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Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting

Alaska News • • 153 min

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Cordova: October 21 Council work session, public hearing, and regular meeting

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0:00
Susan Bourgeois

I've been hearing every TikTok in the world, which is that song about Josh Allen, tackle Josh Allen. The only one getting all those TikToks? I don't need TikTok. Not on my algorithm. It is in my algorithm.

0:23
Susan Bourgeois

Oh my God. I've been meaning to talk to Colette about it. It's so cute. I can't keep away from them when they come on. I like them.

0:32
Susan Bourgeois

I'm probably live streaming myself talking about that right now.

0:40
Susan Bourgeois

Oh, I'm the only one that can hear you, Susan. Good, perfect. Now, but we could be on YouTube, so who knows. Except why is it giving me this? This is new.

1:24
Speaker D

Just close it.

1:29
Kristin Smith

Close two tabs there.

1:32
Speaker D

I'm going— can you just close that tab?

1:46
Susan Bourgeois

Maybe. Which is not to be— need to be on there. It was already online, just not many of us. That's all that matters. Nothing—.

1:53
Susan Bourgeois

You can send the video. Why is it so weird though? Is like the owl not working? Well, I like the house connected to—. Where's Deb?

2:03
Susan Bourgeois

Your video's off. Not coming tonight. Who's that? Deb is not coming. Aaron's coming in person.

2:13
Kristin Smith

The other 3.

2:16
Susan Bourgeois

Kasey's, I think he said work session, probably regular, maybe not often.

2:30
Susan Bourgeois

Thank you. You're welcome.

2:36
Kristin Smith

It's different.

3:11
Susan Bourgeois

Course, I don't know if I got the right species of crane on the picture.

3:18
Susan Bourgeois

They look like sand hills. Oh, but other ones with the redheads.

3:27
Susan Bourgeois

There are Florida cranes, and I said, where do they— I Googled that the other day. Where do they live in the winter? They live in a year-round. The weather's conducive, they said. Only the Alaska ones get that out.

3:43
Wendy Ranney

The Florida ones are the ones in Sarasota everywhere. They're loud. We were there last time for Christmas listening to them.

3:55
Speaker D

They sound like our cranes? Yeah, but they're like on the ground. Golf course, walking next to you. Did you gather? I'm going to.

4:29
Kristin Smith

Okay, are we—. We're ready? Yes. Okay, all right. I am calling to order the City Council work session of October 21st, 2026, and I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

4:44
Susan Bourgeois

Mayor Smith? Here. Debra Adams is absent. Lee Collins? Here.

4:50
Susan Bourgeois

Aaron Hansen? Absent. Kasey Kinsman?

4:54
Susan Bourgeois

Mike Mickelson here.

5:11
David Zastrow

Did you just call me? I actually— I have got no audio from your end.

5:18
David Zastrow

You can't hear us right now? I can hear you now. I couldn't hear you before. All right, so you're present. I am present, yes.

5:30
Susan Bourgeois

That is a form. Great, thank you. Which is not necessary for a work session, but good to have. Excellent, thank you.

5:39
Kristin Smith

Okay, so the work session topic— there are a couple topics. Um, first First one is the 2027 budget development big picture, and the second one, Parks and Rec nonprofit facility use and fee schedule. And we've got a memo in the packet from the city manager and the finance— and the finance director. Thank you. And Sheryl's here with us in the room.

6:05
Sam Greenwood

If folks online, maybe you can see that if you've got questions. Um, so yeah, I am going to turn it over to the city manager. Looks so pretty. Oh yeah, maybe I—. Yeah, um, so I think we're do the big picture first, and, um, Sheryl will probably leave after that.

6:30
Sam Greenwood

This is her first adventure into the office again, so, uh, I think I think I'm going to let Sheryl go through kind of the thought process, what we need to do to make this happen, and unless somebody wants to start with questions right away.

6:58
Sheryl Glasen

Okay. Okay. So we have the $1.6 million in unbudgeted funds that came in for forestry seeds and fish tax this year. So there's some things in '26 that we already know we've allocated out, and we will bring budget amendments forward. That being the additional $181,000 to the school district— that wasn't an additional ask from what was approved prior in the resolution.

7:35
Sheryl Glasen

That was just like you guys approved it, but we didn't figure out how we were paying for it. So we need to do a budget amendment for that, and it will come out of the, the extra revenue that we received. Um, we do know that goods and services have increased this year with inflation. Um, that part, kind of getting a ballpark figure of what I think we're going to end the year at, um, but it's not, it's not firmed up yet. Um, potential sales tax by the next meeting, we— or by the November 4th meeting, we should have an idea of where third quarter came in on, um, for that.

8:14
Sheryl Glasen

So hopefully it's not some grand number. That last look showed that while it was down, the remote sales tax was up, so it netted about a $20,000 decrease from when— where we were this time last year. We did budget a little higher this year, so on the remote sales tax from last year. So that comparison isn't like a true, like, year-to-date to budget comparison. It was a— this is where we were at this time last year.

8:46
Sheryl Glasen

And then we did have some things come up since the development of this memo that we know about a boiler. Is it boiler or that one? Yeah, boiler in the Public Safety Building. So we're going to have to replace the boiler that is there. It's— and it's an urgent need.

9:07
Sam Greenwood

Yeah. So we're getting a final estimated quote on that to see where that looks like. Uh, rough— rough numbers were $65,000, but wasn't confirmed whether it was freight on board to Cordova and loaded, demoted, because you got to get one out, get get one in, it's very large.

9:27
Sheryl Glasen

So, um, so those are the things that we're thinking are going to come up in '26 to use that unexpected revenue. '27? '26. Oh, this year. Yep.

9:40
Sheryl Glasen

So we want—. We need to leave some of that in '26, but a conservative number was $600,000. $426 Million. So that leaves another million to get through '27 because we know that fish tax is going to be unprecedentedly low.

10:01
Sheryl Glasen

My recommendation is that we hold that and we actually do a budget amendment to move it to budgeted reserves for next year and then infuse it into '27's revenue budget.

10:15
Sheryl Glasen

Um, so that's one of the assumptions that I would like to go forward with, and I kind of wanted to run that past everyone, make sure that that sounds like a sound decision to council. Um, without that million in there, honestly, I don't have— I don't have a plan B at this point. I'm not going to say I can't come up with something, but it's not going to be something that—. Yeah. Let's cross that bridge if y'all say this does not sound reasonable.

10:45
Sheryl Glasen

But don't say that. Exactly. So the other assumptions that I would like to move forward with is assuming that this year's fishing season is not going to be repeated into next year. I don't think that we have anything that would lead us to believe that it would be, so Yeah. And then the carry forward revenue that I just spoke about.

11:11
Sheryl Glasen

Tomorrow is the meeting to know whether or not the insurance savings for health insurance for employees is going to be for all employees. So in the next couple of days, we're hoping for good news on that. And then, yeah, the fish tax revenue heard from the last meeting that we're going to lower that to $300,000. That sounds like a responsible way to handle next year. Yeah, just wanted feedback on if we can go forward with those assumptions from council.

11:52
Kristin Smith

Members have questions or comments about any of those? I see Cordova.

12:01
Aaron Hansen

It's just one question, just for clarification, because I couldn't remember. The $181,000, is that counting for the school's fiscal year '27 budget or '26? And is that included in that $600,000? It is included in the $600,000, and it's for their '27 budget, which has already begun. Their '27 budget started July 1st of this year.

12:24
Sheryl Glasen

Um, it'll be in the city's 26 budget, correct? Yep. Yeah, because we have that half-year overlap between our fiscal budgets. It's our 26, their 27, but in the calendar year of 26. Okay, thanks.

12:40
12:45
Kristin Smith

Any, uh, questions from folks online?

12:50
David Zastrow

This is Council Member Zastrow. No, I, I think these are great assumptions to move forward on, especially— I don't Number 4, budgeting the $300,000 raw fish hack revenue, as we discussed last council meeting, not, not getting too big eyes for what might we might possibly get, but being a little bit more conservative. And I certainly agree with the holding over the $1 million. That, that makes good sense. So these seems like good solid assumptions just to move forward on with developing a budget to me.

13:21
13:25
Kristin Smith

Thank you.

13:28
Sam Greenwood

Okay, that sounded like 5. Yep. Uh, the last thing I want to talk about though is the maintenance. Like, I want to make sure that we're all on the same page. Um, operational maintenance, I tried to define it in a way that we could all kind of get on board with.

13:49
Sam Greenwood

We certainly already have a long list of capital improvement projects that we all know about. So I just want to make sure everybody's good with that definition of operational maintenance. It's things that we're funding in the budget. Chip seal, as requested, will be in the budget. But things like fixing the fridge in the Cordova Center kitchen, those kinds of things will also be put in there.

14:16
Kristin Smith

So it's just preventative maintenance basically to keep it—. Things moving forward. And then when we have a boiler that goes out, we'll have to—. Yeah, yeah, just stinks to have to put more money into that building. I mean, I know we don't have much of a choice.

14:35
Kristin Smith

Nothing's happening anytime soon, but pay the call, pay the call. I will Council members, after—. Thank you, Mayor Smith. Um, yeah, yeah, the boiler thing. Gosh, we sure having collapsing boilers, uh, within the city, aren't we?

14:51
David Zastrow

With the—. What's going on with the pool as well. A question about the pool boiler issue. As I heard, I think it was a fuel pump and a manifold or something along those lines that needed to be replaced. Is that coming out of the original funds that we had already set aside for the pool maintenance this year?

15:11
David Zastrow

It's coming out of that $100,000 that you all set aside to do full work. Yes. Okay, great. Yeah. And thank you, Sam, for the definitions on maintenance.

15:23
David Zastrow

I, I, I know from my past history in my career, this is something that it can be pretty confusing to folks too. So I'll just say for my part, when I'm mentioning making sure we have maintenance dollars for the different parts of city operations, it's operational maintenance that comes to my mind, knowing that deferred maintenance is something quite different. So making sure we have operational maintenance dollars is definitely the, the base level bottom line thing we should hopefully be able to provide for the departments.

15:53
Kristin Smith

Yeah, I just wanted to ask, I know the term maintenance came up a couple times in our past meetings when we were talking about the budget, and I'm just wondering if people had specific things in mind when they talked about maintenance, like specific concerns.

16:09
Aaron Hansen

So, sir? Yeah, no, not directly. I mean, when we went through the budget cycle last year, you know, that was one of the chopping block items, and capital projects. I, I completely understand how this is broken down and what we have to fund just to function. Um, My comments were more towards extra funding should be reallocated, adding those maintenance budgets that were cut so that the entities that operate can maintain the equipment above, you know, it broke, let's fix it.

16:54
Aaron Hansen

Mm-hmm. Um, I think everyone understands, as you That's where I was pushing. So if we get small windfalls or small increases that we weren't anticipating, potentially, um, for example, we know that we have things end of life like boilers and proactively trying to replace those versus reactive, which is the situation that we're in. And I understand that we're not in a financial position to make those They're not action items now because we don't have the budget to do it.

17:34
Speaker D

We can maintain. Okay, thank you.

17:51
Kristin Smith

Okay, are there any questions for the manager on maintenance or budget schedule?

18:05
Susan Bourgeois

You know, there's some issues with that schedule. You have your notes? I do, but I'm not sure if we should talk about it now or at any event of the regular, whatever you want to do. But it's in the memo. Okay, so 10/28 is a Wednesday, but we're moving that one to Thursday the 29th because we can't have this whole room on the 28th.

18:31
Susan Bourgeois

Renters— we have renters and we don't turn away money. So the whole meeting will be—. And on the 28th is not a regular meeting, work session. If it was going to just be a work session, we'd like to stick to Wednesdays, but we're going to push that one to Thursday the 29th, as long as enough of you can make that. 6 PM Thursday the 29th.

18:55
19:00
Aaron Hansen

Oh, not sure about Casey. Casey, not here. Be here. We need to—. I will be out of town, and I may be able to, and we could put Um, well, we can do the 28th.

