Kodiak Borough: Assembly Regular Meeting of September 17, 2026

All right, I will call the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly regular meeting of Thursday, September 17th, 2026 to order. We will begin with an invocation from Ms. Grace Green of the Salvation Army.

All right, let us pray. Dear Jesus, thank you for letting us all come together. Thank you for this beautiful place that we get to call home, Lord. I just ask that we all just use your wisdom and ask your wisdom upon us as we get through this meeting today and further meetings that are to come, Lord. I ask that although we may have disagreements, that we all just are able to come together and talk and just do what is the best possible for the people of Kodiak.

In Jesus' name, amen.

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

And we are gathered on the traditional homeland of the Sugpiaq Aleutic people, and we acknowledge the 10 tribes of the Kodiak Aleutic region. Recognize the Aleutic culture that enriches our community to this day. Roll call, please. Mr. Ames. Here.

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

Here. Mr. Biscocho. Here. Mr. Whiteside. Here.

Mr. Woods. Mayor Griffin. Here. You have a quorum. Mr. Smiley.

Move to excuse Assemblymember Woods, who is out due to family medical leave. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Roll call on the motion, please. Mr. Ames.

Yes. Mr. Gardner. Yes. Ms. Roberts. Yes.

Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Biscocho. Yes. Mr. Whiteside.

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes 6-0. Up next is the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda. The consent agenda includes the regular meeting minutes of September 3rd, 2026.

Mr. Smiley, move to approve the agenda and the consent agenda. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All right, voice vote on the move— on the motion to approve the agenda and consent agenda.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries. Uh, we're moving into citizens' comments.

There are two designated citizens' comments periods, one at the beginning and one at the end of the meeting. These comment periods are intended for general comments as well as for agenda items that are not part of a public hearing. We have one public hearing item for tonight, which is Ordinance Number FY 2027-08. Comments for this item will be heard when the item is called during the public hearing, and so please wait until we get to that portion of the agenda. For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3231, toll-free 1-855-492-9202.

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

No. Anyone in the chambers?

We'll give the phone a few more seconds.

All right. Seeing no calls, we will move to awards and presentations. Tonight is a proclamation and recognition of National Assessors Day. I will read this into the record, and looks like we have representatives from assessing staff here to receive the proclamation. Whereas assessors and their staff are government officials who play a vital role in our communities by ensuring fair and equitable property valuations for taxation, and their accurate assessments support the financial stability and growth of the communities they serve, And whereas assessors utilize their expertise in technology to ensure that communities operate efficiently and effectively, and increasing public awareness of their work fosters public understanding and appreciation of their contributions to our society.

And whereas the assessor's office upholds public trust through professionalism, transparency, and adherence to the International Association of Assessment Officers Code of Ethics. They embrace the highest ethical principles, pursuit of excellence, accountability, transparency, inclusivity, and responsiveness. Whereas Kodiak Island Borough assessing staff are certified through the Alaska Association of Assessing Offers, of which Borough Assessor Seema Garut achieved a Level 5 certification and served as the past president of the Alaska Association of Assessing Officers. Now therefore, I, Jerry Griffin, Mayor of the Kodiak Island Borough, do hereby proclaim September 29th, 2026 as National Assessors Day and recognize the valuable service of the assessor and the assessing staff And I encourage all residents to acknowledge and appreciate their important contributions to the community. Thank you.

And you want to bring them all down for a photo op? For— yeah. Do you want to say something? Yes, please. Go for it.

Thank you, Mayor Griffin and assembly members, for this recognition of National Assessors Day. On behalf of the Kodiak Island Borough Assessor's Office, we are honored to accept this proclamation, and I want to make sure that credit goes where it belongs. With the team that does the work every day. I'd like to introduce them. First, we have Cody Paschal, a lead appraiser, who is really my right-hand man.

Then Kylie Anderson, who will be receiving a promotion of appraiser as of September 20th. Emma Christianson, appraiser tech, our newest staff member, joined us 8 days ago and continues to be at her desk every morning at 8:00 a.m. Connor McCall, an appraiser tech, could not join us tonight due to a prior commitment. And Juniper Roman, our assessment clerk, who keeps everything flowing seamlessly. Assessing property fairly and accurately isn't glamorous work, but it's foundational, from granting exemptions to funding schools. Every name I just read represents hours of fieldwork, data review, and public service that often goes unnoticed.

