts to mitigate the imminent erosion of their property by the Russian River. To protect borough interests while also assisting the property owners, an easement allowing the private property owners to assess KAB land to stabilize the current riverbank has been recommended. Staff have consulted with borough attorney to draft an easement agreement that will require signature and commitment by the property owner should the resolution be approved. The disposal of borough land by easement was brought to the Planning and Zoning Commission at their work session last night and is scheduled to be approved at the regular meeting on April 16th. Once reviewed and approved, it will be forwarded to the assembly as required by KIBC Code 18.20.030.

Disposal of land to a private party would typically have a fair market value cost associated with it. However, due to the nature that the river changes courses unpredictably and that there is an increased threat of property loss to the private property owners, staff is requesting the disposal be granted at less than fair market value with no cost to the property owners associated with the grant of the easement. If the resolution is approved next week, an easement will be granted, signed, and recorded, after which the property owners will retain responsibility for all work conducted on the referenced borough land in their erosion control efforts. So tonight in the packet, you have the resolution that would allow us to have that easement signed. And then on that last page, there's a, just a kind of an oversimplified map.

When you're looking at that, their property is the one right below the red bar, and it just gives them the ability to go out 75 feet from their property land line and stabilize that riverbank. The reason we chose easement is because that is the methodology that gives the borough the most protection when it comes to liability. So if the river changes, whatever the river does after they stabilize is their responsibility and not ours, because they will have access to our land. And that's, um, been thoroughly checked with the lawyer. We looked at all the methods to see how we could get that done, and this is the best way to protect the borough.

And I'd like to thank you, Amy, for all the effort that you put into this and the follow-up that you and I and others have been associated with this over the years. The request is sincere and genuine and needed as soon as possible. As you heard, Planning and Zoning last night heard it in their work session. Next week, their intent is to approve it, recommendation to us. This is our first reading in it.

I asked them to please come to all of these, and then we'll get the meeting of P&Z next week and the assembly meeting next Thursday and at least give them something to work with. So thank you for this. Any further discussion? Bo? I mean, I suppose it goes without saying, but I would be a yes as soon as possible to get this pushed forward to help those folks out.

Thank you. Jarrod? Me too. I want to echo that. I have a couple of questions first, though.

What—. And this is my ignorance. So what is the purpose of having an easement along a river in the first place? So the Koreka'i Land Bureau owns all of that whole river valley. And so they have watched the borough land erode, erode, erode as it got towards their property.

So the easement will allow them to alter borough land, which we do not want people to do ever without asking permission. And so instead of just going out and doing it themselves in the middle of the night. They're choosing to ask permission and do it the right way. And so this, um, the easement is a form of disposal of land, um, and then the fair market value part according to code is to make sure that we don't have favoritism and we're not giving our land away to people for less than we should be getting. But this land is eroding so quickly, there is very little value.

If you were to buy it today, it could be gone next week. So it's just giving them a chance to, um, protect it. So the easement is the option instead of an MOA or MOU like we do when people are allowed to access our land, like trails, or do trail improvements, or pick up trash, or whatever. Or we do a lot of archaeological stuff through MOUs and MOAs with permission to access land. This This is actual permission to alter the land for a purpose that wouldn't necessarily be something that the Borough would do on their own.

[Speaker:COMMISSIONER ZUCKERMAN] Do we have an idea of what they are planning to do? Because my concern— I mean, yes, something absolutely needs to be done, and they— I think they deserve this. My concern is what do they plan on doing, and how is that going to affect, right, the properties downstream? Stream of them or other properties that we might be— see some erosion, um, are we going to— are we going to be anticipating disposing more easements as, uh, the Russian— yes, continues to change. So this particular family is looking at large boulders and root balls, um, and, and anything else that they might have come up with since the last time I asked them.

But they do have a contractor and they do have a plan. I think that this could potentially be one of many easements that we start getting asked for along the Russian River. And so I already warned Community Development that once this goes through, I would even reach out to all the people on there and tell them that we're doing this and they have the option. I think that's the best thing for us to do. We're not going to do anything with that land, and if they have a chance to protect themselves, it would be a postcard from us.

