5-6-2026 City Council Regular Meeting

Okay. Now I'm muted and live. We're ready to go. Great, thank you. Okay, um, would the clerk take the roll?

Mayor Smith, here. Deborah Adams, here. Lee Collins, here. Aaron Hanson, here. Casey Kinsman, he'll be joining shortly.

Michael Mickelson, here. Wendy Graney. Here. David Zastrow. Here.

Amber. Thank you. So we have an agenda before us. Are there any modifications to the agenda as presented?

Hearing no objection, we'll consider the agenda approved. Disclosures of conflicts of interest and ex parte communication. Does anyone have any, uh, conflicts to disclose? Yes, um, I just wanted on the record that I am employed by the school district. However, there's no financial gain, um, for me personally in the discussion of the school budget.

Yeah, I would say, right, that there is not— um, right.

Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, right, I, I would rule that there is no conflict of interest.

Does the council concur?

Other conflicts of interest or ex parte communication?

Okay, communications via petitions from visitors. We have our Fish and Game biologist here.

You'd like to come speak, Charlotte, and— Well, good evening everyone. I'm Charlotte Westphing. I know everyone here, but I'm the wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. And Kevin Johnson asked if I would come speak to particularly the new council members about our approach to bears and bear safety in town as we get into that season where that's that's something that the community is talking about and interested in quite a bit. So first, I'd like to give a little bit of background about bear biology.

I'll talk about some myths that exist and the science that we have about those myths. Then I'll get into explaining how we handled bears in town with our unified response team and some specifics about, well, when we do what. And then I'll get into some conflict prevention as far as what what the general public can do to help with these, prevent these problems, and what council can do. So bears are a natural part of our wild and natural landscape, and for many of us, they're kind of why we want to be here. We want to be here where it's wild and beautiful.

And we're lucky because, um, when resources are abundant, bears don't really want to be in town. And then additionally, they're sleeping for 7 out of 12 months. So that's the upside, is that a lot of the time we don't really have to think about bears much at all, and it's tadpole when you see one. But if there are natural resource shortages particularly, or if a bear just happens to get lucky and starts to develop a pattern, you can end up with bears in town, and now we're scrambling to kind of, you know, deal with that situation. So the first myth I'd like to talk about is that if a bear is comfortable in town, it's a problem bear.

Bears will naturally wander in and out of neighborhoods as they eat natural foods. We've all got salmonberries growing in our yards. Some of us have creeks that run right through our yards or are living right on the coast, and there's salmon spawning just right there. So bears are around us all the time, whether we see them or not. Black bears particularly are great at just hiding in the shadows, and most of the time you don't even know they're there, and they disappear just as quickly as As they were there.

In our bear project where we were trapping and collaring bears for 3 years, that was between the Forest Service and Fish and Game. Michael Vircham was my co-principal investigator on that project. We have thousands of images and oftentimes we have bears in the frame just before he and I show up. We never saw the bear, and then as soon as we're gone, the bear's back in on the bait. So They're great at being there.

Sometimes we've radio tracked very closely to bears and not realized we're right on top of them until we were there. So bears also do not perceive our invisible property lines. So they— most of us don't have fences around our houses, and so the expectation that the bear will understand where its natural habitat ends and your habitat begins is just not a great expectation. So They make their living in the shadows and right around our communities, and for the most part it works out fine. When they're not compensated for their time in town, they'll just keep following those resources on through.

But if they do find attractants, it can make them want to stick around. And one of the things you'll see, bears have a great memory when they found good food, and they'll kind of add a great jackpot to their a daily tour, and they go and they see if that jackpot delivers once again. And so what sometimes people will find is that maybe the bear didn't find food on their porch, but it found it on their neighbor's porch, and now it checks every porch in their neighborhood. So like, I've done a great job, I've not done anything wrong, but the bear knows right next door somebody delivered, and they're hoping you will too. And sometimes what we find is a little bit of whack-a-mole.

So in a community, Maybe one person doesn't mess up every night, but if someone in the community messes up and they all take their turn, that bear learns that every night, you know, I get compensated in some way, and so they just can kind of keep going, coming back.

So last year, in 2024, was a pretty rough year in town. We had a lot of bears in town, but the good news was with the Bears to Stump lids, the metal, heavy metal lids, We did pretty good at keeping them from really getting habituated to food and to human attractants in, in town. And then what we found last year, there were hardly any bears in town at all. With the police call log, it was virtually nothing from last season. And I don't think we had any defensive life and property kills.

If we had one, I don't remember it. And one of the things the science shows us is that when you have a year with poor natural foods, bears will use non-cavally, but then when the natural foods come on, most of them will revert back to those natural foods, and that's their preference because it actually delivers a more reliable payload. And so the other thing that studies have shown is when you have a bad berry year, and fruit is not produced, the plants actually kind of have saved energy from not producing fruit that year, and then the next year produces bigger crop. And so I think that's part of why in 2025 we had bumper crop of both salmonberries, blueberries, and very little bear activity in town. So that goes into the second myth I was going to talk about, which is that bears that find communities never go back to being wild.

Heather Johnson and her studies in Durango found that the average response of bears after a bad food year, when they had a good natural food year, was to go back to feeding on that wild food.

We found the bears in a bad berry year, that's 2018, we'll call that the year of bear, when they expanded their range numerous times over, 10 times over for some bears, to find food resources in that year. The next year they went right back to their normal home range. And so they'll, they'll do what they need to do to find food if that means covering a much larger footprint, but then they can revert back to the areas closer to home back when food is back to normal.

We had in 2024 a sow with 2 cubs that had figured out a way to finagle up under the bar and get in under the metal locking lid, the metal lid. And she would go to that dumpster every night and her cubs would wait for her outside until she got let out. And the next year they— we didn't see any of those bears ever again. We didn't see the sow, we didn't see the cubs. We don't know why.

I would assume that they made it through the winter and they were back on wild food, but tsinnikawis guessed what happened to them. Just good to not see them 2 years in a row at 60 North. So a third myth is that this problem is unique to Cordova. There are many communities that have bears. Some have both species of bears just like we do.

Anchorage is a great example with 300,000 people, but also there are places with much more concentrated human populations like the Tahoe Basin in Nevada and California, Juneau, Durango, Colorado, Asheville, North Carolina. We even have bears that den downtown Asheville, North Carolina, where there's 90,000 people. Canmore, Alberta is another place where there are lots of bears and lots of people. And in all those communities, bears are not an inherent threat, but we would like to keep it that way by just keeping them being good wild bears. Because bears, we know that bears can hurt people.

We do not take that list very lightly. However, I think that bears have a pretty great track record in all these communities. They're, uh, they have a very great track record for not hurting people in the communities that live, and they're right there nearby. And all of these communities take a similar approach, which primarily focuses on securing attractants and reducing bears' access to foods that are generated by humans rather than Waste or, or actual food.

Okay, so now I'll tell you a little bit about our Unified Bear Response Team. Most people, when they think of bears, they think of Fish and Game, but it's actually a team of people here in Cordova that work together to make these decisions. Because while I am a bit of an expert on things with hooves and claws, I'm not a public safety expert. So I'm going to lean on public safety experts to help me evaluate where those risks are and to make decisions regarding that. So there are the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, and there are two officers in our town, uh, Cassandra Hajek and Trooper Hyde, Peter Hyde.

At Fish and Game, there's me, Charlotte Westing, and also Samantha Renner is the person who picks up the phone most of the time and talks to people. At the Cordova City Police Department, we have our local officers, um, Officer Hayden, Reese, Heinemann and McMicken. Hopefully I didn't forget anybody. And then we work with the Refuge Department directly to help them. You know, we work together to identify places where bears could be accessing attractants, to talk about how to make those inaccessible, and to work together on a plan regarding that.

And that's Kevin Johnson and Erin Lemar. And then at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, there is—. Sorry. US Forest Service. There is a law enforcement officer, Andy Morse.

And most of the people on this Unified Bear Response Team have kids and we're living in this community. Our kids are walking to school, they're playing on the grassy field, they're, they're, we're fully integrated into this community and most of us live in areas with plenty of bear activity. So we are taking the safety of children very seriously. Everyone as a part of this and the safety of everyone. The way that we handle our bear calls is we like to relay everything through the police department because, and they're our central clearinghouse for all bear calls.

So even if someone calls me at Fish and Game, I will make sure that the PD also gets a record of that. The troopers will do the same, or someone calls Andy at the Forest Service, he will also forward that call, forward the information from the call onto Police Department, and that's because they have a 24-hour dispatch and they have a recording system for, for how to log all calls that happen. And what it helps me do is after the season, I can look at call volumes and I can look at distribution of those call volumes, and we can use that information to inform our decisions on what we're doing regarding trash and attractants and make modifications if we need to. We confer regularly. Sometimes we're talking every day.

If it's a year with a lot of bear activity like 2018 or 2024, we're talking all the time. And if any person on the Unified Bear Response Team calls Uncle and says, this bear is making me uncomfortable and I think we need to kill the bear, we all support that decision. It just takes one person getting to that point. But we all really weigh these things out carefully. And so when we talk about shooting bears, we have to consider that there's a lot of big risks that come with shooting anything or discharging a firearm in an urban setting.

And I'm pretty much won't do it because I haven't received the training on shooting a weapon in an urban setting. And to me, the risks of damaging someone's property or hurting a person are just too great. Luckily, our police department and our other law enforcement officials all do have training on operating a firearm in an urban setting, but they would like to avoid doing that at all costs. Because, and pretty much they avoid doing it unless someone's gonna die or get hurt if they don't discharge that firearm. We live in a pretty litigious society and everybody's got a camera and the last thing anybody wants to do is hurt someone.

So a lot of times the firearm actually presents the greater risk than the bear. In 2001, a black bear was shot by an individual at a cannery. Shot passed through the wall and hit another person. So it can certainly happen, and it's terrifying.

Okay, so then a lot of times people will ask me, why don't you just come and trap the bear? And the only time that we will trap a bear is just to kill it in a more safe and contained setting. I don't trap bears and move bears because there's countless records of trapping and moving bears and they simply return. So it puts stress on the bear, it's expensive, and the outcome's the same. The bear still dies.

It just kicks the can a little ways down the road. The other thing it gives is it gives people a false sense of closure. Oh, okay, well, Fish and Game came and they took the bear away. And that's, that allows some enabling to continue an activity that it might have brought the bear there in the first place. Whereas, and so if we're going to trap a bear, it's to kill it more safely because it's in an urban setting and that's what we need to do.

Of course, the most famous example of moving a bear and having it come back to town is the brown bear that was trapped in the '80s moved to Montague and made its way back to town and was killed in a couple weeks. We know it stayed there because it was marked there.