So thank you for recognizing that work today. We're grateful and honored to receive this. Thank you.

Oh, I really got to stand up for some reason.

Can you get us all, or? Ready? 1, 2, 3. One more. 1, 2, 3.

Sorry, Beau. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Good job, everyone. We'll Photoshop you in.

Thank you again, Seema, and to the assessing staff. Committee reports. We will start here to my left and go down the line. Mr. Gardner. I had some notes, but my computer, like you said, needed to restart.

I had Swamiji this morning and they ratified the roster for the RPO organization that the mayor is going to serve on for at least a limited period of time. Went through financial statements, really not a whole lot to discuss. A lot of discussion on support for the Alaska Centennial Flag recognition that they want to put on. Had Swab, I think, a week ago, and they put together a resolution basically suggesting that the borough do everything it can to work in partnership with Fish and Game for the best outcome at the landfill. And I think we were kind of already on that path, but they just wanted to voice their support.

That's pretty much it. Thank you, Mr. Vizcocho. You're not on one yet. No comment. Mr. Smiley, I attended the HFAB Hospital Facilities Advisory Board meeting this week on Tuesday.

Uh, one of the things we discussed was the grant for $3.4 million, and that will be for the chiller at the facility. It's a complicated piece of engineering that we have to do. Not only do we have $3.4 million in a grant, we're going to have to supplement that with funds from the enterprise fund, the R&R fund, for the hospital. This means it's going to be complicated for the assembly in understanding how that's done and why that's done. So we're scheduling two work sessions to try to explain it carefully.

Um, the fact is that between, uh, the borough management and the hospital's management, we have a pretty good understanding of one another and how things work. There were— they handle procurement very differently than our rules require us to, but it's meant that we've had to play hither and yon with adjusting both of them. That's in an area of expertise that I don't know anything about. So I'm not going to pontificate on it unless you really want to hear me pontificate. But it's complicated.

In addition to that, there are several other projects that have to occur at the hospital. The most important one is they need to have RO water and autoclave steam-generated And that's going to cost a pantload too. Whenever you're dealing with hospitals or laboratories in any way, you can just put a zero on the end of the budget because it's just so expensive to do it according to code for not only us, but the hospitals have special code that the feds demand. So at any rate, it was a good meeting. We have good relationships and It went smoothly.

Thank you. Mr. Ames? No comment. All right. Ms. Roberts?

I also attended HPAB meeting. I can't summarize it better than that. The next meeting is October 13th and, yeah, discussion around the RHTP and ironing out some of the details of how that's going to be procured.

All right. Thank you, everyone. Well, that brings us to our public hearing item, Ordinance Number 2019-02. FY2027-08, Amending Title II, Administration and Personnel, Chapter 2.25, Borough Assembly Section 2.25.060, Declaring and Filing Vacancies on the Kodiak Island Borough Code of Ordinances regarding the procedures and timelines for declaring and filling Assembly vacancies. Move to—.

Mr. Smiley. Move to adopt Ordinance Number FY2027-08.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the assembly. The purpose of this amendment is to make filling open assembly seats simpler, clearer, and more organized.

The key improvements of the ordinance are the following: clear timelines. The process now officially starts the exact day a resignation is accepted, removing any guesswork about deadlines. Second would be easier application process. The community members are able to download the application, fill it out, get it notarized, and, and then send it to us electronically by email. Third would be better vetting.

Applicants must use an official form to up front that they are registered voters, that they live in the borough, and they will complete required financial disclosure before interviews begin. Seamless transition— transitions. It clearly outlines how long an appointed member serves and states that a newly elected replacement will officially take over the first Monday after the election is certified, and once the newly elected has taken taken their oath of office. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Okay. We will open public hearing.

For those who wish to call in and make comments on this item, 907-486-3231, toll-free 1-855-492-9202. For those in the audience wishing to speak, Please sign in and state your name for the record. Turn on the microphone before you begin speaking. Make sure that green light is on. Address all remarks to the Assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

And again, if you are calling in, please turn off any listening devices to prevent feedback. And we will give some time for—.

