Seward: City Council Meeting 10/26/2026

We are streaming to YouTube. Ready when you are, Mayor McClure. Okay, I'll call this meeting of the Seward City Council to order. It is Monday, October 26th.

2026, And it's 7 PM. Chief, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

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. Thank you very much. Mr. Clerk, do we call the roll first or do we swear in the new members first? First will be the swearing in.

Okay, let's do that.

So first on the list is Councilmember Bob Barnwell, and go ahead and stand up and raise your right hand. I'm gonna read this in small sections until we get through it. We'll see. I, Bob Barnwell. I, Bob Barnwell.

Do affirm. Do affirm. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the State of Alaska.

Constitution of the State of Alaska. And the laws and ordinances of the City of Seward, Alaska. And the laws and ordinances of the City of Seward, Alaska. And that I will faithfully and honestly. And that I will faithfully and honestly.

Discharge my duties as City Councilmember. Discharge my duties as a City Councilmember. Thank you so much. Yep. Woo!

And Council Member Matt Kope?

I—. —Matt Kope do affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States; the Constitution of the State of Alaska; and the laws and ordinances of the City of Seward, Alaska; and the laws and ordinance of this city Lori Draper, Seward Hospital. And that I will faithfully and honestly—. And I will faithfully and honestly—. Discharge my duties as City Council member.

Discharge my duties as City Council member. All right, thank you so much.

Welcome to you both. And now, Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll? Roll call for tonight's meeting. Draper.

Here. Osenga. Here. Cope. Here.

Calhoon. Here. Barnwell. Here. Warner.

Here. And Mayor McClure. Here. You have a quorum. Okay, thank you.

I have one proclamation and/or award, and I'm not going to read the entirety of it, but I'd like Kellyanne to come up. I don't know, just somewhere near the microphone there, I guess. And I'm— so we're excited tonight to congratulate Kellyanne Cavarretta on her selection as Alaska's 2026 State Star, placing her among the top 100 performers out of 4,500 SBDC staff serving 1,000 centers across the U.S. Thank you, Kellyanne, for all the hard work and thoughtful guidance you bring to the Seward community, and congratulations.

I'll just travel over this way, and maybe you want to say a few words. I know there's a presentation later. But you don't have to say too much if you don't want to. Yes, I won't take up too much time. First of all, my job would not be possible without the partnership with the City of Seward, so I'm really grateful for that.

Also, as a small business owner and community member here, it's really awesome to see kind of a small represented place overrepresent themselves in terms of small business loans and startups and job supported. So you'll hear a lot about that in tonight's annual report. And then lastly, to my boss, Cliff Cochran, who's guided me over the last 5 years. Yeah, that's pretty much all I want to say. Okay, thank you.

Good job. Okay, we're now to citizen comments on any subject except items scheduled for public hearing. You will notice perhaps that there are 4 public hearing items coming up, so you'll get a chance to speak to those when they come up. This is the time where you can speak on any Any subject, you'll have up to 3 minutes, and there's a 36-minute total time. There is a sign-up sheet for that, and we'll go through the people who signed up, and then within the time frame, I'll take shows of hands.

And when you come up, it's the red chair there, and speak into the microphone. And before— and when you begin, We need to know your name and if you're inside or outside the city limits. And so, with that, Mr. Clerk, who do we have? There are 5 people signed in to speak, and first on the list is Skip Ryerson.

Good evening, Council. My name is Skip Ryerson. I live inside the city limits. Um, it's been a while since I came to speak, and what I have to share with you today somewhat dovetails into the budget. First, I want to thank the city manager and electric department leadership for launching the future of the electric utility process in February of 2025.

The surveys, town halls, and focus groups have been valuable. I have long supported exploring the sale of our utility, but the Godwin Hydro prospect that emerged a year ago changed the picture in a promising way, and I strongly support any realistic path to power lower-cost energy for Seward. So I ask that we focus now on securing the FERC study permit, hopefully in January, and completing the studies within the next 2 years. Those studies will tell us whether both Godwin and Fourth of July systems can be built, how much energy they will produce, and what they will cost. Only then can we judge whether roughly 3,000 ratepayers can carry the financial risk of a product of this size.

The clock, uh, matters.

Had we sold the utility back in 2023 to the lowest rate railbelt utility, we would have saved our ratepayers over $4 million a year in electric costs. And if the hydro isn't built until 2033, That's a decade and more than $40 million that has been left out of the pockets of local ratepayers. For that reason, I suggest a temporary hold on all forward governance options, including the sale. Keep every option on the table, but finish the hydro studies first. Next, in, in the 2024-2027-2028 budget, I'm suggesting taking the Godwin Hydro product out of the electric electric rate base.

Starting January 1st, consider the project and all the related costs to be paid out of the general fund, or at least accounting for them in their separate fund. Our electric rates have never been designed to underwrite development costs like these. On leadership, I want to thank Brian Hickey for the 2 years that he's dedicated service to our community. With his planned retirement at year's end, I'm suggesting letting the MEA contract expire February 1st, engaging Taylor, Taylor Crocker as a contractor in the interim, and advertising for a permanent electrical director who will live in Seward. Done well, that could cost less than the current MEA arrangement.

Finally, I ask council to consider a 7-member electric board structured similar to the Planning and Zoning Commission to oversee the Electric Department and report to the council while the hydro decision is being contemplated. Thank you for your time tonight. Mr. Clerk, who's next? Next on the list is Amanda Sweeting.

Howdy, everybody. Amanda Sweeting, Outside City Limits. I'm here of course with my chamber hat on, just giving you guys an update what's happening. If you look at our social medias and just around town, we have some flyers out for a holo weekend. It's a sign-up sheet for local businesses who are doing something extra special for Halloween weekend, and that's out so you can go out and support and our local businesses and see what kind of fun things they cooked up.

Also, if you go around town, you see Pumpkin in the Window, it's our Harbor and downtown Seward businesses that signed up for trick-or-treating, so you can go ahead and take your kiddos or yourself, no judgment, to go trick-or-treating around our small businesses. As well as we have a declaration of candidacy for the Seward Chamber Board of Directors. It is a member-elected board and there's 4 seats open, so if you want to throw your hat in the ring, uh, you could do so by the end of the month, and then it is open to voting It's from November 1st to November 15th, and, uh, yeah. And so that's an exciting process. Um, that's all I got for you guys today.

Thank you so much. Stay safe, uh, Halloween weekend. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, next on the list is Cosmo Anderson.

Hi, my name is Cosmo Anderson. My pronouns are they/them, and I live in Seward city limits. I applied to be on the Historic Preservation Commission after seeing that there was a need for commissioners and thinking to myself, wow, do I really have time for any more stuff? Um, I have a full-time job here in Seward serving our community. I play in the community band, and I maintain a heavy volunteer presence in our community, so much so that I earned recognition in the Seward Folly this past year alongside wonderful community members like Lori Draper and Shannon Thorne.

I considered my love for history, my love for Seward, and my desire to learn more about this place that I hope to call home for the rest of my life. I remembered that I always learn best by doing, and I make the best connections when I learn alongside community members. Once I also realized that the meeting commitments were quarterly and not monthly, the answer became a lot easier.