Okay, so then hazing. Sometimes people will wonder why we don't paintball or beanbag round or use rubber bullets, and sometimes we will. And the times that we do use hazing is when we believe that attractants have become secure And we just basically need to give that bear a bad experience to keep them from coming back on that rotation that I referred to where they're just sleepwalking to all the places that have delivered. We want to break that cycle and make them remember this place is bad and it hurt. We may use hazing in that, in that example, but it's hard to, we have to carefully administer that discomfort to make sure that it works properly because otherwise we are creating a lot of erratic behavior for bears to just, um, when we probably have people around looking and wanting to see what is going on.

So don't tase bears unless we're pretty sure it will give us a good outcome. Okay, so now some prevention, what citizens can do. Well, the first thing I always like to bring up is that the Defense of Life and Property Law exists to protect you. So you might hear this referred to as TLP. And so there are rules about DLP, defense of life and property, when it's appropriate, when it's not.

And if you feel like you're in a situation where you need to know those rules, I would encourage you to call and talk to me or talk to one of the troopers, and we can explain those to you. But basically, you need to have done everything you can do to secure and track this. If the bear comes back and it's still a threat to your life or property, you can kill it. There is just a process. You have to scan the bear, you have to do some paperwork, and then you hand the bear over to the department.

The best thing you can do to hopefully keep from getting there is make your neighborhood unattractive to bears. And sometimes your behavior might be spot on, but you got a neighbor that throws a chicken out on the porch and likes to watch the birds peck away at it or something like that. And so the best thing you can do there is talk to your neighbors. Talk to your neighbors about risk. Talk to your neighbors about behaviors and how you can work together.

Brainstorm ways to take care of trash and support each other. Sometimes people struggle with the heavy dumpster lids and maybe they need a little help taking their trash out and getting it put away right. If you notice that someone is having trouble being compliant, a little conversation and a little care might help them get there. I really encourage people to use fences to protect poultry, electric fences. A lot of people feel like if they build Fort Knox in the chicken coop, they can protect their flock, but bears are really great at finding a way.

So electrified fences are a really great option, but they're not really plug and play. They require commitment and kind of constant upkeep. You need to make sure that the, the lines aren't grounding out and that they're working as they should. And we have a couple experts in our community now about electric fences, and I have a loaner fence that people can borrow if they have chickens. What I find is a lot of people will be successful and not have any problems with bears for a long time, because most cases it's about one every 3 years we have and the bad one.

And, uh, so they'll go for a while and they'll get lucky and bears will bother chickens, and then one year, bam, mass murder. So, um, I have a loner fence. I encourage people to mess around with it. I also built an electrified mat in recent years. That works great.

Um, I have videos of numerous bears that really, really don't like it and don't like me. We had one that was hitting the Coast Guard dumpster, and once they put that mat out, it didn't even want to be in the same universe as that dumpster.

So, okay, so communicate about bear concerns in a productive way. So call the city PD if there's an immediate public safety risk. They have officers, and if they can't help, they can also get help from the troopers, but they can almost always get there. If you don't have an immediate public safety risk, but you want Fish and Game to know what's going on, I encourage you to call and talk to me, and we can kind of brainstorm some things that you could do. But the Facebook conversation, specifically the bear watch page, is really not productive.

It is not monitored by any of our agencies. I don't look at it. It's not a productive space for me. And It's just all— I think what happens is it's changed to where previously you only kind of knew about the bear in your neighborhood, but now you have the ability to know about every bear in all of Cordova. And it's not making us safer, it's just elevating our, our collective conscious about bears and probably a little bit of anxiety, honestly.

It's like now you feel like you know where the bears are. Well, that doesn't mean that bear's going to be there when you go there, and it doesn't mean it's not going to be in this other place when you go there. And I feel the same way about trail safety signs that say bear, bear aware, be aware there's bear around here. There's really no guarantee that there's not a bear on the trail that doesn't have a sign, and there may never be a bear again that whole rest of the season on the one with the sign. So it gives people a false sense of security, and I just think it's not a very productive place for conversation.

Support your law enforcement. So acknowledge that they live in a litigious society and that shooting in communities is an extreme risk. Officers are also sensitive about concerns about excessive force. There are a lot of people that absolutely do not think bears should be shot, and they have to deal with, you know, those people's concerns too. Best thing that the community can do is leave the scene.

If they're trying to secure the situation and keep people safe, if you can safely, you can just extract yourself from that scene, it will make it easier for them to do their job. Prevent officers from having to be there in the first place by not having trash bears in, because officers ultimately want to spend less time chasing bears and more time fighting crime in our community and making our community safer.

Okay, the other thing, the last thing, is support the city's efforts to secure trash. So instead of trying to keep your trash outside, use the Baylor's generous hours People will build these structures they can put their trash in, but after a couple years in the rain, that plywood starts to disintegrate and they're like, "I don't know what happened, the bear got into it." It's like, just take it to the baler. Our baler is not far, it has generous hours. It's a great option. And instead of complaining about heavy lids, find innovative ways to make them work.

Um, AC has a pulley system, step stools, prop sticks, things like that, and help each other, help each other to use them well.

What council can do, support law enforcement and their aversion to shooting bears in town, and support them when trash tickets get written because trash tickets lead to a financial hit that actually might modify behavior. Officers don't love writing trash tickets, but sometimes it's the only way you can get someone's attention. Support the refuse department and their recommendations on best improved trash security. We're lucky now that we have, because of the council support, many, many bear-resistant lids in town. And Floyd, they're almost entirely bear-resistant lids now.

We're still working on getting everything lock, bar, pin configured, but we're getting close. Consider that some areas might be incompatible with residential pickup. So, for example, some of the trailer courts have been changed to a dumpster system in the summer. And that has helped them because a lot of the trailer courts, it's hard for them to store trash for any length of time, and that dumpster system gives them a way to deal with that. And we saw the year that we went to a consolidated pickup in those trailer courts, we saw the number of calls to the trailer courts go down dramatically.

City code has already been tightened about when trash can be put out, and that's helpful. Another option is to require electric fences for poultry within city limits, which is not something that's been done here, but in other places it's been done. And then just talk to the public. If the public talks to you about bears, you can remind them of some of these points. And I can provide this sheet to Colette, and she can share it with them.

And I'd be happy to take any questions you have.

Oh yeah, sorry. I just gonna say that always fantastic to hear from you, Charlotte, and everything. I mean, it's a science-driven process, really well thought out, awesome kind of action plan for what to do if there is a situation. Fantastic to know that's all being done behind the scenes by you and everybody involved. I got kind of a basic question over the years now with tracking the number of bears in the area.

Do you have an idea of how it's fluctuated over time, or has it been pretty stable as far as the number of black bears in particular, which is what we mostly see in town, it seems? Right. That's a great question. People often, when they see a lot of bears in town, their first response is to say, oh, the bear population is up. Well, what numerous studies have shown is that the number of bears that result in a phone call, it does not correlate well with population size because it's almost entirely an expression of natural food abundance.

And so what you're tracking is what's going on with your wild food, not what's actually going in any population. You know, one of our hopes with our study in Prince William Sound is to understand a little bit more about that population. But it's really difficult to estimate a population of bears. And so yeah, we— I come up with a, with a pioma estimate, but if that's what it would be, it would just be a number that I'm pulling out of the sky. So yeah, I think in general bear numbers got real low during snowpocalypse and for a couple years after that, and I think there was build back time.

And based on the work that we've done in Prince William Sound and the age structure of the harvest data that I have for Prince William Sound, we know there were big years for cub production. So '15, '16, '17, those were all very big years of cub production. And I can see those bears that were born in those years moving through the age classes and getting older, and now they're starting to become less abundant. But there's been some bad years. So during Snowpocalypse, very few contributions to the bear population from that, from that year.

Bear, you probably didn't survive. And we can see that both in the harvest data and in our captures. We didn't have over 100 captures. We had zero bears that were born in '11, so they would have been, you know, pretty little going into the Big Quencher. And then the two years that followed, cub production was very low too.

So yeah. That's as much as I can say. There have been some bad years, and I can tell that, and there's been good years for carp production, and I can tell that. But where that leaves us for an overall number is—. Yeah, I'd really love to know.

It's true too, isn't it, that if it's really wet, warm winters, that hits them hard too when they're denning? That's a hypothesis, but I don't And I've always wondered about that, if it's more impactful for a bear to have a wet 35-degree winter, 33-degree winter, or 31-degree winter and an insulating layer of snow. And in my brain, I think 31 degrees and insulating layer of snow would be better, but I can't support that with data. We didn't have any of these really open winters while we had collared animals. And so I can't—.

I didn't have—. We didn't have— the bears that we had that died after rough winters were bears that died not because of— it wasn't after a rough winter. The bears we had that died after denning or right after denning or just before denning, those bears, those were the bad bear years. It's 2018. That was the year we had bears die.

And one of them I was able to collect off the landscape, ship the whole bear to pathology, and she just said it's SARS-CoV-2. So, um, I was never able to test the winter hypothesis.

Thank you. Yeah. Talk about soulmate. We got work to do, so you know where to find me. More questions come up.

Thank you for your time. Thanks so much.

Great. Now to do the review. Audience comments regarding agenda items. We invite people to speak on agenda items for 3 minutes per speaker. Anybody wants to speak?

Thoughts on the agenda? Good evening, my name is Alex Russell. I'm the superintendent of schools, and I'd just like to comment on item 10, um, on the agenda. So nearly 11 years ago, um, at about this time, I sat before the city council for the very first time and made a commitment to them that the school district would, when requesting the city's contribution to our budget, that we would ask for what we needed and no more. We have not extravagantly so in the request, but what we actually needed.

And I think over that period of time, the City Council has seen what our requests and needs have been and have really supported the, the needs of the district. And I think we've also demonstrated great stewardship toward the contributions that have been given, both from the city and from the state, in terms of public funds. And so I know you have a big decision in front of you Um, and, and I would, you know, request that you would support, um, the district's request in, uh, the contribution, um, from the city. And it's, it's a hard, uh, it's a hard conversation sometimes to have because of the competing needs and interests of, uh, city departments and city services and so forth. But, um, I have appreciated my time here in Cordova and the support that the city has provided to the district, and I hope that you all pass my time here.

So thank you very much.

Hi, good evening. I'm Hank Krueckhoff. I am the school board president at this time, um, and I'm here first to say thank you for your consideration and thank you for the partnership that we half between the city and our school district. I would tell you that I'm here to support school district, but I'm not. I'm here to support the kids of Cordova because every decision that we make impacts them first and foremost.

Uh, when we have to make reductions to our budget, it means activities, it means scholarships, it means teachers that teach kids. And so those decisions are very hard. We've spent the last 2 or 3 months already going over our budget, making adjustments, um, and trying to do the best we can. And so we ask you tonight to please consider our ask, and we look forward to working with you again in the future. Thank you.