It'd be really simple to let everyone downriver know that we are offering the easement option if you want to protect your land from the river. That's what I wanted to hear. Um, there are some crazy plans from the Department of Transportation when they're replacing those two bridges out there. So both of those bridges are scheduled to be 18 inches higher than they are now, so they're leveling out, um, to the entryways onto Sergeant Creek. So they're going to have to do some grading and some changes.

They have huge berms in their plans built to change the courses of those rivers. And, uh, the plans are pretty fantastic, but that is 5, 7 years down the road, and so we cannot wait for that. So they understand that their road is a— is eroding, and water is hitting their bridges in a direction in which they did not originally intend. So they have interest in protecting their own infrastructure to make sure the water hits those bridges in the right direction. So there is future hope.

But for those folks that are with that erosion so close to their home right now, and the— and previously downriver, a lot of flooding, um, this will help. And so this is with the Assembly's approval, and if Planning and Zoning approves, I think that this would be something that we would be willing to do for everyone downriver from this family. Is it— is it out of line to proactively or preemptively have those conversations with those property owners, or should we wait for them to come to us or the complaints to hit the fever pitch that—. Well, as Amy said, we'll get this one done, she's going to reach out. I was planning on reaching out.

Okay, okay. Just to let them know that this, you know, this has been done upriver from you, this is the process that these people used. Because it has been identified as a problem, we had NRCS out, we've talked to the Army Corps of Engineers, we've looked at a lot of different solutions. And so if people do want to make improvements to the land that would normally be ours to protect theirs. I think that that's the right thing to do.

Yeah. Steve.

And from talking with them, they've had approval or they're seeking approval from the state environment and things like that. They have done a lot of work with the Army Corps of Engineers. They've talked to Alaska Fish and Game. They've really done a lot of work. They've been researching this.

I think they said that they've been talking to the borough for over 15 years, and then there was a point a few managers ago and they're like, don't worry about it, we'll help you, and then zero things happened. So I'm excited to actually have some movement for this family. My only— I mean, I want this to go through, yes, but any future ones, they also have to go through the there's a requirement that before the easement thing happens, they go through the right authorities and get the right permits. Oh, absolutely. The— it is up to the, the fam— the family or the individual property owner to follow all the correct steps.

Any further? Scott, does, uh, the fact that salmon run up that river and spawn, does that mean there's a time period when you can't do anything? In the river? There is. There's a, like, a 2-month gap where you can do whatever you want in the river, and they have all of that researched.

Okay, because that— I think that's important for others to know as well. Yes. Hopefully after we're successful this— for this one, we'll put a mini how-to guide together. I wouldn't want to be the authority on that, but I'm hoping that they will be willing to help teach, teach others how to do that. Nice infographic.

I do like a good infographic. One, one of the other things is, is that if the water isn't running there, you can then work. So that's in addition to the 60-day deal. And right now, when there's not a large rain event, if, if we were to go out there and look today and you and I would tell you that what we were doing, you would look at me and think I was crazy because the water is not even close to their property. But if you go out there on the right day, you'll understand exactly why they're doing what they're doing.

So Luckily, we do have a window which they can get in there and stabilize that riverbank before the next event.

Any further? Seeing none, we'll move on to other items. Confirmation. Mr. Mayor, we do have a resolution that I believe you would like to add to the agenda for next week. Okay, that's where you want to put that?

Yes. I wasn't sure if you're going to do that— want me to do that under mayor's comments. So, uh, you want to bring it up or you want me to? If you could, please. Okay.

What it is, is there's, um, I attended the City Council work session Tuesday of this week, and, um, I was surprised to see a resolution, uh, supporting the Coast Guard in relationship to replacement of helicopters and infrastructure, stuff like that, and they did not reach out. The city had not reached out to the borough. I asked Amy if she had that on Wednesday. Then when I brought it back, Annika Woods on the city council asked the question of staff and the city mayor, you know, has the borough assembly been notified that we're doing this? And the response was Well, they will get a copy of it, and the mayor is here, the borough mayor is here.