I would simply just have to make the time for this really important civic duty. And I just, ever since I applied, could hear the echoing of my middle school history teacher, Mr. Parker, telling me that those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it. It would be an honor to play a hand in ensuring that we know our history for generations to come. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Clerk, next on the list is Tiffany Siller.

Sorry, I have a sore leg today.

I am also applying for the Historic World Commission. We need to know if you're inside or your name and inside. Yeah. My name is Tiffany Siller. I live outside of town.

I'm also applying for the Historical Commission. I was born and raised in Seward, one of the last people born in the Seward General Hospital.

I was a 12-year student at Seward Elementary up to the high school. My daughter is a 12-year student. I went to UAF for college. I was a justice and a dual major of a justice and history major, and I worked at Spring Creek as a correctional officer and a sergeant, retired from there. So I put my justice part of my major to use, and I would like to use my history major now.

And so I volunteered out at the cemetery out at Salmon Creek, and I've started volunteering to help with the cemetery at Jesse Lee, for the Jesse Lee Cemetery, and I think this will go along with that kind of stuff, preserving some of the history in Seward that's being lost.

And that's all I got to say. I'm not really great at talking about big stuff like this. Thank you. Mr. Clerk.

And the last person signed in to speak is Becky Dunn.

Becky Dunn, Inside the City. Welcome the new city council members, and thank you, Murray Gage, for putting your name in the hat and getting appointed for the advisory board, and for the 3 that are here today that have put their name in for that. And Linda Paquette, that put her name in the hat for for history— I mean, no, for PACAB. So if I'm appointed today for PACAB, I did put in my application today, that would be the last seat that is empty for an advisory board. PACAB and history advisory board will be both filled today, hopefully.

I'm putting my name in the hat. I mailed an application today, so I'm not on the agenda, but I would like to see if I could be added on the agenda the way my friend Marie Gage was added on the last council meeting, even though she wasn't on the agenda and appointed for the Historic Advisory Board. I have been on PACAB before, worked for the State of Alaska Marine Highway System, Port System. I've been both a commercial fisherman and served the commercial fishermen for the— I was the SERVS coordinator for the area, assistant to the SERVS coordinator for the area. And my business is still called Not So Fast because I was tying fishing gear and building and repairing nets for the commercial fishermen and longline gear.

It turned more into a retail store as IFQs came into place and they no longer needed the panic of getting ready, which made fishing a lot safer but kind of eliminated me. So that's why I just kept it not so fast. It was easier. I tried to change it once, didn't work.

I am familiar with meetings. I get— got all the council meetings on the air for the last 12 years. On the radio. I feel it's a good fit, and I can't feel Bruce off his shoes, but he says he'll be available for questioning and phone calls as he was today. Thank you for your consideration.

Oh, little side note, listening to the budget board meeting before this, at some point that tech support team needs a bigger area. And I was going in and out of the room, so that might have been discussed. I'm not sure, but anyway, something to consider for the future. Okay, we usually don't communicate back, but if you submit your application, you'll be— your appointment will be on the next meeting. That's how others have done it.

So, it needs to be submitted to the clerk. I did submit it to the clerk, but I submitted it today. Right, so—. And so, I thought I would also say that because the last time I submitted one, it took me 6 weeks to get added onto the agenda. So, I just thought that I would—.

You'll be on the next meeting because we can't add on things to the meeting. I thought that happened last one. Lori was on, she wasn't on the agenda. She was on the agenda. Oh, she was on the agenda?

Oh, okay, I thought she wasn't, so I thought they changed something. I put it on consent. Okay, sorry. Just so you know. Okay, that's all the people that signed up?

Correct. Okay, anyone else Anyone else wishing at this point to speak? Just raise your hand. I'm assuming there's no one in the hallway, correct? Could Doug— Yeah, there is.

Oh, is there anyone in the hallway that wants to speak? No? Okay. Last chance. All right.

We'll move along then to the approval of the agenda and the consent agenda. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please. I'll move for the approval of tonight's agenda and consent agenda. I'll second it. Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

I have a couple of changes I'd like to make. I'd like to appoint— in new business, I'd like to move the appointment of Tiffany Siller to the consent agenda. This is for historic preservation, if there's no objection. Okay, so that'll be moved. Your, your appointment will be moved to consent.

I'd also like to move, uh, the appointment of Cosmo Anderson to the consent agenda for, um, historic press. Go ahead, I'll object to that one. Okay, Mr. Calhoon— Councilmember Calhoon has objected, so we will discuss that and vote when it comes up on the meeting time on the schedule. Any other changes?

Okay, seeing none, Mr. Clerk, I think we're ready to vote. Voting on the approval of tonight's agenda and consent agenda as amended. Warner? Yes.

Barnwell? Yes. Cope? Yes. John Osenga?

Yes. Lori Draper? Yes. Michael Calhoon? Yes.

And Mayor McClure? Yes. That agenda has been approved. And on the consent agenda, for the October 12th, 2026 City Council meeting minutes and Resolution 2026-089 authorizing the City Manager to accept and appropriate $500,000 from the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development FY27 designated legislative grant for harbor infrastructure. And to appoint Tiffany Siller to the Historic Preservation Commission.

Okay, thank you. Uh, next we have the City Manager report. If you're not tired of talking from our work session, go ahead. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um, while I remember what it was that I wanted to highlight in the report, I do remember that Public Works Director Doug Schoessler is here today to speak to some of the culvert issues over on Second.

My memory wasn't as good there as I thought. So I'm going to invite Public Works Director Doug to come speak to that real quick.

Hi, thank you. I just wanted to try to answer some questions, give some updates, and it's mainly this Second Avenue culvert or Chamberlain right there. It's just off of Van Buren. It's been a problem for a lot of years. We've been working on it back and forth.

This, uh, in the last couple years we did a full design to get it replaced. We had some grant money to do some design work. It's 120 feet long, if you don't know, on that culvert. It goes at an angle underneath the road, and so it travels 120 feet before it comes out of where the little spot there really hard to unclog if it's clogged. Just, it's just long culvert.

Well, seems like the problem now is it's not only, not just clogged on the one, the other one has collapsed under the road somewhere. And we really had some issues. So as we did the design work, the price tag got to $5 million when they came out for just a culvert. The problem was there's, um, the sewer and water lines are right in the way of putting the culverts, and that's kind of why they had to go so far underneath. We looked at different options, tried to see if we could move it, but the sewer line drains gravity flow.

You can't go up and down with the sewer line. The water line we could move, but not the sewer. So the reason that they had to do it was you'd have to put a lift station in to drop the sewer into, lift it, and bring it back over the top and out to the next one, which then involves bringing electric into that part where there's no electric yet. So just the cost on it was super high. We're to the point right now it's stopping up pretty good again.

We've got a pump running out there just trying to keep anything from flooding upstream. And, uh, it's unfortunate that it runs, you know, but we have to run it so we don't flood it out at this point. We're to the point, I talked to both Fish and Game and U.S. Fish and Wildlife and let them know that we're pretty much the point of doing an emergency dig out there to at least try to dig up the road and find a spot that we can get it. But when you think about it, it's— it could be an emergency dig and it might happen that way, but you have to block off the water from both ends.