19:20
Susan Bourgeois

It's just going to be in the smaller room. What were you worried about? All the walls right there. I know. And so steps.

19:28
Sam Greenwood

We've done a—. You can do it in the education. It's been used also. This is the only room available on the 28th. Yeah.

19:36
Kristin Smith

Are you—. You guys found the 28th before? I'll be in Anchorage. So I was going to say, I know he's freaking here. He probably uses—.

19:45
Mike Mickelson

I know. I'll also be gone that day, but I can call him on the 29th. You can, but I'll be gone both days, so either one doesn't matter. I can call him. I'll be in town both days.

20:00
Susan Bourgeois

And so Lee would be phone or Zoom? Over Zoom, yeah. 28Th or 29th, either one. Okay, mostly, but you can't come at all on the 29th. Yeah, fine.

20:13
Susan Bourgeois

What do you guys want to do?

20:17
Susan Bourgeois

Well, it seems like the— is the mayor's conference room available? Usually, usually, that's too small. Yes, if this is too small, that's too small. Well, I mean, sounds like the school superintendent is raising her hand. I was just going to say, if there's space over in the high school where we have our boardroom, it works.

20:36
Wendy Ranney

I don't know how much hassle it is moving equipment, but it's a hassle. I don't know.

20:46
Sam Greenwood

You're the only person who's not going to be here on the 29th as far as we know. Yeah, potentially. Or who cannot attend on the 29th, because I don't know about Casey. Not—. What are you— you're only available on Wednesday?

21:02
Sheryl Glasen

The 28th.

21:05
Kristin Smith

Not Tuesday the 27th? Tuesday the 27th is a possibility, but the room was not—. It's not a room. No. Okay, well, yeah, I don't know.

21:14
Sam Greenwood

I don't know. We could see if Kasey and Deb are going to be here or not. I mean, okay, they're not here tonight. We'll lean towards the 29th and see, as long as the other two still make it.

21:29
Susan Bourgeois

Right. Oh, and then the form looks fine. The 11th is a holiday. But if Wednesdays work for you guys, I don't know. Do you just not want to make your staff come?

21:44
Susan Bourgeois

Is that why you would lean away from the holiday? Well, yeah, I would. So we could do that on the 12th instead, which is a Thursday. So how does everybody feel about Thursday, November 12th, 6 PM instead of the 11th? It'd be better for me because I got to pick all the flights.

22:06
Aaron Hansen

Okay, that's better. Yeah, that works. Okay. Yep, I'm good with that.

22:19
Susan Bourgeois

And then the guest speaker item from tonight happens to have been canceled. I think maybe you all heard about that, and so that is getting rescheduled for the 17th, will be the public meeting they have, then the 18th they're going to speak at our meeting as they were supposed to tonight. So that's just an aside, I guess.

22:48
Susan Bourgeois

And that's all. We don't have to talk about the ones after because they're not going to be— if we don't, right? We're going to aim for closing this out on 12/2. It's a goal. Hit or miss.

23:01
Susan Bourgeois

Work sessions are at 6. Say again? Work sessions are at 6. Yes, um, they may be 5:45 if we have a public hearing. And I believe if the first read ordinance tonight goes, there will be on the 4th a public hearing, so that— but, uh, work session will be at 5:45.

23:25
Susan Bourgeois

Thank you.

23:33
Susan Bourgeois

Right, we have the first read tonight. We did. Yeah, 911. No, no, another flat set.

23:44
Kristin Smith

All right, good to go. Yeah, that sounds good. First day done. Welcome back. Thank you, Sarah.

23:54
Kristin Smith

All right, so do you want to move on to the Parks and Rec? Yep.

24:13
Sam Greenwood

So I think, um, seems like there's a little confusion. Even after Samantha and I went back and talked through it, we felt like there was that as well. I think the confusion lies like this is two different topics. One topic is the programs that are separated from nonprofit facility uses and fees and staffing and operation capacity. We just wanted to explain that the pool mission of teaching kids how to swim and survive, you know, survival suits and those kinds of things is being done with the school and the city doing that.

25:04
Sam Greenwood

And that's how it's always been done, is through the school and the city. This is not a nonprofit, um, activity. Activity. It's just school and city, um, working together to get that done. And then just wanted to give you all an example, and, and Samantha can elaborate on this if you would like, on the capacity, the scheduling capacity with the plumbing where we're at right now.

25:29
Sam Greenwood

And just so that it was understood that, you know, we, we're doing the best we can with what we have. And this is what we can maintain. The funding that we have, and you have to live within those means. So that was that part, and I should have really done it as two separate items. It really is two very separate things.

25:50
Samantha

But I'm gonna let Samantha talk about the rest of it, and she can elaborate on anything in there. Yeah, I just wanted to separate, um, like Sam said, the, the first one we've already gone over that, that it is a school use. We're committed to that. The original purpose of the pool was to provide that for students. Um, this year we actually added one day onto it, so Friday.

26:16
Samantha

So they're projected to use about 650 hours this year of rental time. That's for the school. So Um, for the nonprofits, um, back in April I was asked to meet with, um, the Little League, and I've tried to communicate with them and have been unable to successfully meet with them. So I'm coming back to council to bring up the subject again so I can move forward with our fee schedule about what that looks like for '27 for the fee schedule, um, if they— if we are subsidizing all of it if we are going to do a discount based on a discount, I gave 3 different options. And I also provided a snapshot of what we typically see in a year as, uh, for nonprofit rental usage.

27:04
Samantha

So that's all nonprofits, Tice Farms included in this, Little League, all the facilities. So that's what we're looking at is that's, um, an average year, I would say, maybe a little less than an average year because I have had to turn away the Cordova Family Resource Center this year. We didn't have capacity to help them out in a way that they needed. Um, there's been a few things. Um, so other—.

27:27
Samantha

The $45,000. Yeah, the $45,000 is, um, what we usually typically see in a year for usage for everything, for everything, for all facilities, parks, for nonprofits. So, um, and, um, yeah, it's a little bit— I think it's a little bit lower than maybe if we were at— if we did have enough staff, I would definitely be able to do some more things. So, um, just to name a few nonprofits in the years that we're talking about, it's NGE, the Cordova Family Resource Center, um, the Chamber, the, uh, the Science Center. We all, we help them all for rentals.

28:04
Samantha

They, they use our facilities and parks.

28:08
Samantha

So I've gave 3 different options. I don't expect anything from it tonight. I just wanted to lay out some ideas. About how they're going to handle this so that we can move forward with our fee schedule with Parks and Rec.

28:28
Kristin Smith

Can I go by the one— the material that you provided that's on the pool, is that just informational? Are you looking for a decision specifically? Just informational. Okay. Just the only decision we're looking for is those three options.

28:45
Sam Greenwood

What do you want to do to move forward with the fee schedule? The fee schedule, yeah, because we, you know, we need to move forward, right, through the budgeting process. And so, um, it's pretty important. Yeah, and lining it out. Yeah, and I'm, you know, keeping— I try to keep an objective view on all of this.

29:07
Samantha

You know, like all of it is important. No, like, I like swimming. I'm trying to keep it objective.

29:16
Samantha

My kids have done all the things, but yeah, I don't think looking at it sometimes when it's— you can't choose one over the other. It's impossible. They're all very important to us.

29:32
Samantha

And as far as the capacity for the full year, we did include the October schedule. Um, with that, November is going to look a little different than October. We're working through that. We did have our full family card just put in his 2 weeks, so he'll be done soon. And then we have another one.

29:48
Samantha

He's, you know, they're doing great things. We had another opportunity. We're really happy to have him when we did. So yeah, November, we're working through what November looks like.

30:02
Mike Mickelson

I have a quick question, Madam Mayor, if that's allowed. Please go ahead. Maybe I missed it in your packet, Sam, but I mean, I understand those are nonprofits, but what are the nonprofits that are actually using the school? Is Iceworm Swim Team one of them? But I just was kind of unclear who that was, and not that it necessarily matters, but I think when we're weighing this, it seems like the pool has some fixed costs that are maybe different than some of the other services that the city provides.

30:38
Sam Greenwood

And so I think that bears discussion, if nothing else, and that's why I'm bringing it up. Are you asking me if the IceWorms are part of the nonprofit use of the pool? I'm just asking who the nonprofits are that are using the pool, I guess. Just, just to help have some clarity when we're looking at what our options are here. Yeah, sorry.

31:05
Samantha

So some of the nonprofits historically that have used the pool when it was open. So the, the Science Center uses it for the R&B Challenge every year. There was another neurodiverse support group that was a nonprofit that we had.

31:22
Samantha

That they came in and used it. I think we were— accommodated them once a week, I mean once a month for that. So I'm trying to think. Icebergs. And then the icebergs.

31:37
Samantha

And I think the NVE has used it in the past too.

31:43
Mike Mickelson

Okay, thank you.

31:52
David Zastrow

And, and then to be clear, the other uses of the pool, as you identified on item 2, the first page, Mount Eccles Elementary School swim program and CHS Wolverine swim team. So those are the—. Those are what are in the schedule, right? Not on— those are not school uses separate from nonprofits. That is a service that the city and the school provide.

32:19
David Zastrow

Yeah, okay, just, just making— just putting that flag in that that is a separate thing than the entities you just outlined, which is Iceworm Swim Team, Science Center, NeuroDiverse, those 3, those 3 entities. There's nothing— there's no other nonprofits that have used the pool then in the past? Right off the top of my head, I could look. But I'm trying to think, you know, just there are occasional users. Yeah, there are occasional, but it's not consistent users.

32:49
Samantha

And for like our parks and other facilities, I think the Family Resource Center, we had the Pioneers run this year.

32:59
Kristin Smith

So in the past it's been opened up for practice for the Survival Suit Race. I don't know if that gets rented by anybody or if that's—. We, we do provide that by—. So yeah, a few regular user nonprofits and then a handful of others from time to time. Yes.

33:18
David Zastrow

Okay, thank you.

33:25
Kevin Johnson

Yeah, so it seems like the big question is how do we—.

33:32
Aaron Hansen

Yeah, Councilor Hansen. So the Ice Worm swim team, they are required to have pool passes, is that correct? They have in the past. Thanks.

33:47
Aaron Hansen

I think my big thing with the Ice Worm was one or the other, require pool pass or require a fee but not to require both.

34:05
Aaron Hansen

And I think that that did generate a lot of pool passes.

34:11
Samantha

I could run numbers on it, but I can tell you that since we have our wellness program here in the community, that a lot of the swimmers already had family passes to the pool. So there were only a handful of ones that just had pool passes for just like the child that was swimming. Sure. So if that makes sense, nobody said already. And I know I'm very grateful for that.

34:33
Wendy Ranney

So many families had passes in the past. Ice Worms took care of ourselves, like when we supplied our own coaches and lifeguards. But you're not—. But now it's required to have city employees there during that time. I would be open to them having the volunteer, um, if they met those parameters.

34:50
Samantha

I know right now we're short on lifeguards. Um, but yes, around 2022 I think is when we started phasing in our own lifeguards for them and the school, uh, because we were having, um, some incidents that were not good. So coaches and lifeguards are two separate things. Like, the lifeguard's in the chair, the coach is in the water. They're not lifeguarding on the water.

35:12
Sam Greenwood

That's the big distinction that Samantha is trying to get across, is like the safety element. Of somebody focused on watching versus somebody focused on coaching and trying to watch. But if they provided their own certified— they're going to have to be certified lifeguard— and with a coach, that the city wouldn't have to staff that? We would need at least one city employee in the building at that time. Okay, because we did used to.

35:38
Samantha

Yeah, it's a— it, you know, I think things change and you learn in the science of everything, just keeping up with it. I, in my quarterly report, I really lined out what like goes into deciding these things. Yeah. And we're, we're a Red Cross training facility, which I am very grateful for, and I want to hold that certification. It's what we— being a training facility lets us have the school come in too.