So then I followed up with that and asked NOVA to put this together that we— they passed, their intent was to pass it tonight. I'd like to add it to the agenda for next week so that we can pass it also quicker rather than waiting another cycle on the meeting. So I just didn't find out about it until Tuesday night. And— but as you can see reading it, I think it's important that we show support on there also. Any further questions or discussion?

All righty. Then next item is confirmation of Merrill appointment of Maggie Hubbard to the Solid Waste Advisory Board ex officio. Kodiak High School Student Council representative. Staff report, Nova. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

We were notified by the school that they would like to appoint Miss Maggie Hubert to the Solid Waste Advisory Board, an ex-official seat for the Kodiak High School Student Council rep. Seat. Um, it's just interesting the way that our code is written, that, um, the appointment doesn't begin until April 30th. That's why it's before you. So this will appoint her to that seat, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Any discussion or questions?

Scott? I think it's a really good idea. Okay, anyone else? Seeing none, that will be done. Now, there is one other thing I want to bring up.

There's the application to the Monashka Bay Board, but I don't know that this has gone through the board review. It has. We have received a response this afternoon, and they are in favor of appointing Mr. Brubaker to the Monashka, and if there's It's an assembly appointment, so if there's no objection to the assembly, maybe—. Right. The only problem is the board— I don't think— I'm not aware of the board meeting to make that determination, and they now have a quorum.

So we received an email from— and it's kind of the same process when they didn't have a quorum and they were able to make a recommendation to the assembly I think this one he polled the other members, although sometimes that's not a good idea, polling members over the phone. But that's the response that we got. So I'm not sure if you're comfortable with it or if you'd like them to hold the meeting first and have it formally on their agenda before you make a recommendation. [Speaker:DR. BOLL] Well, I think number one, trying to get the other seats. Filled.

There's one left, and I think I can get that. And they advise us also that there's another application camp coming, and it seems like they already discussed this ahead of time because in the email they said that there will be one more coming, and we would like you to appoint that person also once you receive that application. And that's why I'm, I'm preferring to wait and put them both together. I'm at the meeting at their service district meeting. Chris Cormettis was the other one that was there, and that was who was mentioned in the email.

So it's an assembly appointment. What's the desire of the assembly? Would you like to hold off until that other application comes through, or would you like to appoint this person now with the recommendation of the board?

Jared, they've already submitted their budget for the year, right? So I think it— I think I'm okay with waiting and considering both of them. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you.

Not that I was speaking for everybody. No, but—. Well, so would you like us to wait then until we get both rec—. Uh, both applications and just do them all at the same time? And they might be able to hold a meeting on there.

We'll see. That Those were the— there was 3 people there that were possibly interested. Betsy wasn't there, but she— her name was mentioned, Betsy Lunn. And then Jeff Blubaker was there, and so was Chris Cormettis, and they were trying to figure out if they were— who was going to do what. So, Bo?

Yeah, so if they're still ironing out who wants to put their name in the hat, I don't see any harm in and giving them a little more time to see how that looks. Thank you. Okay. Next item is Manager's Report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We just talked about the Russian River erosion, so I won't make you hear about that again. I am going to give you a little recap of what happened on Tuesday with the ABC Board, our special meeting of the board. Um, we were the first on the agenda. Our two licenses took between 10:00 a.m. and after 2:30 p.m.

So it was a long day. Our protest of 2611 for the second year of operation was denied. So that license remains with its current owner. The KB protest to 3293 for renewal was upheld, which made our protest for the second year of operation and the fact that that was being transferred. We didn't have to discuss those because they agreed with us that 3293 shouldn't have been renewed.

