Houston: City Council Work Session 09.23.2026

Thank you.

Okay, the first item on our work session topic is the industrial hemp manufacturing, and I will just turn it over to you to just maybe, maybe take one of those mics there with you. Yeah.

I'm just gonna walk around with it like this. It's perfect. This will be my little microphone for the evening. Okay, so thank you to the two of you who are here. I appreciate you.

Thank you to everyone who is online. Thank you to everyone who is here. My name is Sarah Williams and I'm the president of Sacred Seeds Foundation, and we are looking to stand up Alaska's first industrial hemp manufacturing facility called Green Pulse Composites. Right here in Houston. So, I have a quick comment, and then I want to discuss kind of what you see on the table here.

So, first— the boys. All right, so thank you first for allowing us to share a vision that has taken months of research, relationship building, planning, conversations with growers, equipment providers, builders, and potential financing partners. We're here to introduce green build composites, not as a finished deal, of course, asking the city to approve something without answers, but as a thoughtful opportunity we hope to explore in partnership with Houston. We are here because we believe Alaska can grow more of what it needs, process more of what it grows, and build a stronger local economy around practical materials, skilled work, agriculture, and responsible manufacturing. As we believe that if Greenbuild ever moves forward in or near Houston, it must do so in a way that respects this community, listens early, answers hard questions honestly, and creates real local benefit.

So what is Greenbuild Composites? So Greenbuild Composites is a proposed Alaska industrial hemp processing and building materials business. Industrial hemp is an agricultural crop. This project is not a retail marijuana crop grown for, you know, intoxication. Nothing we do is an intoxicating product.

Okay, our focus is fiber hemp, a tall agricultural crop grown for useful materials inside its stalk. Alaska regulates industrial hemp through its state program, including registration, testing, handling, and reporting requirements. A hemp stalk contains two valuable materials: the woody inner portion, which you'll see here on the table, which is the hemp hurd, and the long outer fiber, which is called the bast fiber. When cleaned and prepared correctly, hurd can be used for hemp-lined building applications and animal bedding, and bast fiber can be used as feedstock for insulation, erosion control materials, composites, and other industrial products. The challenge in Alaska is not only growing the crop, the challenge is creating a dependable place to process it, to dry it, to clean it, to store it, and to, in the end, connect it to customers.

That's the missing link. Greenbuild's designed to address that. So why are we starting with building materials? So we're starting with building materials because they provide a practical, high-volume local use for fiber hemp. Alaska imports a great deal of the material used in homes and buildings.

If we can create dependable local processing, we can begin to give Alaska growers a real market while creating local materials for healthier, durable construction. We're not promising that every product will be made immediately. We're beginning with the most practical steps, processing clean herd and fiber hemp. Fiber, developing consistent quality, serving early customers, and expanding only when the market proves that it's ready. We have two options and really two phases to the project.

In your packets today, you'll see— and I have some here for those that are in the audience— we have two phases. Actually, I see that— I'm not sure everyone's gotten one, so I'm going to make sure that everyone gets one here. Let's get that. Yeah, sure, sure.

Perfect. Okay. So we want to be transparent that there really are kind of a phased process here. So as much as I would love to start with Phase 2 and jump right in at a $27 million project, because that's been the dream from the beginning, the reality is, is that we're brand new in this market, and Alaska has started our hemp industry 5 years ago in the middle of COVID And with that, that was really difficult for anyone to get started in it because there just was no processing facility anywhere. And so many farmers started and then they failed and they are a little sour taste in their mouth with wanting to start again.

So this is why it's so vitally important that we start somewhere. And so that's where Phase 1 comes in. Phase 1 is that starter processing hub. It's a smaller, practical, expandable facility, approximately 10,000 square feet, with an estimated planning range of about $8 million to $10 million. And we just had a call yesterday that may even put that down to $3 million.

We're very excited about that. But it would start out by using the Fiber King, which is a piece of machinery. It's a $500,000 machine that harvests and separates the hemp in the field. Into the basic herd and fiber instead of needing a massive $3 million machine. You could do it right in the field.

Um, at the facility, the materials would be dried, cleaned, screened, sized, bagged, baled, stored, and then shipped. The starter hub would produce clean herd for hemp lime applications and animal bedding, along with fiber feedstock for insulation, erosion control partners. It would allow us to prove the supply chain, train the workers, establish our customers, and grow responsibly. And then we move to Phase 2. Personally, Phase 2 is my favorite, but Phase 2 is the approximately $27 million long-term vision, a larger purpose-built processing and building materials facility with greater storage, refinement, packaging, quality control, logistics, and eventually value-added marketing.

The important point is these are not competing ideas. These, these build off of one another. So we're choosing discipline overhype, which I think is a very wise way to start. We want to start at scale that we can operate well, learn from, and build upon. So what does this mean for Houston?

For Houston, this could mean a local market for Alaska farmers, skilled and entry-level jobs, opportunities for trucking, maintenance, equipment service, storage, construction, administration, training, and future manufacturing. More than 200 acres of grower participation have already been indicated or promised. This has been part of our relationship building that we have done over the past 6 months of our 7 months. Gosh, where are we at? 10 Months.

Okay, it's almost a year. Fine. The past year that we have really been working this hard, but that creates a possible future pathway to more than 2,000 acres that have said, if you build it, we will grow it, right? So we're treating it— this is potential, but still not a guarantee. The Fiber King planning model assumes it can process approximately 4 acres per hour and up to 800 acres in a season under appropriate operating conditions.

Of course, actual output depends on weather, field conditions, crop performance, labor, equipment uptime, and operating hours. But this is how we plan to speak about this project with confidence in the opportunity, but honesty about what still needs to be proven. All right. So our community-first commitment is this. I want to say plainly that we understand that industrial development creates questions, right?

Residents might rightly ask about traffic, dust, noise, lighting, fire safety, water drainage, side access, trail access, uh, operating hours, land use, and all the other things they might complain about, right? Or could be concerned about, not just complain about. Let me change that word— be concerned about. Right. And the impact to Houston, of course, more importantly, what could that facility do to the impact to local residents, to neighborhoods, things like that?

And so I want to make it clear that this is not obstacles that I'm willing to dismiss. These are obstacles that we have to overcome and that we have to have a good solid plan. So public engagement early, open, honest. That's where we stand with it. Um, if we move forward, the final site plan must address truck routes, dust collection, fire and life safety.

Lighting, drainage, utilities, setbacks, all-weather operations, and communications with neighbors. We're not asking you to accept anything tonight. We're asking to bring the work correctly, to begin the work correctly. Sorry. Early conversation, responsible site selection, transparency, engineering, permitting, and real opportunities for public input.

So, looking forward to funding, idea is one that we have approached. We're in the process of approaching, but this conversation we believe needed to happen before we could rightfully approach IDEA with an idea for a future place, because Houston and the location next to the railway is what entices us the most. That's why we want to locate in Houston. Well, that's one. I would say that's one.

I would say the second, um, that is most enticing, and I'm gonna call on Sandra on this one because We looked at the railway. Well, let me give you a little history. I'm putting this thing down for a second. So, little history, and it all has to do with Representative McCabe. So, back in October, he was posting about the Point McKenzie railway extension, and I mentioned a thing about an industrial hemp manufacturing facility located in Point McKenzie.

I said, that's a great idea. Let's go for it. Right? And then Sandra was like, well, you don't have the work base out there in Port McKenzie. How about you come do it in Houston?

I said, well, that makes a lot more sense. Absolutely. Because we'll be right on the highway and gosh, it just makes more sense. And so, as the conversations continued, again, Houston became the best place. Wasilla is too full.

Palmer is too full. I want development. I want expansion out into other places, and the people out here need jobs just as much as the people in Wasilla and the people in Palmer. So although I live in Wasilla, I have my personal eyes set on Houston because it's good for the people overall, right? So, uh, we are looking forward.

We have a couple of private investors that we're discussing with. We have, um, conversations where, where grants applications more than we can get our head above right now. Lots of grant applications. And so the process is really a different capital stack strategy. It's— we're not asking the city for money.

I don't want your money. In fact, I'm happy to pay your taxes. Okay, I'm not going to ask for a tax break. We're not going to ask for anything from you at all except to communicate with us clearly about what you need from us with regards to permitting and things of that nature. Okay, let's see here.

Did I cover everything? So, as I mentioned, the request is simple. Just tonight, please come touch, taste, and see and feel that hemp is good for Alaska. What we have here on the table are— everything on this table can be made with industrial hemp. Everything on this table can be made with industrial hemp.