You got to dam up the bottom end so you can get to the do the work on it. It's a lot to it. So more than likely here within the next, I would say, couple weeks to a month, we'll be coming back on an emergency to try to get that taken care of so we don't have to try to run that pump all winter. Last year really got us with the cold, cold temperatures, and then the, the streets flooded with the state culverts froze up, and that backed ours up and flooded those. And it was, it was really tough.

That was the first time that's happened since I've been here since 2016. But it's definitely a problem spot there. We've been— had the engineers, I mean, really work in different designs. What can we do different? We've got a few other ideas we're going to try here to see if we can make it work, but it may be just if we can even just dig up half the road and get to it.

We do still got to deal with the water and sewer that are there, but at least it would be replacing just the culverts in kind. The difference with design is once you design and get it in, they don't let you just throw a culvert. They want a fish culvert that's bigger and set up, and that's part of the whole cost of how to do that with the utilities in place. But if there's any other question, I'd be glad to try to answer. I appreciate this because I've been getting calls about that too, you know.

Yeah, and hopefully that alleviates some, but we don't like running it. We don't want to have it out there and have to have guys checking it and filling it and, you know, and making sure it's just not running dry. And it's certainly not something we would like to do, but we'd rather not flood out upstream of it either, any houses. Got it. Questions?

Okay, thank you, Doug. Thanks, Doug. So what else you got? What else do I have? I did want to highlight how great of an event the Zombie Run was, hosted by Sports and Rec.

I was a vicious zombie, I heard, and I was really excited to see that space up at the middle school be utilized. And so if you weren't there for the zombie run, mark your calendars because this Halloween carnival will be at the community center middle school space this upcoming weekend, and that should be another really exciting evening. I also wanted to point out, uh, one of the things we had historically submitted via the city manager report was the full-time staffing report, which was often very useful when our staffing was our staffing numbers were low and there was a higher turnover. So we included it this time as well on page 35, and you'll see that we, we have 108 total authorized positions, but that includes 6 unfunded jailing corrections officers. So currently of 102 full authorized full-time positions, 101 of them are filled, and that one that is not filled, I believe we have 3 to 4 applicants for.

So I'm really excited just kind of see this and how much that, um, those numbers have come since I first started at the city about 3 years ago and the growth that we've seen in hiring and retaining high-quality staff. I would also like to point out the Electric Department has an update on their Advanced Metering Infrastructure project on page 34. The new AMI system is a significant modernization of our Electric Utility, and we'll be installing network backhaul equipment at the end of this year with approximately 20 initial test meters. And then we will install the meters in this upcoming spring. They are scheduled to arrive in May 2027, and this is a bit of a delay from what we had initially anticipated with installation happening this year around this time, but there was a large backorder, which we are finding a lot with this sort of electrical equipment.

So it's been put off until about May when the meters arrive, but we're really excited about that process and grateful for everybody who has worked with us through the transition to PCS. So big shout out to the community for— and for the electric department for tackling that. And then I believe that is all I would like to highlight today. Unless you have any questions. Okay, questions for the city manager?

Good report. Questions for Mr. Bickling, who hasn't said anything? Do you have anything to say? You have nothing to add? Thank you.

Okay, all right then, we will move on to the city clerk report. Mr. Clerk, what you got? Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to address the layout in council chambers tonight, what's already been dubbed the Great Barrier Reef there, is in fact because we were doing the absentee in-person voting during the day that runs from 8:30 to 4:30, and then it was just a really quick turnaround time to get the room ready for council chambers.

So we tried to make the best use of the tables without having to fold them up and put them away. So we have a Busy week ahead with work sessions, so it's going to be tight turnaround every night. But, and then speaking of the absentee voting, it's been a great turnout so far. This is the first time we've ever seen the borough and the state at the same time. So for a person walking into chambers during the day, on the left-hand side would be the borough table and on the right-hand side would be the state of Alaska table.

So it's, you have to complete the process twice to vote both ballots.

And aside from that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Okay, questions for our clerk? You're doing a magnificent job. Thank you. There's— yeah, there we have it.

We, uh, you know, it's been— there's been a lot going on this week for that office, so Okay, then we move to presentations, and we have one from the Alaska Small Business Development Center annual report. And you could introduce yourself, and you've got a 10-minute time slot here. So, hi, good evening, Mayor McClure, City Council, and city staff. I'm Cliff Cochran, Kena'pizla Center Director for the Alaska Small Business Development Center. I'm here to provide our 2026 annual report.

Lori Draper for all the great work Kellyanne is doing in Seward. So the Alaska SBC has been around since 1986. We provide business guidance, resources, and specialized programs. We're hosted by the UAA Business Enterprise Institute, and we're accredited by America's SBDC. So we're part of a larger trade organization that spans all 50 states and the 5 inhabited territories.

And through the support of the city of Seward, we have that here in Seward as well. So it's great to have that in this community. We're supported by SBA funding, state matching funds, and local partners like the City of Seward, the Camp Peninsula Borough, City of Homer as well. Here's a look at our local kind of services. So we have no-cost confidential business advising.

That's the big-ticket item that Ms. Kellyann provides from Seward. We also have no-cost and low-cost business workshops and no-cost proprietary business tools and resources. Here's a look at our top advising topics in the City of Seward area. For 2026. So startup assistance is kind of our big ticket item.

Over a third of our work in Seward has been towards folks looking to start businesses, but we also have a lot of work with folks prepping for loans and grants, in some cases financing capital on the top right. And then at the bottom, we've— Kellyanne's provided a lot of support to folks buying and selling businesses. So it's kind of an overlay of the topics. And in terms of our top industries that she's provided support to. Tour guides came out on top this year so far.

About a quarter of our work has been tour guides, followed by food services and accommodations. So it's great to see that this kind of follows the landscape of the kind of business landscape in Seward. And Kellyanne has experience, direct experience, in the top 3 industries, having worked with Major Marine, Salted Roots, and the Flamingo. So it's great to have someone local who understands the local economy and the big industries in town. Here's a look at our preference with clients working with us.

So we still have a strong preference to in-person versus online. I think we had a large number last January of folks meeting Kellyanne from Cabo or someplace warm, so that raised that number up. But we do have a large number of folks that really prefer to meet someone in person in town, and so this slide kind of backs that up. In terms of workshops, Kellyanne this last year presented the Starting a Business workshop in Seward. Her Starting a Business, for whatever reason, always gets the highest attendance across the state of Alaska for starting a business.

She still has the Alaska SBC record for the most attendees at a Starting a Business workshop, which is quite incredible. She does a great job of getting folks out. And this last year there was a trend of a lot of folks looking to coming to us for support on buying and selling a small business. They weren't 100% prepared, and so Kellyann kind of volunteered her time to put that workshop together. She built it from scratch, got a commercial realtor, a business broker on board, and put together a fantastic product that's used across the entire state.

So that's fantastic. We also have on-demand content there as well. In terms of tools, we have financial projection models, we have business plan guides, focus industry toolkits, we have a business evaluation guide that's quite robust. And these are things that Kellyanne uses with her folks in Seward. Here's a look at some of our resources.

And so these are tools that Kellyanne works with business owners to help them. And so we have a subscription to IBISWorld. It's the global leader in industry intelligence. That subscription is $16,000. We pay it and we provide it to clients for free.

