Kodiak Borough: Assembly Regular Meeting of July 16, 2026 Part 1

I will call the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly regular meeting to July 16th to order. Thank you, everybody, for your patience while we're finishing up our special work session. And we will begin with an invocation from Captain David Shadow of the Salvation Army.

Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for bringing us all here this evening. We thank you for the 4 candidates that are offering themselves to work on this council, and I pray for each person here in the assembly who has given up their time, their, uh, a little bit of their personal lives to serve their community. And I pray that you'll bless us as we gather this evening to work through issues and come to— I pray that you'll grant wisdom and help us come to good decisions here. In Jesus' name, amen.

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

We are gathered on the traditional homeland of the Sup'iaq Alutiiq people, and we acknowledge the 10 tribes of the Kodiak Alutiiq region. We recognize the Alutiiq culture that enriches our community to this day. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Aynes. Mr. Gardner.

Here. Ms. Roberts. Here. Mr. Smiley. Here.

Mr. Whiteside. Here. Mr. Woods. Here. Mayor Griffin.

Here. You have a quorum. Okay, that brings us to approval of the agenda and the consent agenda. The consent agenda includes the regular meeting minutes of July 2nd, 2026. Mr. Whiteside, move to approve the agenda and the consent agenda.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Voice vote on the motion. Um, all in favor say aye. Aye.

Any opposed, same sign. And motion carries. That brings us to our first opportunity for citizens' comments tonight for the regular meeting. There are two comment periods, one at the beginning, one at the end. These comment periods are intended for general comments as well as for agenda items that are not part of a public hearing.

We have one public hearing item for tonight, which is Ordinance No. FY 2027-03. Comments for this item will be heard when the item is called during public hearing, and please wait until we get to that portion of the agenda. For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3231. Toll-free is 1-855-492-9202.

Please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback. And for those in the room who wish to speak under citizens' comments, please come to the podium and sign in, turn on the microphone and make sure the green light is on before speaking, and speak directly into the mic. And please state your name for the record, address all remarks to the Assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

First, we'll see if there are any calls.

Tax ordinance. Is that the one that I have to wait for? No, that one's— the public hearing is for right now. Okay. You can hear me better?

Yes. Okay. Hello, my name is Janice Stevens, and I am the owner of Wildflower on Near Island and Smoky Hollow in Bell's Flats. I'm also a certified public accountant. I'm here today to voice my strong opposition to the drafted ordinance implementing a borough-wide marijuana tax on Kodiak.

I am continually perplexed by our local government's proclivity to choose marijuana as the sin of choice when brainstorming ways to raise revenue, when there are other vices on the island outselling marijuana tenfold. If your goal is to raise revenue for some community fund, why not pick the poison with the highest revenue and the highest cost to our community? And it is not marijuana. Both alcohol and tobacco outsell marijuana and have a much higher price tag, draining our island's public safety and health resources. They also don't have the thriving alternative and black market that marijuana does.

In addition to this, the state of Alaska already has the highest marijuana tax in the nation. I pay my fair share. By continuing to overtax, you are rewarding non-regulated markets. We are already competing with manufactured psychoactive substances which can be sold to anyone anywhere, and non-regulated dealers who again sell to anyone anywhere compromising public safety with the risk of cross-contaminated substances. And we all know that this is a concern in our community now more than ever.

So again, why would you choose marijuana to raise money for our community if it isn't the highest seller and the only one with a thriving alternative and black market? In addition to this, your calculations and your ordinance are seriously flawed. I can only assume you pull sales tax reports to get your figures And a side note, there are only 2 of us who have a marijuana business in this community. So when you pull those records and you publish them, you're, you're publishing 2 people's income figures, which I do believe is a little exposing for my local government to do just because I sell marijuana. Based on sales tax reports, you're not able to take into account non-THC items sold such as nicotine, apparel, and other substances.