In fact, the plastic remote control that's on this table could be made with industrial hemp. I was looking to make sure I had it right, but no, absolutely everything. And with that purpose, I'm tired of living in Alaska that imports 95% of the stuff that we need. I'm tired of living in Alaska that is so dependent on outside world and outside force and outside economy and outside everything that we can't even develop our own world, our own economy, our own lives without that input. And what if we had a plant that could produce all the things we needed?

Everything from medicine to rope to clothing to canvas to building materials and animal bedding. This is just a sampling of what it's capable of. 50,000 Different products have been known to be able to be made out of the hemp plant. And so while you may look at it and you may think, "Well, that's just weed," it's not. It's not gonna get you high, but it certainly could build you a house.

And we have to begin to look at it like that. It's an economic opportunity for the state of Alaska if we approach it accordingly like that. If we look at it as just another crop or it's just another agricultural thing, well, that's great. It won't go as far as it's capable of. The potential is much greater than looking at it as just a little, a little plant, you know.

Okay, so Finally, our request is simple. We ask the city council to help us understand the right path for exploring compatible, rail-accessible industrial land in or near Houston. We ask for guidance on zoning, permitting, infrastructure, safety, traffic, and the public process that should govern this type of project. And we ask for opportunity to continue to listen to residents, businesses, growers, city staff, council members, and potential partners before any site is selected or any major commitment is made. Made.

We want Houston to have a real voice in whether, where, and how this project moves forward. Sacred Seeds Foundation is built on the belief that good work should serve people. Green Build is an opportunity to connect Alaskan agriculture, practical manufacturing, workforce development, healthier building materials, and local economic resilience. But a facility is only successful if the community around it is stronger because of it. Our commitment is to proceed with humility, transparency, and determination.

We will bring the data, we will answer questions, we will acknowledge what we do not know yet, and we will do the work necessary to earn trust. We're not asking you to simply believe in this idea. We're asking you to shape a responsible opportunity, one that can create value for local people, local growers, and Alaska's future. And thank you for your time, of course, your service, and your willingness to hear me this evening. Finally, thank you.

Please take a moment, get out of your chairs and come. This is an interactive presentation. Please come take a look and see. I'd like to discuss the different types of products we have, where they come from, how they're made. So you're just educated.

That's our goal. We take this booth out here. We thankfully had it at your Houston Founders Day last minute. Was very thankful that Charlie could get us in there. We had it there, and I think one of the best comments that I got from your young people in your city was a 15, 16-year-old kid comes up and he's like, "I love hemp!

This is so cool! Like, this is great!" And then he goes, "Oh man, hemp is the way of the future." It's like, yeah dude, that's right, right? And then about 20 minutes later, had a young lady, she's 23, 24. She came over and she's looking through everything and just— she just says, oh yeah, hemp is the way of the future. And so that's it, that's my statement.

Hemp is the way of the future for Alaska. Hemp is hope for Alaska's future. So please come visit. I'll share a little bit about each product and you can see who's going to be my first, my first person here. We're going to start here at this end of the table.

So this is what it's all about. This is our building materials. This is hempcrete, right? This is a local ins— this is an insulative product. You can touch and see here.

It is hemp hurd, lime, and water. So because we have all of those things here in Alaska, we can make that building material right here in our state without any need to import anything. Then we have these nesting mats here. Nesting mats are just the fiber portion And I think it's best, um, Lindsay, can you grab the fiber portion and the hurd and that stuff so we can bring it back this way? So the hemp plant itself comes with these things right here.

There we go. So this portion right here is the hurd on the inside, right? That's the internal hurd. What comes out then on the outside though is that bast fiber right there. And that bast fiber, when you degum it, it breaks it down into these, what you can use for textiles and things of that nature, right?

And so rope, hemp rope is something that has been used for many, many, many years, um, and that, that would also be the fiber, absolutely. And so the nesting mats are fiber-based for hemp bedding. These are products that are currently being sold at Alaska Farm Supply, but he ships them in from, um, Montana. Ironically, it has a Made in Canada sticker on it, and it's simply because Montana ships it to Canada and then they make it and they ship it back Montana because they are the ones that have the equipment for this. So it's— but it's still a USA-made product.

Uh, they're in Montana with IND Hemp. We have— they are a strategic partner. They operate a 52,000-square-foot facility in, um, oh gosh, Fort Knox, Montana. Fort— oh, I don't know, I don't remember, but it's in Montana. Um, they also produce this hemp litter.

The hemp litter is a mixture of hemp herd and oatmeal, and so it is dust-free and amazing. It's so good, love it so much. There's also a fiber insulation product. This is something that would replace fiberglass, right? You could put it against your body, it's fine, it's just a plant, but it could replace fiberglass as well.

This hemp wood product here is for flooring. You can make cabinetry out of it. Um, it is— the base of it is herd and the top of of it is fiber, and it's made in Murray, Kentucky. And so that is one product also that we can make up here as well. Uh, then we're moving on to our plastic section.

This is a hemp straw. I got a great story to tell about our hemp straw. Um, so, uh, the day we went to Juneau to advocate for HB 325, um, we brought the hemp straw, and the day before they had horrible discussion, I guess, for 3 days about whether or not they should ban plastic straws in Alaska. And apparently some staffers wanted to quit because it was so horrible for them. But then we brought the straw and they were all like, no, no, it's hemp, it's okay, it's biodegradable, it's fine.

So our current cannabis industry uses these. These are biodegradable hemp plastic as well. And then you can have these is, you know, plastic fork, right? That is a hemp plastic biodegradable product. As well as my son owns a 3D printing business.

We printed a Hemp Buddy, um, and that hemp filament can be made out of hemp, um, and depends on what you add to it, you could have it for a long-term structural plastic product or a biodegradable product on that. So we have seeds here, um, but the greatest thing to me about hemp is that hemp food. So hemp hearts have protein. Hemp hearts contain all 9 essential amino acids that the human body needs. So you can make bread out of it, you can put it into desserts, you can break it down into a hemp flour.

I love it very much, personally a big fan. Then we have the CBD. So this is what our current market carries, which is Frontier CBD. He produces these items. Um, really, our market is really just limited right now to the CBD elements because that's what there's processing for, right?

Uh, then we have a hemp rope, right? You got that there. And what we love about these swatches very much is because we'll take them to our booth and then people will be like, oh, I can make jeans out of that. Like, yes, you could. So what's great about all of these raw products that we take to our booths is that people are able— Alaskans are able to look at something and go, I could do this with it.

So it produces that creativity that we really need in an industry, people being able to just take a raw input and turning it into something that we normally use. There's a shirt there. We've got this—. Woven Tundra is a— what do we call her? She's a spin artist, a weaver, spinner here locally.

She produced a mixture. This one is hemp and wool, I think, for sure. So there's that.

And then we have hemp paper, right? We don't have to cut down a tree anymore, we can make paper. I mean, trees are good, it's fine, but just saying there's an alternative there as well. So that's Generally, the gist of what we offer when we tell people, hey, we're going to make things out of hemp. We had conversations recently with people from the Department of War and they said, well, we need parachutes.

So great, I got you. We need this. Right. So it's going to be more so about meeting the needs of changing the input. Right.

And changing that. So then we have Overall, Secret Seeds has a 4-phase plan, though, for hemp economy. Green Build is just the first phase that's covering building materials. Phase 2 covers textiles. It covers paper, canvas, rope, things like that.

Phase 3 covers bioplastics, biofuel, and food, because hemp can be that as well. It can be fuel for your toilet stove once we get to that phase. And then we overall would like to pay for healthcare. As much as we love hemp— hemp is amazing, hemp is everything— that is the driving factor. Everything that we will be generating as an organization profit-wise will be paying for healthcare clinics across the state so that Alaskans can go and get healthcare at no cost to them because the operating expenses of the healthcare clinic will be paid for by the operating expense or by the profits generated from these Thanks.

Okay, so a couple of last things. We do have our Adopt an Acre program. This is where we help farmers get started in the industrial hemp program. Farmers need a business structure, they need a compliance structure, they need those kinds of things. So we help consult with them on that.

And then, where's our last piece? And then our Soil to Shelter banquet that we are putting on on the 24th. We're still looking for sponsors for it. We're believing for it. October— sorry, not today, not tomorrow.

October 24th. And so this year we'll be looking to teach contractors and builders and realtors and lenders about how to build with hemp and what hemp can do for Alaska as well. Okay. Any questions? Any questions?

All right, did you wear your Underdog shirt? Yes, Underdog Hemp. I bought, um, I bought a one for my son as well. Uh, they are amazing. They're like hemp, bamboo, organic cotton, like $45 polo shirt, but it'll be the last polo you have to buy for like, you know, ever.

It's flame retardant. It's amazing. Um, any questions? Did you have questions?