36:06
Kristin Smith

So we need to follow what they their guidelines, their recommendations. They're never going to say you have to do this, but they definitely recommend it. Leave it to us to make those decisions, those risk management decisions. It would still be a savings if high school was fielding one lifeguard.

36:32
Samantha

And I am going to go to, you know, on the 7th and get, uh, get my certification. Breed on to be a lifeguard instructor and then put a phase in a lifeguard class soon, um, where it will be open to anyone that would like to volunteer for that. I would love to have someone. They do need to come to in-service training and follow the same onboarding that the city has too, which includes drug testing and a background check.

37:01
Samantha

So definitely an option.

37:10
Kristin Smith

So do folks have questions about the, I mean, it seems like the really big question is how do we account for this 45, I would guess it's 45 to 55,000, like you said, if we add more staff and we're trying to provide more options or more hours, that number is going to go up. So. Somewhere in that neighborhood. But how do we— how does the council want to— what, what, what policy do you want to set in terms of how we cover that expense? It's a big question.

37:44
Sam Greenwood

Are we—. I'm not ready to answer that. I, I mean, I need to think of this maybe a little more. It's great information, but—. So at our next meeting on the 29th, this is coming back up.

37:57
Sam Greenwood

Yeah, because I mean, I, I understand it's a lot to think about. Trust me, I've been thinking about it a lot too, but we have to make a decision at some point and we have to stick with it. So consistency. Yes. So if you don't want to do it, don't do it.

38:17
Samantha

If you want to cut the fees in half that were presented last time, do it. But I would, I would say that's the consistency part of it. Um, since I've been here, even for almost 5 years now, um, we have charged nonprofits and we've always had a fee schedule for it. Um, and some people are getting charged and some weren't, and it's not fair, you know, like deciding that. So a consistency, consistency in it would be ideal either way.

38:47
Kristin Smith

I want—. I guess I want to clarify, when you say you've been unable to reach the league You've been, you've been reaching out and just not heard back. I emailed 3 different times to set meetings with them. They're mostly attached. Yeah, 2 of your board are attached to—.

39:01
Aaron Hansen

Okay, I just want both to know, like, unable means have not gotten the chance. Yeah, not just, yeah, 2 of the board, the entire board. Yes. And so I have not heard back from them. I can't, um, probably there's something Yeah, I've also personally reached out to board members to try and get something to come back to us.

39:28
Aaron Hansen

Yeah, you know, I definitely am open to working with— I care about all of this very deeply. I want to learn. So yeah, I, I will add, when we had this discussion, the intent was to have a meeting prior to budget so that we knew what we were doing. Let me create an MOU, create whatever avenue to have the discussion, and, and not find ourselves in April. Yeah, yeah, being told, yeah, they failed on that side of things.

40:08
Kristin Smith

Yeah, I do think what's super helpful about this table and having these numbers is the fact that we are quantifying, like, finally actually have a number on what is the service that the city provides and how do we pay for it. And it's, and it's, it's labor, it's facilities, it's maintenance on facilities, it's all of those things. So I think it's really, really great that you're able to, like I said, to quantify this. I do have to shout out to everybody that does like the school, the swim team, you know, that even the, uh, The Wolverines right now, even Little League this summer, they, they reserved everything on CivicRec, and you can just see that it's so much easier. I can pull a report on this and show how much they're using, how much everyone's using.

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40:55
Sam Greenwood

It's, it's just been really great to see everyone like really just going ahead and doing it. So it's awesome. That is one criteria that we want support from city council is even if there are no things that people use CivicRec, if we're going to apply for grants, okay, we're going to try to get money, we need to, you know, create a report that comes from a software that's tracking use, creates a report that looks like a professional document to be able to submit. So that is super important to have data. It also helps with, uh, all the maintenance part of it, they're able to pull it up and see who's renting it for the day, or we can block things off.

41:39
Samantha

And before that was just like, you know, we weren't— nobody knew if it was fertilized and they were digging on the field. And so now, now you can— they can see whose reserved fields on what days and they plan their maintenance around it, or they block it off and vice versa. So it's been really helpful just for that. Communication part of it. Yeah, just, yeah, getting things into the system so that we have data, so that you have schedules, you can check on things, you, like you said, see who used the facility.

42:11
Kristin Smith

And yeah, yes, those are, those are huge leaps forward. Same thing. Thank you for the information. Yeah, that's huge. Appreciate it.

42:25
Sam Greenwood

We could at some point too supply a table that shows these 5 groups. That would be amazing. And I think, I mean, we could probably email it out the next couple days.

42:40
Sam Greenwood

They're just having dinner soon.

42:45
Mike Mickelson

Madam Mayor. Yes. Um, well, I, I guess this is sort of a question about, you know, looking towards the future and, and looking at grants. I know it's so many other aspects of things like this. If we structure our fee schedule so it's an in-kind match.

43:04
Mike Mickelson

So, for example, like with the Iceworm, which I participated in a long time ago when the rules were slightly different for pool usage.

43:12
Mike Mickelson

You know, if they're providing one lifeguard, we'll provide the other, but we're not going to provide both or something, something like that. Would that make any difference in applying for grant funds? Or is it just kind of moot, I guess, is my question.

43:30
Kristin Smith

I think it depends on— so if we are not charging 100% of the cost, then you could in theory say that whatever the amount that we're not charging for could potentially be used as a match. If Iceworm is providing a lifeguard, that's not a city resource, you know, then Iceworm is providing labor for a match. Which maybe that counts, maybe it doesn't, depends on the funder. So yeah, it would depend, I think, on where—. Yeah, and I think also that this, the fees don't cover the cost to run the pool, right?

44:06
Sam Greenwood

It's just trying to help with the cost of use because even this number doesn't include permanent staff, right? This is just temporary employees and one permanent lifeguard. For how many hours? For the hours that they are work— we used. So this is just like direct cost.

44:26
Kristin Smith

This doesn't even account for the indirect cost. This is like your time or having the insurance or—. Right, right. So there's other, another layer of stuff that's— that we're not even—. Oh yeah, this is just a small—.

44:40
Jeremiah Becker

Right, yeah, right. Single small pieces of that. First, subset adding. Yeah, so—. Yeah, go ahead.

44:54
David Zastrow

Oh, thank you. Yeah, no, I just want to add this topic of in-kind. I do like the idea of in-kind, but one thing that jumps out at me is consistency. So say that the Iceworm team was going to provide a lifeguard, I wouldn't want to see it being kind of haphazardly applied, like one session they have a lifeguard, then the next session they need a city lifeguard, a city employee. So I think in-kind has to be managed as strictly as monies would be managed and not have it just be, you know, when they happen to have somebody available.

45:27
David Zastrow

But, um, yeah, it has to be consistent. As I hear the manager and our Parks and Rec director are saying, consistency is huge. And, uh, I think we need to determine what we're going to do ahead of time, be sure that if something like in-kind is going to be applied, that it's understood and adhered to well.

45:50
Mike Mickelson

It becomes, you know, we still have to have a city employee there, and then if they don't have a lifeguard, are we telling them to go home? Well, my thought was more of, you know, looking at grants that they would have to pay for that second lifeguard. Like, we would provide one, but they're providing the other, or some way of splitting the services. So when you could go looking for grants, we could say, hey, we're doing a match here, we're trying to find a way to fund this other part, or something of that nature. And maybe that's completely unrelated.

46:26
David Zastrow

So no, no, I hear you, Mike. I think that makes a lot of sense to me too. I guess I was referring more just to the operational aspect of day-to-day use of the pool by nonprofits. I will also say that I also appreciate what has been provided here by you, Sam, and Samantha, as far as what we have to consider here, having these three particular options. In particular, the option three, the phased-in for nonprofit contribution, which I think I'm leaning into more.

46:55
Sam Greenwood

What that number is, I don't know. We certainly will be discussing, but This has gotten at least me a lot further down the line on what I would feel comfortable as a council member establishing that we will stick to throughout the fiscal year. I guess so for us, it would be really helpful to understand, A, what do you need now to move forward? With making a decision. So on the 28th, which is not a regular meeting, it is another work session, what do you need so that we can have a— I mean, sounds like we're done discussing, sort of.

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47:40
David Zastrow

Um, what do you need? I hear people saying you just need to think about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, uh, a little more consideration before we meet again.

47:53
Sam Greenwood

Okay, if you come up with questions or concerns, it would be helpful to have them before the meeting. I'd like to be productive at the meeting and be able to, you know, to wrap it up as— because we really are— we're getting there quickly to needing to be—. So because you want to know what number you can plug in. Well, yeah, it's right. I mean, not just really right.

48:20
Sam Greenwood

Yeah. Yeah. And, and it doesn't matter what it is. Like, if you don't want to do it, don't do it. I'm not saying we have to do it, but we have to make a decision, right?

48:31
Samantha

So you can get it and stick to whatever that decision is. I will add, I really appreciate all the time you guys have put into this and laying it out. I did also— sorry, I interrupted, but I also want to say that If I do a class and we get volunteers, like, I'm always here to support the Iceworm when they are in there in the pool. I've gone in and like tried to tour them. Like, I want this to work, right?

49:00
Samantha

And so all the training and everything that resources that we have as a city, I try to really put out there for them too. So if they did have a volunteer lifeguard that fit the parameters, then I would be more than happy to, um, put them in the class and train them, get them started. And as of right now, we have not heard or been asked by anyone for hours at the pool. Yeah, they usually start in November, so sure. Well, they're just finishing up the Wolverines right now, so it's the same people doing this.

49:33
Kristin Smith

So, so are we, uh, how do you want to handle? I mean, if they start in November, this— that's '26, and, and we're talking about a different fee schedule potentially for '27. So for '26, we don't have the staff. And we—. Yeah, we don't have the staff to do it.

49:53
Sam Greenwood

I mean, that's just what it comes down to. Don't have the staff to do—. To do the schedule that's in place right now and put the ice form over there so they can't use it at all. Or they could use it in the school slots. Will school be done?

50:08
Samantha

To be determined. I'm working on it. Okay. We are working on it. I mean, there's any cat herds right now.

50:15
Samantha

Yeah. Um, so yeah, I, I want to get them in there. It's going to look good. I want to be during the day this year. This school will get that started.

50:25
Samantha

Yeah. So then go from there with hours. So we have 3 like girls So, so yeah, we—.

50:39
Aaron Hansen

Well, I, I feel that we, we establish, right, the priority, and the school is the priority by design. So as like everything else that we're dealing with, it's, it's tiered. So I completely understand the position over The Wolverines already are cut, were cut this year. That's a hard call. You know, like they are doing 3 days a week instead of their usual 6.

51:08
Samantha

So not, you know, it's not easy, but they, they worked with me and they were amazing.

51:16
Samantha

Yeah, they see the issue too. So yeah.

51:23
David Zastrow

Pool's opening. It's great. Yeah, Madam Mayor, that's what I was asking. Thanks. Yeah, so since we have Samantha sitting there— yeah, what is the upshot on the pool?

51:36
Samantha

We're opening tomorrow with regular hours. The part came in yesterday afternoon and, uh, was installed, and it came up to temperature today, uh, so it took a while to warm it up again, but it's looking Awesome. So the parts and pieces, were they found here in Alaska or they have to be shipped up from lower 48 or? They were in this country, so it just like, it just was a perfect storm. I mean, I couldn't be more grateful to everyone involved in it.

52:06
Samantha

The parts were here and I just couldn't even believe it when they told me that they were going to be here yesterday. I'm like, I don't really believe this. That's great news. Thank you. Owed you one.

52:19
Samantha

So no, it worked out great.

52:25
Kristin Smith

I'm going to blow them out.

52:30
Speaker D

Yay! Thanks.

52:34
Samantha

Your questions? I'm available. Okay, thank you. Thanks so much. Thank you.

52:44
Kristin Smith

Okay, so we're— people are gonna noodle on this and be prepared to make a decision next week, and then we'll— that will help get Sam the number that she can plug into the budget.

53:04
Speaker D

Okay, any other questions?

53:11
Kristin Smith

Anything else you want to add, Sam?