And I, I guess I have to say something as well, just about education funding. So I'm Pete Taffer, Vice President, and, uh, as Alex and Hank mentioned, we always do appreciate the city contribution. Um, and I'm here because I believe education is the single most consequential investment a community can make, not just in its children but its own future. Every child that walks through the doors of our schools gets one shot at foundational education, one chance to learn to read, to think critically, to discover what they're capable of. We don't get a chance to get a do-over on that, nor do they.

Funding represents classrooms that are staffed, programs that survive, teachers who stay. When the state underfunds schools, we don't just cut costs, we cut opportunity. But in our communities like ours, opportunity is not evenly distributed to begin with. I've spent over 2 decades on the Cordova School Board. I've seen what adequate state funding makes possible.

I've seen what happens when it falls short. The difference shows up in graduation rates, college career readiness, and in whether young, young people see a future for themselves here or leave to find one elsewhere. Education is the upstream investment that reduces downstream costs that we all bear in public safety, social services, and an economy that struggles to attract and retain families. I urge this council to fund education and send a clear message that this community values its children and believes in their potential. And I have always appreciated you guys' support.

Um, it's just been, um, what's happened to education funding coming from the state over the last number of years or so. Thanks so much, appreciate your work. Thank you.

Any other audience comments?

Okay, um, the next agenda item is chairpersons and representatives of boards and commissions. And we— I don't know if this— we have heard from school superintendent, or if you were going to say anything under that. Okay, yeah.

Yeah, Alex Rustin, Superintendent. Um, yeah, so we are approaching the end of, uh, quarter 4 and the end of the school year. Um, lots of people looking forward, uh, to that. Uh, graduation is set for Saturday, May 16th at 5:30. So if you are in town and available, I'm sure it would be nice to, to fill the fill the bleachers and fill the floor with people supporting our soon-to-be graduates.

Next Thursday the 14th, we have our annual academic and scholarship award event, so that will be happening sometime in the early evening, probably around 7 o'clock if I'm not mistaken. But other than that, things are going well. We're in the process of hiring some staff, positions have been vacated and so forth. And so if you know any special education teachers in particular that are looking for work, those are hard to come by on personnel, so please send them my way. But beyond that, appreciate again City Council support throughout the year in lots of different ways to the school district.

So Happy to take any questions if you have it.

This your last city council meeting? I think this may be my last city council meeting. I'm retiring at the end of, uh, the school year, the end of June. And so it's been a great, um, 11 years here in the dist— in Cordova in particular. And, uh, people keep asking me how many days I have left.

It's too many to count right now, but the number I know is 2 more school board meetings. That's, that's the number that's in my head. So, um, and one is next week, so I'll miss that one.

Well, I'd like to thank you for your service to Cordova Schools and Cordova students and your leadership. Thank you very much for these past 11 years.

It's great to have that much longevity and consistency. Sure. Yeah, thank you. See any other chairs or representatives of boards and commissions? So, um, we come to the consent calendar.

Does the clerk clock through? Is the consent calendar okay as presented?

Clerk, do you want to call the roll? For approval of the consent calendar, Matt Matheson.

Yes. Lee Collin. Yes. Aaron Hansen. Yes.

Wendy Green. Yes. Daze Astro? Yes. Casey Kinsman?

Yes. Deborah Adams? Yes. Time calendar approved. We've taken care of the minutes.

We don't have bids, proposals, or contracts. We have reports of officers. I have a written report on page 12.

Think of what's happened in the interim. We did have, um, Innovate Cordova weekend this past weekend with a visit from Senator Murkowski, which I think went pretty well. She seemed to really enjoy the time here, and it was great for, um, I think connecting folks from some of the participating organizations with We hope with funders, we don't always know what comes of it right away. I think it takes a while sometimes for these ideas to germinate and for the partnerships to bear fruit. So we'll see what happens with that.

I have asked her staff if she, if she does come back for Copper River Nouveau, if we could do a meet and greet the following Sunday morning, like I think we did last year. So we'll see if that happens. Yeah. And I don't have an update on— I think we're still waiting. House Bill 78 is one of the bills that I gave a little bit of testimony on about the defined benefit contribution, and I think it's passed and been sent to the governor, but I don't know.

I haven't heard anything about signing, so still waiting. Yeah, so I'm happy to answer questions.

I have one comment real quickly. I talked to Senator Murkowski for a little bit, and she said, you know, in the course of her traveling, people are always asking her for things. And she loves coming to Cordova because it's one of the few places where her cup gets refilled instead of drained. So I thought that was one of the best compliments someone can give to our community. So we should be proud of ourselves for that.

I guess looking back on it, I do want to add this event and the Democratic Convention, people were so taken with Cordova. I mean, there wasn't— I'm mentioning it— there wasn't anything partisan about it, but Cordova really shined both of those weekends, and people were— felt they felt welcome. They loved the Cordova Center. I heard that over and over. And I think people just felt like this was a really positive place to be.

So I thought, especially this past weekend, the weather did not shine, but Cordova certainly did. So with the people. Yeah. So I think that went, that went really well. That says a lot right there.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. It was, it was rockin'. It was rockin'. Yes, indeed.

Yeah. So. Any answer questions?

I just have fingers crossed for HB 78, but when it goes to the governor, that's all I'll say, because my fingers are crossed. Yes. Do it. See, that's, that's one of the reasons it's difficult to recruit teachers.

There's no reason to stay. And, I think the normal career track is people come for 2, 3 years, get some experience under their belt, and then they leave. And this would make a big difference if it does go through.

Yeah, and mercifully they cut back on the percentage that was, that they were proposing for an increase, so it wouldn't be as big of a in position. See.

Okay, so we can go to the city manager's report. Okay, um, I just want to say I went to Innova Cardo too. It's very amazing for people to meet and fun. We had a big discussion on what's more scarier, bears or snakes. In the jungle coming into Ketchum.

I said snakes. Yeah. But it was fun to listen to where other people are from and the things they do. Drug spills was another big— But it was good all around. I learned a lot, hung out with the DOT, Sarah Lucy, who's helped with many of the grants that we put in and has now moved to planning.

But It just has a lot of great ideas. So, we also, Kevin listened to a BRIC, which is the, you know, grant that got shut down and then turned back on with a lot of funding associated with it. You have to have design in place to be competitive, but we learned, and Kevin, I shouldn't say we, Kevin listened and learned a lot and then gave me lots of briefs. And so it's something that we're going to be coming back to be talking about how this is the second one that we've looked at in the last 2 weeks where if you don't have design, you're not competitive. So I think that's something we need to think about as we move forward.

The WaterSMART grant really didn't apply to us.

And then I'm going to pass it to Samantha because she always gets to go first. With the pool update and any other updates you might have. And then if anybody has any other questions, uh, the pool—. I came back from vacation and, uh, there was a little bit of water in it. Thank you to the water department for, um, everything.

Our maintenance team to. So we got the, the bottom of it repaired and we—. It's almost full right now, so we're trying to get it up and running temporarily just to test out the heat exchanger. Hasn't been running in a year, the boiler hasn't been running at full capacity for a year, so getting all those kinks worked out, if there is any, before the lighting company comes back. Repair the liner.

So we'll drain the pool again, fix the liner, and then put it back in.

Um, good thing there's water in it now with all the rain we're getting, huh? Yes, it worked out perfectly. Yeah, so yeah, this would have not been helpful. How about training for lifeguards? Yes, so that will be planned, um, when we do get it up and running.

We'll start setting dates for training. Both Logan and I still have our lifeguard instructor. So I think Logan's laps is in probably September, but we'll make sure that he gets up and running again because we'll try to get him not to lapse. So we'll start making those plans when the pool's up and running. We have a few lifeguards in town right now, so we'll just step by step see, see how things go.

Yeah, you know, anyone else feel like they need to buy first class?

What's the schedule for the liner? What do they do to come back? They usually let us know a few weeks in advance. They fit us in, um, when they're doing other projects, so they'll reach out. Um, they have to ship everything here.

Um, we do need liner for it. We've run out of the actual liner that we had before, so Um, they'll get all that shipped here, um, and then yeah, then they'll send a couple people in and it will be pretty quick.

Any other questions about anything? Thank you. Thanks.

So there's a few staff reports, um, All of them are here if you have particular questions, but I do want to just call out the library and museum. Um, yeah, I love the summer reading program. Um, but also the museum walking tour has been pretty successful, um, a way for the museum to get out, and especially when the cruise ships are here. And if any of you guys want to go on that tour, it's super fun. And you can also go on the practice tours.

You get to go and do it again. And if you want to, there's some dates in there and some times. It's pretty fun. I learned a lot and I've lived here a while. So it's a good one.

And then I will take any questions on my report. —Or if I don't know, if you want to talk to me or even the staff of those. Yes, Councilor Persaud. Thank you. Just a question.

You may not have a lot— know a lot right now, but in your report you talked about the potential for private entities doing some expansion and services for the shipyard. Were there any specifics on what might be offered coming up? So the idea that we're working with right now is that we're going to— there's been some talk around, not necessarily with city folks, but with other folks about, geez, if you had a shipyard that we could do this, we would really be interested. So we're going to send out a solicitation of interest. And what that is, is, okay, what do you guys need?

What does that look like? How can we do it in a partnership kind of form? So we'll be working with Kelsey, um, prior Harvest Commission, Harvester, and trying, and the fisheries community, try to vet that out and see what happens. I don't know, like, 4 people would want to speak. Yeah, it, you know, it's, well, I, I don't think everybody understands exactly what's needed, and I think Brooke mentioned in the MBE talk at Innovate Cordova that there's, you know, there's a deep water port out there.

Do we want to do some kind of ship. I don't want to say ship because then I envision this huge ship, but larger than what we have here, draft boats that could maybe go out there and maybe we work on in there. So there's a lot of just like energy right now around this idea. So we're trying to see if we can take everybody, maybe get some raft done, get a place for water thingy, trying to incorporate this.

Other questions, questions from other council members or anyone online?

Madam Mayor. Yes, thank you. Um, I just— it's been a few months and I don't expect you to necessarily have an update, but if there is an update, maybe in a future meeting for kind of the working group that's been stood up For the NV, specifically Alonka and Health, I don't know how to say merger, but whatever. I mean, there's been different discussions about it. I know we've reviewed some potential ideas, so I'm just curious if that working group or those committees are have met and if there's anything further to discuss on that.

So the hospital and, and the, and the merging of those two together potentially, um, we have not met. Um, some things have changed at MBE. He broke his interim city manager, uh, CEO, final administrator. Yeah. Um, and, uh So we— I met with Brooke last week or the week before.