So it's great in terms of helping with determining local demand to see if a business model could work in a smaller town versus like Anchorage. So that's a really useful tool for startups.

We also have a subscription to ProfitSense. It's the national leader in financial benchmarking. That's more for established businesses where we can drop in financials and benchmark that business off its industry, which is really useful. We also have AirDNA. So it's the best for short-term rentals data analytics, and so it can really help folks looking to get into that industry to see what they can expect.

And we also have SBCnet. It's a research tool that we have a firm down in Texas, and we send off research requests and they dig out all kinds of interesting census, labor, consumer data tools that can help business owners and entrepreneurs make decisions, especially when looking to start a business. And that's only available through an SBC advisor. We've been purchasing Caymans Rural Sales Tax data every year. It's around $800 to $900 from the borough, so we've got almost 10 years now.

It's a $4,000 value. We have sales tax data. By quarter, number of business reporting, and by industry. So it's really useful for looking at trends. Whenever we present a workshop, all the clients and attendees come over and hover their smartphone over it and take pictures because that's the latest and greatest from each industry.

So really useful for folks in the industry or also looking to start a business. If you're in the industry and take a look at that, it can help you sleep better at night knowing that, okay, that was the trend this year versus what's going on in my business. We also have a small business survey. It's the most robust survey in Alaska. Typically, we get almost 1,000 responses across the state, and then in Seward, we typically get 50 to 100.

So it's really good data for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to make decisions. So here's a look at our results the last 5 years. This is Kellyanne's work. This is Seward only. So 2,500 hours of support.

She's helped over 300 clients. She's helped 55 new businesses get started or bought, has supported nearly 700 jobs. The last line is quite remarkable. So she's helped folks get $21.9 million in loans and grants. This is Seward only.

And those clients who have taken the time to complete our surveys— we send a lot out— but those who have completed them have reported a $17 million increase in sales. Generally, that's probably about a quarter of what is actually our footprint. So Kellyann's probably directly completed something to $80 to $100 million in increase in sales. So quite— and then the last one, probably the most remarkable, is that she hasn't got a negative survey yet on initial client satisfaction surveys. We say you're not a real advisor until you get a negative survey.

Well, she's not there yet. So we need to send someone in to make that change. But she's doing great. We're super proud of Kellyann. Here's a look at the Seward metrics, just kind of a snapshot of And the most kind of remarkable thing here is that 2021 was the last year we didn't have an advisor in Seward.

And so you can see once Kellyanne stepped in, the numbers have boomed 2, 3, 4 times what they were in terms of hours of support, loans, new businesses, and jobs supported. So it's really important to have someone on site here in Seward. In addition to all our SBC work, she presented Module 3 of the Royal Caribbean Port Partners program cohort. The result of that was a $20,000 grant to Exit Glacier Greenhouses, a local business here in Seward. And the kind of remarkable part about this is that when folks were coming to me asking about this, the Royal Caribbean folks said, hey, we went around town and talked to everyone.

Who should we talk to? And everyone said, go see Kelly-Ann. So that was pretty neat to see an outside group, executives from a large corporation coming in saying, hey, Kelly-Ann's your person. So that's pretty cool. Also, probably the best part of this whole deck is Kellyanne was awarded our 2026 State Star.

This award is given to the top performer in the Alaska SBDC each year. We have around 30 staff, 10, 12 advisors, and then support staff in our organization. And so really special that she was able to get this award. And so we have metrics that are equal across the board. There isn't a curve for, hey, you're in Seward, it's smaller, Anchorage is larger.

It's the same scorecard for everybody. Kellie Ann was able to top advisors in Anchorage and Fairbanks. In communications with city staff, I said this is the equivalent of like the Seward High School football team beating West Anchorage or Lathrop. This is a pretty big deal. So very cool that she was able to top the Anchorage and Fairbanks advisors.

We have SBCs across the country in all 50 states, 5 inhabited territories, 1,000 centers, 4,500 staff. And this award places Kellie Ann in the top 100. Of that big group. So very impressive. Because of that, she was drafted essentially to be in America's SPU Rising Leadership Cohort.

That's a program that's for folks that are excelling in as an SPU advisor, and it's to groom them to be in leadership roles someday. So very proud of Kellyanne. She's done amazing work here in Seward. And I can't complete this without our budget. So this is an overview of our budget.

It's not killing salary— salary benefits is $20,000-$30,000 a year. It's also professional development, travel. There's a lot that's mixed in there, but we've stuck to our matching principle of $60,000 state and federal. The city provides $50,000, which we're very, very grateful. The city of Seward— this position would not be possible without the support of the city.

And the borough chips in around $10,000 as well. So that's kind of an overview of our, of our budget.

And that concludes our presentation. Again, thank you so much for all the support the city of Seward has provided. We have an absolute rock star here in Seward, and we couldn't be happier. Kelly is a perfect person, so we're thrilled to have her. All right, thank you.

That's excellent. Thank you. Um, are there questions?

No questions. We're happy. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, um, we have Does anybody need a break yet?

I don't believe— okay, we're going to move into our public hearings. We have 4. The first 2 are ordinances. The first is Ordinance 2026-010. Mr.

Clerk, would you please read that into the record?

Ordinance 2026-010, amending the Seward City Code 4.01.030, Date of Regular Election, to move the election date to November to align with the borough and state elections. Okay, and you'll find this discussion of this in the whole ordinance on page 38 of the packet. I'd ask for a motion to enact and a second, please. I'll move for the enactment of Ordinance 2026-010. I'll second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Administration, which is probably the clerk, will speak to this. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor McClure. So this ordinance was inspired by the election last year with the borough proposition number 5 that was passed to move the borough election to November to align with the state election, which left the city election as the standalone in October.

And as I was drafting this legislation in October of this year and just wrapping up our own city election, I was very heavily weighing the pros and cons of making this change. And I have to say that careful analysis kind of went out the window as soon as I started seeing the numbers coming in of people in the early voting for this election now, and the momentum has just really clearly shifted to November, and we would be seeing voter turnout, you know, beyond our wildest dreams if we moved our election to November. It would be like a local band going on tour with Metallica.

Only you.

So I had asked you this question, but I've heard people saying that it would cost more if we move it, and you have told me that that it would actually be more economical for the city to move it to be at the same time as the borough. Could you explain that, please? If our city election aligns with the borough, we can sign like a joint agreement and we'll split the cost 50/50 for the election workers and the equipment rentals and the printing of the ballots and that sort of thing. So it's kind of a difference of about $10,000 to do it ourselves in October or $5,000 to join with the borough. So it would save us approximately $5,000.

I've also heard people concerned after— well, we'll see how this goes, but there would be the potential of having 3 different ballots in that November election, and that could be confusing to people. But it could be offset by the greater turnout for our city elections, and that was part, you know, so it's kind of weighing these things. And then also the reason we didn't do it like other cities have already is because our code wouldn't allow us to do it that soon. So this is the time where we can choose to do it, you know, move it to November or not. Okay, did you have anything else to say?