53:15
Sam Greenwood

I don't think so. We're, we're moving forward. It'll be super helpful with the decision tonight. That's—. We've been kind of holding, and tomorrow or Friday hopefully we'll hear on the exams.

53:30
Kristin Smith

Yeah, that'll be a huge—. Yeah, well, actually This is a bigger decision. The thought of moving forward without $1 million into '27 is—. Oh, you mean for the— right, I, I was still thinking about facility leases, but right, overall, yes. Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah.

53:49
Kristin Smith

So on that, we can say yes. So, so the— so I think council has agreed to the budget assumptions on page 2 of the packet, is that right?

54:01
Kristin Smith

Uh, the work session packet about— yeah, the work session schedule that we're asking now, uh, the general fund budget assumptions Sheryl was talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so that's huge. Carrying a million over. Yeah, it's huge.

54:23
Sam Greenwood

Yeah, yeah. And then it'll be— it'll be Awesome. Have to get the exams in. Yeah, it's another savings. A different— well, do we want to take a 10-minute recess before the public hearing?

54:41
Kristin Smith

Let's do that. The whole work session.

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1:02:44
Susan Bourgeois

I never know exactly what I'm muting when I mute that.

1:02:52
Susan Bourgeois

We're taking the roll on the public hearing mic. Are you there?

1:02:58
Kristin Smith

David Zastrow, are you present for the public hearing? Sorry, present, yes. Thank you. Okay, so we're having a public hearing on, uh, Ordinance 1242 and Ordinance of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, repealing and reenacting Cordova Municipal Code Chapter 8.04, Animals, and amending Cordova Municipal Code 1.28. 085-C, Minor Offense Schedule, to modernize the animal control impoundment, bite and attack response, potentially dangerous and vicious dog procedures, quarantine, human disposition, enforcement, and penalties.

1:03:38
Kristin Smith

And we're also taking, um, public comment on Resolution 10-26-30, a resolution of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, establishing the City of Cordova Enhanced 911 surcharge effective January 1st, 2027. The ordinance will repeal and supersede resolutions 08-10-49 and 03-12-20 and provide for collection, accounting, and annual review. Anybody in the public want to come comment on animal control or enhanced 911?

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1:04:24
Jeremiah Becker

Jeremiah Becker, 611 Second Street, Cordova Telecom. I hear your comment on the E911. First, I want to start off that we fully support public safety and communications in Cordova. Most recently, this last weekend, we had several staff supporting the search and rescue as well as our drone. So we actively participate, and we're excited to hear that they're looking to improve 911 location services.

1:04:51
Jeremiah Becker

I saw the ordinance in there this weekend, and we haven't had any discussions with the city, and I don't think all the information is clear in the ordinance of what you're taking on. So we just wanted to provide some information so that you have just a little bit more info as you're defining that ordinance. These are just notes. We're going to send a formal letter probably next week. I can go to the next packet that will summarize these notes.

1:05:19
Jeremiah Becker

So the first thing I want to make sure everyone knew is that this tax— it is a tax— can only be applied to local exchange carriers within the municipality city limits. So this means you can only collect the tax from Cordova Telecom, Cordova Wireless, and Copper Valley. All the other phones— AT&T, FirstNet, Verizon, GCI— you cannot collect the tax from because they are not in the local exchange. So collectively, between CTC, Cordova Wireless, and Copper Valley, there's roughly 2,570 local lines, which equates to, if you did the maximum tax, $62,000 a year. Um, so that is based on current records, um, from us in Copper Valley.

1:06:07
Jeremiah Becker

We did not filter out lines outside, like at the end of Hardy Bay and places like that, but it's a fairly close number. Um, second thing we want to point out is that, uh, you're only taxing the local exchange. You're basically taxing people to shop local, just to be clear. It is a local shopping tax, essentially, on communications. Um, and then the impact could be different to different groups.

1:06:37
Jeremiah Becker

We have a couple dozen Lifeline customers in Cordova. They pay $1 a month, and sometimes they can't even make that payment. So adding a $2 surcharge to Lifeline customers would triple their costs. So we highly recommend excluding lifeline customers. Um, we also want you to keep in mind that modern families might have lots of phones.

1:07:04
Jeremiah Becker

Think of a family with multiple high school students, and they all have a cell phone. A family that could have 5 or more phones, and you're essentially adding a tax that might be the equivalent of one of their online other services that they use. So you might want to consider a per-household limit. How we can actually calculate that might be difficult for us, but something to consider. Uh, and then businesses, um, several businesses in town have dozens and dozens of lines.

1:07:29
Jeremiah Becker

There is a cap built into the federal statutory rules. I believe it's 150. You'd have to check that, and I, I think for the most part no one would exceed that count, but we just want to make you aware of that. And then, um, finally, we haven't been engaged about this technology or service By default, we are required to support E911, but we're in the middle of an accounting and mapping migration that won't be done until the middle of next year. So I don't even know if we can actually provide you the data to map a phone number to an address or a cell phone to a location at this time.

1:08:07
Jeremiah Becker

We'll, of course, support whatever you request, but we don't have a capital project plan. We've never gone through the exercise with the vendor to understand how to get you the data. And the data also has to be maintained. People move all the time. They might be in one apartment one year, in a different apartment another year.

1:08:25
Jeremiah Becker

So keep that in mind that you have a heavy dependency on us to have accurate data to feed that system and to maintain the system long term. And outside of that, like, we really support the initiative. We think it's overdue for Cordova. We just wanted to make sure you had that information as you're defining the ordinance. So hopefully Hopefully we can be aware of those that, that aren't in the same financial position that might be overwhelmed by it, and to ensure that your timeline expectations with planning the project take into consideration the dependency on us to provide you the data.

1:09:03
Kristin Smith

That's it. Be glad to answer any questions around. I guess I do have a question that— I mean, the E911 is for addressing so that a responder can get there quickly, and is If, if the charge is attached to somebody's cell phone, I guess they— so they're calling and saying, I'm at such and such an address. Cell phones inherently have a GPS location identified into them. Yeah, if they're in Cordova proper, there's multiple towers, we can triangulate right where they are.

1:09:34
Jeremiah Becker

If they're out the road, they're probably only attached to one tower, so the coordinates might not be as exact as you need. Um, and that's a good point too. Uh, I don't know the exact count, but I bet you only 80% of town has a wireline phone. Um, the mobility integration is separate from wireline integration. They're two different, like, technology efforts on our part.

1:09:57
Jeremiah Becker

Yeah, I was just trying to think about how— I, I actually honestly haven't thought that much about how the E911 connection works. I mean, what—. You're tracking somebody to where they're actually physically located based on their phone, or is it Yeah, I believe the software basically does a query to our system to pull out the information because it's not going to come over on the phone, right? Okay, okay. Now require integration and probably development on our side, and it's something we can plan.

1:10:26
Jeremiah Becker

So fully supported, but when you set those expectations with the community or public safety of when it's going to be implemented, um, it's great if you have a list now with addresses and phone numbers, but those will inherently change, and that doesn't cover Yeah, okay, thank you.

1:10:42
Jeremiah Becker

Yeah, yeah, we're excited to see the progress. Thanks.

1:10:48
Kristin Smith

I guess I should have asked if anybody else had questions for General Hansen.

1:11:04
Kristin Smith

Okay, um, other public comments about the Ordinance 1242, Animal Control, or the E911 surcharge? I— recess for a few more minutes. All right, we will recess. For 7 minutes.

1:11:40
Susan Bourgeois

To adjourn it or recess? We're recessing the public hearing. Recessing the public hearing.

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1:17:55
Susan Bourgeois

Council Member Zastrow and his Show Us the Red Line added 50 pages to this packet also. Yeehaw! Thank you. Oh, giving you the credit.

1:18:13
Kristin Smith

Okay, so, um, I'm gonna call the meeting to order. Just adjourn the Oh, okay, okay. So any further— anybody else want to testify, comment on, um, Ordinance 1242 or Resolution 1026-30, uh, animal control or enhanced 911 surcharge? Okay, we will turn the public hearing and we will call the regular city council meeting to a Will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

1:18:52
Kristin Smith

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of these United States of America, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I didn't hear David.

1:19:10
Kristin Smith

I bet he didn't sign either.

1:19:20
Susan Bourgeois

Um, will the clerk take the roll? Uh, Mayor Smith here. Debra Adams is absent. Lee Collins here. Aaron Hansen here.

1:19:29
Susan Bourgeois

Kasey Kinsman is absent. Mike Mickelson here. Wendy Ranney here. And David Zastrow Here. That's—.

1:19:40
Kristin Smith

Thank you. Um, so council members, we have an agenda before us. Are there any, um, we— yeah, are there any amendments to the agenda as presented?

1:19:54
Kristin Smith

Hearing no amendments, we'll consider the agenda approved as presented. Are there any disclosures of conflicts of interest and ex parte communications? To be made about any items on tonight's agenda?

1:20:12
Kristin Smith

Don't see any hands or hear anything online. Um, communications by and petitions from visitors. Our guest speaker has been rescheduled. We can take audience comments from folks regarding agenda items. Does anybody want to comment on an agenda item?

1:20:33
Kristin Smith

Okay, chairpersons and representatives of boards and commissions, we have information in the packet, highlights from the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council September 2026 meeting in the packet, and we have the library board chair memo to the council and to the FCC supporting the e-rate, supporting funding for the e-rate program.

1:21:00
Kristin Smith

I don't see anybody else from the school district or the medical center. Okay, we will move on to the consent calendar with 5 items. So does that look good to folks? Nothing being pulled. I will take the roll on the consent calendar.

1:21:21
Kristin Smith

Aaron Hansen? Yes. Debra Adams is absent. David Zastrow? Yes.

1:21:29
Susan Bourgeois

Mike Mickelson?

1:21:33
Susan Bourgeois

Yes. Kasey Kinsman is absent. Wendy Ranney? Yes. Lee Collins?

1:21:36
Susan Bourgeois

Yes. So the consent calendar is approved. Great.

1:21:45
Kristin Smith

Okay, you guys are all done.

1:21:49
Kristin Smith

Let's see, um, approval of minutes, we don't have any. Consideration of bids, proposals, and contracts, we don't have any of those. Reports of officers, I did not submit a written mayor's report. I still haven't heard anything back from the AMHS about extra, um, shouldn't even call them extra, about, uh, some savings to cover the service gap for the Aurora, um, what is called—. Yes, Mayor, so once Representative Stutes was here, she gave an update to that.

1:22:18
Wendy Ranney

Because the dock in Whittier can't be used as we originally were looking because of a fire, they're now looking at the possibility of a sailing to Seward once a month, which would still give us a longer drive to Anchorage, but it would be a once a month sailing. So the sailing still is on the table, they're just looking at coordinating to go from Cordova to Seward instead of Cordova was the last we heard. And so, thank you.

1:22:50
1:22:54
Kristin Smith

I am going to be working on some STIP comments or to submit to DOT. I'm going to follow up again on the 2024 Fisheries Disaster Relief I think it probably would be good for the city to also do a letter to the FCC about the e-rate program. So I can do that because I have a great template that Mary Ann put together. And I think those are mostly things I've been working on. I worked on doing that, trying to compile the responses from your evaluations for the clerk and city manager.

1:23:38
Kristin Smith

We will go over that later. I did print that stuff, it's here. Okay, for you, please. Thank you. Yeah, so I'm happy to answer any questions.

1:23:54
Sam Greenwood

Um, we can then go on to the city manager's report. Okay, I'm crossing off the pool update because we already have that. Um, but Kevin wanted to come up and talk about the STIP a little bit too, because we've been talking with DOT on our projects and about things that could be helpful for that.

1:24:19
Samantha

What is that? I forgot.

1:24:25
Kristin Smith

I know where the skeletons are. I see.

1:24:30
Kevin Johnson

Uh, good evening, Council. Kevin Johnson, Public Works Director. Um, did not get this into the packet but wanted to make sure that everybody is aware that the, um, Alaska Department of Transportation, uh, SIP— that's their Transportation Improvement Program— uh, list is— draft is open for public comment currently. Uh, the city specifically has two projects that is on that list., and it is crucial that, um, everybody comments on those projects. Um, I will be commenting on behalf of the city.