Whoever drafted this ordinance lacks the basic knowledge of marijuana and its components to efficiently implement it. CBD has marijuana in it, though a small percentage. Where is the cutoff percentage and what is and isn't taxed? It is clear this is misinformed attempt to tax an already overtaxed and overregulated industry, and I strongly discourage anyone for voting in favor of it. I also earlier, when the other, um, potential board members were talking about the importance of small business in our community and stuff of that nature.

I am a small business. I employ a lot of people in this community and in the state of Alaska. And things like this— and I can— I, I contribute to scholarship foundations, nonprofits. And, and the more I'm regulated and taxed, the less I can do for our community in those ways. That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We had some remarkable candidates, really good. It's It's just amazing that people are willing to step out to do this. There is one family that I know—. I'm so sorry, can you state your name for the record?

Oh yes, my name is Carly, and I was born and raised here, and I know very well the Sweeney family, and this young man is part of the Sweeney family. I know his Nancy and Tom, his grandparents. And his grandfather, and they just really fit into Kodiak and made a big difference here. So, but I'm not familiar with the others, but they sound really good too. Thank you.

Thank you.

Seeing no calls, we will move on down the list. No words. Committee reports tonight, we will just go down the row. Mr. Gardiner. I have had no committee meetings lately.

Mr. Smiley. I skipped my last committee meeting. Maybe the Manager can inform us about HFAB. Mr. Whiteside. Nothing to report, thanks.

Ms. Roberts. MS. KELLY] Yes, the Kodiak College Advisory Council is meeting this coming Thursday with the interim director. There are lots of new members, so excited to meet them in person. And we are going to discuss what we want to discuss at the August retreat where we are going to form what direction we want that council to go in over the next year. Great.

Mr. Woods. Nothing to report. Okay. And for me, the Lands Committee will be meeting this coming Monday.

Okay. All right. Well, then we will move on into the public hearing. This is for Ordinance No. FY 2027-03, rezoning a portion of Uzinki Tract C Block 1, remainder of USS 4871 from R-1 Single-Family District to PL Public Use Land District.

Zoning will correspond to a lot created by preliminary subdivision S-26-16. 01-6. Uh, motion please. Mr. Weisheit. Move to adopt ordinance number FY 2027-03.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Madam Manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Native Village of Uzinki submitted a rezoning application to rezone the subject property from the R-1 district to the PL district to permit the existing building on the property to be used for government offices as— and as the community tsunami shelter.

The existing property was once part of the old Uzenki Airport, which is no longer in operation. The 2008 Comprehensive Plan's future land use map designated this property as industrial. This designation is no longer valid since the subject property is no longer in operation as an airport. The proposed PL District supports the use of a portion of the property for government uses, such as government offices and a tsunami shelter. Our Community Development Director, Chris French, is here tonight in case you have any questions.

Okay. Before we get to assembly discussion, we will open this up to public hearing. For those who wish to call in and make comments on this item, the phone numbers again are 907-486-3231, toll-free 1-855-492-9202. And if anybody in the audience would like to speak on this issue, please come up, sign your name, state your name for the record, turn on the microphone before speaking, address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member of the of, and if you are calling in, please turn off any listening devices to prevent feedback. And we will give our callers a few seconds to dial in.

All right. Seeing no comments from the public, I will close the public hearing and open it up to Assembly discussion. Mr. Gardner. I have no problem with this, but as it is just a matter of housekeeping, but I would like to echo Mr. Ames' repeated statements to anybody listening. If we could please get your rezone process started before your project, that would be Very much appreciated.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Gardner? Yes.

Ms. Roper? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Mr. Woods? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously.

All right, that brings us to Manager Williams' report. Take it away. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Assembly members. As I told you last week, we are looking for interest from other organizations for the Signal Hill mental health buildings. We had someone tour them today and someone else who I owe a phone call about those.

And so we're still hopeful that we'll find a use for them. The Environmental Protection Agency was on island for an audit of the landfill stormwater system. We got a 7-day notice, which was great, but we did not know they were coming. So that ended up being a little bit of a stressful day on Tuesday, but I think it went all right. Kodiak.