Yeah, I'm not crazy about the amount of paperwork and ballots all at the same time. That's probably my biggest concern for the absentee in-person voting. It could be 3 of those big white envelopes and 3 ballots, and then on Election Day, a voter could potentially walk into the voting booth with the 3 different ballots and then have to keep them sorted in the sleeves. And then there'll be 2 crews in there, 2 scanners. That ship has already sailed, and the, the borough scanner will reject a state ballot and vice versa, so there's no chance of them getting mixed up.

It's just a lot of paperwork at the same time, but we'll of course do what we can to streamline it and make it easy for people as much as we can, just working with the borough and the state. Okay, so that's all the background I was hoping to hear, and I'll open I will open the public hearing now. And Mr. Clerk, has anyone signed in? No one has signed in for this one.

Okay. Does anyone wish to speak to this? And I'll tell you how to do it if you want to.

Okay, seeing none, I will close the public hearing, and that brings it back to council to discuss. Council, do you have any thoughts?

Councilmember Calvin? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Yeah, we've talked about this for a little while. I think, you know, the biggest positive for me is an increased voter turnout, which is what I've always wanted here because 19 to 21%, 22 once in a while, although maybe good compared to some other places, I don't think is optimal for a town our size when we have a lot of important things to decide on.

I'm in favor of it for that reason. My one concern is the triple ballot thing that will probably happen, but I think that we can educate the population on that enough and make it worthwhile in the long run to get a larger turnout. Anyone else have thoughts? Pros or cons? Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you, ma'am. I just have to agree with Council Member Calhoon that voter turnout trumps all of the other issues in my mind. And everyone I talked to too— as I was walking around town, I was asking people what do you think. I did have one person say don't do it but pretty much everybody else said they wanted them on the same day. Yeah, I've seen the pros and cons so anyone else?

Are we ready to vote? I do have a question before we vote. What if we change our mind after this upcoming election? Can we go back? We can.

We can always change it back. It would just require that 1-year lead time. Okay, so—. In the charter. This isn't, you know, say, I can't imagine, you know, it not working, I guess, at this point, but others have done it.

Okay, are we ready to vote? Mr. Clerk, we're ready to vote on this one.

Voting to enact Ordinance 2026-010. Warner? Yes. Draper? Yes.

Barnwell? Yes. Calhoon? Yes. Cope?

Yes. Osenga? Yes. And Mayor McClure? Yes.

That ordinance has been enacted. Okay, next we have Ordinance Ordinance 2026-011 up for public hearing. And Mr. Clerk, could you please read that? Ordinance 2026-011, amending Seward City Code 8.20 to remove the $100 vehicle-for-hire permit and consolidate it with the business license application.

Okay, and this is on page 46 of the packet. I'd ask for a motion to enact and a second. Second, please. I'll move for the enactment of Ordinance 2026-011. I'll second it.

It's been moved and seconded. Administration, this also being sponsored by our illustrious City Clerk. You may speak to this. So this is a more obscure one. Unless you're in the taxi business, you probably would have never heard of a vehicle for hire permit.

Basically, any, like, taxicab company operating in Seward needs 3 types of permits: the city business license for the company, a vehicle for hire permit for the vehicle itself, and the chauffeur's license for the driver. And I'm looking to simplify this a bit because it's caused a lot of confusion just with the 3 permits kind of in the air. So I want to remove the $100 vehicle for hire permit from code, and then it'll just be combined with their business license application for no additional charge. So the company would apply for the business license, submit their license plate of each vehicle and their proof of insurance and that sort of thing, but not have to do a separate permitting process for each vehicle. So my goal is to make it a little easier on the cab companies.

Okay. Um, I At this point, we'll open for public hearing. Mr. Clerk, has anyone signed in for this one? Nobody has signed in.

Okay, does anyone want to speak to this ordinance, 2026-011? Come on up, and we'd need your name and if you live inside or outside the city limits. Um, that, that mic works just as well. Brother Todd Mashland. I live inside the city limits.

Yay!

Anyone else? Okay, I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council. Any questions, concerns, comments? We've sort of—. He's educated us in this already.

Okay, ready to vote? We're ready, Miss Mr. Clerk, voting on the enactment of Ordinance 2026-011. Barnwell? Yes.

Calhoon? Yes. Cope? Yes. Osenga?

Yes. Draper? Yes. Warner? Yes.

And Mayor McClure? Yes. That ordinance has been enacted. Okay, now we have two resolutions for public hearing. We'll just keep whipping through here.

Uh, the first is Resolution 2026-087. And when you're ready, Mr. Clerk, would you please read that into the record? Resolution 2026-087, authorizing the city manager to enter into a new lease with the Seward Chamber of Commerce Conference and Visitors Bureau for their location at 2001 Seward Highway. Okay, and you'll find that on page 52 of the packet.

I'd ask for a motion to approve And a second, please. I'll move for the approval of Resolution 2026-087. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Administration, that comes to you guys.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will invite the harbormaster to come speak to this. And for clarification, that is because the harbormaster's office handles all of the lease agreements in the city of Seward. So, um, yeah, makes sense. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Council.

So first I'd like to welcome or congratulate Councilmember Barnwell on his reelection and welcome Councilmember Coke to the dais.

Look forward to working with you both and appreciate all your support over the years.

So this is a pretty straightforward ask. We're looking to renew the lease agreement with at 2001 Seward Highway, which is the Seward Chamber lease. A little—. The lease agreement is the same as a standard 20-year lease. We're just looking to mirror that partnership agreement that was passed back in January with Resolution 2026-017.

Um, so a little bit different in that respect. So it's kind of a short-term lease, and just for simplicity to keep things— if there's any changes that have to come up over, over a 20-year lease, we're not locked anything for 20 years. I don't need to make any changes. That was the intent and the purpose of that.

And that is pretty straightforward after that. Okay. Did you have anything to add? I would add to that, like Tony said, we are allocating it across— so standard leases, we would utilize a 20-year lease, but we kept all of the language in there, but mirrored the contract agreement, so it is a lease that is not 20 years and instead expires in 3 years? So this first term will be cut a little bit short because this agreement was passed in January.

So essentially it's just a shade over, you know, 26 months, and it'll renew on the first— expire the end of 2028 and renew after an extension is requested. So it'll be a basically a standard 3-year term with 2 3-year extensions. So essentially potentially a 9-year lease agreement before it comes back before you folks. Okay, don't go too far. I'll stay right here.

I'll open the public hearing now on Resolution 2026-087. Mr. Clerk, has anyone signed up? Nobody has signed in. Okay, does anyone out there want to speak to this?

You guys are a good group. I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to council. Council, do you have questions or comments or discussions. I'll start with Councilmember Draper. Okay, thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, so I had a few questions. Tony and I have talked a little bit today too. Um, one of my concerns is that the lease had some language in there that included the Boat Harbor and the Smith parcels, but I was informed that that's just standard language across all the leases and that there's no harm in it being in there, even though it doesn't really apply to a parcel that's, that's out here on the highway. And then another thing that I wanted to have brought forward in some public way was in the budget statement it says whether or not something's a— has a financial impact. Well, this doesn't have any impact on our budget, but it is something that we are giving, giving away for free, basically a dollar a year for a lease.

And so I thought somewhere in the public record it should state how much is what is that worth? And so for this particular parcel, $26,000 a year, I believe, is— that's what they would have to rent that land for if it were a traditional lease to someone that was paying for it. So I thought that that maybe should be stated.