1:25:04
Kevin Johnson

I would request that the council members comment individually as members of the community, and we will be doing our best to promote it over the next week for the community to comment as well. Uh, the two projects that are on the STIP that are specifically city-related is the Second Street Reconstruction Project That's project number 32378. And the Whiteshed Road— uh, Whiteshed Road and Pedestrian Improvements, project number 27049. Excuse me. Uh, the important points to consider about these projects are both of these projects need full funding in 2027.

1:25:47
Kevin Johnson

The current STIP shows a significant amount of funding for them in 2027, but it does not currently show full funding for 2027. The reason that this is important is that both of these projects are shovel-ready. Um, the Whiteside project is not only design complete, but the project has been put out to bid, contractor selected. Um, the Second Street project, the design is complete and we are ready to go out to bid here starting in December, pending Federal Highway approval, which is being submitted currently.

1:26:24
Kevin Johnson

So with both of those projects being shovel-ready, we are ready to begin those projects in spring 2027. The delay of fully funding these projects would be a— would mean an increase in cost. As we all know, the longer you wait to fund a project and push it down the road, the more those projects increase in cost. So that is going to be an undue burden for community because not only does that mean that the project price is going to increase in general, it means that the community's max burden is going to increase unnecessarily. So again, I request that everybody in the community please comment on the STIP and let the state know that these projects are ready to roll, coming up in just a couple of months.

1:27:11
Kristin Smith

And they need to ensure that they have full project funding. That's the question. Um, when you say they're not fully funded, are they going to do 100% of the work in 2027? My understanding is that both projects are anticipated to be a one construction season project. Okay.

1:27:31
Kevin Johnson

Specifically, I know for sure the Second Street project is, is intended to be a one season project. Mostly because it does have so many constraints, which usually constraints would mean that it's going to be a longer process, but they want to reduce the impact that those constraints cost. Yeah. So yeah, they are intended to be one system projects. Great.

1:27:54
Kevin Johnson

We really do need all that money in one year. Yeah, in one budget cycle. The Second Street project is almost fully funded in the STIP. The Whitefish project is close to fully funded, but quite a gap between actual project costs and what they're showing in the '27 budget. So our conversations with state staff has been the state is very willing to fund those projects.

1:28:18
Kevin Johnson

They just need that little extra nudge to make that final decision. So as Cordovans are known to do, get out, comment, let them know. So Okay, thank you.

1:28:33
Kristin Smith

And this is not, um, one of those two projects, but are they still talking about replacing the, um, Kodiak culvert this fall? Yeah, um, it's not listed as a SPIT project. I think it has a different funding source. I believe it's on the—. Yeah, um, so it has a different funding source.

1:28:52
Kevin Johnson

Um, it is, it is on the, uh schedule for them to be doing next year. I've been actively doing some finalizing of project design with them because we do have the waterway that goes through there. So that is still, from my understanding, going to be moving forward next year. They have the fish window to deal with, so between that and a couple other delays, they were going to be starting it this fall, but they decided to defer that to next year. All right.

1:29:22
Sam Greenwood

So also in the spring of '27? I don't know if it's spring, but '27.

1:29:28
Kevin Johnson

So we are going to have a busy, busy year of construction. I'm going to just preemptively ask all Cordovans to be very patient. It's going to be a, uh, short amount of pain for a lot of benefit to this community, but there is going to be some major disruptions in '27 while all these projects are going on. So there'll be a lot of construction crews spending money in town. Yes.

1:29:49
Wendy Ranney

I say bring it. Have you heard? I just recently heard about the raising of Orvin Road. Is that a project that's on the books yet, or is that just in its—. Where did you hear that?

1:30:01
Kevin Johnson

From the surveyors that were surveying the road. So we received an initial notification that they are preparing that project. My understanding is that currently the project scope just includes a resurfacing of the road, which I believe means actually tearing up the existing surface and resurfacing from base grade up. I need to actually confirm what the comment period is for that when it comes to the public comment period, because I, at least from the city's perspective, I do have some concerns about the current project scope. They want to just resurface this roadway while not addressing the storm surge damage that continues to happen.

No audio detected at 1:30:08

1:30:48
Kevin Johnson

Obviously, I think we can all agree that resurfacing the road without addressing the armoring that needs to happen is throwing good money after bad because they'll only be back here fixing that when it gets damaged eventually. I just haven't seen anything on a comment period or any information at all on the project till I had surveillers in my yard. Yeah, um, I can't confirm whether the public comment period on that is open or not yet. I just know that we did receive that early notification. I just need to look into it a little bit further, but I will make sure that, uh, at one of our next meetings I'll let you know what that, uh, project status is.

1:31:21
Kristin Smith

Thank you. I did make sure the commissioner saw all that when he was here in September for the Confluence Summit. Like, I don't know if people— but he said something like, oh yeah, the mayor gave me the pothole tour, which I did, all the rough spots. But I definitely pointed out all those eroded, the places where it's eroding through the fog line. Yes.

1:31:38
Kevin Johnson

I, I made sure to do the same thing. I knew the state crew was coming in because they were looking at some of our projects as well. I walked part of that corridor with them and I made sure to put my comments in to them directly that, as you can see, you are only going to be out here redoing this work if you do not handle the entire problem immediately. So. And I know they were not coordinating with the Shepherd Point Road connection and that had to be re-engineered.

1:32:06
Kevin Johnson

And so there's just a lot of conversations happening around us. And since that's the only way to access our property, I kind of like to be at that table. Yeah, I mean, there will be the normal public comment period and process. I mean, we, like I said, we just also received, you know, this was the first notification. So we're all, we're all just worrying about this currently.

1:32:29
Kristin Smith

Yeah. Okay, any further questions for Public Works Director?

1:32:40
Kristin Smith

Thank you. Great, thank you.

1:32:47
Sam Greenwood

I don't have anything to add, uh, other than appreciate the Moving forward on the budget, um, I think that's going to make everybody's life easier, and I just think it's the right thing to do. Um, that's about all unless anyone has some questions. There's more budget stuff.

1:33:22
Susan Bourgeois

Okay, so that's the city manager's report. The clerk's report, I think I'll just reiterate what I think Amanda's whispering about, is that I just wanted you guys to understand that, uh, your final plat resolution was in the consent calendar. It gets approved all in one vote. So you guys are good to go. All right.

1:33:46
Susan Bourgeois

And I think that's what Amanda just explained also. And then the only thing I put in the packet was the notice about boards of commissions.

1:33:59
Susan Bourgeois

And we received one application from a library board existing member who wants to re-up, which is great. But, um, hopefully the staff to boards and commissions have been sending information to their members who might be coming off or interested in staying on, and I'll get those applications. But also anybody else from the public who's listening, you're interested, please get in touch with the clerk's office. Um, and then I think I still got it wrong on the, uh, calendar, sorry, but the early voting has begun. Um, it's been 3 days so far.

No audio detected at 1:34:08

1:34:41
Susan Bourgeois

I know they had about 35 people on the first day. I haven't really even talked to them much on these last 2 days, but it's 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM upstairs in the atrium, 10 to 4. Uh, they'll be here on weekdays leading up to the election on November 3rd. So I think Monday the 2nd is the last day There's also still ways to do absentee. State has a great website.

1:35:09
Susan Bourgeois

We can help you out here at City Hall. Call us or go to the Division of Elections, same Alaska website. They can help you out too. That is all I have to report. Thank you.

1:35:23
Kristin Smith

Any questions for the clerk?

1:35:31
Kristin Smith

Okay, let's go on. See, um, we've got some correspondence in the packet. No, no, I'm sorry, staff reports. For the staff reports, yes, we have some great staff reports in the packet. So, um, yeah, do folks have any questions or comments about any of that material?

1:35:49
Kristin Smith

I really appreciate those, super helpful. Yeah, I agree.

1:35:57
David Zastrow

Uh, Madam Mayor, um, yeah, yeah, I really appreciate all these reports, as I know all the council members do. Um, it's really fantastic information. I mean, I, I've gone through them all, they're great. I did have just one question about the report from the fire chief talking about SCBA and the potential solution to have for the Incompatibility and aging SCBA equipment. In his report, he spoke about a surplus equipment opportunity, and I just was curious if there's a little more information.

1:36:31
David Zastrow

I bring that up because SCBA is a pretty important part of their gear. It's what keeps those individual firefighters safe when they're entering a building and they're on supplied oxygen. So I just want to be sure that they're getting that type of equipment taken care of well.

1:36:53
Hayden

Cordova, Council Members, Astro, can you hear me all right? Yes, I can. Chief Phillips is not in the room. That's okay. This is something that he included in his report, but pretty much falls under my jurisdiction.

1:37:04
Hayden

Uh, we have located some surplus equipment through one of our major suppliers, and we have gone and gone forward with the purchase of that equipment. This will satisfy our current deficiencies in SCBA issues. The money came from a different fund outside of our normal operating fund that we were able to source and use for procurement. So that problem is currently no longer an issue. As far as compatibility goes, we use an upgrade kit on our RIP kit, which is a— it's a life-saving device for a down firefighter inside of a house.

1:37:39
Hayden

So that is now forward and backward compatible with all of our SCBAs, as well as any SCBAs from other manufacturers that are 2018 and newer. The ones specifically in town, the only ones that I can think of are the SCBAs on the postcard cutter because they use a different manufacturer, and those are now all compatible as well.

1:37:59
David Zastrow

That is great news. Yeah, I know this came up during the last quarterly meeting as well, and really glad to hear you have a solution now in place that's already taken care of that issue. Thank you for that.

1:38:16
Kristin Smith

Yeah, I think these reports are a great window into— they give us a lot more sense of what happens on a day-to-day basis and the range of programs and the things that city staff do. And even the comment about the Samaritan's Purse people helping out with Something that I saw in here. In public works, me, I mean, that was it, right? Oh yeah. Um, and I know they've helped out in a lot of ways because they helped me with the Alaska Salmon Run.

1:38:44
Kristin Smith

So that group of volunteers has been a really great asset to town. But yeah, but the staff reports are, are a big help in keeping— helping us, like I said, understand what happens in a little bit more detail. So that's Great. Any questions online?

1:39:08
Kristin Smith

Now we can go on to correspondence. Um, I guess actually all we have is the print, right? We don't even have any—. Yes, correct. Okay.

1:39:24
Kristin Smith

Oh, that was early. I put it under library's— of course, yeah, she's library board chair. Okay, okay. Ordinances and resolutions. Ordinance 1242 is the next thing on our agenda.

1:39:38
Kristin Smith

I would entertain a motion.

1:39:48
Wendy Ranney

What's that? There's—. Yeah, recommended motion on page 151. Madam Mayor, Councilwoman Reed, I move to approve Ordinance 1242, an ordinance of City Council of City of Cordova, Alaska, repealing and reenacting Cordova Municipal Code Chapter 8.04, Animals, and amending Cordova Municipal Code 1.28.085, Minor Offense Fee Schedule, to modernize animal control and empoundment, fright and attack response, potentially dangerous and vicious dog procedures, quarantine, humane disposition, enforcement, penalties. I'll second.

1:40:28
Kristin Smith

It's been moved, um, Council Member Ranney and seconded by Zastrow. Thank you. And Council Member Ranney, you speak to this? I just think we need to do whatever we need to do to help public safety, help the community. And this is a move towards that.

1:40:46
David Zastrow

Councilmember Zastrow? Yes, I concur with Councilmember Ranney, and I also appreciate the red line very much. It's nice to have that, feels both for us and for the community to see exactly what was changed. So same comments from last meeting during the first reading. It's a necessary move to update our municipal code.

1:41:06
Kristin Smith

Any other questions or comments from Council members, any discussion? Okay, but this one is our second reading, so let's have a— we'll have a roll call. Yes, a roll on adoption of Ordinance 1242. Wendy Ranney. Yes.