Um, I attended a meeting with the Undersecretary of Energy. Um, he was here to discuss obstacles and opportunities that Kodiak is going to face, uh, with military expansion on several different projects here. Um, got to hear some really out-of-the-box thinking on how to provide energy, um, and how KEA was already working on meeting the upcoming needs. While I was at that meeting, I got the contact information of the person that's organizing the defense forum in Fairbanks that I'll be attending right before the summer AML conference in August. The organizer is also someone who helps people with their applications for the Defense Community Infrastructure Program.

So I already have an appointment set up with her so she can help us gain any knowledge to get us closer to that program. Our negotiation kickoff meeting is scheduled for July 22nd with Providence. Their lease is good through June 30th, 2027, so we're giving ourselves just about a year to get everything in line so we can get all of the issues ironed out well in advance. Nonprofit applications are with you already. I sent a spreadsheet to you on Friday, July 10th.

It summarized the discussion that we had at the work session. Uh, thank you to Assemblymember Smiley for his work on the start of that spreadsheet.

I used all of his work, put it together, and added pretty colors, and that's what you got on Friday. Uh, we have 2 current recruitments. Uh, we have an LTP supervisor we're looking to fill. We have a meeting with our temporary, um, person tomorrow to see if they're interested in staying there or not. We also had a Secretary III for Community Development listed.

Uh, we were able to offer that job today and they've already accepted, so that was nice to see that go so quickly. In Community Development, there was a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting last night. There were 5 public hearing items. A conditional use permit was approved for an accessory dwelling unit, 4 preliminary subdivision cases for Cliff Point, and a rezone from Cliff Point from R-22-C was recommended for approval to the Assembly. You will start seeing some of those come onto the agenda in August once they are approved at our next agenda setting.

The bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Law was approved on July 11th. This piece of legislation aims to increase housing supply by improving a range of existing housing programs. In the electronic version of this, there is a link that you can click on. It's called Housing Reform: What's Inside the 21st Century Road to Housing Law. It's a summary that was put together from the American Planning Association.

In finance, if you have foreclosures for the 2025 tax year, there is a lien that will be placed on your real property. There are additional interest and fees accruing on those accounts. Please contact the finance department at 486-9324 for payoff amount. Tax statements for 2026 were mailed to property owners on June 30th, so everyone should have those by now. We've had a lot of folks come in and pay their taxes.

Thank you. Uh, both finance and assessing are still working— I'm sorry, IT as well— on our property assessment and taxation implementation project. Um, we have some new players on the Tyler team that have really been getting us moving a little bit closer to success faster. In assessing, assessing is out reviewing properties inside of the city of Kodiak this year. You'll see them out there in their vests measuring your properties.

Our senior citizen and disabled exemption numbers are going down, as you can see. Uh, for ones that did not, um, have a PFD application, there are 33 senior citizens and 1 disabled veterans. And then we have 24 senior citizens and 2 disabled veterans that are yet, that are undetermined. No movement on the exemption updates, but for the exemption appeals, a week from tomorrow on July 24th, our Superior Court oral arguments are scheduled. Um, Seema is going to go down to that court and listen in person, and both of the other lawyers will attend via Zoom.

No decision yet from our Alaska Supreme Court case. In IT, they're continuing to work on landfill equipment. To try to get the Starlink replaced. New systems are being deployed, new employee workstations for our new KIB staff. We had our environmentalists start— our environmental specialists start on Monday and then walk right into an EPA inspection on Tuesday, and he came back to work on Wednesday.

So I think that that's a win. IT is working with Koniag Cyber, and the cybersecurity infrastructure project is ongoing. We have a target date of the 20th for a cutover from legacy to new firewalls. And our GIS analyst has been working with automating the daily data sync of tailored data to our public-facing land maps, as well as working on knowledge transfer of GIS systems and duties in preparation. He is going to be departing the borough and will be here until about the beginning of September.

So we will be listing that job soon as well. In Engineering Facilities, our seawater pump extensions are complete for 3 and IPA is returning to install the pumps. They are scheduled to be here at the beginning of August. We're waiting to find out about their actual ferry reservations. We have a solid waste RFP out.

