Kodiak Borough: Assembly Work Session of August 13, 2026

Pretty quickly if we were missing 50% of our job. But again, too, what's on the table isn't necessarily just 50% of our job, or a 50%— I meant cutting down what was the allowable absences from 50% to 25%. It was 50% of regular meetings to 25% of total meetings. So essentially, we have made that two layers of difficulty higher for people. Um, ultimately, if you were missing half of your job, yes, that would absolutely be a problem.

However, this is a pretty substantial step, and I think it's— I do like having, uh, 50% of all meetings. I, I do like that. I think that addresses a lot of that concern because work sessions are where the rubber hits the road and where business is done. Um, that's, that's a lot easier for me to get on board instead of what would essentially have been 25% of meetings in a given period.

Yeah, the 25% of total meetings in a given period. I don't have an issue with that. I don't really have an issue with this conceptually for myself either. It is not the me I'm looking at. It's the others who come later.

Thank you. Mr. Schmiele. Well, I think when people are on the Assembly are missing, from work sessions or regular meetings. They miss the dialogue that's going on, and sometimes they take up a significant amount of time later in the next meeting to figure out what was going on. I think that this, uh, ordinance is fine in order to cut that down.

I think that including the work sessions is important. If you look at the amount of time we spend in work sessions compared to regular meetings. It's 2 or 3 times as long, and there's much more going on in a work session. And so I think they should be included. I think you can argue about the 25% and make it 35 or 40 or 27 or whatever, but 25 is a good number to me.

And, uh, even though we're doubling the number of meetings that we're talking about by including the work sessions, I think that's important too. And I agree with Ms. Roberts' characterization that if you miss that many, you're not going to hold the job for very long. And that's not what people that voted for us expect. Thank you.

Thank you. I think everyone's had a few shots at this one, so unless someone wants to take one more. All right, roll call please on the motion, Madam Manager. Mr. Ames? Yes.

Mr. Gardner? Yes. Mrs. Roberts? Yes. Mr. Smiley?

Yes. Mr. Piscaccio? Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes.

Mr. Woods? No. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes, 6 yes, 1 no.

Thank you. So next item under public hearing is Ordinance Number FY2027-07, rezoning Cliff Point Estates Oceanfront Edition 3, Block 5, Lots 1 through 5, Block 2, Lot 1 through 3, 7A, 8A, Block 4, Lots 3 through 5, Block 3, Lots 1 through 3, 4A, 5A, 7, and 8 from RR-2, Rural Residential 2 District, to C, Conservation District, Zoning will correspond to lots created by preliminary subdivision cases S27-001, S27-002, S27-003, and S27-004. Move to adopt the ordinance number FY2027-07. Second. Thank you.

Staff report, please, Madam Manager. Thank you, Mr. DPO. Before the Assembly tonight is the rezone of 20 existing vacant lots. Thank you for reading all of their numbers. Uh, the rezoning is associated with 4 subdivision cases that propose to consolidate these 20 lots into 9 lots.

The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the 4 subdivision cases at its meeting on July 15th, 2026. The C District requires 5-acre minimum lot size, which is the reason for this subdivision request to consolidate lots. The proposed ordinance includes an effective date that is related to the submittal of the final plats for the 4 subdivision cases. In your packet tonight, you'll see the map of the 4 areas associated with the rezone request. In addition to the ordinance, there are 4 exhibits: the Planning and Zoning Resolution, fiscal year 27-005, which they adopted on July 15th.

And then originally, when we reviewed this packet last week, it said that the rest of the cases would be going to a public hearing on August 19th. There was not a quorum at either the work session or the regular meeting for the Planning and Zoning Commission this week, so they will be hearing those in a public hearing on September 16th, so next month's meeting instead.

Great. Thank you for that. With that report, we will open the public hearing. The phone number if you wish to call in is 907-486-3231, toll-free 1-855-492-9202. For those in the room who wish to speak, please sign in and state your name for the record, turn on the microphone before speaking, and address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

If calling in, please turn off any listening devices to prevent feedback.

We'll give the folks at home a little more time.

Okay. I'm going to close the public comment period and open up to Assembly discussion.

Okay. Not seeing any discussion. Roll call vote on the motion, please, Madam Manager— or excuse me, Madam Clerk. Mr. Gardner? Yes.

Miss Roberts? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Viscotcho?

Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Woods? Yes.