Once the board sends out a letter, there will be— we were arguing a 10 to 15 day period, and it's 10, in which the current owner of 3293 can appeal. If they don't appeal, that should go back into the open market, if you will. 2611 Will remain active through December of 2025. The borough will have the option to voice a protest when it's time for renewal for 2627. You would think that that would be coming to us in the next few months, but remember, it was a year late the last time, which caused some of the problems.

So I'm not sure when we'll actually see that again. 3293, Um, Unless if it's appealed, then we will have to show up at an administrative hearing if we want to continue fighting for that one to return. I want to take a second to thank the clerk staff. The amount of research and time that went into the process is incredible. Just keeping those two sets of numbers together in the right order and all the information and all the timelines and the infographics and the knowledge and going back and researching.

Before NOVA was even clerked to find out what Elise had done. And the amount of information that had to be collected was absolutely incredible. Also, the borough assessor took the time to email the borough attorney when we brought him in with all the details around business personal property tax. And it was one of those emails that allowed me to push all the buttons that I could push for to get 32 293 for that protest to swing in our direction. So that was a huge effort.

Unfortunately, the ABC board had to hear all about it from me, about the amount of time, lawyers, effort, research, all the stuff that went in. So it was nice to bat 50% that day. Uh, the manager's report, as I told you last week, is online. I wanted to keep continuing, um, to put that in there so people can find it. There's a graph and a pathway so you can see where it's at.

Also, and I mentioned it earlier, you have those fiscal year '25 and '26 mill rates for the service areas and then the history of the Kodiak Island Borough mill rate attached to the packet tonight. Mayor Arndt, Assemblymember Johnson, Assemblymember Griffin, and I all attended the second session of the Recharge Our Communities economic series that was put on by the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, the Kodiak Economic Development Corporation, There are two more sessions in that series, one on May 7th and May 28th. The session yesterday broke the attendees up by area of interest. I worked with a group that was interested in making local seafood more accessible to local residents, and it was exciting to learn more about the desires around that. We already talked about Northstar Elementary.

You guys will be seeing the resolution for that at the next meeting. Current recruitments: we are looking for a maintenance mechanic. We actually We just got an application in today for that position for like the first time in 6 months. So we're excited about that. And then we should also be getting an accounting technician accounts payable out into the public.

And then Sima's appraiser tech will go back online. It was delayed a little bit because we altered that job description to make sure that it more adequately covered what a new person in that role would do. In finance, we are almost through our 30 days from March 14th to pay delinquent taxes. Uh, only a couple of days left to be removed from the foreclosure judgment and decree being filed with the court. Um, please contact the finance department if you're on that list for an updated payoff.

Our property assessment and taxation implementation project has got moved from, uh, August into September of 2025 to avoid our August the 15th payment deadline for property taxes.

As we get further and further into the Tyler product, I think they're finding out what they don't know about how the Kodiak Island Borough does business. So hopefully September is as far as we go, but as Fred described tonight, that is costing us double those fees. So we're paying Tyler and Harris that whole way through. In November, we had a problem with paying into the public employees' retirement system. We had, um, November, December, January, February, and March that we weren't able to pay in.

And so our payroll technician has had to make up all of those payments. We successfully are all caught up. The state's reporting site is back up. We have all of our reports in. The state is going to end up having to back pay $2.7 million in interest for the time that was down.

So I'm happy to be on our side and not theirs as they're figuring that out. In Community Development, Planning and Zoning met last night for their work session, and they have a regular meeting next week. Uh, they're looking at two rezones and a subdivision for Old Harbor, and then the easement that we just talked about. Uh, James Dixon, who is our Associate Planner Enforcement, attended the American Planning Association National Conference in Denver. He was there from March March 29th to April 2nd.

Community Development staff is also going to be attending online planning conference from April 23rd through 25th. Parks and Recs did not meet a quorum. They only meet quarterly, so they decided to move until July, so we won't be hearing anything new from them for a few months. In assessing the— we had 13 appeals for values of their homes. That were in by the deadline.