And we had some concerns about shortening the lease up as well. Because I guess I was thinking with my lender hat on. If they ever wanted to go get a loan from someone, at least that short would be really difficult to get financing for anything. What else? There was just a numbering issue in there, but I think those are the main things that I wanted to bring up.

Oh, and the expiration issue, that was the other thing that appeared. This will be expired before this gets renewed, and I don't know how big of a deal— is there language in there that says, oh, we go month to month after the expiration? Yes, so there is language that says we go month to month, and I will— give a big kudos to the Chamber. They addressed this prior to the expiration, but with the lag of bringing forward a new lease agreement, there is a lapse there of about 26 days. That is on our end of just making sure we got everything all squared away.

But in the agreements, if it's never renewed, it goes month to month until it's addressed, which is another reason why we wanted to allocate it or accom— line it up with the contract agreement so that it's not a, we pass the contract or the contract's voted in and then 7 months later, it's like, oh, we forgot about the lease agreement as well. So tying those two together was a little bit of administrative help as well. Yeah. And then, in fact, can I— Oh, sure, go ahead. Just so the public knows, the Chamber owns the building and the lease is on the land owned lease.

So another concern is if this lease ended, it's like, okay, take your building and go home. It's not that easy to move it. So that was another concern of mine with the short-term leases. If we decided not to renew it, um, you know, then they've got a building that potentially could be just left for the city, or that they would have to move somewhere else. Okay.

Councilmember Calhoon. Nothing in addition to that, Madam Mayor. Thank you. My main thing was going to just bring out what the fiscal issues were with it— not issues, but, you know, what the city is actually giving for that. So, okay.

Council Member Cook? Yeah, I guess just the point of transparency. I don't have any financial gain to it, but I am currently on the board of the chamber, and I will be finishing out that role through the end of December, I believe, when the term ends. So I don't know that—. I would rule you don't have a— we have a sort of— it's only a financial conflict.

And so you're okay, unless there's an objection. Okay, you're good. Thank you for sharing that, though. One thing I would like to ask, Harbormaster Tony, what is the calculation for a lease fee? It's standard 8% of fair market value of the vacant part.

So that $26,000 is based off of 8% of the fair market value of the assessed value of the lot, not including the building. Appraised. Yeah, appraised. Sorry, appraised, not assessed. And that is set every 5 years.

Last one in 2025, scheduled on the— to be done again in 2030. And we do see CPI. Yep, in the interim. Yeah. Anything else from council?

Are we ready to vote? I'm seeing mostly nods and no negatives. Okay, Mr. Clerk, I think we're ready. Voting on the approval of Resolution 2026-087.

Barnwell? Yes. Cope? Yes. Warner?

Yes. Osenga? Casie Warner? Yes. Michael Calhoon?

Yes. Lori Draper? Yes. And Mayor McClure? Yes.

That resolution has been approved. Okay, one more, one more. Resolution 2026-088, which is up for public hearing. Mr. Clerk, could you read that one?

Resolution 2026-088, authorizing the city manager to enter into a new lease with the Seward Chamber of Commerce Conference and Visitors Bureau for the Harbor Area Boardwalk site known as the Derby Booth. Okay, and you'll find that on page 82 of the packet. I'd ask for a motion to approve and a second, please. I'll move for the approval of Resolution 2026-088. I'll second that.

Okay, so moved and seconded. Administration?

Much like the first ask at 2001 Seward Highway, We're just looking to mirror that same agreement here as well. But I'd like to note as well, this particular lease terminated at the end of September, so it's only over by a few weeks. We decided to hold off and bring these both before you guys, so just for ease of future expiration dates, that it's all brought forward at the same time and easier to manage in the future. Whether we do the 3-year agreement, pump it back out to a 20-year. That's a really easy amendment if that's the decision that chamber would like to go with, or even administration, if it's easier to go back to a 20-year lease.

Madam City Manager, did you have anything to add? No, thank you. Okay, I'll open the public hearing on Resolution 2026-088. Mr. Clerk, has anyone signed up?

Nobody has signed in. Does anyone out there want to speak to this one?

Okay, close the public hearing and bring it back to council. Questions, comments from council?

Councilmember Draper. I'll just state on this one, I found out that the value of this lease would be about $6,000 a year. Is that what we—. A little south of that, correct? But yes.

$1,000 A year. Okay, anything else? Ready to vote? We're ready, Mr. Clerk.

It appears voting on the approval of Resolution 2026-088. Cope? Yes. Draper? Yes.

Calhoon? Yes. Barnwell? Yes. Warner?

Yes. Osenga? Yes. And Mayor McClure? Yes.

That resolution has been approved. Okay, that brings us all the way down to other items, and if we're okay without a break, we'll keep going. Okay, um, the first other item is a good one: discuss canceling the December 28th, 2026 City Council meeting. Um, it is traditional. Madam City Manager, do you want to speak to this?

I've been planning my whole year around this being canceled. So if you don't want to, that's okay. But I will add though, in all seriousness, it is a meeting that falls after Christmas and prior to New Year's. Typically we actually cancel the first meeting in December and shift it a little bit later due to the Alaska Municipal League Conference. But the way the month times out, it's really well that we just have that December 14th meeting.

And as long as our scheduling for the budget is consistent, consistent, then we would pass that at the 14th. This meeting is also too close to the end of the year for us to have any budget discussions in it by code as well, because it needs to be approved prior to 7 days before December 31st. So I think that it would be really great to cancel it. Okay. And that in light of that, just the question, if for some reason we can't agree on the budget on the 14th, we could schedule another meeting later that week.

I mean, it's not like, you know, we're—. Yes, but by code we need to have an adopted budget prior to either 5 or 7 days the end of the year. I'll find that out. Yeah. Okay, so it's just a discussion.

Is anybody opposed to canceling that meeting? I think that's probably where the discussion would go. I see no opposition. Are we all in favor? Head nod.

Okay, we will direct you to do that. I don't think we need to vote. The second other item is to discuss scheduling a work session with the Electric Department on Seward's energy future. And Madam City Manager, you threw out a date at our agenda meeting. You did?

Yes, I did. It was January 11th. Okay. Yes, but that's just a starting point. If you —my opinion, it's got to be after the end of the year, after Christmas, after all.

Yes, so for some background on the request here, we have completed the, the survey and presented those results. They're on the City of Seward website under the Electric Future page. One thing from public comment: there is no intent for our general manager to retire at the end of this year. So, yeah, so he is intending to be present in over the course of the next few months as we continue this discussion and throughout 2027 as well to make sure that we're set up on a right track. So that— I don't know where that came from, but that is not the intent for Brian to retire at the end of this year.

So we would put in a request potentially for January 11th. One thing that I— do know to be true too is that we don't have to have a work session on the day of a council meeting. So if there's other days that were amenable as well, but I would request not around the major holidays. And January 11th is good because we'll all be around and in town that day as well for everybody interested. But I will leave it up to you to discuss.

Okay. Any objection to January 11th or December 31st? Does somebody have a better—. Is that a Monday council meeting day? Yes.

Okay. It is. So, it would be before, and we could schedule it on the earlier end, maybe, I don't know, 5 instead of 5:30. And if we don't get all the work done, we can then reschedule another one. Yes.