We talked about it a little bit and we're going to try to get it back on our agendas as well again. So hopefully in the future, that will happen. So Juana is really getting— you know, she got the $3 million from the senator. She's put in for multiple grants through the World Health Initiative, Transformative. So, um, yeah, there's a lot of things happen in— Yeah, so in the future, I see.

Yes, I hope to have some came out there. Okay, no, I appreciate that. Thanks.

I have one question. Um, so the stuff that's in the packet, this, uh, page 15 Same question.

No, so what happens? Amanda, can I explain it? Um, so we have a letter of interest in that's requesting a portion of property. Um, it's, it's 1,780 square feet in size approximately. And it's right here at the boat haul-out parking area.

But the area that they're requesting is really small, and it's right up against the house there. And it's— there's an access easement right there for dragging across our property to that property. So it's not really usable space to the public. No one can park there. It's right up against the house.

Um, so they're requesting that portion of property, and then what they would end up doing with this is trade their neighbor a portion of his property for that property that they're acquiring from the city, possibly, um, and be able to do an addition onto their house. And the reason It's in here is because we have to post it for 30 days because it's not a bill. Okay, so we wanted you all to have the heads up before the sign went up. And yeah, okay, a lot of questions asked. Yeah, okay, well, the way it was written, I thought, are we supposed to act on it, or— yeah, was— that was the urban count.

Okay, that makes sense. Okay, Councilor Adams. Yeah, I'm, I'm still not really completely understanding that Why the trade? So this is— that is a letter of interest that until this is made available won't be coming here to be heard. We just wanted to give you the, you know, give you the understanding of what this little map means.

Yeah. So until that property is made available or not, it can't be moved forward. So once it's posted for 30 days, it'll come back to you all with the letter of interest, and the first motion will be to make—. So it's coming to us and not Planning and Zoning? It already went there.

Oh, okay. Yeah, okay. And it'll be— I'm sorry, yes, as recommended zoning. Does that make sense then? I think so.

It's, it's marked not available on the land disposal maps currently, and so what we need to do is, if you would like to hear that and make it available, then we need to notice the property. We don't want to notice the property and put signs out there saying that this is going to be made available or possibly made available until you know. So, so now there's going to be a 30-day notice period. Yeah. Yeah.

I guess it's just confusing. We really didn't need the information about trade at this juncture. What we really just needed was to make this piece of property available. You're not making it available yet. We're just letting—.

Yeah, leaving it for 30 days. I understand that, but the—. It, it complicated it by saying— yeah, by adding this trade component to it as well, which really has no bearing on this at the moment. I think it's just for background knowledge onto the understanding of why, why we're asking for it to be made available or not available. Okay.

I— a little— probably too much information. Okay. Well, thank you. That does clarify. I have a quick question here.

So it wasn't clear to me exactly who was wanting to do this, not that that should affect what our decision is. And, but I was going to ask, so the piece of property that is currently marked unavailable, um, right now there's a sign, um, by Baja Taco that says no boat work or no, no parking basically for the whole extent of, of the lot that's sort of next to that. And I was just curious why that was there. Um, because if it's an easement, I'm curious to why that whole entire area would be an easement instead of part of that. And not that necessarily that was going to affect any decision or anything else, but I just feel like it's pertinent to the discussion, I guess.

I think we could just— we'll get that information from Tony, and I'm not exactly sure where you're at, and then we can address that after the 30 days. Okay, okay, sounds good.

Thanks, Pat.

Other questions for the city manager on the report? Might be questions later on other issues, but on the report—. I did that wrong. Yeah, yeah, just very common about, um, we had asked to get some kind of response to— I think you did, Mayor— on ICE and what we might do if that were the situation here. And I just want to kind of the specifics from the chief on their role, federal role, how they work together.

So it's just good to know the basics of how that all works.

All right, City Clerk's report.

I don't have much. Um, we're certifying the roll tonight, so next meeting we will put the mill rate on the agenda. Um, and the property tax bills go out July 1st. And then I also did, um, resend out the advertisements for the Prince William Sound Aquaculture, um, Board of Directors position that we're looking for. Um, we still haven't gotten any submissions for that yet.

That's all.

Great.

We have correspondence on the agenda. We've got two items of correspondence, letter from Senator Sullivan regarding children's mental health and an email and a letter from Cordova Little League requesting council review of substitute ordinance 1221. Um, think that the Little League request we could talk about under pending agenda, unless— yeah, unless there are other questions about it at the moment.

That sounds all right then. Let's go on to ordinances and resolutions. And in the packet we have Resolution 05-26-19, and we're going to get to the motion, which there is some language spelled out on page 36, I think, and also in the draft resolution if anybody wants to use that as a starting point.

Well, I guess I'll go right after, so I'll have a discussion. Okay, so I move to approve Resolution 05-26-19, a resolution of the council, the City of Cordova, Alaska, the proposed budget without the increase ask of $362,000 of the Cordova Public School District for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027. And, uh, determining the amount of local sources available for school purposes subject to modification before City Council final approval of the city's FY27 budget in December 2026.

Moved. Is there a second?

Second. I, I will second. Okay, so we've got the motion on the table. I thought, um, what might be helpful is to ask the manager and the finance director just to give a quick overview of the whole, uh, the sequence that we have to go through, the balancing act that we do because our fiscal years between the school district and the city are offset. So that is something I always have to re- And we have some new council members.

Yeah, so I'd like to ask— we have the motion on the table, and, uh, if you will, folks want to take with that, we could take a few minutes. And yeah, I had meant to have a printout to remind everyone of the budget line items, um, kind of just have a visual in front of us. I'm sorry, I did not print it out, but, um In our budget, when council approved it last December, there are two line items. One for the January to June portion of the city's contribution to the school, which is the beginning of our FY26, the ending of the school's FY26. And then another line item for the July to December portion, which is the end of our FY26, the beginning of the school's FY27.

So there's that overlap of the difference in fiscal years, and those amounts differ. So that part is important as you guys have this discussion tonight for, um, the imbalanced contribution throughout the year. A few years back, just to give some history to it, The school had requested more than the city approved in their budget from December. So it was agreed that going into the next city budget year, it would be considered to increase that. So it would fall into the next January to June portion, and there started our off-balance contributions.

Um, monthly. So we, we do, uh, a monthly check to the school, and the difference is around $100,000 between the January to June amount is about $100,000 more than the July to December. It doesn't really work for either of those. Um, that for the city is our, uh, lowest revenue point. January to June, and, um, I just think a consistent contribution would work better for both parts.

The school appreciate that as well from talking with them.

So part of this, this, um, memo is to say that this would— if whatever the decision is, if there's money to be added to it, it would be paid out of 26. So that we're not increasing the op balance even more. So if the council determines, or whatever the council determines the contribution to be tonight, it needs to include how we fund it in our FY26, and that amount was not budgeted to to start with, so there will need to be a budget amendment for any variation or variance from this resolution. Yeah, okay. I think I just—.

I still want to point out that we did provide some solutions in this memo, and I can totally relate, as you all can, to what it's like to try to make cuts and try to keep everything moving forward. And, you know, we need to— we need— we need to think about the impact that this would have to the city as well as to the school. Like, you know where we ended the year last year, laying people off? And 2027 isn't like any Great outlook rate between the fisheries. Um, the school debt bond reimbursement is in the budget at the reduced amount that it was last year, so we're not making that revenue back up.

Um, we don't know about forest receipts. We shouldn't be relying on forest receipts because all they've done is proved to be inconsistent.

Um, so just these are utilities just to have in mind this year. We are already seeing some budget needs happening with the levels that we budgeted fuel and electricity, especially those are, as everyone's well aware, higher than anticipated when we did develop the budget. I think that it's important that if we're going to talk about changing this amount to anything, that we talk about what the solution is to fund that.

Here. Yeah, because that's a pretty serious question at this point.

Any other things we wanted to—.

Okay, well, hang with us. We might have a few more questions that we can, um, Me, back to, um, the motion. Does the maker of the motion want to add anything? I think we're all struggling with solutions here, and obviously we know that the need is real, but how do we fill the need and at what level? Um, and I appreciate staff throwing out a variety of different options that we can consider.

Um, but, and none of them are fantastic options. Um, raising the mill rate, pulling from our permanent fund— these are all really, really tough things to be considering. So yeah, I don't know.

I just wanted to have the conversation with the group and, uh I don't see one, uh, badly that looks better than the other. Online, just to make sure you all can chime in if you want to.

Um, Council Member— okay.

Yes, I have a question. One of the things that the information we get on is that the, um, school district, uh, would end the school year with a certain amount of money, um, kind of carryover funding. And, um, I guess I'm curious about that carryover funding. I'm sure that they have thought that how that's used in the future, how it affects them by dipping into it. I think some of that's laid out, but maybe some clarification on The fund balance, right?

Exactly. The fund balance in the document is called fund balance. So you're looking at page 42, or sorry, page 36 or something. Yeah, in the budget. But yeah, 36 is where the— what that looked like at we're talking about.

The superintendent can speak to that more articulately than me. I have a little bit, but I think— I agree. Yeah, Alex, you can please join us.

It's a little bit hard to follow the conversation. I'm sorry. But I think what the question is, is we're showing a potential fund balance with a certain amount of money. Um, I'll just back up to provide a little bit of background. So the state allows for a school district to maintain no more than 10% in its fund balance of what the expenditures were.

For a particular year. So for example, if our expenditures in this year were $800— or $8 million, we would be allowed to maintain $800,000, or 10% of that number, in our fund balance. If a district should have more than the 10% allowable in that fund balance, there are basically 4 options that a district could do to, to get under that 10%. They can give that amount of money back to the state, in terms of which nobody wants to do. They could have their state contribution reduced by that particular amount, or a district can transfer funds into what are called capital funds to get to that below 10% allowable, or it can use funds for prepaid expenses for the following school year.

So currently our plan with the potential, uh, or the projected amount of money that we have over that 10% allowable, um, is to use probably 75% of it as prepaid expenses for next year's, um, budget, um, particularly, uh, healthcare costs that the district has, uh, so doing that action, and we plan on, um, allocating some funds into our curriculum refresh cycle, um, that we have as a capital, um, fund. And so by doing that, that allows for us to draw on those particular funds, thereby in essence reducing our expenditures for those particular purchases that we're budgeting for. So, Matt, I don't know if that background gave you any, any more sense of, um, how we anticipate using the money that's over the projected 10%. Um, the question that often comes up is, well, how do you end up with more money than what you know, you are allowed. And unfortunately, it's not a great black and white answer, but here are some examples.

Throughout the course of the year, if we have staff that resign or quit mid-year, there's already monies that we have allocated, revenue that we have to cover those projected expenses for the particular year. And so if that happens 2 or 3 times, then those particular funds grow, right, that we have revenue for, but we're not making those expenses. So for example, the district's healthcare share between district and employees, for one employee it's about a $35,000 cost share for the district. And so if we have 2 or 3 people who quit mid-year or resign, or we can't fill a position, that's $35,000 for each of those people that we have budgeted for, that we have dedicated revenue for, but the expenditure just doesn't come to fruition because of those circumstances. So when that happens over, you know, a period of the year, the revenue that we have then becomes more than what the expenditures that we planned for are.