Our mandatory pre-proposal meeting happened on June 30th, and we're waiting the proposal due date of August 4th. Because there was only one company at that pre-proposal meeting, we know who our proposal will be coming from. For fuel spill assistance, we have our landfill soil remediation land farm out at the landfill. It's right across from our metal storage. It was inspected during the EPA visit this week to figure out how stormwater could possibly affect that site.

Long-term care staff met with NWFF— I'm sorry, our staff met with NWFF about the long-term care conduct locates and mark final locations for sampling, and there hasn't been any movement on the Carlucc spill yet. Uh, for small projects, the Port Lion School painting project, uh, has begun priming areas, um, that have already been prepped. We found about 48 square feet of rot, um, that required a change order. Instead of trying to epoxy those and fix those, we're going to just replace those with wood. So we have a change order in— that's within my change order Authority to replace that wood to give that a— the best chance possible.

I have a picture in the report tonight of the Mill Bay Beach stairs. The contractor placed the stairs. They're open for public use. You may have seen that post on social media. I like seeing the positive feedback from the community.

That area is now definitely accessible and shall be for generations to come. Um, the other thing that we got back this week was our Hazardous material evaluation from EMI. We drilled several holes into the roof at East to look for asbestos. We did not find any. All we found was some lead in the paint.

And so that was good news for when we finally have to replace that roof sometime in the future. We have an environmental services contract coming up. Staff has issued the notice of intent to award to NWFF and are currently in the protest window. Passed that. You will see that coming up in an agenda on August.

And we are working on a contract roster so we can have preferred vendor. We have issued the request for qualifications and pricing. So we are excited to move to that system so we have more choices for local contractors or contractors to get work done. The next HFAB meeting is August 4th. It is happening in the Providence Pillar conference room.

I already mentioned our new environmental metallist specialist started this week, and the EPA landfill staff met with leadership from NOAA, um, from the facility down in Juneau for a nexus audit. They took the time to collaborate with our facilities team to identify more efficiencies that we could do at our plants and were really helpful in aligning what we do with what they are doing. We don't have the exact same system, but it's similar enough that we would be able to make improvements to better align with their system that wouldn't cost us anything, just procedurally. That is all I have for the Manager's Report tonight, and I am happy to answer any questions you might have. All right.

Any questions for Manager Williams? Ms. Roberts. Thank you. Yes, very broad question. Could you just go over briefly what the Defense Community Infrastructure Program is and what that entails?

Yes, I could. So the Defense Community Infrastructure Program is something that has previously been only open to communities that were, um, had bases for Department of Defense, so now Department of War, but they haven't quite updated the name yet. So Air Force, Army, Marines, um, not Coast Guard, Navy, yes. Um, and so we've never been able to qualify because we were mostly Coast Guard. And so because Kodiak has become a more strategic place and the Golden Dome project.

And we are definitely becoming the takeoff place for Arctic security. We're trying to use that as our way in. Senator Sullivan has been working on this and has brought this several times. Mayor Griffin and Mayor Haynes signed a letter that we wrote to get it to them and tell all the reasons why we needed to be in that program, and it just got turned down again this week. But after talking to this representative that I met from Fairbanks, She has— she said that we absolutely need an application with a base command endorsement letter, and she could get us one from like a bigger command than our Navy base here.

So she's working on that. And the interim manager for the city is in on that too. So we are both going to be there and work on that while we're in Fairbanks. So I'm excited about the possibility. And that—.

Sorry, because defense communities have such a big footprint that aren't paying taxes into the local government, but those folks are still using our local infrastructure. That money is meant to offset the use of local infrastructure. So it should be a great thing for the community.

Yeah, big pot. It's a big pot.

Any other questions?

Okay. Thank you so much, Amy.

Next are messages from the mayor, the borough mayor. I got the part 2 of that discussion with Amy, or with the Undersecretary of Energy and his staff, and also staff from— it was— oh, gosh— Arctic Operations Center, I think, something like that, out at the spaceport. Yesterday and took a tour, and our discussion was also very enlightening. The Undersecretary, I thought, was very open and asked good questions, you know, about the situation here. And in our conversation, the Department of Energy also has $130 billion left in a capital project fund.