Mr. Ames? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Next item on the agenda is the Borough Manager's Report. Thank you, Mr. DPO. This week, the Kodiak Island Housing Authority held a community celebration for their new housing area with the Rural Alaska Community Action program. You might remember when Rule Cap came in and spoke to the assembly about their self-help housing, and that project is starting off. There was a ribbon cutting that KCHC held for their new mobile healthcare unit.

That happened on Wednesday afternoon. And then Wednesday evening, last night, Treasurer Brandon Beach visited Kodiak. He brought members from the IRS and the U.S. Treasury, and I was invited to it, and I was like Oh boy, go have dinner with the IRS. But it turned out to be a really good dinner, and I was really grateful for the invitation. I learned a lot about why they were here, and they were here on a customer service to figure out how our rural areas could have better access to understanding the exemptions that they deserve and how it would be easier for them to file.

Treasurer Beach got a chance to speak to the group, and he did a really good job, so I'm really glad that I went. I also went to the Chamber of Commerce, which was also on Wednesday, and tomorrow we kick off meetings meetings for the Otmoloi Way project. DOT is starting with their environmental assessments, and so there will be a few days, and once we have those days identified, we'll be sure to publish it. But Otmoloi Park will be closed just because they'll be staging some stuff for their environmental studies out there. We were asked for some more clarifications on cost for our chiller project, the Rural Health Care Transformation Project.

The, uh, we updated the project spreadsheet and resubmitted. It felt like a really good sign at this point in the process for them to call and ask questions about our project. That's a $3.9 million project, now a $3.8 million project because we took some money out, but just absolutely amazing if that would get accepted. That would be just such a wonderful thing for Providence and for us. Uh, we have not received an official update on what's happening at the naval base.

We talked about this a little bit last week. I reached out to Senator Sullivan's office, um, and I've asked our federal lobbyist, Seville Kelly, to follow up on it as well. So hopefully we'll hear something official back on that for those that are waiting. I will be in Fairbanks next week for the Defense Forum, which happens in the earlier part of the week, and then the AML summer session happens on Thursday and Friday. And then I have the Alaska Municipal Management Association meeting on Friday afternoon.

Chris French will be the admin official next week, um, as Sima is out too. Um, we are still looking for a maintenance employee and a treatment plant operator out at the Leachate Treatment Plant, but we were able to hire a new appraiser tech, and she starts on September 8th. Thanks. In finance, we have all the major parts and pieces of the Tyler software conversion project in place. We're hoping to move from their implementation team to their transitional support team.

Finance feels way more comfortable with that than assessing, and we'll move together. And so we're trying to get assessing to feel as comfortable as finance does. They work with different people at Tyler, so we're trying to get everybody on the same page. In IT, they're working with Kodiak School District, um, IT department. They're removing the rest of their equipment.

They left some cameras behind up at Northstar, so they're getting those removed, and they're also deploying updated workstations for staff here in the building. The Kodiak Cyber and Kodiak Island Borough Cybersecurity Infrastructure Project is ongoing. They have installed their new switches inside of the IT department and in the reception office. They're also working with Kodiak on the design and configuration of upgraded wireless infrastructure, as well as provisioning of the firewalls for the landfill and our two remote fire departments. I had a long conversation with Fred today where he explained to me all the ins and outs of this project, and this is like, other than maybe Mr. Smiley because his son's in the business, it's confusing, and I'm glad we have such good professionals working on for us.

Our GIS analyst's last day is the 31st, so IT is working with Travis to make sure that they document the way that our systems work and so they can provide as many services as we can until we're able to hire. Assessing is reviewing inside of the city of Kodiak as far as senior citizen and disabled veteran exemptions. We have 21 applications, uh, that we're waiting on answers from that don't have a PFD application in, and 24 that the PFD has still marked as undetermined. We call almost every day to see if there's any changes on the undetermined ones with the PFD. For exemption updates, we have those 3.

There's no changes on those. The Kodiak Maritime Museum one is written and we're waiting the legal review before that gets given to the Kodiak Maritime Museum. For exemption appeals, the Alutiiq Heritage Foundation, we have a new status hearing date on January 6th, 2027 for the 2023 refund case. That is how long these take. Uh, the 2024 appeal case is delayed because we are hoping to have a decision, uh, from the 2023 case.