OK. Hearing none, I will close public hearing and open it up for Assembly discussion. Mr. Smiley. I think the changes are really good here. I think that one of our jobs is to review the code and to bring them up to date.

I think this does a really good job of it. It is a housekeeping thing, and I don't think there is anything to argue about.

Thank you. Anyone else? Ms. Roberts. Yeah, thanks for all the work that went into this. I am especially excited about the opportunity for people to submit their application electronically.

It is a great, great move to add that in there.

Okay. Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Gardner. Yes. Mr. Roberts— Ms. Roberts.

Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Vizcacho? Yes.

Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Motion passes 6-0. All right, thank you. I'm going to call an audible here. I forgot about Mr. Whiteside and Mr. Whiteside's committees. So if that's okay, Sima, I'm going to let Bo jump in real quick.

Okay. Appreciate that, Mayor Griffin. Nothing new to report. Thank you. Hey, got to cross those T's and dot those I's.

Thank you. All right. Bureau Manager's Report. AO Garoutte. Thank you, Mayor Griffin.

For the Manager's Department, Manager Williams met with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ahead of the D.C. lobbying trip to give details about the Western Riverbank Stabilization Project. Funding request and provided historical aerial photos to Mayor Griffin and our federal lobbyist. Manager Williams also had the opportunity to participate in a tour of the harbor with Congressman Begich. He was very responsive to the condition of the facilities and gave us pointers on how to make Kodiak needs be both seen and understood. Mayor Williams is currently attending the fall board of directors meetings for Prince William Sound in Whittier representing the Kodiak Island Borough this week.

Engineer and facilities installed a new temporary interior fence— er, sorry, interior electric fence that completely surrounds the active bale fill face. A special thanks to the landfill staff and maintenance team for all the extra work they have been doing to try and meet the bear management requirements from ADEC. We are currently recruiting for a treatment plant Operator 1 and plan on recruiting for a GIS analyst and a human resource professional soon. In finance, the auditors are on site this week. Finance staff is working with the auditors throughout the week to provide requested documentation, answer questions, and assist with their review of the borough's financial records and procedures.

Now that all major components of finances implementation are complete for Tyler, Tyler is waiting to transition us from their implementation team to their transitional support team once assessing is ready. A date for this transaction or transition has not yet been established. Through the property information link on the borough website, the public can now access and print property tax statements, make payments via view payments and history and other general property information. In IT, the IT department continues migrating borough service— servers to the new Proxmox cluster with 28 of 54 virtual machines, or 52%, moved so far. The remaining migrations include the mail server are targeted for completion within the next week.

They are also coordinating a new Teams shared channel with NWFF to support their consulting work with ENF and continuing the Starlink installation at Woman's Bay Fire Department. IT also continues advancing the borough cybersecurity infrastructure project, including firewall and wireless configuration work at Bayside, Woman's Bay, and the landfill with the contractor Koniag Cyber, and ongoing zero trust network access setup for remote employees. And IT assisted community development in redacting personal contact information from public records to help protect residents from online scams. The GIS analyst position has been vacant since August 31st, and staff continues working through the job classification project as part as advertising to fill that role. In assessing, reviews continue for properties in the city of Kodiak.

We are down to 16 senior and 1 disabled veteran applicant with no PFD application, and 18 senior and 1 disabled veteran applicants remain undetermined. Good cause hearing is scheduled for October 15th for 3 senior citizen late-file denials. Those late filers have until September 21st to provide good cause to the assessor, and if they don't, we will not be having that hearing. Um, for exemption updates, the Kodiak Maritime Museum decision letter was mailed to the applicant on September 18th, and we are now looking at both the Kodiak Masonic Temple and Cavalry Baptist Bells Flats. For the exemption appeals, uh, the newest update for the 2024 appeal case is that AHF filed an appeal of the Superior Court's decision to the Alaska Supreme Court on September 16th.

Additionally, they filed a motion asking for leave to file the reply to KIB's motion for opposition for attorney's fee, which the Superior Court granted. That leave request today. Um, for the 2025 reconsideration, AF— AHF has asked for more time since they are appealing the Superior Court decision. That reconsideration is conducted in-house and not in court, and the decision letter for the 2026 application was mailed out to the applicant today. There is still no word in the Supreme Court case with In Community Development, the Planning and Zoning Commission held its regular meeting on September 16th, where they approved the Anderson and Sunak variance cases and recommended approval of the second Cliff Point rezone to the Assembly.