Right, so if, if all goes well, then we are breaking ground in, uh, spring and, um, um, processing in October, right? So we break ground in spring, farmers plant in spring, and we simultaneously build Not yet. Oh, so we have 200 promised. Yes. Yeah, that's, that's 100 in Port Mac, Bar Point Mac.

Yep, that's 100 there, and then 50 Palmer, 25 here. We've got it spread out. Our goal is, is we don't want to be the one grower for hemp, right? We want to build an industry, and so an industry requires multiple farmers to, you know, put 5 acres in here. And I'm really thankful Representative McCabe was paramount in making that happen because as part of HB 325, we introduced a micro grower category.

So currently you can only grow a quarter acre of hemp or 200 plants at a minimum. So now the new micro grower category says if you want to grow 50 plants, and you want to be a part of it, you can do that, right? So we're excited about that, right?

Yes. So, so in order to run That facility, the $27 million Phase 2 facility, 2,000 acres, will run it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, year-round, year-round with some holiday days. No, no, our goal is completely year-round. In fact, the buildout is a store. We have a storage facility building as well on the property for storing for those farmers that don't want to run it in the field or whatnot.

And so, and then yeah.

So it'll just be depending on how it's harvested. Yeah, but if it's baled in the field, then it is rutted moisture 15 to 18%, right? So most equipment needed would be what you would need for baling hay.

Right, direct seed. Yeah, as a farmer, no, it's good, it's super good questions. Absolutely. Yeah, to build, was it 8-inch walls? Oh, right, for a 1,400-square-foot house with 8-inch walls, you are looking at 2 to 3 acres of Right, if you want castle walls, 16-inch castle walls, it's 4 acres.

4 Acres and a half will build you a house, and that 1,400-square-foot house for that.

So 2021, right, depending on which product, you know, you use and how we go about it. But yeah, yep, okay.

Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions, comments, testimonials? I have, um, on the drying and the processing, there's no chemicals involved in that, right? There's no what?

Chemicals? No, there is no chemicals involved in that. And in fact, we are a non-toxic believing company. So we are committed to using as little chemicals as possible. There is some chemical processing involved in the degumming of it if you're going to turn it into textiles, but we'll, we'll do our best at that point down that phase to make sure we can do absolutely everything without chemicals.

We solely believe that once upon a time our forefathers when George Washington said make the most of the Indian hemp plant and sow it everywhere, that back then they weren't using a bunch of chemicals. They were just figuring it out. So I know there's chemical— there's, there's processes to do it without that, and we're going to figure that out and, and how we can make that happen. But yeah, non-toxic, clean, non-toxic building materials, clothing, life here in Alaska is our goal. One thing that I'd like to mention, um, the hemp cat litter is absolutely fantastic.

Um, I should have switched to hemp litter months and months and months ago. I would clean my cat box once, twice a day sometimes, and the second it was clean, of course the cat's going, oh good, it's my turn, right? And with this hemp litter, I'm still on that same track, and I can't tell when she's been in there unless I go and look because I can't smell it anymore. It's absolutely, absolutely fantastic. And that little sample bag that we have there, that Gal that bagged that up for us because they were also testing it at Alaska Farm Supply, she was heavily pregnant.

There's almost no dust that goes with it, and it's all to the antimicrobial effects of the hemp plant that it, it just comes endowed with from the Lord.

Okay, um, you earlier said, uh, that you were looking towards the city to have some type of rail connection. Is that—. That's preferred? Yeah. Well, I'll share a little bit right now.

We, Council, those have been on here a couple years, um, we had, uh, asked the borough to get some property by the double, uh, the double track section on the north end of town. And, um, that's in its final stages. I believe we should have it in a month or two. And we were—. Yeah, pick me.

Okay, let's go. Let's go. At least there would be access there.

So we—. Yeah, I have a vision that's similar to yours. Like, I would love to see people be able to not only get on the railway to travel as a, you know, client, as a customer base, but freight moving in and out is my biggest thing. And if we can drop freight in a ConX, send it to Port McKenzie, and it can go to our rural communities, you know, when there's, I don't know, a typhoon in western Alaska and they need to rebuild ATN 15,000 homes, uh, Native homes. Hey, we can help with that.

And that—. Yeah, that's, that's why we want the railway. That's it. Like, I don't want to locate if I'm not next to the railway. Like, it's so important for us to do that.

Well, after that happens, maybe we take a look at what, what you guys are looking for. Okay, sounds good for sure. Sandra, what did you— you're mentioning Oh yeah, so, so, you know, no matter where you sit with climate change and all of carbon sequestration and all of those things, it's not a political issue at this point, it's science. Hemp sequesters— per 1 acre of hemp, it sequesters 10 tons of carbon every, every season. Okay, so currently the curbing carbon sequestration rules for things, you have to drill a big hole hole in the ground and you have to, like, particularly they were talking about the coal plant, they had to sequester somehow 86 tons annually of carbon in order to balance things.

I don't understand carbon credits as clearly as I should, but this is how they do it. They dig a big hole in the ground and they, like, blow the carbon into— I'm seeing your farmer face going, that is a stupid idea. And I agree. I agree with you, sir, because 8 acres of hemp could do the same thing. Just plant 8 acres of hemp and it could sequester 80, 80 tons of carbon in one season.

So then you make stuff with it, and then from that point, um, it continues to sequester carbon while it's sitting in your walls of your house. And so that's really amazing. Plus, uh, it's— oh, I didn't mention the wonderful benefits. Maybe you don't know hemp is fire resistant, okay? 6 Hours at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, you will see— just search on YouTube, you'll see all the, the studies, uh, you'll see that it's 1,700 degrees on one side of this wall, it's 83 degrees on the other side of the wall because of the way that hemp hurd and lime and water come together.

That lime really binds together and creates a fireproof— fire resistant— not proof, but it's fire resistant material. Additionally, it's mold resistant and it is pest resistant. So this is all that Alaska needs, right? We need a mold resistant building material, we need a pest resistant building material, we need these kinds of things. Um, but also, uh, you can have a spraycrete.

So we work with Homeland Hatcrete out of Bismarck, North Dakota, and he has a spraycrete. So much like a drywall that you might spray on or a plaster, a spraycrete can equally be put in as an inner wall kind of a thing. Um, but if you think about a flood that might happen, what does a flood do to sheetrock or fiberglass? There's no salvaging that, right? It's done.

But hempcrete, it, it, hemp slime. It just dries up, just dries up. And so that is an incredible advantage to it overall as a building material and why it's better than what Alaska currently has and why we want to come to market with it. Okay, did we cover that carbon sequestration? Any other questions, comments?

Good. You have a question? Yeah, I have.

Numerous. Yes, bring it, let's go. Um, so I'm trying to filter through them, the stuff that we've all— that you've already covered. Um, so looking at a site outside of rail access, what other characteristics do you guys require? And when you're talking about rail access, you're talking about directly on it, or you're talking like within transload distance off highway?

I would prefer directly on, but not required. Right. Something, something super close would be great. What was the first part of that question? Other site characteristics.

Other site characteristics. So we would like geothermal. Would be really, really great because we are trying really hard to produce an entire facility that is not even dependent on MEA or NSTAR. So, hemp is energy, and hemp biomass can create energy, and hemp seed can create biofuel. And there's solar, wind, geothermal, and every other potential opportunity.

We are just committed to not touching the grid as it stands now. So we're developing every bit of energy policy and programs for the build that doesn't involve traditional natural gas or electricity. Maybe it's a backup, right? But certainly not where we're going to start to be a drain on the grid, because currently, we don't know what's coming this summer or this winter or whether— and we just don't want to be a drain on that. So, we're developing systems to make sure that that's— so, geothermal is one.

As far as— we also would like uh, Parks Highway access, right? Um, because we need these trucks to come in, pick up a load, and run off to Fairbanks or head down to Seward or, or whatnot. Um, we're looking predominantly for— I think 20 acres was our first general ask, and that's for— that's for the big picture. Um, so even if we started with 10 acres can grow into 20 acres, that would be great. But we understand that we want— because we want the alternative energy sources, we need to look at spaces for, you know, wind farms and wind things.

Because I'm not really excited about a solar farm, but I am excited about solar panels. So we're gonna look at that for sure.

Okay, you talked about trucks. Yes. Uh, normal operations, once you're fully functional, what kind of trucks are we talking about? What kind of truck volume? What kind of railcar movement?

How active of an area are we talking about? Right, so, um, consistent operations, um, certainly truck and trailer, semi-truck, you know, um, it's a very light material, so We're not too concerned with it causing extra weight upon the road system because it'd be like— actually, it'd be lighter than hay, I guess, in that sense too.

To be honest, I don't have a real clear answer for that question. So I will find an answer for that question for a deeper discussion on that. Yeah, it is the intent to run 24/7? No, not in the beginning. The intent is to run 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in the beginning.

