Assembly Special Meeting of May 29, 2025

All righty, at this time I'd like to call to order the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly special meeting of Thursday, uh, May 29th, 2025 at 10:19 PM, and we are in the assembly chambers. Roll call please.

Mr. Ames? Here. Mr. Griffin? Here. Mr. Johnson?

Here. Mr. LaDue? Here. Mr. Sharrett? Here.

Mr. Smiley? Here. Mr. Whiteside? Here. Mayor Arndt?

Here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Next item is citizens' comments. And these is— to begin with, if it's people inside the room here, come to the podium and sign in, turn on the microphone, make sure the green light is on before speaking, and speak directly into the mic.

State your name for the record Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof. If you are calling in, the local phone number is 907-486-3231. Toll-free number is 855-492-9202. Please turn off your radio or any listening devices to prevent feedback. Anybody wishing to come forward and speak or please call in ASAP.

Seeing none, move on to the consideration of matters in the call for the special meeting. Resolution number FY 2026-1, establishing the amount of funds to be made available from local sources for the Kodiak Island Borough School District for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026. Jared, move to adopt Resolution Number FY 2026-01. Is there a second? Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. After our discussions at the work sessions on both May 8th and May 29th, uh, the assembly has We discussed the pros and cons of funding the school district ask of $12,979,556.50.

And now, after— if there's any additional discussion, we should be ready to vote. All right, discussion?

A lot of things were said in the work session. I don't think they all need to be repeated, but Maybe summed up would be the thing. What's the wishes? Bo. Just a quick one.

I agree with a statement that a fellow assembly member made in that we need to start thinking about what reality looks like next year and the couple years beyond that. We seem to be in a reactive, dire crisis mode when this topic comes up in this funding item, which again, I agree the need is great. I will support the ask, but we do need to do a better job of being proactive and talking about the bringing up the difficult discussions and what the reality of the next couple years are going to look like, and do it much sooner. So that's my, my thoughts on this, is there's a lot of discomfort with, with the yes, and it's not because of supporting the school and their ask. It's because we're not having these discussions of what reality is going to look like in the next couple years.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak?

Anyone else?

Okay, I will say a couple things quick because you guys allowed me a few minutes here. Basically, the legislature approximately 8 years ago forward-funded education. Maybe it's 7 years ago. It was before the Dunleavy administration. And the Dunleavy administration, when it came in, swiped that money.

And we've been in crisis mode ever since. And it's gonna take going back to forward funding of education and basically the state budget instead of this crisis stuff right up until the end. It's ridiculous. And I'm appalled at what's come out of our state government, particularly the governor's office. And I will leave it at that.

Any other discussion? Dave. Well, shoot, Mr. Mayor, now you're making me want to pile on. You just breached one of my favorite topics, is the complete ineptitude and lack of any kind of political involvement from our governor's office. So yeah, good point.

Thank you for making it, because I've never been more disappointed in a politician that I've never had any real expectations from in the first place. Thank you. Any other?

Ready for a vote. Roll call vote on the motion. Mr. Ames? Yes. Mr. Griffin?

Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes. Mr. LaDuke? Yes.

Mr. Sharrett? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 7-0. Okay, thank you. Next item is Executive Session review of the Borough Clerk's performance evaluation forms submitted to the Deputy Presiding Officer by the Assembly.

At this time, I just would— I'd ask you to make a motion. Move to postpone the review of the Borough Clerk's performance evaluation forms submitted to the DPO by the Assembly to before the actual evaluation at the next regular meeting. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Discussion?

Jared. Just real quick. So that means you still have time if you haven't submitted your review forms to me. Just get them in and I'll do my magic. I thought I was the last.

Larry, stop there.

Any further? Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Griffin? Yes. Mr. Johnson?

Mr. LaDue? Yes. Mr. Sharrett? No. Mr. Smiley?

Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames? Yes.

Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 6-1. Chair, entertain a motion to adjourn. Move to adjourn. Is there a second?

Second. It has been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign.

Motion carries unanimously. We are adjourned at 10:25 PM.