With an additional $40 billion for capital projects in Native-serving communities. So, another big pot that we might be able to access if we cultivate this relationship with the Department of Energy. And I also talked with, yeah, Brittany, too, on that trip about defense communities, and there really seems to be some good positive momentum. It's obviously not going to fix all of our infrastructure that came up during the interviews earlier, but it's certainly going to help. And so, I'm glad that we are like at the tip of the wave, you know, making sure that we're on everybody's mind.

With that said, We are planning a DC trip, a DC lobbying trip. At first, I think at the beginning of the year, I was saying that I didn't want to do that, but now that there's like $150 billion at stake, that we might be able to, plus, you know, plus the billions in the defense communities program. I'm not going on one trip and I'm going to add in a DC lobbying trip because I think they're thinking about us and they need to keep thinking about us.. And so I think that's going to keep opening doors for us. So we're planning that trip with the city now for mid-September, mid to late, something like that.

It's in the week of September 21st. Okay. Yeah. So we'll be putting together some messaging and pitches along with the city with the new manager there too, so— or interim manager. So, yeah, it's been a pretty fun week.

Okay. Let's move on into contracts. We have a couple of contracts to consider today.

On contract number FY2027-11, provision of destination marketing and tourism development services with Kodiak Island Convention and Visitors Bureau. Doing Business as Discover Kodiak in the amount of $75,000. Um, Mr. Whiteside, move to authorize the borough manager to execute contract number FY 2027-11 for the provision of destination marketing and tourism development services with Kodiak Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, AKA Discover Kodiak, in the fiscal year 2027 for $75,000. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Um, Manager Williams. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is an annual contract with the Kodiak Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, doing business as Discover Kodiak, to promote Kodiak Island as a tourist destination and to promote local businesses in support of tourism activities. The assembly approved $75,000 for these services in the fiscal year 2027 budget, and that is exactly how much the contract is for.

Thank you. Any discussion from the assembly?

Mr. Woods. Less discussion on the contract, more a note with Discover Kodiak of late. Uh, certainly over the last year or so, I have noticed a significant uptick in responsiveness and actually them showing up and coming in. I don't know if that's due to staff. I do know Miss Hicks has been a lot more prolific than anybody I've seen from them in the recent past, and, uh, I'm very thankful.

That she has gone as far as she has in being out here and being so readily available to answer questions.

Thank you. And for the public, and, uh, please correct me if I'm wrong, Manager Williams, uh, this $75,000 comes from— not from the general fund, but from a specified bed tax. This is from an accommodations tax. Accommodations tax. That is the official name that gets applied to short-term rentals.

And short-term rentals are defined in the borough as any accommodations rental that is under 30 days pays a 5% tax. And so if the short-term rental is inside the city of Kodiak, the 5% goes to the city. If it's outside of the city of Kodiak, the 5% comes to the borough. Thank you. All right, roll call vote on the motion.

Miss Roberts? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Mr. Woods? Yes. Mr. Gardner? Yes.

Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion carries 5-0. All right, uh, next contract number FY 2027-13, animal control contract between Kodiak Island Borough and the City of Kodiak for July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2028 for the amount of $156,903 for year 1 and $160,826 for year 2. Mr. Whiteside, move to authorize the borough manager to sign contract number FY 2027-13 with the city of Kodiak for animal control services for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2028 for the amount of $156,903 for year 1 and $160,826 for year 2. Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. Manager Williams. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is a contract that we do once every 2 years with this City of Kodiak. We talked a little bit about this during the work session about where that money goes, but the code does authorize us to partner with the City of Kodiak to provide these services.

Part of that money does go to fund the Humane Society, and this 2-year contract— well, not both years, but the first year is for that amount in our fiscal year '27 budget. All right, Mr. Gardner. I just want to verify, the way I understood this last week was that for year 1 it says $156,903, uh, the city would be paying us back half of that, so our actual obligation is— what are that, $78,451.50? Am I correct? No, our, our half is $156,903.

Okay.