At some point, maybe 24/7 should the volume meet, um, you know, what we've got. Um, we're just getting started, right? I would love to be able to run 24/7 and offer that many jobs. Um, at the same time, there's something about running at the middle of the night that if I got anybody nearby, I don't want to be a noise pollution problem, you know. So, so there's a concern for me personally as, as a community impact for that.

So, um, you know, if we could move to 12-hour days or 14-hour days, maybe that would be a little more, bit more wise. But again, we started out 8-hour days. Okay. And you meant— I'm sorry, I'm trying to let this kind of lead. Um, you, you talked about jobs, so let's let's talk about jobs.

Yeah. Um, construction versus permanent employment and kind of at the initial startup level versus once you're saturated. Yeah, for sure. So construction, we're looking at, um, I think we're looking at 55, I think. Uh, and then that's a build, that's a one-season build out for you.

So one season build, and then onward, um, we're looking at between 35 to 50 in the initial start. And that's just at the facility itself, not looking at logistics and trucking and additional outward impacts that will come from that.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So you have 200 of— so 2,000 acres would— is fully saturated for the processing capacity for that 8-hour set? Yeah. Okay. And you right now you have about 200 of that.

How many growers are represented in a 200-acre chunk? Is that 3 growers or is that—. I would say Half of that is $100,000, and that's Blankenship Farms in Point Mackenzie. So very thankful for Dylan's support. Um, $43,000 of it is Kids Cupboard.

They're looking for something to do with their extra land they have, so I said, how about we do this? Uh, so the other— I think we've got 5 acres, I want to say 4 or 5. Right now. And then, yeah, and then Sterling, which is another 5, right? So, um, so I would say 5 current growers that that represents.

Um, we have been— back in, um, January, the Alaska Farm Bureau created the hemp commodities program, and we have been— I'm the chair, and we have been moving forward, and we have a number of people that are like Yes, I love it. It's a great idea. I got 5 acres here, 10 acres, or 50 acres. But until you get that thing built, we're going to stay backwards. There's also plant material center.

Casey Denkolb there has mentioned that there's 90,000 acres in Delta Junction that's going back to seed that's just sitting there. And I'm like, well, guess what? I have a thing that could use that. So if the right strategic partners came behind us, we could grow so much more faster than a small operation, right? Um, but it's just we're, we're starting out conservatively because that's wise, right?

Other than over-promising and under-delivering. Have you guys explored like essentially a shortfall plan? What happens if in a given summer the growers don't grow enough to keep you processing? Yes, do you import? Do you—.

We would, we would import her to be able to keep going with it. So we have connections in Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba, Canada, and where's my other one? Mm, somewhere else.

Oregon. Somewhere— Bent, Oregon. So we have connections. We built these relationships to make sure just in case we don't get enough, like, I can't sit here. We have spoke with the National Industrial Hemp Council.

Patrick Aitag there has mentioned that China is very excited to buy hemp and raw materials coming from hemp. So although I want to take care of Alaskans first, that's a potential export market as well for us that we're starting to—. Overgrow here and export. Exactly, exactly. So we overgrow, well, you know, we'll go that way with it.

If we undergrow, we'll import import from, you know, preferably USA companies first, uh, but then, you know, maybe Canada would become part of the US. I'm just joking, but either way, you know, so that's a stopgap measure. You couldn't stay profitable on imported features? Correct, correct, correct. Preferably not.

Um, I, I don't want to stay profitable on importing, even if I could. That's not— it's better than shuttering. Yeah, that's not the goal. The goal is to build a strong hemp economy for Alaska. So, uh, so is what we do for Sacred Seeds is we go to these farmers and we say, okay, what's your end game for your hemp?

Let's plan it out. Let's— we work with our growers that we have on our team and we say, hey, let's plan out your stuff. Let's make sure all of your crop plan and your crop management is good. So we're setting up a solid foundation beforehand. The goal— I'm done importing.

So I don't want to— it would be like the absolute desperate if we had to keep the machine running, fine, we would, but it's not, not the goal. The goal is every winter going, hey, who's gonna be my next grower? Who's my contractor? Who are we gonna contract out to make sure? Yeah, so we're gonna be constantly growing this industry to make sure.

Is there a point in the moisture level dropping in the feedstock where you end up with a dust problem from a fire standpoint? Below 12, probably below 10, is, is where you end up with, um, significant dust issues. Is there something you can do about that, or do you just end up having to not be able to process that material? No, we can process it. Um, we certainly are at the point of just will have to— oh man, my mind is running a blank.

There is a way to— we intend to have a storage drying facility that can in a way rehydrate or, you know, bring up the humidity in the plant.

Yes, it's like a conversation about this once. Yes. Yeah. In the machine there's a little built-in sprinkler system, but the process to run through the thing, there's humidity controls. Yeah, right.

Gotcha. Thank you. I was like, I know we had a conversation about this. There's fire safety. Yeah, for sure.

Firestuff business model. I think, I think that might be all of mine that you didn't touch on on your own. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Absolutely.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, anyone else? I actually have a couple more. Perfect.

So for your growers, are you doing like a contracted price for them? So it's this much per ton all year long, right? Right. Okay. And does that go off some type of market?

Like, how are you pricing that? So we're pricing it based on currently lower 48 prices, um, recognizing though that we're gonna have to elevate that, um, in order to compete with like hay, you know, what, why should you grow hay versus— so we're hoping to be able to offer at least 50 to 75 $0.75 a pound. I'd love to get us to a dollar, you know, so we could really make it a crop that's worthy of growing, right? Instead of just, eh, it's okay, you know. Um, we have a, uh, or rather Manitoba— Manitoba— Verve Seeds.

Verve Seeds produces a strain of hemp for fiber called Jurassic. And it is, it grows 14 to 16 feet tall in Manitoba. Uh, now mind you, Manitoba's 59-degree latitude. We are confident that things grow bigger here in Alaska than they do down there. And the proof of that is, uh, Phil over at the Plant Material Center is the lead of the industrial hemp program, and he got his seeds for his trials for the past 4 years from Cornell University in New York.

They sent him the seeds and he grew them and he sent pictures back and they said, what is this? And he was like, well, this is the plants you sent me. No, no, no, the plants when we grow them get 4 and 5 feet tall. And he sent back pictures of 7 and 8 feet tall plants. And that's in Palmer.

So I feel confident that we could grow maybe an 18-foot, 20-foot tall hemp plant. Tree, you know. And, and because of that, we want to offer good pricing overall from the very beginning. That's interesting. It must be a pretty sturdy plant if they're not tumbling over in the wind and falling.

So it's extremely strong, it's frost resistant. Yeah.

4 Or 6-foot-tall plants, depending on what we're making, is how big we do the strands. Okay. Um, bat insulation requires very long strands.

We can actually get a whole nother harvest, if not two more, than what the United States did with the lower 48. Is that replanting, or is that off the same plant.

Okay. Yeah, right.

And so it can be, depending on if you go autoflower, you can get, uh, 78-day strain from seed to harvest. If you— where you're typically looking at a 90-day to 120-day depending on what strain you go with. And that's why it's important to sit down and plan out, you know, get your right seeds, get your right genetics, and sit down with the farmer and making sure that they are planning what they're going to do with it at the end because you want to make sure what you're growing for. Another thing that just changed with HB 325 is that if you test hot, right? So hemp, what makes hemp is that 0.3% THC.

THC is that delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol. You guys, you guys govern Houston, you're familiar with THC, right? So in hemp, THC is that 0.3% or less. However, nature cannot be 100% controlled all the time, 'cause God. So if that plant tends to test hot and over that 0.3%, the previous regulation set said, "Oh, too bad, farmer.

You have to destroy everything." And that would be a really risky situation for any farmer to even get started in that. Like, oh wait, possibly if nature says that I, you know, whatever, anything could happen to make that THC level go high. So now what happens with the new changes with HB 324 5 is that farmer can now, instead of, they could possibly sell the flower to the cannabis industry, right? Or they could remediate it. Maybe they could sell it now to, for building materials or for, you know, whatever, right?

So that's a very great benefit for farmers because they won't lose, you know, the money that they might have done for it. Nice change to the industry for that. Two more questions. Yes. So the farmers that you're working with, are going to be working with, are they going to have support like through agronomy?

Because I'm sure this is new to everybody and soil types are different. Just curious like what the support system is with you guys. Yeah, with them. Yep. So the Plant Materials Center is our major backup right now.