The '25 case is on hold until the 2024 case is complete, and the '26 is on— also on hold until the 2020— it's confusing— the 2024 case. So they're all stacked upon each other. So until '23 is figured out, we won't have answers for '24, '25, or '26. And we still have not heard anything from the Alaska Supreme Court about our case with KANA, uh, that was heard in December of 2024. But they do put new announcements out every Friday, so we're looking every Friday morning to see if we're on there.

In Community Development, as I mentioned earlier, they had a lack of a quorum, so their regular meeting that should have been last night will all be moved to the work session on September 9th and regular meeting on September 16th. We are already at our annual review of the multi-jurisdictional multi-hazard mitigation plan. So it, uh, at the end of August, Community Development staff is going to begin to reach out to municipalities who have adopted it and agencies within the borough to discuss mitigation efforts and individual action item progress to see if there has been any, and then we'll update that. We update that plan every year, and it's a complete rewrite every 5 years. If there are updates, you'll see them in front of you at a future work session.

In Engineering and Facilities, we reviewed the proposal from Alaska Waste. Uh, the review Um, committee turned in their scoring sheets, and we are looking at the week of September 8th to schedule a negotiation meeting to discuss contract terms. We have no changes in the fuel spill assistance world. Nothing has started yet. For small projects, the contractor completed the painting out at Port Lyons School.

Uh, we are waiting for the arrival of sheet metal for specified trim areas. After that metal is installed, staff will be making a trip out to Port Lyons to make sure that that work is complete. The underground storage tank has been removed from the annex building where Red Cross used to be right across the street. Uh, we had the, um, air conditioning unit taken off the roof by Nodak so that when our warranty work is done on the roof on this building later this summer, that will already be done. And we met with USDA and AFIS, which is a federal agency that specializes in wildlife control representatives today.

Haley and Cody were with them for almost 3 hours, and they're going to get— giving us a written report of their visit with us. They happen to be on island for something else, so it was really good timing. And we have no changes in designs. For upcoming contracts, we have the snow removal and ice control contract. The notice of intent to award was issued, and our environmental science services contract has been fully executed.

We have a Health Facilities Advisory Board coming up September 15th, but before that, on September 4th, we'll meet about our lease agreement with Providence. And that is all I have for tonight. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions for Manager Williams?

All right, so it doesn't appear there's any questions, so we will move on to the next item, which is messages from the borough mayor. Mr. Mayor joining us virtually.

Hello everybody. Yep, I'm down here in Albuquerque at the Aerospace States Association conference, and I'm really, really glad that I went. I'll just hit just a couple of highlight kind of things, but there's tons of stuff to talk about, for us to talk about and for our community to talk about. And I was texting Bo and Amy about it, some of those things earlier today, and even that just kind of scratched the surface. The, yeah, I mean, we all know the aerospace is coming, but it is, it is coming in, in droves.

You're probably familiar with the, some of the big contracts. There are many, many more contracts coming after that from both aerospace from NASA. Lockheed Martin wants to start doing things in Kodiak. There are several— there are a few companies that want to do mobile launches. They've developed capabilities to put a rocket and launch equipment inside of a container and bring it down the chain.

And I think Jeremiah mentioned part of that in his report about Swampsea. So the state needs to come together and Kodiak needs to come together because we don't know, we still, and this is what gives me anxiety, we still don't know what that means for us, not just in terms of land access but in terms of pressure on the workforce, pressure on us releasing more land because they are going to need lodging. They're going to need food services.

Some of the things I saw, they know that they are going to need— their security capabilities are going to be huge, or their needs, their security needs are going to be huge. And some of the things they're talking about installing here in Kodiak is I'm still struggling to find the adjective for it because it's part terrifying, but it's also part, like, fascinating. Like, this could be really, really good for Kodiak too.

So, yeah, so like I said, heard from a lot, and I'll talk to you more as the conference finished up today, and so I'll probably have more over the next few weeks. I've been asked to help begin two new boards, one in Alaska for not quite an aerospace commission, but a defense community support organization, and that will help communities like ours dealing with the rapid expansion of military defense and aerospace coming in. And then another, and then another group. Apparently, I'm like the, the first mayor to ever go to this conference and actually express concerns at the municipal level. And I think there was strong realization, actually, I know there was strong realization about, oh, we need a group so that municipal leaders can talk about these impacts on their communities.