I mean, we've got to get started. That's, I believe, the point.

Okay, so, are we good with January 11th at this point? I'm seeing nods. Great. Okay, January 11th. And the next and last other item— well, no, there's other items, sorry, there's one more after this— to nominate and select a vice mayor.

The vice mayor is selected every year. And so the way this works is, um, I guess in the last couple years I haven't really missed much, but if I were ever not here, the vice mayor would be having all the duties that I have and run the meetings and this and that. So the way it works is I will open the floor for nominations at this point. And if you raise your hand, I'll accept nominations. Councilmember Calhoon.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to nominate John Osenga as the vice mayor. Okay, John Osenga has been nominated. Are there other nominations?

The councilmember—. I'll nominate Casie Warner. Okay, so Councilmember Warner has also been nominated, and so that's 2 nominations. Are there other nominations before we go on? Okay, so I'll close the nominations in.

Do we have paper ballots? Now, we do have paper ballots, just in case. I believe on the paper ballot, what we would do, he'll pass them out and write in the name of the person you would like to vote for, one person, and then they also need to be signed, correct, Mr. Clerk? Yes, sign or initial.

Or initial. It's like a—. Because it's a public process, but rather than show of hands, a write-in candidate only type of a ballot. And then down below is the—. Right.

So we're just writing in the name. So we have two nominees. If you would pass those along. We have two nominations, Councilmember Osenga and Councilmember Warner. And then we'll get those, initial them, and send them back following the rules.

In our code. So, and then when I get them all back, I'll read out the results. And thank you. Whoever gets 4 or more votes will be vice chair. I don't want to.

Okay.

Okay.

And when you've You got it. Pass them along and I'll pass— I'll take the stack that comes to me.

We're all so tidy. We only fold them once, so it's not going to take him forever to open them. That's pretty cool. We could have made some origami thing out of it. Okay, do I have all 7?

I believe so. Okay, here goes. I'll hand them to Jody for verification.

John Osenga?

Casie Warner, and John Osenga. Okay, so 6 to 1, John Osenga, Vice Mayor. Okay, John Osenga has been appointed. Do we do a swearing in at this point? He gets sworn in again.

Okay, congratulations. Thank you. I think we've followed all the rules here. Yes, the city clerk will then swear in the new vice mayor. Okay, there we have it.

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, John Osenga. I, John Osenga, do affirm. Do affirm that I will support and defend. That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the State of Alaska. The Constitution Constitution of the State of Alaska and the laws and ordinances, and the laws and ordinances of the City of Seward, Alaska, of the City of Seward, Alaska, and that I will faithfully and honestly, and that I will faithfully and honestly discharge my duties as Vice Mayor, discharge my duties as Vice Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor Osenga. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we have one more item. Item 7, we've taken— it is not on consent, and that's the appointment of Cosmo Anderson to the Historic Preservation Commission for a term set to expire May 2029. And we'll start this with Councilmember Calhoon because he was the one that objected to putting it on. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

The reason I did that was I was looking for some clarification. Specification from Mr. Anderson and some members of the community also based on his specific interest in the history of Seward. And what I wanted to make sure is that the understanding is that it's all the history of Seward, which is very extensive. Um, and the fact that, that you haven't been here for a long time. I just want to make sure that you understand that the historic preservation is, is all of Seward's history.

And it was stated on your application that you would love to learn and collect more about the LGBTQIA+ history in Seward. And folks just wanted to make sure that that you were willing to go well beyond that in your work on the commission.

I don't know if we dialogue at this point or not. Mr. Clerk, could you clarify? I'd say typically not, but if there's no objection from the mayor, you could open a dialogue. Okay.

Would you like to hear from—. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you. So I think maybe I'd like to start with some clarification on why that is included in my application in the first place. So I was working one day at the senior center, I, uh, and listening to one of the seniors share with me, um, that the Seward area does not know their LGBTQ+ history. You know, I, I serve on the Seward Pride Alliance board of directors, and I was— we were conversing. She had brought the topic up, so we were conversing about it, and she was like, you know, them people, they don't know nothing about their, about their history.

We've been here forever, and we've always been here. And I was like, you know what, you're right, we don't know it. And I would love to listen to you share that. And you're right, it is about all of Seward's history, and that includes the people that historically historically have not been heard and have historically been specifically erased from history. And where I come from in Virginia, there's a wonderful project called the Southwest Virginia History Project— excuse me, the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project.

And they've done a wonderful job at preserving oral histories from elders about just history in the Roanoke area. And it led to the development of walking tours in which I was able to walk with peers and learn about the longstanding LGBTQ+ history of that area. And it really meant a lot to me to learn that people like me had walked those same streets for a long time before me and that we will continue to keep walking our streets for a long time to come. So there's a lot of strength in that. But to specifically address your concern, I am open and interested in all of Seward's history.

I have attended the Resurrection Bay Historical Society presentations on the earthquake, and it was very wonderful and impactful to me to learn about the Sioux specific history in Seward during that time. And I also attended recently the presentation on the sinking of the Yukon, which was so wonderful. It was amazing and empowering, and it was just so cool to really be in the space with people who have, like, been in Seward for that long and experienced that history too, and to hear firsthand from their stories. So, yeah, there's a lot of reasons why I'm really interested in joining this commission, and that's just the authentic part of it. So—.

Thank you. Thank you.

Councilmember Draper. It's a comment. They did not say that that's the only thing they wanted to work on in historic commission. And I think people bring different perspectives. Tiffany said she was really interested in the cemeteries and Woodlawn Cemetery is in a similar way.

And that's the case with others on historic preservation. They find their niche, like the St. Peter's building or the Rotary or the park that my uncle used to keep down at the bottom. Yeah. So, you know, it grows anyway. Any other questions?

What we would do at this point then is, how do we do it? Do we need a motion, I guess, to appoint, and then just like a regular thing, right? There's a couple ways to do this. I brought out vote sheets for everything just in case. Just in case, so we could do paper ballots again or you could do a roll call vote.

Are we comfortable with a roll call vote? Yeah. Let's go for the roll call vote. Do we need a motion though? Okay, so I entertain a motion to appoint Cosmo Anderson to the historic press.

I'll make that motion. Okay, and a second? I'll second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. We have had a bit of discussion before that.

We should have probably— Done it in reverse. Any other comments? Okay, Mr. Clerk, let's vote. Voting to appoint Cosmo Anderson to the Historic Preservation Commission.

Osenga? Yes. Warner? Yes. Draper?

Yes. Barnwell? Yes. Cope? Yes.

Calhoon? No. Mayor McClure? Yes. The motion is passed 6 to 1.

Okay, congratulations. I want to say now, we, with this appointment, we have a full Historic Preservation Commission at long last. So that's pretty awesome. Right? Anyway, we can talk about that later.

Okay. That was our last item of business. There's some budget work sessions coming up the next 3 Thursdays at 5:30 here. And now we're at Citizen comments. This is the time.

There's no sign-up for this, but you— your time is limited to 5 minutes per speaker, and all you need to do is raise your hand and I'll have you come up and speak. Does anyone wish to speak? We're all ready to get up. No one wishes to? Okay, then we will go to council and administration comments and responses to citizen and comments even from earlier.