So Phil has been growing for 4 years, but mind you, in Palmer soil, right? So we are working closely with them to say, hey, how about we bring all this data together and we start these conversations to make sure that everybody is sharing this information, right? Unfortunately, if you happen to know anyone at the University of Alaska and the Board of Regents, please, please get their ear for hemp because at this moment they're not willing to touch it for study purposes. Purposes and things like that, because they can't see the difference maybe between cannabis and hemp. I'm not sure, but I'd love to get their ear to show them the differences.

So maybe we can get that moving forward, because our first project that we're working on right now is the Alaska Hemp House Retrofit Project. And this is a community-facing project that puts, um, uh, that basically, um, sorry, that puts a family or an elderly couple or elderly individual who has mold problems or pest problems, or they have a need for a remodel. And then we're going to remodel with hemp products, which will then be able to be used as a testing for climate control and things like that. Because I can bring you all the cool climate data you want about what hemp can do in Iceland or Norway, but unless you Unless we get Alaskan data, no one will believe me. So we need Alaskan data.

We really do want UAF or UAA to be a part of that. It just seems like that would be a nice solid partnership to fit well with that. So at this point for the farmers though, we're working directly with Phil in the industrial hemp program. He's a great resource for them. He's been studying it for the past 4 years.

Is really solid in that information. And then, you know, our hemp commodities program with the Farm Bureau, we're coming together, we're sharing that information. And then I have farmers that I know over the years that are from lower 48 and other climes, you know, North Dakota and things like that, that can give great feedback. And so that's where we plug in our farmers that we work with to those resources and say, okay, let's plan and all you need to know So let's go figure out the answers to your questions for that. And one more.

Yeah. Um, is hemp covered under crop insurance? Because I know there's some crops that are not included, or you can't cover under—. It depends on the insurance. And let me get the answer to that because I don't know wholeheartedly.

I don't want to promise you something that I don't know. Okay, sure. I'll find out. Thank you. That for sure.

Perfect. Okay, any other questions? Two more. Two more, bring it. We'll start with, uh, regulations.

I, I have tried to catch up with understanding the regulatory environment, so please correct me. That's right. But the House Bill passed recently enough. Do you expect the state to be up to speed on compliance and the DNR to— who does the processor registrations, right? That's DNR.

Well, it's, it's the Plant Material Center, but it is through their form, their leg of DNR. But you're right. So are you confident that they will have their ducks in a row by the time those are processes that you need to engage to be successful? With the amount of pressure I intend to apply, yes, sir. Yes, I'm very confident.

Absolutely. I'm very confident that by next spring we will have those regulations in place. Okay. Yeah, but, but mind you, that being said, we don't need those regulation changes to move forward, right? So those regulation changes were an incredible blessing, an absolute blessing.

It was a— it was a way to restart the industry after 5 years dead, okay? They were— and they were a god movement forward, okay? Because we needed momentum. We needed to reopen this discussion with a big public view, and it happened. But that being said, I can work these regulations as they stand and still work this.

It won't be as easy, but it'll be okay. Okay, be fine. Yeah. Okay, last one. Okay.

All right, I can't promise something. That's fine. I think it's the last one. Um, okay, so the biomass essentially arrives on train cars and finished product leaves the processing facility. What else leaves that processing facility?

Rejected biomass, wastewater, right? Okay, so packaging remnants, any of— I mean, what else is— are we generating out there, right? So we are, we are looking for a zero waste movement, and you can, you can do zero waste with, with hemp processing. So we're working towards producing policies that are zero waste regarding our biomass. So we do have some biomass that we can't use, and certainly we intend to use composting and other options.

Um, uh, what am I thinking? Biomass energy sources, sending, you know, that will be our general use for reduced biomass. Wastewater, it doesn't require a lot of water, but there's some water that will be waste, you know, wastewater. There's not chemicals, we're not as concerned about the concern about whether or not we're going to be polluting because there's not chemicals involved. And so, um, so, you know, we're gonna have to develop that one deeper because I don't have like the perfect blended answer on that one.

But certainly as far as, you know, trash for packaging, again, I'm trying real hard to get away from plastic. So we're looking at making our own hemp bags, and our— so there will be a bit of an ability to compost the very things that might be considered waste. So we want to be as low impact to the environment as possible because it just seems very counterintuitive if we're just some big toxic facility, but yet we're like, here, grow green, you know, no, that would seem very, very counterintuitive. So we, we don't want to be, um, hypocritical in that sense. So we will be building policies along that line.

All right, I think I'm—. Oh, answer your question. Yes, through multi- Uh, well, this is according to the— yeah, there's a pilot hemp insurance program from the USDA. I have one left. Um, say that now.

There's oils and stuff that, that are profitable out of the hemp. Is it the responsibility of the farmer or is that something you guys will be harvesting as part of it? Well, so each piece of what the hemp plant can do requires different equipment to produce, right? So we have plans in the making that can put an entire biofuel-making process inside of a ConEx that you could put in Native community, and they're growing to seed, and they're, they're processing their own biofuel for their homes to toilets, right? That's part of our goals.

At this point, the flower can be taken by the marijuana industry. The, as far as processing aspects go, the seed, at this point, we don't have any seed pressing capabilities that I know of, at least not large-scale here in the state. The Plant Material Center in Palmer will give you an option to be able to like clean your seeds and get that, you know, kind of a package thing, which that's kind of really the best use that we need right now is we need that repeat seed situation because we don't know what portions— we do know in Palmer we can Priest has been able to go seed to seed, right? But we don't know if down in Juneau they're going to be able to do that because, you know, growing seasons and whatnot. So we have to test it and we have to find out which portions of the state can do best for what type of output.

Again, we have farmers that are so excited to just be a part of this, to grow this plant, like they feel called down deep in their spirit to do this, but some of them are like, oh, I want to grow for biofuel. I'm like, great, go do that, it's cool, let's figure that part out. And so as much as we say we're phased— phase 1, we're gonna do this, phase 2— it's almost like everything moves at the same speed. Like, everybody's trying to figure out, well, what's the manufacturing that we're going to need for this portion and for this thing and that thing? And so we are just here to support people who have that kind of desire.

Like, you want to see that happen? Great. Let's go figure out the plan. Let's go figure out the money. Let's, let's go do it.

We presented in last February at the Rural Small Business Conference in Anchorage. We had a room full of 33 individuals from different Native communities around the state. In fact, we got great feedback that we were the most well-attended of all of the workshops at the conference. Uh, but generally we present this opportunity as a hemp event where we just tell people like, hey, this is what you could do with it. And then they go, we can make fishing nets out of that.

Yes, you can do that. And so just finding those people that have that passion and then developing their passion again, that's why we think hemp is the way of the future, because you can do all of these things and it creates an empowered generation. Which is what we do not have right now. Don't have empowered people. We have dependent people, and I don't like it.

So I wanted empowered people, and that's where hemp comes from, or comes into that. Did that answer your question? Yes. Okay, cool, perfect. Did you have any other questions?

I am all set. Thank you. Okay, Jason's good. Anybody, anybody questions? Okay.

Oh my gosh, that was so long. Thank you. Oh, Lynn asked a question.

Yes, that shouldn't be too hard.

Yes. Yeah. So, so what Sacred Seeds Foundation does is we help you fill out the paperwork, we help you produce the business plans, we help you do all of the compliance side of it so you can just farm. Right? That's your job.

Like, you want to farm, we'll take care of the paperwork side of it. Yeah, it's high. You know what, I don't know. Let me get back to you on that one. Um, it is— it does enjoy, uh, nitrogen.

Likes to suck a lot of nitrogen from the— from that. Not a lot, but enough, you know. But for sure, for sure. Um, additionally though, what's great about hemp is it's a phytoremediator. Radiation plant.

So it will clean the soil and, uh, not, not the air, but it does clean the soil from where— so it'll absorb heavy metals. In fact, they planted it at Chernobyl for many years, and just now they're seeing Chernobyl actually have some plants come back from all of that disaster from nuclear radiation. So it will absorb the heavy metals, and then at that point you could turn it into, you know, non-edible product, but certainly a, you know, housing product or something like that. And so it's, uh, it really is a multi-age product for that. So, okay, that's right, that's right.

Okay, anything else? Thank you guys so much, I appreciate you. Okay, thank you. All right.

All right, we're going to make a little change in our— I see that our attorney actually made it, uh, here early, or from where I thought she might. Uh, so we're going to jump to the handbook and we'll pick up Founders Day stuff at the end. So, um, what's that?

What?

Yes. Uh, you want to come Come on up.

So this is probably the biggest update that we've done to the handbook since I've been here, or since I've been on the council. Um, and it was because as we went through all all the negotiations, uh, running into certain things that the laws changed, uh, by the time we were done with the, the 302 negotiations, I was like, okay, we got to fix this thing. So I tasked Desi to go through our book, get us up to speed on all the legal things, help clean up some of the language that was in it.