It's just not, you know, the big places like Huntsville and Washington, D.C. are right outside of Richmond, But a lot of the places where aerospace operates are rural places just like this. They're hot, drier, and bigger sky, but it's the small counties, small towns that are being— that are going to be affected the most.

So I was asked to help kind of lead— not lead that, but be part of the group that leads and puts something like that together. So Kodiak is already on the national in the national conversation about this, I had so many people representing organizations, companies, aerospace corporations come up to me and reach out to me and say, "We cannot wait to get into Kodiak. We are coming to Kodiak." So, Rocket Lab is, you know, kind of just the beginning. So, our community, we need to have a very serious conversation about what this means. So, I'm going to work with Amy and the clerks and you there up on the dais to figure out, you know, how can we do this?

How can we, like, start to get these conversations going? On the flip side, though, is that everybody at the conference just seems really genuinely supportive and interested. In Kodiak as a community too. I spent the past 3 and a half days with Alaska Aerospace, the past 3 and a half days with Rocket Lab, with lieutenant governors from all over, from people from Guam, because Guam is experiencing the same thing we are. And there really did seem to be a lot of real genuine interest in making sure that the communities are okay.

That the communities that they are moving into are going to be better off than when they came in. So I'm going to hold them to that. I need your help to hold them to that too. So, and I think Amy will have a chance to meet several of the people that I got to meet who are coming up to the Alaska Defense Forum. Let's see.

So that's what I have, I guess, for this week. The first day of classes for Kodiak College is on Monday. So next week will be a pretty busy week. For me, but just a big thanks to Bo for filling in. Really appreciate it, and I will— I'll see you all next week.

All right, thank you, Mayor Griffin. Up next on the agenda is unfinished business, and I'd like to apologize for my misstep earlier during citizens' comment and interrupting comment, so I do apologize for that. So we have ordinance number FY 2026-17. Amending various sections in Title II, Administrative— Administration and Personnel, Title IV, Service Areas, and Title VII, Elections, to prohibit holding multiple elected offices. The motion is already on the floor, so could we please have a report, Madam Clerk?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Deputy Presiding Officer. This ordinance was originally requested by Assemblymember— previous Assemblymember Dave Johnson and Mr. Deputy Deputy Presiding Officer to resolve structural conflicts of interest within the borough administration. Specifically, a conflict occurs under KIBC 420.020 when a subordinate service area board member answers directly to the borough manager, yet the, the same individual also serves on the assembly which supervises the borough manager. The core intent is to maintain the integrity and the independence of public officials and prevent the concentration of multiple positions of public trust in a single person. The key code amendments are: the borough mayor, assembly members, and school board members are strictly barred from holding any other respective elected seats or working as a borough employee at the same time.

The mayor and assembly members are explicitly prohibited from serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission in regular or ex officio capacities. This ensures strict separation as land use planning appeals are ultimately directed back to the assembly acting as the board of adjustment. Members— and lastly, members of service area boards cannot serve as mayor or on the assembly. However, road service area board members are expressly permitted to currently serve on a fire protection board and the school board. The initial staff assistance request form— oh, it's okay.

The ordinance was subsequently advanced from its first reading on January 22nd, 2026, and postponed on February 5th, and then it was later postponed to this date for final consideration. I'd be happy to Answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Assembly discussion. Mr. Smiley, um, I think this is the wrong way to go around this. There's a perception of a potential conflict of interest that should be addressed in the statutes on conflict of interest for the borough and not through penalizing people that are elected in various offices.

In my opinion. The debate about the conflict of interest statutes, the last time it happened I was on the assembly, and they essentially reduced it to fiscal conflict of interest if there was money involved. There are other reasons to have conflict of interest called, and I think we should debate about those. I think it's really wrong to tell people they can't run for office when it's such a hard thing to find people running for office. And I oppose this amendment— this motion.

Thank you. Mr. Gardner? Yeah, I also am vehemently against this the way it is. There's some of—. There's a few things in here that I don't fully mind written in blue, but Overall, uh, the electorate needs to be the ones that decide who can sit on these boards, and I for one openly welcome the wisdom of anybody on a service district board to lend that wisdom up here on the assembly.

And Mr. Smiley is right, if we want to argue about conflicts of interest, there's a different way to do it. Mr. Woods? I'm right there with Mr. Smiley, although I think it's worth noting that I'm reasonably certain he was on the assembly when fire was discovered.