The commission postponed action on the Beaver Lake Island disposal to the October regular meeting to have additional members present and the election of the new chairperson and a recommendation on the new Lands Committee. Were also postponed to that October regular meeting. And last but certainly not least, in engineering facilities, staff met with Alaska Waste on the solid waste contract on September 10th to discuss the proposal and clarify expectations. This contract is expected to be reviewed by the assembly at the October 8th work session ahead of a vote on the at the October 15th regular meeting. Staff continues to till the soil and uncover the land farm in periods of good weather for the landfill soil remediation.

Next sampling event is due by the end of November 2026. At the long-term care, NWFF conducted soil sampling and provided KIB with the result. We are working with AD DEC on a closeout for that project. And in Karlik, Three Tier, Alaska is beginning to schedule trips and will be working with NWF as their driller. For small projects, the contractor has completed the metal and painting for the Port Lyon School painting project, and that is now in the closeout phase.

Staff are coordinating with contractors to schedule the installation and commissioning of the new skid for the last week in October at the Liche Treatment Plant.

And the KIB main office roof warranty building permit has been submitted and is awaiting schedule of work. Both the KIB Long Technologies BAS AHU 2 and KFRC Long Technologies BAS projects are being scheduled. And staff met with the USDA and AFIS representatives to discuss discussed the next steps for the landfill bear fence. The grant-funded materials have shipped and only partial shipment has arrived, but staff installed a smaller temporary fence yesterday, September 16th. The North Star roof design is in its final stages.

Uh, the small— or the pool small-scale repair is moving to 65% phase, and that is expected this week. The East Elementary roof is paused at the manager's request. And there's a 65% design was reviewed and approved by the ARB for the PKIMC ATS replacement. The RO and steam generation at PKIMC is paused and awaiting feedback from Providence's internal review. Discussion about long-term bear fence solutions are underway with A&E team.

And Terra Tech has provided the final updates to landfill documents and is working on finalizing the design for the Leechate Lagoon dredging project. The upcoming contracts, KIB facility snow removal and ice contract, is on tonight's agenda for review and approval. If there is any questions, I would be happy to answer. All right. Thank you.

Any questions for the administrative official tonight?

Okay. Thank you very much. Messages from the borough mayor. Today I got to deliver the welcome address to the Kodiak High School U.S. Coast Guard JROTC unit dedication ceremony. It's a real unit now, and that was really fun to be— really cool to be a part of.

There are 34 cadets in this first class, which seems big. And so best of luck to them and glad we're able to support that. A couple days ago I met with Evan Steinberg, who is the government liaison for University of Alaska Anchorage. He was in town for a few days for Gary Stevens' event at the college on Sunday, and then I believe he spoke with the Chamber of Commerce this week too, just to talk about just the opening of opportunities for more workforce training programs and even maybe academic programs here in Kodiak. Kodiak is— so the Board of Regents for the University of Alaska, every few years they have— they go visit a— have one of their meetings in a rural location where one of the rural campuses are.

And we're out of that rotation right now. They just met here several years ago, but they're actually bumping us up. They're going to actually have a meeting here in 2028, and because they, they recognize, yeah, just how big, how important Kodiak is to the future workforce in Alaska. So that's really exciting to talk about. We also talked about a new career and tech building at Kodiak College, and that project, UAA is They have heard that it's going to be in their FY '29.

So I told Evan that I would bring it up to the Assembly for us to perhaps start including it in our CIP list so that when it comes up for the legislature, they'll already have seen it for a couple of cycles. So it won't be strange for them. But maybe even get it sooner, which would be great. Mr. Whiteside and I will be traveling to Washington, D.C. for a couple days next week.

And so we talked about that at the work session, so I'll have something to report when we return. And, yeah, I think that's it.

Let's see. Okay. So up next we have a contract to consider, contract number FY2027-15 for KIB facility snow removal, ice control, and sweeping with MK Enterprises, LLC. Mr. Smiley, move to authorize the borough manager to execute contract number FY 2027-15 for KIB facility snow removal, ice control, and sweeping with MK Enterprises, LLC.

Is there a second? Second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. Um, Administrative Official Garutte. Thank you, Mayor Griffin.