Um, there is a couple— I'll let her cover the legal sides— that needed to be changed. There is an option in the longevity bonus that I'm recommending that the next administration bring back a budget next year that has a retirement, uh, process or program that would cost the city about $25,000 to $30,000 to implement, and it would help make a long-term employee want to stay.

But we left the longevity bonus in place in case the council chooses not to accept that. So that's—. We will—. I don't want to talk much about that right now because it's going to be a budgetary item for next year. There— but there is, because we're a government there is a 357 plan that I'll let Cynthia get into that more at the budget time, but it can work in the benefit for the city and employees.

So if you—. If does— if you want to cover all the legal changes we had. Yeah, I mean, there was a significant amount of changes. As you can see, the blue is where I added changes. The red is the deletions.

And really, I just made it compatible with the new laws that have come out. There is several that were implemented in 2025. The city's not subject to the new sick leave law as a political entity, but the city has decided that it wanted to have sick leave anyways. And so we've made that more in line so it lines up with the sick leave law, although it's not exactly the same because again, you're not beholden to those particular regulations. And the other parts that are important probably for you to look at are that I have updated it so that your drug and alcohol policy are legally compliant now with the current law.

Um, workers' comp is now compliant where they've made a change in 2025 with that the reporting requirements changed from 30 days to a 15-day notice, which is significant because if you want to use workers' comp, you have to have it there within that time frame. And otherwise, I mean, a lot of the changes were really just to make sure that the city was in line and protected, um, as well as the employees are protected, you know, and understand and are clarified what the expectations are for them as personnel, and then also what the city can do in situations.

Um, I mean, like I said, there is a significant amount of changes. Most of them are really more just a clear— a lot of them are clarifications. There was the new law that came out in 2025 about political speech and religious speech and employees' right to be free from that. That's in here now because that's a legal requirement. There's a section that I've included regarding voting leave, which that's something that's also legally required.

So a lot of these are just to make sure that the city was compliant with everything that has come out in the last couple of years. And like I said, it's pretty comprehensive, so I'm happy to answer questions. I don't feel like everybody wants to probably go through page by page. We did that last week. So one of the big changes that I would say that we took from probationary and made it an introduction, uh, classification.

Um, it didn't really change the— well, it really didn't change anything other than the name. So if you see that, that's where it's a kind of a name change. It made it sound more like what we're trying to do. We're not trying to have the employees be, um, in a jail, so to speak. We just wanted an introductory period that allows us to do an evaluation of the employee, and if it works out, great.

If it doesn't, we still have the separation at the 90-day.

So we're— this is, uh, the other thing that I will tell you within the final version, we'll get the logo fixed on the front page. And, uh, the, um, I don't know where we ended up on the language. Now I've got, uh, on further schedule, uh, well, actually Let me back up just a second. Are you talking about the salary schedule? Yeah, yeah.

So we have a schedule of, uh, for the fire department that's added. It's this right here.

Um, what I did my own.

Yeah, so this, this right here, we will narrow this down to to be the same, the same jobs that we currently have in it. I just got— I got this yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to update it to the attorney yet, but we will get this updated in our handbook so that this will reflect what you look at at the meeting.

I also think the other thing about the salary that we made an adjustment on is that, like with the 302, we included a COLA adjustment for every 3 years. So that, which is cost of living, and that is the same basic language that we used with the 302. Um, and that I did make this a little less stringent as that requirement here because this is more dependent on the budgetary, um, considerations that the city may have at the time. So it's not an absolute guarantee, but it is recommended, right? So that way, if there are budgetary concerns and those come up and say in 3 years that can't be implemented, the city doesn't necessarily have to.

But again, it's a recommendation that they would. And so it's in the handbook But that's one thing I think to be aware of that's a relatively substantial change.

Yeah, currently there's no mechanism in which we review that stuff. We only have whatever we've put in, and the last time we did that update to that schedule was in 2024. So the budget cycle 2027, we could see what that looks like, uh, and that adjustment would be across the board on the, the pay scale, so to speak. Um, it's— it'd be very similar to what we did in 2024, but probably less because it's— I don't know what the inflation rate will be, um, by the time it's evaluated, but we can bring it to the council at the budget time.

The other thing that was discussed, we had a meeting last week to kind of to go over these changes and then implement anything that is really practical or maybe has been situational before. And so part of that discussion entailed like talking about holiday pay, or there was an issue that had risen about how PTO would accrue. And so that some of the changes in the handbook really deal with some of these practical situations that came up in the last year or so and addresses those. So some of the changes you'll see, that's kind of what they've been come from, right? I mean, this is how a lot of policies get made.

You have something terrible that happens, or not terrible, not great, and then you just make a change in it. So that's one thing that it does address.

Yeah, just to beat that horse to death, um, it made it— it's pretty clear. If you see something that, that you don't understand, I would be surprised now.

So if you— if anybody's got any, uh, I'm going to make her available for the council meeting too. I don't expect you guys have the questions right now, but I did want to at least have the rationale why we're asking to have the changes made and let you know that there's some of it's based in law and some of It's based in what we've ran into just managing the city. Yeah. And then just as a general consideration, I mean, updating your handbook every couple of years is really a great thing to do because the laws do change. You do have situations that come up that maybe you want to address and didn't realize it wasn't addressing.

There's all sorts of reasons to do it, to update the handbook. And so This one's pretty comprehensive, which hopefully means that moving forward, if there are changes that need to be made in like next year and or a couple years, they're not nearly substantial. They're—. This is like what you would be using to move forward. Well, yeah, a couple— the other one, now that I think about it, there was some, um, in the workman's comp, they had SBS, um, plans still, uh, mentioned and a retirement plan that didn't— is non-existent.

So, uh, we just wanted to clear up the language on a lot of that so it doesn't confuse the employees or let them think that there's something that we aren't really providing. So it just cleared up a lot of that stuff.

I think one other thing that we did talk about and discuss and implement here is that Um, the city is going to use Alaska Family Medical Leave. So that is another change that, um, should be aware of, and that's, um, what's implemented in here. It follows the line, oh, like right along the lines of the law. So, um, but it just lays it out so that employees that want to use that, they are aware what their rights are under the law and that the city is complying with those.

Um, on the PTO thing, I know it's been discussed before. It's in here, I believe it says that it'll go like if you donate your PTO, that it goes under that. So how does that work for the person that's receiving it? Is their pay scale or the person that's donating it? Because that can work two ways, work good and bad.

It's clarified in this section. What section is that under? Uh, 6.6, 22, page 22. So it says in here, so it says it shall be computed at the salary of the person donating rather than the person receiving. Okay, so that's how it's So it would be the person that is donating it, that's what they're giving them at that rate.

Is that the standard? Yeah, I mean, and you can do it anyway, but that usually is standard because that way the person that's giving it doesn't feel like they are losing, um, the amount, you know, that say they're making $75 and this person is making $50, they're not losing that $25 by giving them giving their PTO to them. I can see it as being one contradiction as well, then the other person knows what the other person's making, which is supposed to be kind of kept private, right? Well, yes, yes and no. I mean, you can talk about your wages, right?

Like, that's something that you can do, but post it in the book if you know you're—. Yeah. And the other part of that too is that the— again, the has discretion, right? The mayor can say this isn't going to happen, or it is. It really depends on the circumstances, and they're all evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

I'll give you an example of that. I just, I just did that. Um, we had one gentleman who— not giving names— but was ill and didn't have any sick leave yet left and hadn't occurred enough accrued enough, uh, paid leave that, uh, two other employees, uh, gave him a few hours so that he wouldn't not be paid. And one of them was at a higher rate and one of them was at a lower rate, and they both kind of balanced out. So I just washed it, and you have the prerogative of the mayor to do that.

Yeah, that's the nice thing about having that discretion to be able to implement it how would be best for the situation. The other thing to note on that is that we didn't change that. That's what the policy was before. So that is the same as it's been for several years at least.

And for accruing PTO, We have that ironed out so that it's by the hour or something, or is it by the work week, or—. You accrue PTO per the table that's in there. Yeah, the, the table is still in effect.

I guess what I'm asking is if you miss a day in your work week, do you still accrue your PTO time? Like, if you take an unpaid leave— so we— it's discussed in here, right? And so if you are taking periods of leave without pay or you're on unpaid administrative leave, you're not going to accrue PTO during those times. If you are— if it's holiday, you do accrue PTO, and we have that set forth in the handbook. So it's very clear that that's when they do.

It also talks about if you're taking PTO, you're not going to accrue PTO. So that's also in there. So that's clarified. And so those would be the situations, I guess, where you would be out, right? And I think we also clarify it too in the sick leave section that you do not accrue PTO when you're using sick leave.