Not sure if that explanation complicates things anymore, but that's the question that we often get asked, right? And staffing is just one example. Sometimes goods and services, although it wouldn't seem to be true, sometimes come in less than what the initial projected dollar amounts were. Sometimes we're able to, in the areas of technology, we can buy multi-year licenses for our network equipment from another vendor where we get discounted rates for doing multi— multi-year purchases. So the cumulative effect of all of those scenarios sort of unfolding oftentimes happen in school districts including ours where we have a little bit more in our fund balance than what's permissible based on the variable expenditures that happen throughout the year.

I'm not sure, Dave, if that answers your question. Yeah, yeah, a lot of moving parts. Yes, um, can I ask, in that, um, fund balance, what's the minimum for operating costs that you need to keep in that fund balance? And it might look like a big number, or to the public, can you explain that? Yeah, so I think the term fund balance is sometimes misleading to the to the public, generally speaking.

Sometimes it's, it's seen or thought of as a savings account, but there are different elements in that fund balance where there are restricted funds that are— you can only use for certain purposes. There are unrestricted funds. So when we refer to fund balance, we think about that as our operating fund. Right, the funds that we have, the dollars that we have to be able to pay our monthly bills. So is it all unrestricted?

No, it's a mix. It's a mix. Okay, 5 or 6 different types of categories that are included in that fund balance. And so about maybe 5 or 6 years ago, the administration, our administration, made a recommendation to the board to have at a minimum $450,000 in that fund balance to be used as operating dollars. So at a minimum, I would even say, you know, since that time, that, that floor probably should have risen a little bit closer to around $500,000 to, to have as operating capital.

So for example, you know, our monthly payroll is anywhere between $250,000 and $270,000, just based on the leave types and, and different sorts of how long the month is and so forth. So of that $450,000 monthly, right, we need to make sure we have at least $250,000 to $270,000 as payroll.

Expenses. Part of that fund is also used to pay for service providers. So students who are on an IEP, Individual Education Plan, and are receiving some additional services— we don't, we don't have a school psychologist on staff, we don't have a physical therapist or an occupational therapist or a speech-language pathologist. On staff, so we have to contract for those services. And we use Title funds as a reimbursable revenue for those, but we have to expend monies in that operating fund in order to pay those bills monthly and get reimbursed quarterly from the state for those expenses.

So, so that $450,000, as I mentioned, it's a really tight, um, floor, um, to be able to maintain operational— I wouldn't even say comfort, but, um, operational necessity. Yes, another question. We have lots of unfunded mandates given to us through Juneau for schools all across the state. And I believe the Alaska Reads Act has a new restriction or a new— it's not a restriction, it's a requirement. And could you speak to that a little bit?

Yeah, so the Alaska Reads Act has a couple of pieces to it. Students, particularly the Alaska Reads Act, is focused on students who are in grades K through 3 primarily, and there, there are requirements that teachers must engage in to ensure that students are reaching the reading proficiency. So there are some, some things that are done both in and outside of the classroom to ensure that We're doing what we need to do in compliance with the law. So the, the cost for implementation of that, um, for the district has been in the, the tens of thousands of dollars, um, yearly since, uh, its implementation, just with additional assessments that we have to have, time spent with, um, teachers and principals, administration, meeting with parents to really help, help get their students to proficiency. And some people might say, well, that— isn't that what the school is supposed to be doing?

Yes, we do what we're supposed to be doing, but when some of these unfunded mandates come down the line, there is a cost that's associated with that. When the legislation is passed, you will often see notes that say there's no school attached that. What that means is that there's no fiscal, you know, uh, cost to the legislature. It, it doesn't indicate that there's no fiscal cost to the school districts. Um, one law that was recently passed was the maximum, uh, class size target number.

So that will go into effect July 1st of this summer, saying that school districts must target the maximum class size for, uh, students in grades K through 6 at no more than 23 students, and for grades 7 through 12, no more than 30 students. And there are some exemptions to that with regard to music classes and PE classes and some career and technical education classes. But when you look at our class sizes, um, now in the elementary school, currently we have 2 teachers for every grade level. Except for 6th grade. And so, you know, we are looking at how do we maintain compliance with that law when our students' population is growing, which is great because that theoretically means additional revenue for the district based on more students.

But sometimes the cost of, you know, around the school district and implementing, um, laws that aren't funded, uh, do have an impact on, on school districts. Thanks. And those are just a couple of the unfunded things that districts are required to do.

Make sure. Yeah. Um, I, I would just like to add that, um, looking at our numbers, um, the 6th grade class moving into 7th grade, there are 36 students, and, um, none of the classrooms at the high school can fit 36 students.

With the exception of being home ec room. And that means that 6th grade, those, that group of students is going to have to be divided in half. Which means that with the current staff that we have, it can be done, but that means that the teacher who would normally have all of those students now has been designated for 2 classes. And that takes away classes that could be offered to upperclassmen, to high school students. So hence, we are moving another staff member.

Um, fill that void, fill that need, I should say. It's not a void. And one of the positions is hopefully a math teacher.

So that we can move all the pieces around. And it doesn't get better with the 5th grade following. There's 34 students there. In the 4th grade, there's 35. In the 3rd grade, there's 39.

So there's been lots of children born. Old is coming. And, you know, compared to this year's graduating class is 21. Um, so it's growing. Our, our student population is growing.

Um, and that's a need we need to address.

Yeah, and I would just add, and I know I'm probably preaching to the choir and I don't want to seem disingenuous, um, with, with my comments. Um, but you know, we haven't, we haven't had strictly a math teacher last 3 years at the high school that's dedicated to teaching math. We have other staff members, um, who are qualified to teach math, um, and they have taken on the role of, um, being that math teacher for particular grades of students. And so when we do that, that reduces, um, sort of what their areas of specialty are and course offerings that can be had. Is there— I'm sorry, I was going to brag just a little, just to say, you know, I think what the community of Cordova is getting for its money— I hate to think about it that way, but, you know, this is the second year in a row that Cordova has been named top high school in Alaska by US News and World Report.

And we have been doing much like the city and other entities trying to do more with less. But at some point, you know, there's a breaking point for the quality of education that we can offer and the opportunities that we can provide to our students without, you know, enough funding to ensure that happens. And I'm not saying it's solely the city's responsibility to do that, certainly by any stretch. You have a state that has a constitutional obligation that's required to adequately fund public education, and that has been woefully neglected, in my opinion, for a period of time. I was going to ask about the math teacher.

Is that position open because you have just— you're cutting it and not funding it, or because it's being advertised and you haven't gotten applicants to fill it? Is it being advertised? I guess that's— yes. Okay, kind of similar to what we've been going through with the police chief. And well, we, we certainly have had, um, qualified applicants, right?

But we get to a position or a point administratively when we talk about hiring one teacher is $131,000 that we need to budget for in in terms of salary and benefits on average, depending on where they rank on the salary schedule. That's kind of a placeholder number that we use for budgeting purposes. And so administratively, I have talked with, you know, principals and the adjunct team and have said, this is a big number. Can we, can we get by? Can we still provide a level of, you know, high-level math people that we have.

And, you know, the answers have been yes, but, um, and we've sort of, uh, fallen to the but part, right? And that being we're going to have to reduce some things in, in, uh, course offerings for other students so that we can free up in the schedule places for these other two to do math. And, and that has a saturation point that has quickly come to, come to, come to the point where, you know, we're not going to be able to sustain that much longer, if at all longer, right? So in our current budget, we've built in that math teacher. We have a person potentially in place pending or approval at the next meeting to fill that position.

A new hire. Okay. Mayor Smith. Yes. Um, I mean, the city is in a position that we've already, you know, reduced it to the point that we can't reduce anymore.

But I also feel that unlike the state, our obligation to fund the school is important. And I would, I would offer to split that in half, which puts some of the, some of the cost back on you and reduces your fund balance left, but also potentially could be found not sustainably, but could be found coming from the city. And then we are increasing the ask, but not to the extent that you want. I just don't— I don't see how we could fund the full $362,000. Just looking at our numbers, I just don't know where that would come from.

But I think we're going to see some increases that maybe we weren't anticipating. I'm also not really willing to raise the mill rate, but I'd like to take a look at the possibility of cutting that ask in half. That way we're still supporting the school, not to what you want it to be at, but doing at least what we can.

Yes, Member Adams. Yeah, yes, I have two points. I agree that, um, one of the ways that we could, um, address the issue at this juncture is to cut it in half, but I would like to leave the door open to, to revisit that. And to explore our permanent fund. And, and how much money is in that fund and can we tap into some of it?

And I know that there are some things that are coming down the line here, city expenditures that are critical as well, Second Street. I know, but, um, why do we have a permanent fund if we can't sometimes consider using? And I would, um, like to put that on the table as well.

So there's a motion on the table, uh, to approve our contribution to the school as it's budgeted, I believe, is how it was worded. Yeah, that's right. Um, so are people— do folks want to offer amendments to that motion, or— I'd like to offer an amendment to that motion too. To—. I'm wondering if we could We have folks online.

Maybe we should check in, make sure everybody's got a voice. Yeah.

Yeah, I recognize the talent here. But I also agree, like, you know, we're just not in a good situation, and I'm really uncomfortable with pulling out of the permanent fund because I think that this upcoming year, based off of this year's Receipts is going to be even more challenging. I do think there is some light at the end of the tunnel over the following year. And, you know, I support Councilman Rainey's idea here. I really don't want to make that decision, but I feel like that's really the best choice because we're trying to squeeze blood out of a stone.

People just, just don't have the, the resources to contribute to this. And it's really unfortunate, but I don't think this is a forever situation that we're going to be in, and I'm looking forward to when we can fund the school at the level that they asked for.

Madam Mayor.

Yes, no, great conversations. Thanks for clarity and, and thanks for clarifying. I know I've had several conversations, sat in on several school board meetings, um, and, and again, back to the clarification around this, this, you know, ending fund balance. Is there operating? We, we as the city have our operating that we've funded through the $3 million, and that amount varies, and we can discuss that.

That's our op— that is our— that's how we pay our payroll. That's how we fund different things that we need funded.

So here— sorry, I want to mute. I don't know how. But here we are, we're talking about our children, we're talking about the members of this community. And for me, I look at the sustainable solution, which is increasing the mill rate. This, this brings us into the future.

This allows us— and the, from the people I interact with in the community, schools, our school, our school district is important to them, and educating and educating our children is important to them. That's a reason why they live there. I've been very transparent. That's the reason why I live here.