4 Of the 13 have withdrawn, so there's 9 left right now, which would be heard by the Board of Equalization if they're all still there by May 5th. For exemption appeals, the Alutiiq Foundation exemption appeal is scheduled for July 17th. You will have your informational books by July 7th to prepare for that. And I just mentioned the appraiser tech job should be going out next week. Sima was very cooperative when I told her we needed to update some of her job descriptions, and I think that makes for a clearer path inside of her department for an entry level up to an appraiser, up to lead appraiser.

That kind of gives people a path, something to look forward to as they're in the department. In engineering facilities, our contractors came back on April 6th. The PCB abatement is complete in Building 101. That's Shirley, if you're in my Laverne and Shirley name— naming. The containers are expected to arrive this Friday for the PCBs to go inside.

The loadout will begin next week. The contractor is expecting to conduct asbestos abatement near the end of April. At the KFRC, Industrial Pump Alaska was on island last week to review our pump situation. They've been able to provide us with an estimate of $19,500 for the installation of the new pumps. However, we're waiting for a shipping quote on those.

Um, as you remember, the assembly approved the purchase of 5 pumps, and so we'll get a, a shipping cost for all 5 at once, and we are unable to order until we get that quote. So we're very anxious for that quote to get here so we can get that order placed. Cruise ships will be getting, uh, arriving at the end of April. Our touch tank hours have been updated for May 5th through 9th from 10 AM to 2 PM. Uh, there are a lot of cruise ships that week, so if you are homeschooling or you have small kids and you want to go to the touch tank, it will be open the 5th through the 9th from 10 to 2.

At the landfill, uh, we're still working with the Chamber of Commerce for our commercial cleanup event, which will happen May 1st and 2nd, and the community cleanup event, which will happen May 3rd. The Regional Solid Waste Management Plan Update RFP bid opening happened on the 8th. We received 5 submissions for that plan. Staff completed their initial review and forwarded them to an evaluation team for their assessment scores. Uh, you will see that in front of you for review and approval on the regular meeting on May 1st.

Uh, we're still working on looking at current fee schedules to determine if an update should be proposed to the assembly. At the Leashate Water treatment plant, we got the third out of four membranes replaced, so we're moving forward with that. Um, at Karluk, uh, we didn't get any real answers from ADC about what we need to do out there, but they're requesting more time to escalate the item to their leadership so they can give us further direction. The community pool visit is scheduled for May 19th through 21st. Uh, service areas, our documents are ready to go out tomorrow, so you'll see an to bid go out tomorrow.

The projects team has been absolutely amazing. This isn't technically a project, but they— I'm not saying they like it, but they took it on, and they have made these things work and made them so individual service areas had a chance to make it unique to their service area. So thanks to staff for their perseverance.

Their help has been much appreciated and we absolutely couldn't have done it without them. In information technology, our endpoint security policy is completed. We are having some more attacks from Fortinet Networks. Our last ones came in from Germany. We are now compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and BitLocker is going to be installed on all of the laptops, so you'll probably get a request if you have a laptop to come back in and get that installed to keep our systems safe.

The iPads that are deployed to the Leachate Treatment Plant and the KFRC maintenance staff will be ready for next week so they can have mobile communications with them all the time. And they are meeting with our, our contracted engineer to update our Windows 9.1.1 system upgrade. And then we have reminders at the end of the manager's report every week. We've already talked about the nonprofit use, accommodations tax is still coming up, and tonight we— oh, we didn't talk about it. We were supposed to talk about adding more, uh, funds to the junk vehicle removal line item.

If you go back to that budget, you see that we've only used about 50% this year. So as we move forward, we'll talk if that's really necessary or not. That is something that came up, uh, through some public comments earlier in the year, so I just want wanted to at least touch on it. And then you have the vision statement from Assemblymember Griffin, and then those mill rate history items that I said that I included earlier. That's all I have tonight, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Scott, you said there's 26 cruise ships coming. There are. Are they— there used to be, I don't know whether there still are— smaller cruise ships that are more eco-oriented And they take skiffs out to the Triplets and places like that. Are there any of those coming, or is it just big ones? We have a variety of ships coming, as we have the last few years.