So I would just encourage each council member to read through it. If there's anything that you think you couldn't understand, um, circle it, and we will certainly can make it even more clear, because the idea here is we want it very clear, right? Yes, that we want it clear, we want it understandable. These aren't really supposed to be legal jargon, right? It is supposed to be for employees and for people to understand them.

And that—. And less ambiguity is great because that leads to less situations where we have one person thinking it says one thing and one person thinking it says another. So any feedback is great.

Okay, um, do you have anything else you want to add, Leslie? I don't think so. I think that copper is really the part of this, you know, the handbook changes. The resolution will be at the meeting, so if you guys get a chance, go through it and just kind of make sure that you're— everything makes sense to you, because we will, we will have it before you on, uh, October's—. Can you send an electronic copy of this to us?

Yes. Thank you. I just work best that way. I, I actually meant to try to get it to you beforehand, but we were literally making changes this afternoon. So if we're good, you can take off.

Thank you. Yeah, there's no other questions. Yeah, unless you're sure you don't want to go over page by page. Like, who doesn't want to do policy at 7:30 tonight?

No, but we will the other night. It's the same. Yeah, there's a time and a place for that, and that's, uh, in a couple of weeks. All right, all right. Well, thank you.

Thank you. Okay, it brings us to Founders Day. Um, so Charlie, why don't you come on up? And, um, you kind of were bird-dogging the Founders Day and some of the things that were discussed at the committee level and where we want to head with it.

Hello everybody.

All right, so Founders Day. I thought Founders Day was great this year. We had great turnout, we had a lot of vendors that showed up. I heard from the vendors that this is one of the most successful, well-organized Founders Days that they've had. So far, so I'm very thankful that that happened.

With the limited resources we had in Public Works, I think we did our very best. Last year we had a Public Works director, we had multiple people from the city working with us, but this year we just had me and Gabriel from Public Works. We also had the fire department help as well, as long as as well as the Rotary Club. Um, I think things went really well this year because we started earlier. Um, we got the vendors set up pretty early in the day.

Uh, it stopped any, uh, any problems from happening further along because the event that we had the year before, we started a little later, so vendors were parking as people were showing up, and that was a big, big problem. This year we did not have that problem. Vendors were set up, ready to go, uh, by the time the event started. Parking was also a lot better this year. We didn't have, uh, people illegally parking along the roadside there.

The only people that were allowed to park there were, uh, handicap spots. Uh, let's see, uh, We had a centralized location this year down in, uh, Founders Day. I brought it to myself to set one up just to make things easier so we could have a focal point where we meet. Last year we didn't have one, so we kind of just had to run up to see, oh, when we did something, come back down. I feel like that helped a lot.

I made sure throughout the event that I went to each vendor and, uh, made sure everything was good. Good. I went to every single vendor, made sure that they were set up with Wi-Fi. Um, that was a big, big thing as well. Um, I know that we only have Starlink here at the fire station, but I do know it is a— something that vendors would like to see more is maybe a mobile, uh, MTA vehicle, uh, internet.

So, um, that is an option. Uh, it People also wanna see more kid events for the children, and I think that'd be a great thing to do.

It would be nice if we could potentially create a committee that is just strictly for Founders Day to help get everything done. It's a lot for Public Works to take on on top of all the other things we have to do.

But pre-planning is, I think, the most important. The earlier we get started on this, the better the outcome will be. This last Founders Day, I did my best with what I had. I tried to do as many meetings as I could, tried to talk with as many people as I could. You're still going to have issues.

I want to say one of the biggest issues I think we had was At the end of the event, we didn't have a trash pickup plan set up, and that was a miss on our end, and that's one thing that we can improve. Another thing that I've been hearing is the fireworks are pretty late in the day, and a lot of, a lot of people come there with their kids, and it's hard to stay there until like 10:30, 11 at night with children. So So there is a possibility of maybe doing a fireworks show a different time, a different day. People love seeing the vendors. The food vendors were very happy.

I only had one vendor that was just disappointed that there was too many cotton candy vendors, but sorry.

But yeah, everything went pretty well. I was consistently checking in. With the Rotary Club. I also checked in with, um, uh, the Youth 360. Uh, they were running the, uh, all the events within the Wayside Park there.

So I was making sure I checked with everybody, uh, on the hour to make sure everything was running smooth. Overall, um, I think it, it was pretty good. It could be better. Every year is an always an improvement. Um, having more staff, uh, would be great.

But also Founders Day, since it is a city holiday, does put pressure on the city considering it's a holiday. We technically have it off, but you get paid holiday pay. So yeah, it's big confusion there. But overall, I think it went great. I mean, if you guys have any questions for me, please feel free to ask.

I'd love to talk more about it. Okay, thanks, Charlie. Uh, just kind of from a, um, 10,000-foot view, um, the, the smart thing for the city to do would be to hire some staff, probably 5 people a week in advance for them to do all the preparations and see it through the Founders Day. We don't have to pay them holiday pay, we don't have to do any of that stuff. So going forward, I think that would be the model.

I'll put together that method. The other thing that, uh, I'd heard when I attended a couple of those things is, yeah, young kids The whole idea, I guess, behind Founders Day was to put the underprivileged children around the State Fair Day a place where they could go, where it would be no cost, get a hot dog and have some fun and have a setting in which community. Um, it's every year we gravitate more towards vendors or adult stuff, and I really think we need to go the opposite way. I think it needs to go back towards the kids and set up— we— there's all kinds of things we could do earlier in the day versus late at night. Um, the committee's still ferreting all this out, but, um, the Robert Hall with the fireworks would be glad to move because it's some years he can't do it anyhow because the fire— just move the fireworks to probably Trunk or Treat or something like that.

To where it can be shot off earlier. The kids can enjoy that and just move it away from the Founders Day event and turn it more into the kids event. Um, I think we would get better sponsorship too out of some of that. We could start it at, uh, 2 and be done by 7 or 5 or anything like that. So that there was a day in which they could compete, have some decent prizes.

And I mean, there's all— I mean, there's so many ideas I've heard on that, where even Rotary wanted to have a canoe where they put the canoes in there and they would race down to the landing there, which is all good outside activities for kids. So So I'm really, myself, very much in support of getting kids off the phones and onto outdoor activity. And if we can take that event and move it back towards the kids, I think it would be— still have an area. I mean, we'll still end up having a central area, but have other activities that, especially with U360, they've come came up with a lot of good ideas too.

But anyhow, we'll brainstorm that a little bit more. But I just wanted to kind of have this time tonight just to let you know what the results were and where we're kind of heading with this. In a sense, it's now a city holiday.

It's—. I mean, I'm sure Charlie enjoyed himself, but he He and Gabriel were madmen on that day, and, uh, it was, it was a lot for, um, them to take care of. And I, the— so we have to just rethink that whole process there, and, uh, we'll, we'll bring it. Okay, so my son over there is on his— currently on the screen. I agree with you.

Clark Spencer said that he enjoyed— in fact, he has a 3D printing business, right? And he was thinking next year he could bring it and be a vendor. He's like, I think I want to be a kid again because it was really fun. So good job on that. I was like, that's cool because it's a 3D business, you gotta like— you can't go play.

And he's like, uh, maybe be around. Good job. I, I definitely wanted to go and, uh, see all the vendors and buy stuff, but I had a lot of fun just seeing everybody selling their goods and everybody having a good time. So yeah, I greatly appreciate everybody who came and, uh, wanted to be a part of it because we didn't— I felt like we didn't really have any negativity coming from the event this year. That was great.

Didn't you walk 22 miles that day? Yeah, it was between 22 and 24 miles walked. Well, I don't want to act like I, I'm against the vendors because I had the best coffee I've had in years at the little coffee stand down there that was there. So, um, we still are going to have the vendors. It's just not going to be the focal point.

We're trying to get the focal point back on the kids and the kids' activities And we, we, we've just got to kind of reimagine that now that the city is, you know, the people turned it into a holiday. So we got to do something that was what the intent of that holiday was, and, and we got to go with that direction. So also real quick, uh, we are also looking at potentially opportunities to maybe do a 5K run to help sponsor Founders Day. It's just an idea. We've been talking, uh, I've been talking with Rotary Club and whatnot about this, and just an idea that for now we're thinking of different ideas we could have.

There is a group, um, this lady, she spoke at one of our Rotary meetings. I think it's called Black Wolf Endurance or something like that. She coordinates runs like that across state. So, um, maybe that's a person to reach out to. And then also, um, it is a city event, and I know I've asked this question at least the last 2 years: why are there not more city businesses being promoted on the flyer?

Like, why aren't the city businesses being asked to sponsor this event. And yep, to give a little bit more of the backstory—. Hope I'm not going to keep everybody here—. No, go ahead. Founders Day just started out as a kids event for the people that didn't want to go to the fair or couldn't go to the fair for whatever the purpose was.