That said, though, if we are going to address this perceived conflict, real or imagined, it needs to be under that section. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Smiley, I think, summarized my thoughts very well in that there's a clearer pathway to address this perceived conflict, and so I will also be be voting no on this. Any further discussion?

Roll call vote on the motion, please, Madam Clerk. Ms. Roberts? No. Mr. Smiley? No.

Mr. Viscoccio? No. Mr. Whiteside? No. Mr. Woods?

No. Mr. Ames? No. Mr. Gardner? No.

Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion failed unanimously.

Thank you. Next item on the agenda is consideration of calendar, new business under other items. First one is author— authorization for the purchase of portable and mobile radios for the Bayside Fire Department.

Do we have a motion, please? Mr. Smiley.

Move to authorize the Borough Manager to purchase portable and mobile radios for Bayside Fire Department. Second. Thank you. Staff report, please, Madam Manager. Thank you, Mr. DPO.

Fire Protection Area Number 1 and the Bayside Fire Department is requesting to replace the current inventory of outdated and professionally incompatible portable and mobile radios. The current inventory of portable radios is not able to be reprogrammed, nor are they compatible with mutual aid partners, inclusive of but not limited to Kodiak Fire Department and Coast Guard Fire. They're asking to use our source well contract, and the pages right behind the summary will show you the subtitle for— subtotal for the items is $182,992.999.60, but the source well price is $146,399.68.

Mayor Griffin did in fact ask me to put the fiscal impact on that sheet, and I neglected his request. However, there is a handout Sorry, Mayor Griffin, you won't have it, but in front of you showing that as of the 13th, August 13th, uh, there was $1.7 million of cash in that fund. Uh, in fiscal year '27, they still had $828,914 left to spend. If they spent all of their money that they have put in the budget, that would leave them a fund balance of a little over $900,000. This item was not included in their budget, but they clearly have enough money in the fund to be able to cover it.

And Fire Chief Ellis is here tonight if you have any questions.

Thank you. Assembly discussion?

I just appreciate Chief Ellis's, uh, visit last week and explaining the need for this and how much life we can get to expect out of these radios. Anything for our first responders and Bayside. Again, I'll say for the amount of funding they receive and the value we get through their services to our community is extremely high. So I'm very grateful for their, for their service to community, and I will, I'll be supporting this. Roll call vote on the motion, please.

Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Viscotcho. Yes. Mr. Whiteside?

Yes. Mr. Woods? Yep. Mr. Ames? Yes.

Mr. Gardner? Yes. Ms. Roberts? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote?

Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next is— next under other items is authorization for the purchase of, uh, I'll need a correction on this one, Madam Manager. Um, staff— I'll just say staff vehicles for the Bayside Fire Department. Move to authorize the Borough Manager to purchase staff vehicles for the Bayside Fire Department.

Second. Thank you. Staff report, please, Madam Manager. Fire Protection Area 1 is requesting to add a duty officer vehicle to our existing fleet of staff and operational response capabilities. This would allow chief and company officers and prevention staff to perform shift or duty officer operations and prevention duties in a safe and professionally appropriate apparatus.

Currently, members either use their own personal vehicles or share the 2004 F-350 with the chief and other department personnel. The quoted source, well, National Auto Fleet Group price for a 2027 Ford F-250 XL 4-wheel drive SuperCab with a 6.5-foot bed is $56,687.72.

That's vehicle 1. They're also requesting to replace the 2004 F-350 XL Crew Cab with a 2026 Ford Ranger XL. This will allow for a more appropriate administrative and operational vehicle for the chief or Acting Chief and allow for reassignment of the existing aging F-350 to utility use and ancillary emergency response in areas of support and logistics, extending its useful life, enhancing the fire department's capabilities. The assembly approved the use of Sourcewell at the June 25th assembly work session. They quoted the— quoted Sourcewell National Auto Fleet Group price for a new 2026 Ford Ranger 4-wheel drive SuperCrew cab with a 5-foot bed vehicle is $41,170.10.

The Fire Protection Area Number 1 board affirmed authorization for purchase at the July 21st meeting, and these items were in their fiscal year '27 budget, so there will be no impact outside of their budget. And again, Chief Ellis is here if you happen to have any questions. Thank you. So, so for clarity, the question was asked to me of is it one vehicle or two vehicles. It is two vehicles and explained very well in our packet and Thank you, Madam Manager, for that detailed description.