The existing KIB facility snow removal contract expired in June. At the manager's direction, staff prepared an updated contract solicitation to secure snow removal services for all borough-owned facilities. The contract is structured to provide winter maintenance services on an as-needed or as-directed basis throughout the contract term. This approach allows the borough to obtain timely snow removal, sanding, de-icing, and related services as conditions warrant, ensuring safe access and continued operations at borough facilities. Staff issued an invitation to bid for this contract on July 17th, 2026, advertised for 3 weeks per KIB code 3.30040, and bids were due August 18th, 2026.

There was a mandatory pre-bid meeting held on August 5th with 2 contractors in attendance. At that bid opening, staff received one bid package. Following the review of the bid package, staff determined MK Enterprises LLC was the lowest cost responsible bidder and recommends awards to them. Our ENF director, Cody Allen, had a dentist appointment, and he was pretty puffy when he came back, so I let him go home. So if you guys have any questions, I probably could text him if it's something that needs to be answered right away, or I can get you guys any updates that you need by the email tomorrow.

Okay, um, any questions? Mr. Gardner and then Mr. Ames. I thought— I see on page 2 it says all schools. I thought the school district was doing their own snow removal. Anybody have any information?

Because that is as, as requested. This contract is as requested. If they request us to do the schools, we will do that. Mr. Ames. There were two bidders, and this is the lowest responsible bidder.

Was the other one still qualified but not the lowest, or were they not a qualified bidder? Two bidders attended the pre-bid meeting, but only one bid was received, and this is the one that was received. Thank you. Mr. Smiley. Didn't we go through this once before, and there was conflict with something and we had to redo it.

This is a different kind of bid, so we were doing it the right way this time because we learned our lesson. Always good to do that. Ms. Roberts, um, as a resident of Women's Bay, when I saw $75,000 for snow removal and sanding just for the fire department and the map, I did confirm on page 75 of our packet It is indeed just for the parking lot of the fire department. They just budget $75,000. I talked to Cody about this a little bit.

They— seems like they always budget $75,000 and never use that full amount. That's just the budgeted amount just in case that fire department gets a ton of snow more than the rest of the island for some reason. So I feel a little bit better about that, but I was very worried. That was a red flag for me when I saw $75,000 for a parking lot. So just wanted to share the information that I got on that.

Thank you. Anyone else?

All right, roll call vote on the motion, please. Miss Roberts? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes.

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

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

All right, we have one ordinance for introduction tonight, Ordinance Number FY 2027-09, amending Kodiak Island Borough Code of Ordinances, Title 2, Administration and Personnel, Chapter 2.30, Rules of the Assembly, Section 2.30.100, Miscellaneous, to clarify procedures, limits, and safeguards regarding meeting recesses. Mr. Smiley. Move to introduce Ordinance Number FY2027-09 and advance it to a public hearing at the next regular meeting of the assembly. Second. Moved and seconded.

Staff report, Nova. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the assembly. This is another housekeeping ordinance which would amend the code to align the borough meeting recess rules with Robert's Rules of Order. It eliminates existing vagueness by establishing clear protocols for calling breaks. This amendment will allow the presiding officer to call for a brief break for, for up to 20 minutes for routine adjustments, but only if no motion is active and no member is speaking.

Second, the chair cannot unilaterally call a recess during active business. Instead, a recess requires a formal motion by an assembly member, a second, and a majority vote. Once the recess ends, pending motion and active debate tracking must resume exactly where they left off. Members can raise a point of order and appeal to the full assembly if they believe a recess was called improper— improperly. Overall, the update protects meeting efficiency and safeguards the democratic rights of assembly members during meetings.

I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Nova. Ms. Roberts. I think the one time that I've experienced this when we needed the 20-minute break was during budget season. Um, does this— just want to make sure that this will apply to that.

We won't be breaking any—. No, uh, what would happen then is that it would require motion and a second, and a majority vote is required. In between items of business, the mayor can call it 20 minutes. Recess. In case there is a question of— let's say you need a privilege motion where there's an outage, electric outage, or we can't continue on, you can also call up a motion for recess at any time.

Then it just allows— it just aligns us with the Robert's Rules. What's the existing there. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, roll call vote on the motion, please.

Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Biscocho? Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Mr. Ames? Yes. Mr. Gardner? Yes.

Miss Roberts? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously. All right, under other items, we have, um, the appointment of the October 6th, 2026 regular municipal election officials.

Mr. Smiley, move to appoint the election officials for the upcoming municipal election as listed on the memo submitted by the borough clerk. Second. All right, moved and seconded. Uh, Noah, that's yours again.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. Um, I was clicking on the wrong link. The upcoming regular municipal election will take place on Tuesday, October 6th. This packet includes the official roster of precinct workers. Oh, we actually have an updated one on green paper, receiving team members and canvas board members for your review and if an approval.

The borough extends its sincere gratitude to our dedicated volunteers who give their time for training and polling place service. I also want to give us— give a special thank you to my staff and the City Clerk's Office staff for their immense hard work, coordination, and long hours during this busy election. Our local elections simply would not be possible without the shared commitment of our community volunteers and professional, professional staff. If I may, Mr. Mayor, could I read the names of the volunteers? Please do.

Um, I would like to thank all of them. So for Kodiak Number 1 at the Harbor Master, our chairperson is Miss Sandy Piotr and the co-chair is Ellen Lester, and our judges are Miss Pat Branson, Joan Altenhoff, Sue Jeffrey, Joyce Gregory, Jill Skaw, and Julie Negron. For Kodiak Number 2, which is the Teen Center, our chairperson is Nenita Nicholas. The co-chair is Jamie Bennett. The judges are Martha Bronson, Eric Ingvald, JJ Orloff, Virginia Puzon, Kevin Brennan.

For our Mission Precinct, our Bayside Fire Hall Precinct, our chair is Anita Shawl and the co-chair is Allison Barton. And then the judges are Kathleen Carlson, Maryann Contro, and Robert Robert Lauchowski, and Lenny Fronda. For Bells Flats Women's State Precinct, our chair is Robin Killen, the co-chair is Michelle Weakley. Our judges are Laura Eagle, Sophie Fritz, Christy Wall, Jacqueline Laundrie, Tommy Denae McKinney. Our receiving board on election night are Heather Fincher, Teresa Medina, Brian Price, and Julie Pineda.

And our canvas board who have served the borough for at least, I would say, more than 10 years, we have Sally Haldewang, Kate Lowen, Randy Bush, Karen Steele. And of course, I have my early voting team, which is the borough clerk staff. I would like to thank all of our workers for this upcoming upcoming election. Thank you. Yes, definitely.

Thanks to all of them. Any discussion?

Okay, roll call vote on the motion. Mr. Biscoccio? Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Mr. Whiteside?

Okay, there you are. Yes. Mr. Aims? Yes.

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

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion carried unanimously. All right, thank you. And the last item, um, is authorization for the borough mayor to join the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger on behalf of the Kodiak Island Borough.

Mr. Smiley? Move to authorize the borough mayor to join the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger on behalf of the Kodiak Island Borough. Second. It's been moved and seconded. We talked about this last week.

This alliance leverages the leadership of some local leaders to take action against some of the food security issues that we're facing nationwide, and that's even growing in some of the conversations that I've had over the past week with a lot of our candidates in town. This is a nonpartisan coalition of mayors. And they run the No Kid Hungry campaign to amplify local voices, making sure every child has access to nutritious food. And the mayors of city, city and borough of Juneau and the city of Wasilla have signed on also, and I've received some support from, from CANA and from Salvation Army so far on this, and I think it'll open up just some extra resources and initiatives for, um, for our community here. Um, and if you want more information, that's at mayorshungeralliance.org.

Um, any discussion? All right, roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames?

Yes. Mr. Gardner? Yes. Miss Roberts? Yes.

Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Viscotra? Yes. Would anyone like to to change their vote.

Motion passes unanimously. All right. That brings us to our second opportunity for citizens' comments tonight. For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3231, toll-free 1-855-492-9202. And please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback.

And anyone in the room wishing to speak under citizens' comments, please come on down to the podium and sign in, turn on the microphone and make sure the green light is on before speaking and speak directly into the mic. State your name for the record and please address all remarks to the Assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

Good afternoon, Assembly. Can you hear me all right? Perfect. I wasn't going to— I had nothing that I wanted to say until I listened to the FY2027-8.