Anyone else? Okay, roll call vote on the motion. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Mr. Woods? Yes. Mr. Gardner? Yes.

Ms. Roberts? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion carries 5-0. All right, that takes us to ordinances for introduction.

Ordinance number FY 2027-05, levying an area-wide marijuana excise tax, establishing the Community Wellbeing Fund, and providing for voter approval of the tax. Mr. Whiteside, move to advance ordinance number FY 2027-05 to public hearing at the next regular meeting of the Assembly. Second. It's been moved and seconded. We will have Assemblymember Roberts take this one.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At the last work session, I noted that there were notes from the attorney and our finance director. Those have been updated into the ordinance and are included in the agenda packet tonight. They made some structure and language recommendations, and I am pretty comfortable relying on their expertise in that area. We have discussed this proposal several times at work sessions, and just simply put, it would create an additional source of funding for programs, services, projects and grants that support community, the community as a whole, and take some pressure off of the general fund.

I support advancing this to public hearing, and ultimately I'd like to see it on the ballot in October.

All right, thank you. We'll open it up for Assembly discussion.

Mr. Gardner. Mr. Smiley was before. Oh, thank you, Mr. Smiley. I was a little concerned by Ms. Stevens' statement that Alaska itself taxes— the state taxes marijuana at some level. Did we include that information in developing this piece of legislation?

Go ahead, Ms. Roberts. It's not included in the ordinance. Is that how much is it? Do you know? I don't know off the top of my head.

I would like to find that out.

Mr. Gardner. So again, as I always say, I am generally against any taxes, be they new or raised or otherwise, and I want to support my colleague But at the same time, I see this as, unfortunately, and I don't think this was the intent, I see this as somewhat targeted at such a small business demographic that it's extraordinarily hard for me to get behind it.

I almost want to vote yes because I'd like to see it go to ballot. If I do vote yes, I want you to know I am not behind this. But I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to seeing it on the ballot because ultimately it's up to the people. Thank you. Mr. Woods.

Yeah, I'll be supporting this. The notion that a sudden 3% tax is going to radically change anybody's bottom line, I think is frankly a little disingenuous. Genuine, or maybe a little erroneous in that, um, realistically it's already an incredibly administratively— administrative burden-heavy business to be in. A 3% sales tax, which half of these dispensaries are— actually, what, 3 out of 4? You're out.

The better part of them are already having to give up as part of their— are already being taxed— is not a significant burden, in my opinion. Ultimately, I think this is coming from the right place, and we don't have to make the final call on this. This gets to go to a ballot if it moves forward, and the citizens get to make a choice whether or not they want to see that funding increase or not. I like diversifying funding, and, uh, I kind of like, uh, the direction this is headed with a specific fund for specific things from a specific source. So this will be getting my support.

Yeah, I will jump in in case anybody else has something. Oh, Mr. Whiteside. Yeah, I am still pretty firmly on the fence on this one. I appreciate, as someone stated there, you know, this does come with an administrative burden, but I think more importantly, if this were to be adopted by the community, if it went to the ballot and was voted on, the risk to small business. If that would be enough pressure to close a business, I'm not sure.

It does seem like a reasonable amount, but equally important in my eyes is the need to diversify our revenue in this community. We can't just continue to rely on property taxes to generate revenue to provide services in the community. It's just not sustainable. We've had countless testimony about the pressures of affordability in our community and why people are leaving, is they can't afford to live here. Another example just landed.

Folks are just now learning through their utility bills that water and sewer went up again. That just happened. Electric rates just went up 12.5%. Groceries keep going up. Gas— we've all been at the fuel pump.

So we can also— can't ignore the really strong need to diversify our revenue stream here in our community. It— something has to give. And if we're going to keep putting that pressure on property owners, that's going to break, and that's going to look really bad and really ugly for our community. And I think just add fuel to the fire about migration. Folks are just going to continue to leave.

So I will support this for that reason. I do think the need for I think diversifying revenue for the community outweighs the downsides of adding another tax to— especially to a small business. So I will support it going to the ballot.