And that's what I would entertain. And I know there's potentially an amendment on there and some potential support, but that would be the amendment. Or, and I, I mean, I'm putting this out there for discussion. We can kick this down the road to talk about a mill rate at a later date, or we can have this conversation now of funding what they're asking, increase the mill rate, putting some of putting that earnest on the community as a whole who benefits from this education in one way or another. We can see that as generations have come back to Cordova to call this place home and to choose to raise their children here.

So that's my point to make on this. And I— there's an amendment, sounds like, on the table, Madam Mayor. Is that correct? Have we—. Yes, not officially.

I'm throwing that out for some conversation to increase the mill rate. I, again, back to staff's point and what other council members have said, thank you for offering these, these options out there. It's very helpful, very helpful to see that, to see what a 0.75 mill rate increase gets us. That gets us to a sustainable level for year after year of increasing and supporting our school district in the way that I feel and other community members that I speak to feel as well. So that's my—.

Yes, I'm more inclined towards, uh, um, Councilman Tenzmann's thoughts on that as well. I, I have a hard time pulling from the, from from the fund. Not just that it's unsustainable, but we look at $3 million and we think that's a lot of money. If we had some major catastrophe with our infrastructure, that would go very fast. And the more we, we take away from it, the more we put ourselves in a precarious position when and if some catastrophe hits.

Um, so I really struggle with taking money from the fund, the unsustainable nature of that, And if we were going to look at something less than the full ask from the school district, as, you know, Council Member Reedy suggested half, and as we've had the examples from staff what that might look like, but there were a slight mill rate increase. I'm going to say something that might be controversial, you might not agree with, but, you know, mill rate is set every year. So if we were to use that as a way to fund a partial ask That's something that can be reduced again in the future, maybe. So that is something we can year in, year out work with. If we keep hacking away at affirmative bonding, I'm really concerned we might get bit in the hand.

Okay, so we've heard, um, uh, in discussion an idea for Maybe funding the— funding half of the requested increase. We've heard in terms of how to pay for that. There's some discussion about the permanent fund, which we've also heard people say, at least of the people who have spoken, but not super comfortable with. More people are in support of property tax increase, although again, not everyone has spoken, but that's of the comments we've heard so far, I think that's summary. So are there any— do people want to make a, uh, an amendment to— make a motion to amend the motion that's on the table?

M again, I'd like to amend the motion on the table to approve Resolution 052619 with an increase of $181,000 to the public school district for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027.

This is— is there— wait, wait, wait, is there a second to the motion?

Second.

Um, okay, go, go with Mike. Okay.

This is also the place where the discussion needs to occur about— are we— if we're going to pay this in '26, it needs to be added to the resolution. Oh, okay. Yeah, it could be paid in 2026 so that we cannot even more forget Sorry about that. That's okay. All right, so just the— wasn't just the original motion, doesn't that say to pay subject to modification before City Council final approval?

Oh, this is 27. Yeah, but that's— but you want to pay for— you're talking about funding it in fiscal year 26, not 27, because if we did it in 27, we would be increasing that Budget. Yeah, okay, okay. So there's been, uh, so it's been moved and seconded to, um, fund half of the requested increase and include that payment in the fiscal year '26, in the city's fiscal year '26 budget. Is that correct?

Yes. Okay.

Um, Council Member Rainey, do you want to speak to that motion? Um, I think if we— whereas I really want to fund the school, the total ask, but I also do not want to raise the mill rate any more than we already have because I think we're watching fuel prices go up, we're watching grocery prices go up, and we're going to be running the families that have the kids out of town if we we continue to increase taxing on properties. That way we can still fund the school some of their ask, but, um, not have to raise the mill rate in the future.

Um, Council Member Mickelson as the second. Yeah, I, I, I would echo all those things. I mean, this is absolutely not something that I want to do. It is not something that that I like to be put in a position of having to make this kind of decision, but unfortunately, that's what we all signed up for. Um, and, you know, yeah, looking at it, just what the city budget looks like already versus what the fuel cost is already this year, you know, it's possible the city budget is going to be even shorter than we think it is.

And, um, with that said, you know, I, I think that there, there's a high possibility that there's going to be more cuts this year. To positions in the, in the city infrastructure. And, and it's, it's painful to make these kind of decisions. And, um, it's not lightly that I go into this saying this, because I, I certainly appreciated having an excellent education here. And, um, but I do think Cordova is resilient, and we can survive one year of this.

I, I just really don't want to pull any money out of the permanent fund. On an occasion like this because, you know, we're certainly going to see challenging times ahead as well. So, you know, we can all hope that some miracle happens and we do get some extra forest receipts and maybe we can make a bigger contribution than we had additionally thought. But I think unfortunately that this is what needs to be done at the moment. I just know a lot of people that are struggling that are already concerned about the last mill rate increase.

I mean, there's a lot of people in this community that are barely making it, and I just don't think this is the time to be asking them to contribute more money here.

Okay, so the resolution— I mean, the amendment doesn't specifically say how it's being paid for. It's just— yeah, okay. I do want to say, I meant to mention it earlier, you know, there was some reference in the minutes from March 18th about the 2025 deficit. And I don't think it's— I've asked the finance director today, it hasn't changed significantly from the notes that were made in there. But it does mean that any gains that we made in trying to build up our cash reserves are going to be eaten away by that.

You know, that we had talked about that last fall, saying that we were going to make a point of trying to rebuild those cash reserves because of the problems we have with cash flow. So I just want to point that out. So we haven't, uh, specifically said where this would come from, um, if we grant the increase, we vote on funding the increase, um, but it sounds like there's more support for paying for it with property tax or other potential other, other, uh, what's the word, miraculous, right? Yeah. Um, revenues.

And I guess I do want to ask, just because, um, it could be something, although I know it's not sustainable, but the, the 26 Secure Rural Schools, do you have any sense of when that might We will receive that. The application process was due April 30th, so I hope that we hear something soon, but we have not heard anything yet. So when you apply, is that when they— does the state have a certain amount of time? I don't know if they have a deadline on that. Under a normal year, we've seen that money come out in May.

I, we know that last year was not a normal year, so I, I really, I'm just waiting to hear. Yeah, I will update though as soon as I hear anything. And do you have any idea, have the feds conveyed that money to the state? My question— I don't know. I don't think I've heard that that happened yet.

The last round obviously did in February, and I received it about a month and a half later, and I have not heard that that's come through yet. I don't think it has. No, I know for Title II it hasn't. Okay, Title I support too, as far as some of this funding. And I also would say that, uh, we are still $85,000 short on the Second Street hatch increase, right?

So there's— and we've spent the entire, uh, fish disaster money that we got with the earlier done with the pool, the master plan, and the tax— unexpected oil tax refund. And that was the 2020 disaster declaration? Yes. Yeah.

Okay. Um, so we've got a motion on the table to amend the resolution to, um, fund half of the requested increase The amendment specifies that it must be paid in fiscal year '26.

Comments? Yes, it's more of a, a question of where and how financially.

Why are But this additional—.

Well, recommendations. Yeah, there's options. The mill rate gets set at the next meeting, correct, Colette? Right. So that'll be the first and the recommended sustainable way to do it.

Um, after that, we're unknown, right? We don't know what the forest receipts if, if and what. Um, you know, $181,000 is a lot easier— not a lot easier, it's still a lot of money for us at this point in our budget. I mean, looking at the packet, if the mill rate stayed the same, that puts in $121,000, $427,000, you're looking at like $59,000, $60,000 difference from that, which I think is a little easier to look at than $300,000 and $62 difference. But I do feel that we need to do something to help the school district because the state is not.

And so we can do what we can, and we can have that mill rate conversation if it's the wish of the council that the mill rate raised to take on that full amount, then It's the will of the council, not my will, but I'm one vote. So, um, if this, uh, ask was cut in half— this is a question for Superintendent Ressin— um, what additional, um, cuts would have to occur at the district level? I know it's probably a more detailed question, but yeah, just offhand. Well, it's a fair question for sure. When we look at reductions, it's not a we'll cut food service or we'll cut one teacher or we'll cut this, right?

It's a combination of like administratively with— at our district leadership level, we've cut out $70,000 from expenses, training, resources, professional development, um, to kind of get to that number. So we'll first look back at the administration and the cost of administration to first see if we can reduce additional expenses there. Our priority is to touch the classroom at the very last, last option, and that's instructional resources, materials, staffing, support staff. Our administration, I think, does a great job of leading by example, and when it gets tough, we look internally at our department budgets first. And we lead by example that way.

So that's where we will go back to look to see if we can take even more out of the current $70,000 reduction across 5 departments. Just to see if we can do— continue to do what we do with just a little bit less, those departments.

There may be some reductions or some cost savings, you know, with staffing hires, right? So when we budget, we assume that everybody is going to be on the— we budget for everybody being on the district's insurance, right? And that's about $35,000. Actually, we have an increase in healthcare costs for next year, so it's going to be closer to $40,000 for the district share of that. So if we can hire a teaching couple, for example, that saves us $40,000 in healthcare benefits because one person has the family plan for their spouse, right?

So there's some strategic things that we can try to do to reduce the potential expenditures that we have. And when, you know, we can find teaching couples and families that want to move here, kids. Um, that's a, that's a benefit, I think, for both the district and community as a whole, um, to infuse some new ideas and thoughts and support to the community. So sorry it's not a direct answer to your question, but— Mrs. Adams.

But, you know, we'll go back, go back to the board and start looking at Bungee's combing how the projected expenditures that we do have— or can find that. And, you know, there's, there's still— the legislative session is not over quite yet.

See, time will tell in the next few weeks here to see if any The legislation is pushed through regarding school funding, makes it to the governor's desk. Who knows?

Okay, well, um, any comments online? It sounds like— so we've got the motion on the table. That proposes a number, and we have not decided how to pay for it. But technically, we don't have to do that part tonight. We know that it's coming.

Everybody's well aware that that decision is still looming. So are there any further comments to be made about either how we're going to pay for it and when and how much? Seems like those are the 3 key, the 3 key elements. All right, well, why don't we, uh, can we do a voice vote on the amendment? Okay, so if I'm not hearing any objection, I would say let's take a voice vote on the amendment, which is to, um, to what, increase our contribution to the school by $181,000 and fund that in our city 2026 budget.

That's the amendment on the table. Excuse me. Okay, all those in favor? Folks online, are you unmuted?

You see? Okay, all those in favor of the amendment, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Should we do a voice vote?

Well, if it's what we just did— we just did a voice vote. Did you want to roll? I asked if we needed to do a roll call. It said we didn't on the amendment. Oh, I'm sorry.

That sounds great. Any opposed? Same sign.

Okay, so the amendment passes.

So now we have, um, so the main motion on the table is the amount of the cities— turning them out— this is available. Um, yeah.