1:41:30
Susan Bourgeois

You're first. Mike Mickelson. Yes. Aaron Hansen? Yes.

1:41:37
Susan Bourgeois

Kasey Kinsman is absent. Lee Collins? Yes. Debra Adams is absent. David Zastrow?

1:41:43
Susan Bourgeois

Yes. And motion carries 5-0.

1:41:48
Kristin Smith

Great, thank you. So the next item is Ordinance 1243, page 224, and I welcome a motion.

1:42:05
Aaron Hansen

Madam Mayor? Yes, I move to approve Ordinance 1243, an ordinance of the Council of City of Cordova, Alaska, authorizing the city manager to enter into a lease with option to purchase agreement with David Evans for a portion of Lots 1-14, Block 32, original town site.

1:42:33
Aaron Hansen

Second. Great, um, it's been moved and seconded. Councilmember Hansen, do you want to speak to the motion? Yeah, so we, we talked about this previously, and, um, it appears that, you know, he's here to develop and move forward, and I think it's great for Cordova to a lot of people that are willing to, uh, construct new property within Cordova.

1:43:06
Kristin Smith

Councilmember Hallands.

1:43:09
Aaron Hansen

Yes, same comments as Councilmember Hansen there. I think this is great to have a builder who really shown that he's committed to projects we've been doing in this community, and that great, great addition to our, to our housing situation for him to start getting development going on these lots.

1:43:37
Kristin Smith

Other council comments or questions?

1:43:42
Sam Greenwood

Anybody online?

1:43:48
Kristin Smith

All right, all those in favor of Ordinance 4243, um, the motion is to authorize the city manager to enter into a lease with option to purchase with David Adams to purchase Lots 11, 12, 13, and 14 of 32 original town sites. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

1:44:12
Kristin Smith

Any opposed? Same sign.

1:44:16
Kristin Smith

Motion carries.

1:44:22
Wendy Ranney

Okay, um, Resolution 10-26-30. Yes, Council Member Rooney. I move to approve Ordinance 10-26-30, an ordinance of City Council, City of Cordova, Alaska, to reinstate the previously repealed E911 surcharge for purposes of purchasing, equipping, and maintaining an E911/NG911 system to meet the needs of Cordova Department of Public Safety and modernize the first responder response in Cordova.

1:44:52
Wendy Ranney

Second. Moved, uh, Ranney, and seconded Zastrow. Council Member Ranney. Um, I am definitely in support of getting the E911 system online, and I want to acknowledge the work that Brian has put into this, um, It's a tremendous effort, uh, of information gathering, but I do have, um, some questions. I know Valdez implements this tax, um, and I do have this— concerns that were brought forth by the, uh, general manager for CTC.

1:45:23
Wendy Ranney

And just looking at, we not make this another hardship on Cordova residents, um, and look at some exemptions like the Lifeline customers where the tax is actually more than it costs for them to have the service, and multifamily taxes. So I would like to see some more work done on the ordinance before it's put in place, but I am in support of repealing this. I just think there needs to be some verbiage added to cover it so that we're not adding a hardship tax onto folks that we're trying to upgrade emergency response time. Thank you. Council Member Zastrow?

1:46:05
David Zastrow

Yes, I concur with everything Council Member Ranney just said. It was good to hear Jeremiah Beckett come up and illuminate us on a few items. Again, as Council Member Ranney just mentioned, having to do with, you know, Lifeline customers, multiple phones in a single resident. Obviously, this is a great thing to do. I really appreciate both the police chief and Brian over at the dispatch center and their thoughts on it.

1:46:31
David Zastrow

It is definitely a game changer when you're trying to respond to emergency calls and you've got, you know, limited time to get to a location to deal with something, especially golden hour situations when you're talking about life and death for people. So definitely anything we can do to improve that, we should be doing. But I also would like to probably find a way where we can look a little deeper into what we need to do to pay for this, but not make an additional burden on individual members of the community. Thank you. Other council comments?

1:47:12
David Zastrow

Questions? I have another one, if I might, Mayor.

1:47:17
David Zastrow

Sure. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anybody. Um, just along the same lines as, uh, um, Mr. Beckett brought up on the ability for CTTs to be able to do the locating and finding, it sounds like there are some issues with that. I, I guess it would be good to know. Sounds like these are potentially temporary issues that can be resolved over time, but it would be good to know more about the timeline on the realities of this working as well as we'd like it to.

1:47:50
Wendy Ranney

My comments were kind of along the same line. I also wear the hat of being a CTC board member, and I know that the conversations with this technology and this, um, the actual system hasn't really been discussed. I mean, is it a plug-and-play system? Is it, is it going to have to be operational funds for CTC to be able to manage it. I just think a little bit more conversation needs to happen, but I really am excited that this is moving forward and I want to do whatever we can to, to get it in place without it turning into, you know, we're sitting on technology we can't use and we're putting a burden on folks in the community that it's designed to help.

1:48:34
Aaron Hansen

Councilmember Collins, it looks like maybe you Yeah, mostly echoing the same comments from other council members that I think this seems like a really important step to get a system like this online, which is the same concerns. We want to make sure that, yeah, that for one it's effective, that we're not burdening whether it's CTC or members of the community with those costs. But yeah, really appreciate the work that Brian all the other staff, but in getting all this going, I think this is super important. And all these things that can speed up responses in any way are extremely important for public safety.

1:49:18
Aaron Hansen

Uh, it's a step in the right direction. Uh, it's getting the— getting the movement and figuring out you know, what pieces of the puzzle have to be established to make it functional. So that's my question, is what do we have to do to, to make this operational? I mean, sounds like there's still some questions that need to be worked out. Would you like to talk to—.

1:49:43
Kristin Smith

Sure, yeah, come on up. Yeah.

1:49:56
Hayden

Good evening, Council. Uh, Inspector Supervisor Brian Wildrick, um, who does not get enough credit for the amount of time and effort, uh, he has put into research, the coordination, and the outreach to different vendors. And the like.

1:50:22
Hayden

Um, Brian does have, uh, answers to the questions that you've asked here tonight, uh, so I'll go ahead and let him take it away. Brian, would you like to take it from there? Hold the microphone up a little closer, that way people listening online can hear. All right, thanks. Okay, um, so which question would you like me to answer first?

1:50:45
Kristin Smith

Well, I think the part about, I mean, I guess I hear two questions. What's the reality of the timeline in getting this to work the way we want it to? And how do we, yeah, what steps have to happen to really make it operational? We heard Jeremiah Beckett was here earlier and talked about things like mostly like some families have lots of phones. And so is there a way to do a household limit?

1:51:13
Kristin Smith

Some businesses also have many multiple lines. And then just some of the work that has to be done to get the data, like to get the systems to talk to each other.

1:51:26
Brian Wildrick

Project that they would need to complete. Okay. Oh, I spoke with Jeremiah about this before as well. As far as being ready to have Phase 2 data compliant for wireless, calls, that should be plug and play. The landlines will be a little bit of a different thing where their mapping project is coming in and the trunks of them.

1:51:48
Brian Wildrick

The different ways that those landlines will communicate through CTC is a little bit more involved. The letters also say it can be completed in a reason— as soon as reasonably possible. So however long it takes, then it's okay. But what I've been led to believe and watched in the demonstration with Central Square doing the Vertex 911 call handling solution, when we get that infrastructure set, that will give us the ability to get the wireless information directly. And then there's an overlay of— it's called Rapid SOS that's built in, and I've started a free account with them as well.

1:52:32
Brian Wildrick

So they've got all of our information And basically, it's a redundancy to get as close as possible to the location of a wireless caller, regardless of where their carrier is. They can be from out of state, from Canada, and they could be lost in the woods, and we would get their ping if they were able to call 911. So this is a huge benefit to the community, especially if you're lost or if you're having a heart attack and you can't talk or any anything like that, and also to help our first responders actually get to where they're going, be able to direct the ambulance drivers a little bit more precisely.

1:53:12
Brian Wildrick

So to request the data, also, we are required to have the infrastructure in place as well. And so reinstating the surcharge will absolutely help the sustainability of this project for the long term. Which helps the community and the first responders get the best quality care that they can get when there's an emergency.

1:53:37
Hayden

Something else to consider is that in this day and age, wireline telephones are not the majority of the use cases. Approximately, probably 90% of the calls CPD receives is that from cell phones. Yeah, so in taking, um, your questions into consideration and the information that Mr. Beckett provided here today as far as their, um, their information and mapping transition that they're doing to be completed sometime middle of next year, um, if in place, um, because we do receive most of our our calls via non-emergency and emergency through wireless telephones. Um, that would be plug and play. At least that's what we've been led to believe based on the conversations that we have.

No audio detected at 1:53:38

1:54:31
Hayden

And, um, as far as your question about who manages the system, that's installed at CPD by Central Square technicians, and that's also managed by Central Square. So outside of maybe some management of a wireline system that CTC would do, that kind of 90% stake, um, would be managed by Central Square and Plug and Play. Yeah, so it's kind of like hiring Arctic IT as a contractor for providing a service. Yes, yes, much like that. And, uh, to speak to, to speak to, uh, other communities that have this technology, the Vertex911 call handling solution in particular.

1:55:19
Brian Wildrick

Valdez is the only place in Alaska that has it now, but I spoke with their dispatchers and the dispatch supervisor, and they like it a lot. They rarely have issues with it. The IT people in their department really like it as well. They don't have a lot of issues with that, and the customer service has been really good for them. And that's what I've experienced also.

1:55:38
Brian Wildrick

I also called Anchorage Airport Dispatch, who uses Central Square products. It's not the Vertex911, because it's a, it's a CAD system, which is like a records management system. But, uh, both Anchorage Airport and Fairbanks Airport use this company, um, and they really like it. We also had a demo of the Pro Suite CAD that, uh, the airports use. Um, and so I, I know that the Vertex technology is integratable with their, their CAD if we were to ever move to that as well.

1:56:08
Brian Wildrick

And so basically both airports had really good things to say about this company. Um, and so it speaks to the customer service, the usability, the functionality, um, and honestly the price that I got from them is, is the best that you can get. And I've, I've got the 3 quotes there that you can see. So, um, yes, um, thank you. That answers all of my technology questions on the, on the, the system itself.

1:56:36
Wendy Ranney

I guess the other issue I have still outstanding is more of a city issue, and that's can we exempt the Lifeline customers where the tax is going to be more than the service that they pay for? I don't have a problem with necessarily businesses or multiple family lines. You know, if all your kids are going to have cell phones, then there's going to be costs equated to that. But when you pay $1 for a service and you're taxed $2 on top of that, I do have an issue with that and want to see them exempted somehow. In, in the tax zone.

1:57:05
Brian Wildrick

Okay, well, that's, that's the language I think you could probably put in there for certain people, because it says, uh, that you're allowed to charge up to $2. So if you want to exempt people or make $1.50 instead of $2, um, you know, or if, if the council decides that they would rather see a dollar or a dollar fifty, um, there's— however, I would like to say that the importance of Collecting the surcharge to further the future readiness of Cordova emergency response is very important, and $2 was implemented in 2011 through the beginning of 2013. So just about 1 year, it was like at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2013. So, you know, I would, I would like to see the $2 for the majority of people. Um, but I think there was a, a, like, a limit on the hotels to how many rooms, or like, if you have more than X amount of lines, like 100 lines, you would only get a bill for so many.

1:58:08
Brian Wildrick

Um, so that is something that if you'd like to look at, we could probably change the language for that. Um, and I'd like direction as to what numbers we would find appropriate for the Lifeline customers, um, and the hotels or other businesses that have multiple lines. Also, on the other side of that, keep in mind that this is in place to serve the community, and it's all of our family members, it's all the kids that might have those extra cell phones, all that kind of stuff. We would get the pinpoints of all those cell phones with this technology. And that's, uh, with the budgetary problems that the city has sometimes, uh, having this implemented telephone bill, I think is, it's worth the cost.