We have a couple of really big ones that have like the 2,000 to 2,500 passengers. But we do get a lot of those Nat Geo and the Hurtigruten. I like that one. It comes through the Arctic. Path.

Um, it runs on batteries when it's close to land, so it doesn't have any diesel smoke. It, it, it's a really neat ship. So all those are coming again. Um, we continue to get a couple of new cruise lines. We are more of a boutique destination than the big ones just because we don't have a lot of shore excursions.

And so when you come to Kodiak, you kind of get Kodiak as Kodiak is instead of being able to buy diamonds from international diamond dealerships at the pier. I think Ketchikan and Juneau would appreciate our level. I think they would too.

Any other? Jarrod. I think we should invite KEDC to do a presentation after all these workshops are done, like at a work session, so maybe in June. The last one is what, May 28th? So maybe in June.

They're, they're really cool. They're very interesting. Um, and, uh, so I think a nice big overview for everyone would be kind of good when it's over. So I think we just have one work session in June, and that's the 26th, so I can invite them and see if they are willing to do that. That would be great.

Bo? Thank you. I appreciate the, the information about the mill rate history and then the Service areas, um, the budget request for FY26, do we— is it possible to expand this and add the fund balances? The reason, the reason I ask is folks have reached out to me and they're specific to service area number 1, that there is an excessive amount of taxes being levied in that service area to meet needs, and I don't know how to answer that question when it's brought to me. I, uh, Mr. Weisfeldt, I gave that to you last week, but I have more copies this week so I can share it with you.

Absolutely.

Would you like to see them actually combined into one spreadsheet, or is it just the budget report? If we could have them all consolidated into one for the assembly as well. Yes.

Any other discussion or questions? Seeing none, we'll move on to the clerk's comments. It's spring, hopefully. It's coming. Um, we have been doing spring cleaning.

We have moved some fire-safe cabinets of records from the other room to the records room, and we have pulled out a few bookcases and cabinets, and we have given those to the Bayside Fire Hall. And he's— Chief is very happy that he gets to use our cabinets and old coffee makers and, and stuff like that. So we're really appreciative of him that he was willing to take those to the fire hall.

We have processed 34 records requests. We have 2 that are currently pending. We have gotten back to the requesters and we were asking questions and they haven't gotten back to us yet. We are also going back to our files in Laserfiche, our records management program, and we started renaming some of the files. Irene also has gone back.

We have quite a few permanent documents like service area minutes and Planning and Zoning Commission minutes and other boards and committees minutes that have not been scanned. And it, it is nice that she's scanning all those and they're making— we're making them accessible to staff and also to the public. So liquor licenses, I also attended and Lena attended the hearing on Tuesday, and we are processing a new license request for a winery in Chignac. That will be before you at the May 1st meeting. So the manager already touched on this.

We're going to have a BOE meeting on Monday, May 5th. There's going to be a training for the regular BOE, not the Assembly BOE on April 24th. And then elections timeline-wise, we do have the absentee by mail applications online already. Nominating petitions will be made available in the first week of July. The filing period will be August 1st through the 15th.

If the assembly is thinking of a proposition or a question on the ballot, we we need to keep moving now so that we can have the ordinance adopted by July because the deadline is August 8th on placing a question on the ballot. So something to, you know, I'm giving you a heads up. So pretty much that's all I have. If you are going on leave, please let me know. I would like to get the dates from you.

I will be out next week attending a laser fish conference, and then my staff, Irene, will be going to her PD class in June. And then I think I have— Lena would have a training sometime in July. That's all I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Any questions of Nova? Seeing none, we'll move on to assembly member comments. Bo, I'll start with you. Thank you. Let's see.

I had one ready to go. Oh, land disposal. I wasn't going to mention that this evening, but since we are potentially disposing land for an easement, I have had 3 people in as many weeks ask about where we're at with disposing land for development for the public. One was— excuse me, 2 were for the Flats. And one for, um, in town.