So, uh, first of all, Administration, which—. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just a reminder, uh, that it is a big week to discuss the FY 27-28 budget. So if you're just tuning in now to the end, we do have work sessions the 27th, 28th, and 29th, all starting at 5:30 in this room. The clerk has also posted the budget documents and a slide deck that we created onto the website and sent it out via e-notifications.

And then I have a one-sheet page that I'll be posting to social media and sending out as well that just kind of showcases some of the thoughts behind this year's budget cycle. So a big thank you to everybody over the course of the next few days as we discuss that and go through it. And a big thank you to Council for sticking with me through scheduling 4 work sessions in a row, all starting at 5:30, and during the week of World Series, which is very frustrating for me because I do love baseball. So I know what I'm going to have to look into next time, 2 years from now. Did you also mention that these are all going to be on YouTube, on the City of Seward YouTube?

Yes, so all of the work sessions will be available to stream on the City of Seward YouTube page. And then starting on November 14th meeting, or the first meeting in November, is when we'll have the budget on for its first public hearing. And the budget requires 2 public hearings, and then you need to wait a meeting until after, and then it can be adopted. So it will be on the agenda for the upcoming 3 meetings in a row, which is exciting. And then don't forget, the Halloween Carnival is up at the new community center on Saturday.

The wayfinding discussion is tomorrow at the library. Great, it was at the library. And then I believe that's all that I have for you tonight, but a big thank you to everybody. And the moon is beautiful. I was able to see it from my seat, so be sure to peep the moon on your way out.

Mr. Bickling. I have nothing to add at this meeting, but I promise I'll have plenty to discuss next meeting. So perfect. Which is to say, we haven't gotten the report back yet on the pile driving, but we did go both look at it at separate times. It's there, but we'll have a report on that at the next meeting.

Okay, Councilor Councilmember Calhoon, you start. Thank you, Madam Mayor. One, congratulations to Kellyanne Cavarata for those awards. That's doing a great job for businesses in Seward. It's good to see that.

I want to welcome Bob Barnwell back to the council and welcome Matt Cope to the council. Look forward to working with both of you continuously. And even though we have work sessions any questions before then? We don't have official meetings before then, but I'll just say everybody have a safe, happy Halloween, and there will be candy everywhere. Everywhere.

Okay, Councilmember Draper. Yeah, again, congrats to Kellyanne. Talk about a good return on investment for our dollars there. Congratulations to Bob and Matt. Everything else said, but I just wanted to be a little nostalgic about the Chamber lease because I was involved in the very first one of those Chamber leases where we came and asked the city for that ground and that I convinced Delma Rasmussen that we should donate the bank building to be the Chamber building.

So that every time I walk in there, I remember the bright yellow counters of my teller station where I started working at the bank. And so that was So it was kind of fun for me to see this coming all the way around. What else? And oh, thanks to Cosmo and Tiffany for stepping out. Now we've got a full commission there.

That's very heartwarming to me. Okay, Councilmember Barnwell. Yeah, thanks for the votes on the election. I'm excited about this next term. As usual, there's lots going on, almost too much sometimes.

I'm kidding. Actually, the budget meeting this afternoon or this evening was very interesting. These guys always come up with a creative bunch. So if you haven't looked into it, look into it. This budget, the proposals are really out-of-the-box thinking, and I think it's exciting to talk about and think about as a community.

Congratulations to Tiffany Cosmo for stepping up. It's, it's great that all of these boards are filled now. That's, I think, the whole time we've been on here, it's never happened. So maybe more years than that.

That's it. Thanks. Okay. Councilmember Cope. I just want to say I'm really humbled and excited to be here.

I know I'm very new I still have that new Councilmember smell. But I also have an email. And I believe I ran on representing people's point of views as best as I can. So please email me. And just thank you for everyone showing up tonight.

And congratulations, Bob. And congratulations to the Historical Society for getting everyone on board. Okay. Councilmember Warner. Thank you.

Madam Mayor McClure, um, congratulations to Councilmember Barnwell and Cope. I'm excited to have you guys up here. Congratulations to Vice Mayor Osega for another term in your seat there. I also want to give a big shout out to Doug with Public Works for giving us an update on the pump that's over there off of Second Avenue behind the lagoon. Definitely lots of noise going on over there, but it sounds like a really big project that may need some of our attention.

Congratulations to Tiffany and Cosmo for your seats on the History Preservation. I also want to give a shout out to Allison over at the museum. I was over there the other day with her, and there's a lot of really cool stuff happening in the history realm within our community. She's doing a great job over there, super excitable. Walked out of there so excited about like Seward history.

So that was really neat. I want to also give a big shout out on November 14th at 2 PM, Doug Keppra is holding a presentation on the last homesteaders. So if you guys are around, take a look at that because Seward history is pretty cool. My last thing is, it is a short week. Week for our kids this week, so kids will be out and about pretty heavily Thursday and Friday.

And then with Halloween on the weekend, um, it's getting dark out, so just keep an eye out for those kids. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And Vice Mayor Jose, um, honorable—. Yeah, no, um, congratulations, Bob.

Welcome back. I for sure thought you were gone, but you're here, so welcome back. Uh, Matt, Congratulations. You made a great effort to get here tonight from New York. I commend you.

I probably would not have done that, but that's good. Way to go. Congratulations to Tiffany and Cosmo. Welcome to the Commission.

And Casey, I know it took me a while, but I just couldn't let you—. I had to do that. I've known you for forever, and it was an honor. It's also— I want to say it's an honor to be— I was so nervous. I'm still nervous over this, and I don't know why, because I've been doing this for a while, but I'm still nervous.

It still gets me. It's an honor. I appreciate it. And happy Halloween, everybody. That's it.

Well, I echo what they all said. Congratulations, Bob and Nat, and really happy to have all these members. We got Marie here too, just supporting tonight. So our 3 new members on the historic press, and it's, it's a really good thing. You don't meet very often, but you could meet more often if you want.

I think so, you know, it's just a thought. Um, Halloween's coming up and trick-or-treating, and I'm just on the edge of, you know, the infamous door away area. I'm not quite up there, but we have, well, maybe more than one little black bear that's been gorging on crabapples lately and napping in the middle of lawns. And so you might just be a little cautious. I think they're just full and happy, but with trick-or-treating and bears, you know, that could— and cars and everything else— just be really safe.

Suggestion to go to the downtown trick-or-treat in the afternoon and then the carnival carnival out at the new Seward Community Center. You passed. Congratulations. Yes. And, you know, rather than maybe just too much of the street walking for candy this year.

The history— historical society has been doing a lot of you know, these presentations. And if you missed the one on the SS Yukon sinking, which is the 80th anniversary of that sinking, just out here, it is available on the— on our RBHS website. If anybody really wants to, just give me a call. It's really amazing documentary that was presented. And the— November 14th one on the last homesteaders from Doug Capra, he's also emphasizing the hippie invasion of Seward in the very late '60s, right when I left.

And then for a little while, Seward got apparently flooded with— by hippies, and it created some consternation amongst the people on the council and all sorts stuff. So there's a bit of history there that might be very interesting on that Saturday. So I've talked enough. Any last things? Usually a couple.