Assembly discussion. Mr. Gardner. Um, I didn't think these prices were crazy high or anything, but, um, I just want to say, I think it was Friday, I was gassing up to go out to my cabin, and I happened to, uh, be right next to the 2004 F-250 in person, and, uh, It'll probably run for a while, but, uh, yeah, we need to get these guys a truck. It's, uh, I got to glance at some of the rusty bits and things underneath it, and, um, it's, it's time. Appreciate the inspection.

Mr. Woods. Yeah, good vehicles for what they do is absolutely kind of a non-negotiable to have them function at their highest possible capacity. Having been to a number of active fire scenes in the wintertime, if you ever thought the Rezanov was an ice skating rink, you ought to see what a fire in the wintertime looks like when you put a couple thousand gallons of water on it and that all freezes on the road. And, you know, every time you go to try and block traffic in a spot, it's always done in the most convenient possible location under ideal circumstances. Oh, sorry, too much sarcasm.

No, it's— these guys need the new rigs.

Any further discussion? Okay, roll call vote on the motion, please. Madam Clerk. Mr. Piscoccio? Yes.

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

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

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

Thank you. Next up is citizens' comments. For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3231. Toll-free is 1-855-492-9202.

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

Okay. Last up is Assemblymember comments. I will start at the end with Mr. Woods. Thank you, Chief, for what you and Bayside do. Maybe in the future, though, let's not wait 22 years to get a replacement vehicle.

Ms. Roberts. No comment. Mr. Ames. I am glad to see work sessions were included in the missed meeting count. As you can see, this meeting is roughly an hour, and we kind of blew through and voted.

That's because we discussed all this stuff in work sessions. Work sessions very often go to 10 o'clock, and that's where the work really is done. And in my opinion, they're almost more important than the regular meeting. It's where we figure out the problems. It's where we discuss it it's where we go and have discussion between each other to come to a working compromise that's good for the community.

So I think it's very important those meetings be included in missed absences. Thank you, Mr. Smiley. No comment. Mr. Viscotro, I just want to say thank you to the volunteers that did the election last Tuesday.

I just want to encourage especially the Koret community to please go out and vote. Your voice does matter and your opinion matters. So please come out and vote. I was pretty surprised with the numbers that I read in the newspaper, so I'm encouraging everyone in the Koret community, especially the Filipino community, to come out and vote. Also, I want to congratulate the Kodiak High School football varsity for winning their first game, and it's been a while.

And I want to encourage everyone this week to watch the Kodiak High School volleyball jam-boree that they will have Friday and Saturday, to come out and support them. And good luck to the football once again, because they're going to be on the road for a week over in Fairbanks. Thank you. Mr. Gardner. Uh, yeah, I just want to thank Mr.

Brekke for his comment earlier today. I've had an extraordinary number of people come and speak to me on this bear situation that we tend to have all over the island right now with this bear population that's, uh, either really grown or has gotten more brazen. I'm not sure which is which, and I want to say, uh, it's very important that we keep that discussion at the forefront for some time, and I hope that we can have a greater sense of cooperation with other governmental entities that are— that we should all be helping each other control and manage that issue. So especially in light of what happened on Tuesday, it's just kind of brings together, um, even more importance on the subject matter for me. And people in the community really care about it, and it's something that we need to be on top of.

I'm a little surprised we didn't have any discussion on it tonight, but I understand. So, um, that's it, everybody. Be safe, have a great weekend. Thank you. I'd also like to thank the clerks for another seamless election, uh, and the updates real time were really nice to to see.

So I know several people have mentioned that to me, and I redirected them to you. So hopefully they've reached out to you to thank you as well. You're just extremely good at holding these elections, so thank you for that, and for those who assisted you, your election workers. I'll echo the, the hope that we have a higher voter turnout here come October. You have a very robust list of candidates, which is extremely exciting to me that they— that the number of candidates seems to grow every year.

In, in the recent few years. Please reach out to those folks and ask them questions. Pay attention. I know firsthand everyone sitting up here can and will be making decisions that affect your lives every single day, without question. So please get to know your candidates, ask them the hard questions, and make an informed vote.

If you know people who aren't voting, drag them out and have them ask questions with you so that way we can have all your voices heard. And that will be it for me, and I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Move to adjourn. Second. Okay, with that, we are adjourning the meeting at— the regular meeting at— excuse me, what time is it?

7:42 PM. Thanks everyone.