Wasilla: City Council Special - 14 Oct 2026

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. The next item of business is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Mr. Graham. Madam Mayor, Is it appropriate at this time—.

During Michael—. Is it appropriate or legal at this time to add something to the agenda, which would be, uh, you know, what we talked about today, to, uh, post, you know, the approval or the process, get the process, you know, confirm the vacancy of the seat and get the process started to refill that? Through the chair to Councilmember Graham, I don't recommend that. I was going to, under my comments, just get direction from council and then have that all prepared for our next meeting, if that works for you. Great.

No changes, Madam Mayor. Okay, hearing none, the agenda is approved as presented by unanimous consent. We are at persons to be heard, a time for members of the public to share their views with the council. Please note that this is not a question and answer period. Speakers may be referred to administration, and items raised may be taken under advisement.

Please begin your testimony by stating your first and last name if you're a city resident. Comments are limited to 3 minutes.

Mr. Keith Jones.

Good evening, my name is Keith Jones. I'm not a city resident. This is direct towards the mayor.

Over the past several years, Jess and I have had a little competition joking around saying, oh, you're the mayor's favorite today, I'm the mayor's favorite today. So on the record, who is your favorite? That's all right, that's, uh, honesty. It's 50-50.

So you just continue on. Okay. Well, you know what, Mayor? Thank you. You've made it enjoyable working for you, even when you had to be the bad guy.

We understood where you were coming from. So anyways, thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else?

See no one. We will close. Uh, persons to be heard.

We have no unfinished business.

Yeah, this is so weird. Anyway, Madam Clerk, uh, under new business, please read the item. Resolution serial number 2668, certifying the results of the October 6th, 2026 regular election. Is there a motion to adopt Resolution Serial Number 2668? Madam Mayor, I move Resolution 2668.

Is there a second? Cottle seconds. It's been moved by Council Member Graham and seconded by Council Member Cottle to adopt Resolution Serial Number 2668. At this time, I invite Canvas Board Chair Angela Long to present the Canvas Canvas Board's report on the October 6th, 2026 regular election.

Angela, it's you. Thank you, Mayor Ledford. Thank you. Um, my name is Angela Long and I served as chair of the Canvas Board for the City of Wapilla's October 6th regular election. The Canvas Board began its review on Wednesday, October 7th.

We started by comparing the preliminary results reported on election night with the election records to verify their accuracy. The results confirmed to be accurate. The board then reviewed the ballots returned through each voting method to determine which qualified for counting. Under early voting, of the 243 ballots cast, 241 qualified for counting. Under the absentee by mail ballots, the clerk's office mailed 42 ballots to qualified voters.

Of those, 36 were returned to the city, and all 36 qualified for counting. Question ballots, of the 41 ballots cast, 31 qualified for counting. And on special needs ballots, 3 ballots were issued and 2 were returned, both of which qualified for counting. There were no election equipment irregularities reported, and the election officials reported that the election proceeded smoothly.

And that concludes my report. Okay, thank you, Chair Long. Are there any questions regarding the election of the city Clerk. Hearing none. Is there further discussion on the motion?

Hearing none. Is there objection to the motion?

Hearing none, the motion is adopted.

We are at audience comments. We are now at audience comments, which is time for members of the public to share their views with the council. This is not a question and answer period or a time for dialogue. Speakers may be referred to administration, or issues raised may be taken under advisement by the council or administration. Please begin your testimony by stating your first and last name, and if you are a city resident Comments are limited to 3 minutes.

Seeing no one, we will close audience comments, bring it back to the dais. Madam Clerk. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I did prepare some remarks this evening. So, Council Member Crafton, congratulations on your reelection to the council.

The clerk's office looks forward to continuing to work with you, and we're ready to assist. Council Member Johnson, Thank you for your service and dedication to the city. On behalf of the clerk's office, I want you to know how much we have appreciated working with you, and we hope that our paths will cross again. We're here if you ever need anything. Mayor-elect Rubio, congratulations on your election.

With 67.2% of the vote, you now hold the record for the highest percentage of votes received by a mayoral candidate in a regular city election. So congratulations. The clerk's office stands ready to assist you in any way to help with a smooth transition. And last but certainly not least, Mayor Ledford, on behalf of the clerk's office, I want to thank you for your service to Wasilla and for the opportunity to work with you over the years. After more than 100 regular city council meetings, along with numerous special meetings, we've shared many long nights, tough decisions, and challenges along the way.