1:58:52
Wendy Ranney

I don't disagree. I think it's very important to move forward with this. I'm basically concerned with the Lifeline customers. And if we approve this wording for the first read, is there an opportunity to add that before the second read so that we don't stop the forward motion of this? Or are we limited to the verbiage that's in this after the first read?

1:59:15
Wendy Ranney

To come forward to the second read. Like, I'm really looking at trying to make sure we don't have folks that are paying for a service getting charged double for a tax on top of their service. Um, the rest of it, I 100% agree that the community needs the service, and that's one—. That's a way to fund it. But I'm concerned about our lifeline customers.

1:59:36
Wendy Ranney

They're not—. It's not a majority of customers, it's, it's a minimal amount, but I'd like to see verbiage that specifically addresses that? I think we would have to look into it. I don't, I don't know, Susan. Is it substantial?

1:59:50
Susan Bourgeois

It's a resolution, first of all, so it's only getting one reading. Oh, that's okay. But I believe because it talks about surcharge— does it say up to? No, no, it says $2. $2.

2:00:07
Hayden

It says equal rates of up to $2 monthly. Now that's, uh, page 249, right? And that's what the statutory, uh, regulation accounts for, up to $2, no more. That's not to say it can be— that's not to say it can't be less. So, so we don't even need to change the verbiage.

2:00:28
Hayden

I think it's a reasonable concern. Lifeline customers need not be taxed 2 times more than their actual abilities. Or whichever other demographic we deem vulnerable in some sense. I think that's totally reasonable. And whatever number is determined, I do think though it's important to remember that in the end, if this is all set in motion and it's implemented, this is a self-sustaining vetted.

2:01:04
Hayden

The way the numbers line up at this time is— excuse me, the way the numbers line up currently with the money that is currently in the original 911 surcharge coffers, that is our purchase monies. And then whatever is brought in with the surcharge after reinstatement annually, that will cover annual costs moving forward. So whichever— we don't want to— and again, this is, it's of course the Department of Public Safety kind of championing, championing this— we don't want to cut ourselves off at the knees by making a rate so low that we can't cover annual costs to keep this in place. So Sam, would this, would this go into our favorite documented fee schedule? I was just going to say, I think that's exactly what we can do.

2:02:05
Kristin Smith

We should put it in the fee schedule and we can, because then at this point the language can just say up to $2 and then the fee schedule, we can make different categories or definitions or whatever. But exemptions are always a hassle to organize, so we'll be extremely careful in how we word it. So that it's easiest, especially because we're relying on vendors to do the collecting. Because the whereas has up to, but the resolution at the bottom, the surcharges are will, shall, and post. Shall impose.

2:02:36
Susan Bourgeois

They hereby impose it. Yeah. So I just, I just want to make sure we're protecting the vulnerable. Well, it says on each eligible wireless telephone number billed to an address that I still believe we have to be okay. To make those changes in the fee schedule.

2:02:52
Wendy Ranney

Let's move this down and then fee schedule. Yeah, I don't want to stop the forward momentum, but I want to make sure that we're not locking ourselves into an issue.

2:03:05
Speaker D

Understand.

2:03:08
Hayden

Any other clarification needed by Council? No, thank you. Those—. That was perfect. Thank you for your time.

2:03:15
Speaker D

Appreciate it. Okay, any further discussion on this resolution?

2:03:31
Kristin Smith

All those in favor of Resolution 10-26-30, establishing an enhanced 911 surcharge starting no earlier than January 1st, 2027, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. The opposed, same sign.

2:03:56
Hayden

And motion passes.

2:04:00
Samantha

Great.

2:04:03
Kristin Smith

Okay, so the next item is accompanying this resolution, -1, -10, -26, -31. And I would welcome a motion.

2:04:21
Aaron Hansen

Yes, move resolution N-26-31, a resolution of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, authorizing city manager to enter into a sole source contract with the Central Square Technologies LLC the acquisition of the Vertex E911 call handling solutions. I'll second. Great, it's been moved and seconded. Do you need a dollar amount in there? No.

2:04:50
Aaron Hansen

Okay, okay. Um, Council Member Hansen, do you want to speak to the motion? I believe that the conversation on that previous resolution, um, pretty much gave us all the information. If—. Who just told—.

2:05:07
Kristin Smith

Um, Council Member, I agree. All right, any other comments or questions?

2:05:17
Sam Greenwood

I just—. I have the one question. It sounds— it said in the materials in the packet information that you got several quotes, and maybe I missed it, about why this needs to be a sole source contract. If you'd like. Well, because we didn't create an RFP, Brian was investigating all the opportunities, but it's a sole source, um, based on professional service, which city council can, uh, do without competition.

2:05:46
Kristin Smith

We did our homework, right? Um, you're taking— but we're ready. Yeah, and didn't go out in an official Okay, but you can document all the research and contacting other—. City Council can— what you're doing right here is saying you're agreeing to do this without competitive, right? Right.

2:06:06
Sam Greenwood

But yes, we do not have our—. Okay, thank you. That was just fine.

2:06:13
Susan Bourgeois

Yeah. Okay, okay. Any other questions?

2:06:22
Kristin Smith

All right, all those in favor of Resolution 10-26-31, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

2:06:31
Kristin Smith

Any opposed? Same sign.

2:06:36
Kristin Smith

Motion passes too.

2:06:40
Kristin Smith

We don't have any unfinished business. Um, we do have some new business.

2:06:46
Kristin Smith

On page 263, other property disposal request.

2:06:59
Wendy Ranney

Folks on ATS 220 are keeping the surveyor busy, which is fun, which is good because that is a little warren of property lines down there. Um, Yeah, so is there a motion? Motion? Um, yes, I move to dispose of a requested portion of ATS 220, approximately 1,116 square feet in size, as outlined in Cordova Municipal Code 7.40.060B, by negotiating an agreement with the party who submitted the letter of interest to lease or purchase the property. So it's been moved and seconded.

2:07:37
Wendy Ranney

Ranney and Collins— Council Member Ranney, who's like to speak. I just— that whole area down there is pretty tight, and this makes a lot of sense to get property owners their access point. So I don't see it as anything that needs to put out to bid. If they're willing to purchase that tack onto their property, same negotiator. That was Member Collins.

2:08:02
Wendy Ranney

Yeah, similar comment. I think just same, same situation as we already approved for the rutters, which is they get this little slip road right over the canal. You know, I wouldn't expect anyone else to ever be interested in purchasing this property separately, so makes sense just to appreciate what they—. Madam Mayor, yes, I also want to say I do, um, either attend or watch most of the, uh, P&Z meetings, and I do, uh, greatly appreciate the time and effort that they put into their recommendations to through us. And so I take that also into account that PHC recommended we do that with this property, and I'm willing to go that route.

2:08:48
Kristin Smith

Thank you. Any other council comments or questions? Uh, this is Council Member Zastrow. Go ahead. Yeah, just a, just a comment.

2:08:58
David Zastrow

I, I concur with, uh, Council Member Ranney. Also, the Harbor Commission recommended that we do a negotiated, you know, to negotiate with the landowner for this access. And also too, I noted in the description of the information that this would have to be replatted to be part of the overall lot in order for it not to be outside of requirements for what a lot has to be as far as size and everything. So that would be a stipulation, it sounds like, in order for this person to buy it.

2:09:33
2:09:35
David Zastrow

Yeah, it seems like a real no-brainer. So, and it doesn't seem to affect anything going on down there. So, yeah.

2:09:47
Kristin Smith

Any further comment, discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

2:09:56
2:09:59
Kristin Smith

Any opposed? Same sign. Great, motion passes.

2:10:07
Kristin Smith

Um, yeah, excuse me again. Um, pending agenda, is it anything else we need to cover for pending agenda? Do you just want to read? Yeah. So at the budget work session, we looked at the schedule and we made a few edits.

2:10:29
Susan Bourgeois

Um, in a week and a day, we'll have another budget work session, not on the 28th because this room isn't available. So we're going with Thursday the 29th at 6 PM. Um, then in November, the week between Regular meetings is the 11th, which is a holiday. So I'm going to investigate with the members who are absent right now to ensure that 12th at 6 PM will work for enough of you. And I may be in touch with you and be hurting cats about that otherwise, but we'll have meetings in between so we can always talk about it.

No audio detected at 2:10:38

2:11:10
Susan Bourgeois

So that won't be hurting cats.

2:11:14
Susan Bourgeois

That's about it. You know, otherwise we're just having a lot of budget work sessions. I know, Valerie, but that's for a good reason. And then we'll be done with it early in December. Like I saw that.

2:11:28
Susan Bourgeois

Housing Supply Group, I think, meets again December 1st. Sounds right. And I do believe Fisheries is supposed to be October 27th. I've been meaning to get in touch with them. And to see if there's items for that, uh, agenda.

2:11:51
Susan Bourgeois

Um, otherwise that's it. That's all I have. Oh my gosh, I can finally take this thing off of, um, Resolution 12-1836, right? E911 will be back when a plan has been made. Big plan.

2:12:06
Susan Bourgeois

Has been made. I can't wait. I won't have a B, and it's a whole 2 lines in the other page. How exciting. Okay, up that font to like 10.

2:12:23
Susan Bourgeois

Great. Okay, um, so that's our pending agenda on the calendar.

2:12:32
Kristin Smith

And everybody knows, I think, that there are several seats coming open on, um, Harbor Planning and Historic Preservation and Library. So tell your friends and neighbors, great way to get involved. Or Parks and Rec. Oh, thank you. Okay, all right, let's go on to audience participation.

2:12:53
Kristin Smith

3 Minutes per speaker. Does anybody want to talk about any topic at all?

2:13:02
Kevin Johnson

Thank you. Kevin Johnson, Public Works Director. Not a public comment, I just need to tack on to my earlier comments. I left off a key piece of information. Uh, the staff comments are due by the 29th, which is next Thursday.

2:13:17
Aaron Hansen

So yeah, that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

2:13:25
Kristin Smith

Did I put it in the last packet? Yes, yes, darn, I wish I had put it again. Sorry. Uh, okay, let's, um, go then to council comments. We have some executive session time coming up, so we'll do council comments first and maybe take a 5-minute break, and then, and then we'll, um, have our executive sessions.

2:13:54
Aaron Hansen

So council comments, let me start with Lee. Yeah, I appreciate every meeting, the work done by city staff, but this, it shows just how much work the city is doing, and, uh, really impressed by that. And super helpful having all this information.

2:14:18
Aaron Hansen

Say enough about how much shows the work being done from these. And again, appreciate all the thoughtful discussion and comments from the public. And, um, yeah, this was— even, even putting together this packet, impressed by it. That is, you do this and keep it organized. It's—.

2:14:36
Aaron Hansen

Council Member Hansen. Uh, the same. Um, Thank you all for all the effort and work that is put into this and how it is presented. Appreciate all your guys' time. I'd also like to say thank you, Cordova, uh, Sunday's efforts, community support, um, it's truly amazing.

No audio detected at 2:14:38

2:15:10
David Zastrow

Thank you. Public safety is here to hear that. Um, Council Member Zastrow. Uh, yeah, thanks. I, I, I love quarterly, uh, report-out meetings.

2:15:24
David Zastrow

These are— this is awesome. Having all these, uh, uh, quarterly reports is fantastic. Um, I just want to say I really appreciate our work session. I appreciate too how we're approaching budget this year. I love the the big picture view of making some decisions on assumptions moving forward and being consistent.

2:15:41
David Zastrow

I think some of the things that get us a little sideways in budget talks in past years was not, not as a group agreeing on certain things before we move forward, and it gets pretty chaotic if we're not all on the same page on some basic assumptions. So I'm really glad to see how we're moving into the budget cycle the way we are. Really appreciate that particular packet too. The information provided in the work session was very helpful in moving forward and how we're going to be dealing with some of our fee schedule decisions. And I really appreciate also too the work that Chief Hayden and that Brian Warwick over at the dispatch center put into the E911 upgrade and all the work they're putting in to make this a better system.