I think that is awesome, and I really like the idea that people can send in their, uh, their application. But if anybody can make it in, I recommend it. It's part of a cool process. When I came in nervous, not knowing what to do, meeting the staff and the way that they handled it, welcoming me, making me feel like I was already part of the borough assembly, just even as a supporter, I really recommend that. So I think it was well done.

So good job on that. And I just recommend anybody listening or anybody who wants to come in and meet these people in person, turn your application in. That's it. Cool. Thank you.

Any calls?

All right. Then we have got Assembly members' comments. And we will start here to my left with Mr. Gardner.

Uh, I wasn't going to say no comment, but I also just wanted to express my sincere appreciation to the assessing staff. Uh, that office is awesome and they do a lot more than just assessing. I really appreciate them. Thank you. Mr. Vizcocha.

I'm just going to echo what Mr. Garner said to Mr. Berkey. Thank you for your hard work, Madam Clerks. And again, tomorrow's Friday. I'm encouraging everyone to go out and watch the Kodak High School football. They're doing pretty good, and with your support, the first 100 students is going to going to get a noise maker.

I don't know what that is, but that's what they have for the 100 students that get to the game tomorrow. Um, but yeah, and also I'm encouraging everyone to also remember October 6th, your voice matters, so go out and vote. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Smiley?

No comment. Mr. Ames? I especially like to thank the clerk's office for taking care of the elections like they always do, and thank all the volunteers that are going to be going to the different precincts and dealing with all of us voting. And along with that, if you don't vote, I think you don't really have much of a voice to complain. So get out and vote.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Roberts. No comment. All right, and Mr. Weisheit. I'm just continuing to echo the sentiment to thank our assessors for the wonderful work they do.

It's a tough job that is often thankless, and to our wonderful clerks and the seamless work they continue to do with our elections. I was fortunate to watch the sky cleared and I saw the sunset on Mount Rainier here today down in Washington, and I look forward to getting back to Kodiak this weekend if the rain will let me.

It will. The next— thank you, Beau. The next Assembly Work Session is scheduled for Thursday, September 24th at 6:30 PM. That one will be chaired by Dr. Smiley since Mr. Whiteside and I will be out. The next Assembly regular meeting will be held on Thursday, October 1st at 6:30 PM in the Borough Assembly Chambers.

And don't forget, early voting for the upcoming October 6th municipal election will be available 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, starting on September 21st up until October 5th in the Borough Assembly Chambers. Up next for us is an executive session on receiving some legal advice regarding incompatible public offices and dual service in elected positions, a discussion that is allowable per KIBC 2.30.030, confidential attorney-client communications made for the purpose of facilitating the rendition of professional legal services to the borough. Uh, Mr. Smiley, move to convene into executive session for legal advice regarding incompatible public offices and dual service in elected positions. This discussion is allowable according to Kodiak Island Borough Code 2.30.030, confidential attorney-client communications made for the purpose of facilitating the rendition of professional legal services to the borough.

Second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. Um, the staff report is mine, so we're going to go into executive session tonight to discuss confidential legal advice received by the borough regarding office compatibility and conflict of interest. And so we need to understand that advice and identify any additional legal guidance that the Bureau needs. But again, any policy decisions, any actions resulting from that advice will occur publicly after the executive session is over.

Any further discussion? Hold on. Any further discussion? Okay. So roll call vote first on whether we go into executive session.

Mr. Ainsworth. Yes. Mr. Gardner. Yes. Ms. Roberts.

Yes. Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Viscotcho. Yes.

Mr. Whiteside.

Yes. And now—. Would anyone like to change their vote? Excuse me. 6-0.

All right, thank you. Uh, yes, now Mr. Smiley. Yeah, move to invite the mayor, assembly, and clerk's office staff into executive session.

Second. All right, it's been moved and seconded. A voice vote on the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Any opposed, same sign. Okay, we will take a couple minutes to move into executive session, and then— so I'll formally recess the regular meeting and convene the executive session. We'll take a 5-minute break. Yes, Mr. Mayor, and just to announce for the record also that we're going to disconnect Mr. Whiteside, correct? And also we're disconnecting YouTube, uh, for, for, to inform the public, just to inform the public.

Thank you. Good night, Bo. Good night. Thanks, everyone.