I know being mayor isn't always an easy job, and I've seen firsthand the time, energy, and commitment you've given to the city, our community, and most importantly, I think in a lot of ways, our city employees as the chief administrative officer. On a personal note, I've truly enjoyed getting to know you. It's been a privilege to support you in my role as city clerk, and I'm grateful for the time we've spent together. Thank you, Madam Mayor, for everything you've done for Wasilla. I wish you all the best in your next chapter.

Thank you. That's awesome. I appreciate that. And then back to business. Appointment.

So we are going to have a vacancy on council. Um, Mayor-elect Rubio will assume her seat on Monday the 19th, which happens to be a city holiday. So I think at the next council meeting, if there's no objection, I plan to bring forward legislation documentation whereby the council will declare the seat vacant Council Seat F. We'll go through the procedures for the appointment. I'd like approval for that, and then the clerk's office will begin advertising that vacancy. So if that works for the body, that'll be my timeline.

Question on that real quick. So we approve on October 26th, I think, is the day— the next meeting.

What's the timeline on advertising before we start the interviews again? I'll have to look back. We typically have about a 2-week opening. Where we take in applications. And of course, advertising now will be done through the city website, news articles, the Mayor's Minute, and then pushes to our social media pages.

So it looks like the November 23rd meeting is when we should be expecting to make a decision. And I can report, um, you know, you guys won't make a decision. I'm happy to send out an email too with any final updates or whatnot, but you should see the entire timeline. Yeah, I was just trying to think of it ahead of time because again, coming up beyond the holidays and we wanted to make sure— I think Stu and I were talking about it last time too. We wanted to get that done before we got too deep into the holidays there, and it just wasn't at the forefront of people's mind.

So thank you. Yep, it's my goal to get that to you as soon as possible. So thank you, Madam Clerk. Yes, sir. Uh, on my calendar here, I have the 16th of November as a special meeting.

Do you know why I would have put that on there? I don't have that. That was if we had the runoff. That was, that was alternative. If we had the runoff, it could have been the certification of the runoff election results.

I will erase that. Thank you. So of course that meeting will be canceled. Thank you. And, and we do have one on, on November 9th, because originally we were going to cancel, I think, that meeting if we had a runoff.

Correct. So, but, so we will have a regular on the 9th. Correct. There's no changes to the regular meeting Thanks for the clarification. Okay, Council Member Caudle.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. It has been a pleasure. I wish you great things in the next chapter of your life. Thank you. I'm—.

Whether it's snipping or whatever you're going to do, I'm sure that you will be doing good things, and I wish you the best. Uh, Congratulations to you. Congratulations to Mayor-elect Rubio and Mr. Johnson. Have appreciated you on council and working with you, and we'll see what comes in your future.

That's it. Councilmember Johnson. Thank you. I really appreciate the thanks and the congratulations, and I want to again thank the candidates who did win. And look forward to seeing the direction of the city and the continued contributions for Councilman.

Thank you. Councilmember Schmidt.

Yeah, I wanted to say congratulations to you, Madam Mayor. Thank you very much for all the contributions you've done for the city and for all the people around you. I appreciate everything that you've done to help me out as well. And congratulations to Ian and congratulations to Lena. Appreciate you.

Congratulations. That's awesome. Winning that by that much of a landslide, Elena. And then finally, thank you very much, Tim Johnson, for your contributions to the city. And that's all.

Thank you. Councilmember Graham. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I too would like to, uh, add my congratulations, uh, to Mr. Crafton. Uh, it's always been a pleasure to work with you, although we don't always agree on things.

That's why we have 6 people up here, so that we can get 6 different points of view and to make things work. And, uh, same with Mr. Johnson, lots of, uh, off-the-record comments and time together to try and figure out what's best for the city, because I know that no one person knows what's best, but the combined, uh, you know, inputs of all of us make that work. And, uh, to, uh, Madam Mayor, you know, I know you're expecting me to say something snippy, but I'm not going to. You know, believe it or not, yeah, you know, believe it or not, uh, I've had a lot of, uh Fun and respect with you as mayor. I have unfortunately kind of had to be the devil's advocate a lot of times to kind of slow things down to make sure that things get looked at from different directions.