I didn't have an answer as far as when this is going to happen. I know this was mentioned by another assembly member. Folks are getting anxious. I agree that this moves extremely slow, and we're not— I don't know how to answer that when folks asking me what the holdup is, because we keep saying we're going to do it, we're going to do it, we're going to do it. We haven't done anything seemingly.

I don't believe that's the case, but But as far as I don't know what to tell the public when they ask me, two of them were at Safeway at 7:30 in the morning on Sunday. And I was just kind of blindsided by the question. And I don't know what to tell them. So I agree, we are moving far too slow on thinking about disposing land for development. Jared.

You know, that's something that came up at the economic workshop this week too. So much seems to hinge on land availability and housing, and those are related. So it's— yes, I've actually whittled down the number of times I go to Safeway because I get the exact same question every other time we go. So, but those workshops are great. I hope people can make them.

There in, uh, in May also.

Steve, I would like to thank all staff for the amount of time, energy, and effort that was involved with dealing with the Alcohol Commission. Um, from what I can see, it's been a complete nightmare, including the efforts from the state. And I'd just like to thank and congratulate you for the time and effort put in because it's been a pain in the butt for everyone.

Yeah. Scott. Um, well, I woke up this morning and there was snow. And it's April. But of course I live in Alaska.

So maybe I'm supposed to be aware of that chance.

I think the issue of having the school board— the school— high school student on the Solid Waste Advisory Board is really a good thing. I think the real vanguard for cleaning up and reusing things is in the young people of our community. I think they're very eager and, and, uh, committed to that. Um, one thing that I get badgered about when I go to Safeway is the $200 fee for cars. And if that's the junked car fee, then we should be better about advertising what we're doing with that money because there's a lot of questions about it.

Um, other than that I wish I wasn't taking diuretics. Thank you. Thank you. Next item is mayor comments. As Jared and Amy said, Dave and I also attended that this week here.

Last week, wasn't able to go to the Cook Inlet Citizens Regional Advisory, so attended telephonically with multiple technical problems. And the— then we also have legislative. I attend each week, each Friday is the AML kind of legislative committee that meets, and lots of problems there. Lots of things to work on and besides just the school funding. But the— once again, in January, the AMCO board meeting, that was an all-day thing.

That was over 8 hours. And then it interfered. I didn't get the last part of it because of our joint work session we had with the city here. But attending this one, was even more frustrating on there.

We were appearing not to get anywhere, and finally, I'd had enough, and I said that you're dealing with fraudulent information. And what really seemed to get through was when Amy, was her frustration, there too. Later on, they did— they gave us an in and pointed to Amy to take it. And, uh, she let them know about how much money the community was spending on this between the borough and the city, and that the onus is on— but the main thing was the onus was on the business to file their business personal property return, not on the borough. It was on them.

That made the— that was kind of— appeared to me to be the key thing that finally got through to him. You know, after both the city attorney talking and the borough attorney talking, Amy talking, I talked, it seemed that appeared to me to be the— Nova talked too on there, but that appeared to be the key thing, key takeaway to me was that statement finally got through. And, uh, but, uh, we'll, we'll go from there. We'll get this information here and we'll respond on some of the land stuff too, get you information on that.

Supplemental materials, anything need to be mentioned on, on that, Nova? Mr. Mayor, I'm going to be adding a report from your report from, uh, CERCAC. Okay. On the agenda for next week, and read it up to the very bottom because our mayor just got the Volunteer of the Year award. What?

So For what? For CERCAC Volunteer of the Year Award. And I wasn't there? They had another—. So there's a— there's going to be a report in your packet.

It's not a surprise anymore because you're going to see it. Okay, there was a second CERCAC meeting after the first one, but I needed to go to the AML legislative affairs but it was at the same time, so I had to bow out, let them know I wasn't going to be able to attend that one. So no, I didn't— I didn't know.

Thank you, Nova. I'll have to— I have to call them. Alrighty. Um, that appears— that's the end of mine on the work session here, so Work session adjourned at 9:23. Thank you all for attending.