We would be amending the resolution, right? We're amending—.

That's what you just did. So you have—. But I just mean the main motion is the amended motion, right? I just meant, do we have to reword any of the wheres with a different dollar figure? We already have it all.

Okay, we can do that in those two. Okay, okay, great.

Um, okay. So we're— so we've amended the main motion by changing the dollar amount and, uh, and clarifying that this amount is going to be paid in this city budget year. Further discussion on the motion?

So, and, uh, on the main motion, I will ask the clerk, do we need to do a voice— can we do a voice vote, or does it need to be a roll call? It doesn't have to be a roll call, but if you feel more comfortable with that, do that. Just so clarity's safe, we can. Um, so any further discussion on the main motion?

Mayor, question. Mayor, is, uh, so do we still have to do a vote on the main motion? Vote on amended. So it would be a vote—. Sorry, it would be a vote for the amended—.

The, the main motion as amended. So you're not voting on the original, that's already overruled, sort of. Does that make sense? Yeah. So what we'd be finalizing and voting on would be the, uh, motion as amended.

That was just passed. Yeah, we both do now. Right.

And I was just questioning, like, did we need to adjust any of these numbers, um, and, and state that? But they're saying that they will correct it in the record to me, so that the content of this resolution is felt they're voting on. Um, okay, any further discussion? Is there any objection to voting on the main motion as amended? Thank you.

All right, um, hearing no objection, all those in favor of the main— can you roll call, or would you like to do a roll call? I think she do a roll call.

A roll call vote, please. All right, roll call. Deborah Adams. Yes. Lee Collins.

Yes. Dave Zastrow. Yes. Casey Ginson. Yes.

Wendy Graney. Yes. Aaron Hanson. Yes. Mike Nicholson.

Yes.

Motion and passes. Thank you.

Any discussion?

Yeah, thank you for being here to answer the questions. Yeah, thanks. All right. Next, Resolution 05-26-20 would entertain a motion.

I move— there, yes, I move to approve Resolution 05-26-20, authorizing the city to enter into a lease with an option to purchase for one police vehicle with community leasing partners in the amount not to exceed $54,445, appropriating $10,556 for the 2026 payment of that lease with the option to purchase and approving use of social procurement through the innovative procurement method. Second. It's been moved by Council Member Reedy and seconded by Zastrow. Um, Council Member Reedy, um, so I did ask about this because we see a lot of vehicles parked down in front of the police station. And my question was, do we, do we need to have this replaced?

And, um, it's my understanding that the vehicle that was damaged was adapted for K9s. Uh, Chief, is that correct? Could you just speak to the need of the replacement of this vehicle? Because it had—. I guess it had some special um, upgrades that can't be done to vehicles we currently have, and some of that's being done with insurance.

Uh, yes, that's accurate. So this was a, a K9-specific, uh, vehicle, uh, that was purchased, um, with the lot of the other, uh, 2023 Silverados you see down at the police department, um, and Um, in my opinion, uh, the vehicle does need to be replaced. Um, the other two vehicles that we currently have at the police department are nearing the end of their service life, um, coming up on 100,000 miles. I know that doesn't seem like a lot of mileage, but it's an untold amount of engine hours and drivetrain hours on these vehicles with the way that you drive them. It's uh, I guess during their employment.

Is there planning to get another K-9 officer for this department? Well, um, not as it stands. Um, as council knows or may not know, um, I retired Yak this summer. Um, but what it does, it, it provides the opportunity in the future, right? Um, because this vehicle would be paid for, or I should say the down payment would be covered by the insurance settlement, and the upfitting can be accomplished by using the original parts off the old vehicle.

We're really just paying for the demobilization of that original vehicle and then the costs to use those materials to put into this new vehicle. So really, we're just paying for a car, no, of outfitting necessary? The original outfitting was about $17,000. That's— oh well.

And the insurance, basically, we're not— it's, it's a— it's straight across the board. We're not spending any extra money, and we're getting everything done and into a lower payment than what the original charge was. That's true. Um, when the original, uh, procurement of those 3 police vehicles, um, it was budgeted at approximately $41,000 a year for all 3, uh, to include the upfitting and the cost of, of the vehicles themselves. Um, currently, uh, with that one vehicle out of service and, uh, the insurance payout, which is notated in the, uh, memorandum I wrote to council.

Um, that truck is now— it's, it's totaled, and the cost of the vehicle that was left on the lease has been covered with that insurance settlement. So that vehicle is off the table, and the other two that were purchased at that time are are set to expire and roll off of the payment cycle in roughly a year and a half. Manager Greenwood, I believe that's the case. So I guess, for lack of a better phrase, we're simply replacing the vehicle, but we're not taking on additional costs. Yeah, and you get the old ones back.

And we get parts. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's, that's a pretty important thing for us, being that we have, you know, these, these vehicles that we need to support. And the whole purpose of getting these vehicles in the first place were to, you know, replace our aging fleet that we had just essentially been holding together with duct tape and baling wire.

This vehicle, uh, the insurance company has been gracious enough to give it back to us, um, so we can use that vehicle, um, in the future to support the other two that we have out there. So what you're saying, Chief, is making us money? Saving. I don't know about making. That's hard to come by in the cities.

Is the new vehicle a current model? Is it 2026 model? It is a model, a 2026 model year, but it is unchanged. I should say, because the model year is unchanged, all of the original equipment that was in the '23 model year vehicle will just be a plug and play right over to that chassis. And we have worked with Alaska Safety just to verify that.

They looked at this, and that's who did all the upgrades on the first 3 charts, and we're also going to pull them out, put it in.

Thank you. Well, any other questions, Council? Any questions from folks online?

Okay, thank you.

Okay, so we've got a motion on the table. Uh, any other comments people want to make?

All right, hearing no further discussion, all those in favor of the motion please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign.

Motion carries. Thank you.

Uh, new and miscellaneous business.

We get to certify the assessment roll.

So Yeah, I think what we need is a motion. Madam Mayor? Yes, Council Members? I move to certify the accuracy of the 2026 property assessment roll of all the real property within the City of Cordova valued at— valued as of January 1st, 2026. Second.

Council Members Asker? Yeah, I just, uh, again, I think We, we have a very good assessor involved in trying to be the best for the city as well as be fair to the community on assessment. Lots of opportunity for people to ask questions and even be heard by the council with their concerns. And I think, as always, I feel like we've done a good job in representing everybody as well as we can.

So, um, Council Member Adams. I don't have anything to add. I just, um, think it's a necessary thing for us to do at this point.

Other council comments, questions, anything online?

Hey, hearing no further discussion, all those in favor of the motion to certify the accuracy of the 2026 property assessment roll, please signify by saying aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Same sign. That motion carries.

We have a couple seats to fill on some committees, so Next thing is, I would like to, um, I guess I'm recommending appointment of Tyler Tullock to the Code of Appeals Committee and asking to fill a vacancy and asking for council concurrence.

Thumbs up. Objection.

Okay, the records show that there's no objection and Tyler is appointed. Thank you, Tyler. Thank you, Trails Committee. That's awesome. Uh, the next series of appointments is for the Housing Supply Accelerator Committee.

Um, the clerk advertised for at least 2 weeks, I think close to 3. And we got 8 applications, and I would like to nominate— yeah, I would like to nominate the following Cordovans to fill the committee: Diana Rydell, Sheridan Joyce, Sheldon Barnes, Shea Bowman, Nicole Songer, Ken Jones, and Barb Jewell. And so I am also asking for concurrence or Because there was— okay, I think it's going to be a benefit to that committee that there's such a diverse group of community members on.

A lot of good voices and good experience. Yeah.

And the meetings will be open to the public. I have talked to a couple of the people because I was hoping that some of our longtime experienced homebuilders in the community would be serving. And they both said, the two that I talked to said, I'm traveling a lot, but I'm in town. I will come to the meetings. And I just want to let other folks know that the meetings are going to be open to the public so people can join even if you're not specifically appointed new member.

It's how I see that working for the benefit of everybody. So, okay, I guess hearing no objection, we consider the appointments— we consider occurrence from the council on the appointments.

So pending agenda, CIP We got elected and appointed officials list, but yeah, pending agenda and calendar. Let's take a look at that. I think what we need to— I think the one thing I know we need to talk about is the question of the substitute ordinance that adopted the sales tax modifications. Um, there was a question brought up in correspondence asking council to do that. We heard from the city manager her response, um, to that request, and so I'm wondering what council Is this something you want to add to the pending agenda, or do people feel like it was, that it's not necessary because, because it happened 18 months ago and a sizable amount of time was spent on it?

So I think those are the questions.

We saw it. So there were 2 questions raised in the letter. One is whether or not nonprofits need to get a business license. And yes, yeah, I mean, that's a very— there's a very— I mean, that's a— it's not just—. I'm specifically— was the question.

Yes. Okay, we're talk— and we address that question, and because of their volunteer status, they don't have paid positions, then they are not, by the IRS, required to get a business license. Okay. And then the next question was about, uh, sales and services. To and by a nonprofit and whether the, um, and I think they were asking, I mean, I think they were, the letter was saying this applies to us, but it was almost like they were asking on behalf of other nonprofits whether that's appropriate or not, but asking about whether they asked if we intentionally left, right?

If we intentionally, intentionally or inadvertently Yes. Modified the sales tax code to no longer— to remove the exemption on collecting sales tax on sales and services.

Thank you. So, yes, sort of. And I don't know if this discussion happens on the ending agenda, or if we just want to put it to rest now, attempt to put it to rest. Well, I think that's the question. I mean, the question is, do we want to put it on the agenda in the future, or do we feel like it's been discussed?

We're ready to—. My opinion is it was not a mistake on taking that out. We intentionally did that. We moved it to a different section. It is defined differently now because it's too—.

I don't know. Does Lily have to collect sales tax under Snapchat? To answer that specific question, no, because in our process of getting a business license, you also get a tax collection certificate. That document is one document. And you cannot collect sales tax when you do not have that.

Okay, unrelated to the, to question number 2. Okay, the question, yeah, to the question about whether there was an accidental change in the code change from that time. We had a long discussion about rentals and yes, right, you know, all of that, and that was a council-driven direction. We spent 18 months on this And then we came back and spent some more time and redid it again. I don't think we need to see this on pending agenda.

I think the questions have been answered. Cool. Thank you. Comments online?

Casey would have been the one. I concur. Thank you. Okay, other topics? Anything else that we knew— know we need to add to pending agenda?

And so we're talking about— let's see, tonight's the 6th, the next meeting is the 20th. Madam Mayor? Yes. So we did have a discussion about setting up the meeting with Little Feet, right? And so Samantha just got back and she has chatted with Dave because he has a lot of trips planned.