But I never have thought that you did not have the best interest of the city at heart and moved in that direction. And I really appreciate that, and I appreciate your putting up with me with— and I'm just glad I'm far enough away from that gavel that you can't hit me. So that was good. And then to the incoming mayor, Alina Rubio, congratulations. It's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of things going on, a lot of things to continue to make sure that the city keeps moving.

I have absolute faith that we're moving in the right direction and we will continue to do so. So congratulations to all, and most importantly, thank you for those who voted. You know, everybody says, well, you only got, you know, 10.5%, you know, voter turnout. Uh, that, that, that's good. That's good voter turnout, you know, believe it or not.

I mean, there's been times when it's been down to 3, you know. So to those that voted, uh, thank you very much, and next time bring somebody with you to the polls. Thank you. Councilmember Crofton. Thank you, Mayor.

Um, looking forward to another 3 years. Uh, to Mr. Johnson, appreciate your service to the city. Hopefully we won't— you won't be too far, and we'll see you again here soon or something. And to Mayor Ledford, I'm gonna have to echo a little bit what Stu said here. I feel like, uh, it's interesting because we sat on the same cycle.

So, you know, you— I didn't realize when I first started coming around back in 2021 that you were so new to the city. You were doing so well. That I didn't realize it was only your first, first real first year as a mayor. And over the last 3 years, we've butted heads here and there, but at the end of the day, it's because we have the best for the city in mind. And I think at the end of the day, we all have what we want for the city at the forefront of our minds, and we just don't all always agree on how to get there.

And I think that's sometimes where the best comes out of us, though, is because we iron sharpens iron and we end up getting there. So thank you for your service to the city, and I know I'll see you around.

Thank you all for being here and for all in the audience. Wonderful to be here. Many times we're looking at an empty room on a short meeting like this. So thank you all for being here and we will see you guys in a couple of weeks. Councilmember Rubio, thank you.

First off, congratulations to Ian. I look forward to working with you. Um, I'd also like to take a moment to thank Mayor Ledford and Council Member Tim Johnson for their years of service and dedication to the City of Wasilla. You've both been part of the team that has helped move our city forward, and I truly appreciate the time and commitment you have given to our city and our community. Thank you both for your service.

Thank you. Well, this is my last one, guys.

So, um, I can tell you that I truly appreciate every employee this city has got and the council, because it takes all of us. And like Mr. Graham and Mr. Crafton says, You know, yeah, we butted heads and I'm a pretty stubborn old bag, but you know, uh, because Mosul is— it's, it's really going to explode now because Trump said yesterday that gas line's going to go and they are talking, uh about the port and about the rail belt, uh, power line. So that is going to cause, uh, people are going to come. In fact, Crystal had two messages yesterday for two new business, so we're going to continue to grow. So all I can say is hang on, because here it comes.

We're going to have a tidal wave. And, you know, I am so very proud of Wasilla. What Public Works, what the chief done, what Director Bell done in putting this thing together for the president to come. It's amazing. I mean, it was all hands on deck.

And, you know, when Larry Burton called me— Larry is Senator Sullivan's chief of staff— he called me and he said, you know, we want to do this. I said, okay, bring it. I didn't know how he was going to do it, but I knew we'd do it, and we did. That's because everybody here, from the guy that empties the trash to who's at the head of the staircase, you put 150% into it because that's what Wasilla does. And I think it shows.

We're the shining star of the state. We're the only city that's growing and continues to grow. And all the legislatures will tout Wasilla. Look what they're doing. Why didn't you do that?

Well, because they— how many cities has got the heart, the employees has got the heart that we have?

You don't see it in Anchorage. Wait till it snows and you can go find out, you know. And the Big Dipper, they saved their bacon. Because they come in and done whatever Scott told them to do or whatever. Anyway, it— but that's community, that's Wasilla, and that's what we do.

So I have been blessed to have the employees I've had, to have the councils I've had, even though still you drive me crazy and so do you, Ethan.

But we had no doubt. Exactly. I think he's doing it on purpose to see just how much I can tolerate. But anyway, you know, it's, it's been an honor to sit in this chair. I have tried my dead level best to do what's best for Wasilla.

I got no good old boys. My good old boys is sitting there.