It was to celebrate the founding of the city and to celebrate as a family. There were no vendors. There were no vendors at this event until 2004. 2014 Was the first time we started putting vendors out here. Prior to that, it was all focused entirely on kids' events.

There was live music and kids' games. There was no adult games, there was no ax throwing, it was just kids' games. Over the years it has progressed and it's grown. We've been a lot more active community members. The main reason why the businesses get left behind a lot of times is that it started out— the Founders Day committee consists of usually between 3 and 7 people.

And knowing that we are in a recorded meeting right now, um, 2 people arguing over which one is actually in charge because each person says, no, you are, no, you are, no, you are. And so it's hard for a person to make that final decision to say, we need to go out there and invite all of the businesses to sponsor. They focus on the bigger businesses that can donate the larger amounts of money as opposed to You have 30 local businesses giving $100 each, it's just the same as one business giving a $2,500 donation. It's just that there's no timeline. The city's part— we can't go out there and advocate for donations.

It's got to be done by an outside party. The city cannot go out there and ask for donations specific for this. If we as the city say, Ms. Nelson, would you be willing to donate $25 to Founders Day? She says yes. Cool.

She writes a check, gives it to the clerk, they get notified to this— to the treasurer. The treasurer then notifies the mayor, who writes up an ordinance to accept this $25 donation for the purpose of Founders Day. And that takes 2 and a half months to finally get to the council for final approval to get the $25. So it depends on those outside agencies, those partners, whether it's the Rotary Club, whether it's Lions, to make these donations for the rest of the half of the city. And they just have not put the focus on those smaller businesses, and that's one of the things that's Mayor's talked about, that is one of the things that needs to change, is we need to get more active participation from the community on the funding side of it, not just on the operational side of it.

Okay, well, I was just told that the Houston Chamber of Commerce was one that, like, going around asking the businesses, and as a business owner I don't think there is a Chamber of Commerce, and I just— who's, who's, who's like making the connections there? Like, is there a chamber? Is there not a chamber? Like, this is another question that I keep asking and I don't get any answers. So, well, there is a chamber.

The— I believe the current chamber chairman is Robert Hall. Now they are independent of the city, and they— I mean, there's nothing we can do other than try to make agreements with them. They have in the past with the Lions Club sponsored that activity. Do I think they need to be, uh, have more members? Yes, I do.

I think they should be trying to actively get Houston business people, but I— it's not. But if they're using the Houston city name, isn't that—. It's, it's a private industry. It's a, um, it's a, uh, it's an independent organization. So Founders Day itself, Founders Day Committee is in charge of Founders Day, not the city itself.

And it occurs on city property, so there's certain actions that we can take and that we can be But it's, it's hard to— that's what, that's where all this conflict has been for the last, I'd say, 5 years, is it's such a gray area on our insurance can say no about something, the mayor could say no something, but it's the committee that puts together. The city has no input on who's going to be the talent. The city has no input on who's going to get invited to sponsor because we leave that to those other partners on that Founders Day committee, which the Chamber of Commerce and the Lions Club have the exact same members. Well, that's why— that was one of the primary reasons I was trying to get the city to step back out of the way and allow an entity to take it, come in and actually run that thing, because in my opinion, the city has no business in it. But the voters voted it.

We will do what the voters want. And, um, but the, the proper role— we should have been there to support an entity like a chambers or the chamber of members. But unfortunately The folks that are in charge of that chamber, um, they're going to run it the way they choose to run it. I—. That's why I asked you the question about if somebody asked for a list of businesses and business names so they could use the list, if that could be acquired.

That's where that question is coming from, because they can't. Yeah, so I've never had anyone other than a citizen that requested it through a record request. Okay, all right. Now I will say we could do a better job at advertising, um, for local businesses. Um, we just didn't have the manpower this year.

I understand that. I just— it's, it's something that as a business owner—. Oh yeah, I totally understand. Bothers me because I feel like, I don't know, you just, you want to be involved in it.

Sometimes you can't physically be there, but you know what I mean. It's the fact that it's a community event that is about, you know, founding of the city and the reason for the city, but some of the businesses are feeling left out of being part of that recognition of the city's existence. We get what you mean. Yeah, in the future it's just going to put people off completely. They're just like, well, you know, you know how it is.

It's just—. I, I wouldn't— I, I would definitely direct all the businesses that are interested to get a hold of the Chamber's group. See if they can become members of it. And then you— I believe you, you have votes when you're the member. And I'm not sure how that— how this particular chamber is set up, but, um, I do not.

I mean, it's, um, yeah, I don't.

Basically the only thing that I— the city on our portion was in charge of, City Hall. I took in all the vendor permits, I took in all the cash that came in, and I basically put it on a list and I coordinated that. And then from there we just basically were, uh, event coordinators, uh, Founders Day. Everything else was out of my hands, uh, was Well, yeah, I mean, I would strongly discourage you from ever using the word just again in that sentence though. Well, uh, if a— if, if, if council was to give direction, um, you could set up whatever partnership that would work the same.

Uh, we've just stayed with what was currently always there and But it does not— I mean, nothing precludes. In fact, the Rotary's been more active. The 360 Youth who actually worked under the Lions this year.

I mean, there is other options. We just, as we reimagine this, I think I think those are legitimate questions that we need to get answers for from the chambers, what they're willing to step up to and what they're willing to do for the business community. I think those are all, we should probably set up a work session just for that, just to ask, get them, invite them and ask them the questions.

Has anybody done a head count of how many people have been showing up for the last couple years at all? I mean, I don't know if there is a way, but we, we don't have any way to do a head count. We only have the estimates, um, for lack of a better term, we just use the hot dogs as the gauge, tells us about how many people are present. But, um, we've been figuring about 3,000 people, 2,500 to 3,000 people for the last couple years. It's pretty low because we're competing the Alaska State Fair for the same weekends.

Yeah, I would like to say, Mayor, you brought it up, you're a business owner, don't listen to this part. Um, if we were to get rid of the vendors entirely and we were not to have the fireworks up there originally, this whole area could become kids games and events. You know, that would be a lot more activity and a lot more fun, and it would be a lot more opportunity for business owners in the area to sponsor. Yeah, well, and it is something that you could actually, um, businesses could say we want to sponsor such and such, but it's really— that's where we like to partner with a group that can actually, um, go out there and solicit that. The city really can't do that.

And, um, it's, it's much better if, if that's actually being handled by a third party. And the biggest example I could use, if you want someone to talk to about how to do that, go talk to the Big Lake Lions Club. Mud volleyball, that's the only thing that they do with that is mud volleyball. And look at what they can do with that. They coordinate a lot of donations and a lot of teams and a lot of sponsorships.

Yeah, your only manpower from the city is Charlie. Charlie and Gabe. Well, and the fire department. I know, I'm sorry, but to coordinate and do everything— I mean, it was Charlie.

It shouldn't be.

He didn't work for Polyworks. It was my—. I will say I did enjoy it and I did, I did have a good time, but yes, it was, uh, a little crazy. It was a little much. Yeah, a little much.

He couldn't even come to work Monday. Yeah, he couldn't move. Well, I did Founders Day, and the next morning I was the photographer at my brother-in-law's wedding all So I had a—. I was a little tired. Yeah, I was a little tired.

All right, Council, that's kind of where we're at, and I just want to kind of use that up to date and let you guys think about it. And I, I think it would be wise in, um, December, January, we have a work session with the Chambers, maybe Lions and other groups and get it fleshed out where we're headed, because I think it was pretty successful, this one, but it— I think it could be much better for the— we've got to kind of get it back to what the original intent was. And I think that's at least— that's from what I've heard and what, uh, going to them, that I've seen. There's nothing more fun than watching— you go at the end of the fair and you throw candy out to the kids. It's just like, ah, so it's good.

It's cool. It's a cool experience. But, uh, anyhow, I'd love to have it more geared towards the kids. Well, this year we pulled every politician in a 50-square-mile area. Yeah, that was That was the other kind of stuck in my craw.

We had a parade of election.

I think we, we've missed the mark on that one completely. I would love to have floats. If the adults want to, let them compete against building a nice float to put in the parade. Because, um, a car with election stickers on it, I'm sure, whatever, but it's not— I don't want— I don't, I don't think I want the Houston children growing up thinking that's what the parade's all about.

So anyway, we got some work to do on it, but I just wanted to let you guys know what we saw and what we're where I think we need to be going with it. Anybody else in the audience? It's work session, you can throw two cents at it.

No, no, even when we give them the opportunity, they turn us down. Okay. Then, uh, Council, I'm— we're just going to call, uh, adjourned at 5 days.

Thank you, and have a.