And just to clarify, this isn't a tax on retailers. This is a tax on consumers, which is why it is appropriate for, I think, also for a ballot proposition too. For what it's worth. I have Mr. Gardner and then Mr. Woods. I appreciate the sentiment that it's an attack— excuse me— a tax on consumers.

It reminds me of a joke I used to make in my own store when I would tell people I didn't sell sporting goods or bikes, but that I was a drug dealer in that I sold adrenaline. And when The Trump administration went through all the tariffs these last few years. It was soul-crushingly difficult for my business. And I'm a little bit of a smaller businessman than Ms. Stevens and her husband. And, um, when you start adding these little taxes on top, they never go away.

And it was literally crushing to watch 30, 50, 75, 100% tariffs on steel and aluminum and the way that we had to navigate it. Throughout that whole thing. And so remembering that story, I'm going to go ahead and vote no in the most respectful way. But again, I wouldn't mind seeing it on the ballot. Mr. Woods, I will say no.

One area of concern with the proposed ordinance is the link— the definition in lines 56 and 57. It's incredibly broad. Any marijuana product. So, I mean, you're looking at hemp seed potentially at that point, which is more of a, like, more of a foodstuff. You're looking at potentially any type of hemp product, be it textile or something like that.

I don't have a fix language-wise that would be a little bit more specific to psychoactive marijuana products, but ultimately I think the way that's written, it does include hemp products.

Ms. Roberts, uh, we asked that question to the attorney, and I believe her response was that per Alaska statute— I don't remember which one it was— but that statute does define what a marijuana product is considered, and it specifies within that. So it's not written out in this ordinance, but if you refer back to statute, it would specify.

So I will jump in. So Ms. Roberts, would you— if you have that statute, would you want to amend that line to maybe just insert that statute as a parenthetical? I think that is a good idea to specify, especially since that was brought up in citizen Commissioner Overman's comments. Okay. Again, we will still be looking at this the next regular meeting before we actually vote to send it to the ballot.

So, yeah, yeah, I think that would be a good amendment.

All right. Any other discussion before we vote to forward this to public hearing?

All right. Seeing none, roll call vote on the motion. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Woods?

Yes. Mr. Gardner? No. Ms. Roberts? Yes.

Mr. Smiley? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion carries, 4 yes, 1 no.

Okay, our last item for discussion is the appointment to the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly, um, and if necessary, an administration of oath of office to newly appointed assembly member. So before we begin, we do have the option of going into executive session. The Assembly, we are allowed to go into executive session to evaluate the candidates. The subject does qualify for an executive session as it is a topic of which tends to prejudice a person's reputation of character. The candidates were noticed and were given the opportunity to request a public discussion too.

So, um, the Assembly, uh, would like to go into executive session now. Um, someone can make that motion. Mr. Whiteside, move to invite the Mayor, Assembly members, and the Clerk. Oh, first we, uh, move to— we need to move to convene first. Sorry.

All right, move to convene the regular meeting into executive session. Do you need the language? Am I skipping ahead here? Oh, okay, here we go. Pardon me.

Nope, totally fine. Move to convene into executive session to discuss qualifications of applicants per Alaska statutes and Kodiak Island Borough Code 2.30.030 E1C. The discussion qualifies for executive session as it is a topic which tends to prejudice a person's reputation and character. Is there a second? Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Mr. Gardner, would it be appropriate to do a blind vote first before moving into executive decision— executive session?

Well, uh, oh, um, just asking.

I say no. I'm seeing— I'm seeing no. Sorry.

Any other discussion? All right, roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Woods? Yes. Mr. Gardner?

Yes. Ms. Roberts? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes.

Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously. And now, Mr. Whiteside.

Move to invite the Mayor, Assemblymembers, and Clerk into the executive session. Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded. Voice vote on the motion, please.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign. Okay. Motion passes.

And just a note for the public, we will be convening into an executive session for a few minutes. When we come out, we will have— that's when we will open up the nomination process and we will be taking the vote in public. Will be taken in public, obviously.

So—. I think it would be appropriate for us to just move into the back and talk.

Okay.