2:16:27
David Zastrow

It's hugely important, and one of the— probably one of the basic things we as a city and we as council members should be doing is looking out for the safety of our community. And just thank everybody else on staff that's provided all this information.

2:16:45
Mike Mickelson

Thank you. Council Member Mickelson. Yeah, I would echo all the comments of my fellow council members. Yeah, I, I'm looking forward to talking through some of these, these budget issues. I do feel like we have a little better handle on it than we did last year, even though we've had some, some greater challenges this year.

2:17:08
Mike Mickelson

So anyway, and I would encourage the community to come out and speak up for what you value and, and how you would like to pay for it. So anyway, thanks. Wendy Ranney. Yeah, first of all, I did not pick my packet up because it is actually weighs more than I'm allowed to hold on my new shoulder side. So, big packet this time.

2:17:31
Wendy Ranney

Appreciate the hard work. The E911 is extremely exciting. I'm really proud of what Brian and Chief Hayden have done with their research and bringing us the information, answered all the questions I had and made it easy to make a decision to move forward on that. So I really appreciate your efforts there and coming in with it. Um, thanks to staff.

2:17:53
Wendy Ranney

I, I love the quarterly reports. I, uh, appreciate the, the thought processes and the, the discussions that happen in PMZ and Harbor and Parks and Rec and all the work that folks are doing. I think collectively, um, the city staff and this council can I feel like we are working towards a better community as a whole. And I think that's our goal. And I'm pleased to see that, you know, our conversations are productive and positive and we move forward with decisions quickly.

2:18:27
Samantha

Thank you all.

2:18:31
Kristin Smith

Wonderful. All right. Why don't Well, I guess, uh, to get ready for second session, maybe we need a motion first and then we can take recess.

2:18:47
Kristin Smith

So, um, would someone be willing to make a motion to—. We do do it all as one. Yeah, you can say it almost to—. Yeah, someone would offer a motion, um The language is on the bottom, one of four categories, one of which is—. Well, it's right there in item 19.

2:19:11
Wendy Ranney

Oh, right, but I write it right out for you guys. Move it. Madam Mayor. Yes, Council Member Ruth. I move we move into executive session, um, to discuss the council annual evaluation of city manager.

2:19:26
Wendy Ranney

Sam Greenwood is subject to tends to prejudice the reputation and character of a person, provided that person may request a public discussion. A public discussion has not been requested. And should I go into 20 as well? Yeah. Uh, Council annual evaluation of City Clerk Susan Bourgeois, subject to tends to prejudice the reputation and character of a person, provided that that person may request a public discussion.

2:19:49
Wendy Ranney

And the City Clerk has not requested a public session. Thank you. Is there a second?

2:19:56
Kristin Smith

Second. Great. Um, moved and seconded to go into executive session. And why don't we take, what, 5 minutes? Just can't say no.

2:20:05
Kristin Smith

Or all in favor? I'm sorry, you can say no. Is there, is there any discussion about the motion?

2:20:14
Kristin Smith

Uh, um, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay, let's take a 5-minute recess and we'll come back.

2:20:24
Susan Bourgeois

And we'll— I'm just going to leave the bathroom and you can just record the time that you come out. Okay. And if you say anything when you come out, but you probably don't have to say anything when you come out. Oh, did you print? I just already— no, no, no, I just did the tally sheet.

2:20:41
Susan Bourgeois

Well, and I never gave Yes. So I made— these are the— uh, so do we lock this? No, really?

2:20:58
Susan Bourgeois

I guess I can hang out my office until they're done.

2:21:04
Speaker D

Follow somebody. Is he here? I do not know.

2:21:23
Speaker D

Tell you what, I'm investing in remote work. Putting this packet together just on my laptop was a little trying because it was so big and vast, you know? Yeah. So I'm pretty sure Sheryl bought herself like the two screens that attach to your— because I have three screens in my office and I use them. Yeah, no, I really do.

2:21:58
Susan Bourgeois

Yeah. But you can just get two that attach to the back of your laptop. So they're then you have 3 screens. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

2:22:06
Susan Bourgeois

Yeah. Are there any tissues back here, Susan? Yeah, in my office there are some. Uh, can't think of exactly where, but you can take the whole box if you need it.

2:22:20
Susan Bourgeois

Yeah, that's quite the amount of paper to keep, keep organized. It was, but yeah, and I looked over Well, and I looked over things so many times to make sure I had the numbers right. Like, is it agenda item this number right? Is the resolution number right? Yeah, thank you.

2:23:00
Aaron Hansen

So, Aaron, you know if this package is some of that meat out on Sunday too? Yeah, I had the hide and some of it. I can't believe that also the meat did get packed out. I didn't know that was actually—. It's a huge load to have.

2:23:15
Kristin Smith

So is that what happened? So did you go back in after everybody came back to the cabin, or were you carrying it at that We met him at the base of the mountain. So he got a moose and he just couldn't get it all out? Oh, a goat. Well, he spent a night on the outside in reindeer.

2:23:35
Kristin Smith

Oh God, because he longer than— he kind of hopped out and lost this, right?

2:23:43
Aaron Hansen

He—. So then he just deemed it safer to He didn't have the bear anymore. He used to. You got, you got to hand it to him, he was able to start a fire out there. That was pretty good.

2:24:02
Speaker O

He said he didn't sleep. He, uh, did lots of jumping jacks and things to stay warm. I was the one who had to call 911. 911 And do the whole rest of them. Yeah, I was like— that was the night before, 8:30 at night, so I was a mess.

2:24:22
Speaker O

And I'll make sure that Susan or somebody sends all of you a link to the, uh, STIP consultation. Did he start hiking out that evening then? Yeah, so Dan and Daniel were supposed to go, uh, bear hunting, and they were going to stay in that Forest Service cabin. And then, um, our dog went into labor. So Dana was like, hey Dan, like, you know, I gotta stay with the dog.

2:24:46
Speaker O

And then he texts him a picture of, I shot a goat. And we're like, wait, what? We were going bear hunting. I was hunting. Oh.

2:24:56
Aaron Hansen

I heard that that was happening. 4:30. 4:30 On Friday. He told me where he was going. Yeah.

2:25:03
Speaker O

And I was like. You should probably get a goat tag. I'm just a furry guy. Yeah, he tells, he tells Daniel Saturday at 5:30, I shot this goat. You need to come in and help me.

2:25:17
Speaker O

Daniel wakes up from a nap and, cause we had been up all night the night before with the dog and he like pops up and he's like, I gotta go help Dan. He shot this goat and he's in his sweats. He just throws on a pair of rain gear and boots and like threw a sleeping bag in and went running. He didn't even have like, yeah, anything else really. Oh, and Dan says, um, my legs are cramping up, um, bring electrolytes.

2:25:47
Speaker O

So Daniel was bringing that to him, and then, um, it was just like a one perfect storm thing after the next. It was like he got in there and then He's shot off a whole mag trying to signal Dan. No, no nothing back. And he was out there searching like he had to do after the cabin. He was— it was 4 miles into the cabin, 4 more miles to where Dan had given him the coordinates.

2:26:18
Speaker O

And then he was in there and had to do like 3+ river crossings soaking wet. And then he trying to find Dan and Dan had sat down, he rolled his ankle, sat down, decided he was going to camp next to the waterfall. Couldn't hear any of the gunshots. So Daniel was like terrified. Gets back to the cabin in the dark.

2:26:43
Speaker O

All of his flashlights and headlamps had died. So he's like feeling his way back to the cabin, did all the river crossings. And then they had no fuel in the, um, no heating oil. So Daniel was— he has hypothermia again now, so no fun. Yeah.

2:27:01
Speaker O

Oh yeah, it's a long note. Yeah, so he did that, and then I guess the troopers were going to get him out with a helicopter, but he told us, I'm warm in my sleeping bag in the cabin. And we're like, okay. And he's— then I said, why did you lie to us? And he said, well, I was warmer than Dan was for sure.

2:27:25
Sam Greenwood

I was like, that's not—. You need to come out of there. Yeah. So, wow. Yeah.

2:27:32
Speaker O

Anyways, they all got out and, and Dan said he was only going to come to the river and then he was going to camp outside again. And that the minute that everybody had come out, like, because you that storm rolled in and then it was like that nasty, nasty storm. And Sunday had been the nicest, most beautiful day ever. So all those river crossings were going to come up and I really don't know that it would have been the same story that we got on Sunday if it would have been another time. He got out and all the goat meat got out.

2:28:05
Speaker O

Yep. Aaron made sure the goat got out for sure. Nice. Yeah, so great. It was kind of funny because the first people in were, uh, Aaron Sales and Logan Byer.

2:28:19
Hayden

And who do you get— do you know who else was in there? Uh, I think there's a Coast Guard guy, and then yeah, he works for Parks and Rec. Tall, real—. That's Logan. Logan Byer.

2:28:32
Jeremiah Becker

Yeah, the lifeguard. Okay, well, who's the Smaller. Logan is the smaller one. Uh, Andrew, Andrew Sanders. Andrew, the Forest Service.

2:28:44
Kristin Smith

Logan's— no, no, Logan, he's got dark, black, long hair, but yeah, but he's not super tall. Yeah, maybe he—. Well, he's probably about my height, but he's really, uh, skinny. Yeah, there's another one. Oh, there's another Logan?

2:29:00
Speaker O

I think so. Maybe that was at the, um, Was that the Coast Guard thing?

2:29:08
Susan Bourgeois

I don't know. Okay. All right. Well, I know. I know.

2:29:11
Sam Greenwood

You're asking questions. It was a crazy thing. I'm like still decompressing from that. See you guys later. Let us know when you're done because then I'll add the log file.

2:29:22
Speaker D

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Great. Okay.

2:29:27
Kristin Smith

So Dave and Mike, you're there with us online.

2:29:33
Kristin Smith

Yep. Okay, great. Well, I guess we can just go in the order that they are on the agenda. We could start with Sam's.

2:29:43
Kristin Smith

I emailed the compilation that I put together just with the written comments that people gave, and then I also emailed out the score sheet tally. So I think we— Um, Mike and Dave, you guys received that information?

2:30:02
Wendy Ranney

Yes. Great. Did you send it to our city council? Yes. Oh, I haven't.

2:30:07
Kristin Smith

Yeah, well, it's the same as what you— and then Susan printed out hard copies for us for here. Yeah, so yeah, so we have the tally sheet. Um, and yeah, I mean, I think I would say that the responses were pretty consistent. I would say, you know, probably like most of us, we evaluate ourselves a little bit more harshly than other people do. So Sam's ratings were— do I need to use a microphone?

No audio detected at 2:30:08

2:30:41
Kristin Smith

Were generally— I'm just thinking they're in there. Sam's ratings were pretty much across the board lower than what we, than what the council members gave. I would say with the exception of items number 5 and 6, which were about a capital improvement budget and— or a capital improvement plan and grant funding. Although the comments, I think, reflect the fact that we used to have a person who did research on grants and we don't have that now. So yeah, that's kind of hard to, um, yeah, ding somebody too much on that.

2:31:18
Kristin Smith

Sorry, I'm going to keep sneezing.

2:31:21
Kristin Smith

So, yeah, did folks— there were some places where people did no rating, and I factored that in. So when I did the division for the scores at the bottom for each council member, I divided it by the number of items for which you actually did give a score. So that should be taken into account.

2:31:44
Kristin Smith

Yeah. I guess I could add up all of the averages and get the one overall number. And my one request to the human resources person is to make this an Excel spreadsheet for heaven's sakes, because that sucks. And I didn't have time to do it, or I would have, but yeah, that's a big pain in the butt, and there's no reason for it not to be in a spreadsheet.

2:32:09
Kristin Smith

Yeah, so do folks have any comments or questions? I don't know, maybe if you want to go through each item.

2:32:21
Mike Mickelson

I don't know at all, but to me it all seems like we were all pretty close. Pretty consistent. Pretty consistent. Yeah, I don't feel like we need to go through it. I'm a little rusty on remembering what the next step is after completing this rubric or whatever.

Speakers in this transcript