And so I think the intention is— and I don't know if she's had the opportunity yet to reach out to— okay, so she's trying to figure out a time frame that works. And I'm starting with You got a lot of trips. Yeah, no, and we— I mean, I think the intention is to look at it after season. That's not falling off the radar. Okay.

Yeah, so as was noted earlier, the other big thing I see coming up is graduation, high school graduation on the 16th. It's always kind of a fun and bittersweet moment of seeing kids start to fledge, but also the—. Bay to Bay. Yes, that, that's right, coming up on Saturday.

And the Shorebird Festival, obviously. Yeah, so We just saw birds. There's birds at our campus. Excellent. Excellent.

And I saw my first hummingbird at Orca. Yes, I saw them this afternoon. It's cold and miserable, but there's birds. Yeah. Okay.

And sometimes in the summer we managed to— maybe it's just July and August, or maybe it doesn't happen anymore, but, uh, sometimes we get down to one meeting a month. I see we've got two meetings scheduled for June. Yeah, I don't think— I don't know. I think we address it in the first meeting of that month if we're going to talk to—. Yeah, see what the agenda looks like.

So the first meeting in June, we'll discuss. Okay, all right.

Okay, well, I'm not hearing any other major things for the agenda. Obviously we will work on scheduling the first meeting of the Housing Committee and get that going. Yeah, well, I did see, um, NBE did put out an advertisement to get somebody for the Historic Commission. You'd like to get that all rolling, um, but we need a NBA representative on that board. And I did see they're advertising for it now actively.

Yeah, so hopefully there'll be nomination or two coming forward.

Okay, uh, so let's go to audience participation. Anybody in the audience want to comment anything at all tonight? And we will be keeping 3 minutes per speaker. I'll be really quick. Unprecedented.

Uh, thank you ever so much. I really appreciate your support of schools. Uh, they're just horrific times at the moment. Uh, hoping that down the road we'll see some education-friendly, uh, and get some, uh, uh, funding passed through. I did ask a couple of the governor's candidates if they just give education a billion dollars, then put me on the State Board of Ed.

So Uh, Tom Baggin said he'd do that, so no. Anyway, thank you so much. I just appreciate you guys and the hard decisions. Thank you.

What's that?

Ah, hi, I'm Jeremiah Beckett, resident for the 317 First Street. I'm here at a comment of executive session number 18 on the Court of Copperstar lawsuit. I want to say thank you. I appreciate the council revisiting this open issue and hope you can provide some directions for staff and insurance to get these claims resolved fairly. Before you go into session, I just wanted to revisit the timeline of events so everyone understands how we we got here.

June 2022, that was the last travel lift maintenance by Blackler before he retired. June 2022. January '23, 7 months later, the city greased the travel lift bearings. They didn't put any other maintenance. The summer of 2023, South Harbor project started as the city's focus.

August 2023, 14 months after the last maintenance travel lift incident. September '23, city staff public statements regarding the incident: no one got hurt, minor damage to boat, working to settle claims that arise. I'll repeat it again: no one got hurt, minor damage to boat, working to settle claims that arise. All these statements remain false. April 2024, I came and requested city assistance with insurance.

I got a response from your lawyer. July 2024, we submitted public information requests to the city and discovered the breadth of negligence, lack of training, and incompetence of staff. I understand how hard it is to accept accountability after being misled by staff. I get insurance wants to minimize exposure. And I realized the countersuit is just a tactic to force us to spend more time and money before mediating a settlement.

What I don't understand is why the city continues to let this issue drag out and hasn't taken any responsibility for staff negligence and incompetence. I remind everyone again, the city's own records confirm this based on my public information request. The city did not maintain the travel lift. The city did not properly train staff. The city misrepresented the insurance claim to council and the insurance company.

And even though the city deleted their videos, I still have the video of the first attempt where there was a clear mechanical failure and someone should have stopped and inspected the equipment. Now, and unfortunately due to the ongoing legal costs and unresolved insurance claims, we can't afford to run both. So there's one less tender vote and four less jobs. Again, the issue should have been resolved years ago. Council has the power to correct this, and I thought you were here to represent the community members and provide oversight for the city.

The lack of accountability continues to negatively impact everyone.

Please guide insurance to drop the retaliatory claim against my business. And acknowledge the city's negligence so we can get this resolved. Thanks.

Other audience participation?

Okay, let's move on to council comments. Start on this side, Council Member Hanson. This time. You know, for what, what seemed to be a pretty short packet, uh, took quite some time.

I'd like to thank everybody, um, continue on to the next one, the next line items.

Over Adams, um, two things. Uh, one, before even coming to the meeting tonight, I'd like to just acknowledge a longstanding, incredible member of our community, and that's, um, Papa Weber's 90th birthday. Um, and we had to leave the party early to come to council. Um, and, um, remarkable citizen, um, to celebrate. So I just want to make sure that that's in the record here.

Um, yes. Lots to talk about, and I'm grateful for the discussion, as difficult as it is. And I believe in public education with just about every part of my being and a long career with public education and still involved with public education. And so I am going to fight for every penny.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think there was some good discussion this evening. I think that was difficult— always difficult decisions talking budgets. But I think, yeah, I, I grew up here, spent a lot of time in that school, and, you know, it was important student Yeah, makes me hopeful hearing the numbers of the increasing class size. I think that's something that we have to look forward to, something to celebrate, but also comes with— you have to make sure that the schools have enough classrooms, enough staff to handle all of that. I'm going to go online.

Um, Council Member Nicholson.

Um, yeah, I'd mirror the comments of my fellow councilmen and women. And, um, yeah, I think, uh, I think we were all looking forward to when we can fully fund education to the amount that they asked for, and also looking forward to when our state decides to make that a priority. Um, I'd like to— the packet was informative, and, um, thank you for everybody putting that together. I'd also like to thank the public for commenting and looking forward to the next meeting. Thank you.

Councilmember Kinson. Yes, thank you. I guess first off, in light of our school conversation, funding, and even just education of of ourselves as council and how, how they're funded and how their budget cycle works. I just want to give a thank you for, uh, thankless years of service to Mr. Ressen and, and what he's done and provided for our community. And, you know, hopefully we still get to see you around in, in the community in various ways, but Congratulations on your decision to retire.

It's well earned and deserved, and look forward to hearing about what the— your retirement chapter has in store for you. I'm still a proponent, even at the half rate, so the 0.375 increase potentially to the mill rate. I feel that's— that is part of the earnest of our community to have that be that, I don't even want to, that ask of increasing and that need of funding and whatever level it might be to be distributed through our community. That is, again, in many, many ways down south, that's a big portion of how it's funded. It's distributed through a whole community.

We're not looking to build— and I say that just from my own hometown. I went home and saw, and I thought they'd built a college campus, but no, it was just an additional high school that cost nearly $200 million. So, and, and this isn't a large community, larger than ours, but 70,000 people. That's extravagant. That's not what we're looking to do.

We're just looking to educate our children and give them the best opportunity with, uh, with, with nothing close to any kind of extravagance of as, as that ask. We're not— and, and those asks, as we need a new high school, may possibly come and will possibly come. We'll have those conversations and they need to happen. But at this point, we're just trying to fund a basic level of education for our, for our children, for our community. So still look forward to that conversation when we discuss the mill rate and look forward to public input.

So everyone knows what we're discussing at the next council. We— it's been brought up several times. We're going to set the mill rate, and that is an opportunity, as we know there are several things that are important and upcoming to this community and This isn't the only way to fund it, but this is a way to fund it. And if you have an input as a community member, you know, next, next meeting, that's what we'll be discussing. So write in, you have time to write in if you can't be in person.

And if you can be in person, please come in person. So, uh, the packet was informative. Thank you, lots of good information in there. And And to the point of even, there's some good correspondence from Acting Chief Hayden of their role with ICE. So thank you, Councilmembers Astro, for calling that out and also for the need for this additional vehicle.

So I appreciate what they do and what our other volunteer emergency service folks do. So thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you. Yeah, I concur with my other council members.

It is phenomenal, our school district being so highly rated for so many years. Also recognizing the bulge that you— we have identified coming up through the, uh, classes. I mean, there's a need, and we've done such a great job over the years, and that has to do with the dedication of everyone. So want to congratulate Alex on his upcoming retirement. Well deserved.

And I really appreciate your thoughtfulness, your honesty, um, the— all the particulars that you've brought to all the meetings on how budget works for the school district. Really appreciate all that. Um, also like to say thank you to the members of the community that stepped up to join these different committees. It's huge. Um, it's fantastic so many people interested.

We're really excited about both, but certainly the Housing Acceleration Committee. Excited to see what they can come up with, um, and be shorter.

Great. Um, thanks to Alex. Been a pleasure working with you as you head off into the unknown pickleball world of retirement. Um, it certainly has been a pleasure working with you at the school district on, on council.

I appreciate the folks stepping up to the committees. I'll be curious to see how those conversations go. I appreciate Charlotte. You know, this isn't Little House on the Prairie. People, put fences around your chickens if you want to have them in town.

There's also numbers on dumpsters. If you see them around the community and they get full this summer, call the refuse department. And let them know that the dumpsters are full and they will come and take care of them. This is on us. This is a pretty easy fix.

So as a community, we need to make sure that we're not hurting the population of wildlife more than we already do by where we're at. I guarantee you I probably won't see anything out of my house because they're still blowing stuff up.

And I appreciate all staff work on the packet. It was very informative. Thank you for that.

Excellent. Thank you. Okay, um, I think now we need a motion for executive session.

Yes, I move that we go into executive session. Um, to discuss matters, the immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect upon the finances of the government, subjects that tend to prejudice the reputation and character of any person, provided that the person may request a public discussion, matters—. Do I have to read the whole thing? Okay. They do need you to just read the beginning sentence of each executive session.

16, 17 To me. 8. Yeah, yeah. And then the reason, the same for all of them. Yeah, that— I'm sorry, you're right.

So the council discussion with city manager regarding the land sale negotiation with PWSED for the shared seafood processing facility, a matter the immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect on finances of the city. Uh, recommendations from city manager regarding collective bargaining agreement negotiations, the subject which is a matter, um, the immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect on the finances of the government. And council discussion with City Liability Insurance Company's attorney regarding Copper Star Travel Lift incident, a matter the immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect on the finances of the city. Second.

Yes. So you're coming back for the second discussions, or are you just taking them? But, um, do folks want to reach the rest? Make a, uh, let's vote on the motion and then make a recess. All those in favor of the motion on the table to go into executive session, please signify by saying aye.

Aye. Aye. Who's aye? Okay. 5-Minute recess.

I think we should have reminded the people in the audience that they're supposed to leave for executive session. The what? Uh, have told the audience that they're not supposed to stay here. Yeah, we'll kick them out. Yeah, log in.

So So I'm ready for the second.