Kodiak: October 22, 2026, Regular Meeting

The regular City Council meeting of October 22nd, 2026 will now come to order. This meeting is open to the public. For those who are listening, meeting agendas and packets are available online on the City of Kodiak's website. Public members are encouraged to tune in to KMXT on 100.1 FM or to web stream from the city's website portal. Audience and council members, please silence your phones, and council members, please put your phones away for the duration of the meeting.

Will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you. Mr. Stanford. I'm here. Miss West.

Here. Miss Woods. Here. Miss Davidson. Here.

Mr. Mangini. Mr. Walker. Here. A quorum is present, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

Councilmember Stanford will be attending via teleconference pursuant to Kodiak City Code 2.04.160.

Councilmember Mangini's absence will be excused pursuant to Kodiak City Code 2.04.025A1. Please stand for the invocation to be given by Grace Green of the Salvation Army and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Let us pray. Dear Jesus, thank you for this beautiful island that we are so blessed to live on. Although it's getting cold, we can look out and see that beautiful sunset that you allow us to see every single night. Lord, I just pray over every new business and unfinished business item that we will be discussing today. Be with every board member and every person in this room to be open-minded and to be able to communicate without any bias.

They are just able to see everyone's opinion, and we are able to realize that whatever we come up with at the final, it's all for the people of Kodiak. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have before us the October 8th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Are there any additions or corrections?

Council Member Woods. Thank you. I move to approve the minutes of the October 8th, 2026 regular council meeting. Second.

Will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you. Miss West. Yes. Miss Woods?

Yes. Miss Davidson? Yes. Mr. Walker? Yes.

Mr. Stanford? Yes. Motion passes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. The first agenda item under persons to be heard is public comments.

Comments will be limited to 3 minutes each. If there is anyone who wishes to address the mayor and council as a whole, please approach the podium, sign in, and state your name, or call in at 907-486-8610. And due to the slight delay in broadcasting, I will be pausing for a moment to allow public members to call in.

Please. Okay. Hello, my name is Eileen Fitzgerald. I have a couple of points. I'll try and get them all in within 3 minutes, but I really want to urge upon you some caution about going into an executive session to have a discussion with the city attorney regarding the hiring process for the city manager position.

I think Alaska law is pretty clear clear that as much as can be public is supposed to be public. You're not supposed to go into executive session to have general conversations with your attorney, and you're talking about the process for one of your most fundamental duties. If there is anything that should be open, uh, for public oversight, public participation, it's the discussion of how you want to proceed with this process. But on top of that, you have the problem of this city council and this recruitment. It hasn't been normal.

At— sometimes it's been alarming, and it is affecting other bodies being able to recruit people to positions in Kodiak. It is affecting the borough. It is affecting the school district. I urge you to stop engaging in behind-the-scenes machinations in filling the city manager position. I urge you to have a discussion, even with the city attorney, about the process where the public can participate by oversight and make comments.

It is inappropriate to have an executive session to talk about the process.

And the use of the city attorney to avoid or evade public process, public oversight, public knowledge is getting a little alarming. It's affecting KEDC. I just found out that the city attorney has been paid for to provide the non-city work for KEDC. At least I was in this COVID binder.

It's affecting Highmark Marine. I just found out the city attorney is offering to drop his movement for legal fees against Darren Byler, and those are legal fees being paid by the city Kodiak, but there's no publicly available information, not in your meeting packets and not by a public records request. It's odd. It's alarming. It's gonna be a problem.

Don't be part of it.

And the other thing I would just like to say about KEDC, it came out on Tuesday that you are expecting a deliverable about Gibson Co.

It is so frustrating to me that something that has such recreational value to the community has been hidden through the mechanism of KADC. And I urge you to consider that it is not a public entity and should not be deciding the use of public lands. Thank you. Thank you, Aileen.

Good afternoon. I'm not a public speaker, so I'm just going to try to speak with my heart and tell you guys how I'm feeling about things lately. Um, I've lived in Kodiak for over 35 years, um, more than half of my life, and I love it here. I mean, I came to work in the canneries and make money to go in California and buy myself a house, because I knew with the wages there I would never make enough money to, to buy a house. But I fell in love with this place, and it's the perfect place to raise your children.

It's the perfect place to go be in nature and be with God. It's my paradise, and it's getting to the point when I can't afford to live here. My taxes have doubled, my insurance has tripled, and it's getting to where my house is falling apart and everything is going up. Our utilities, our oil, our gas, everything. And it's saddening to me that I have spoken with other seniors and they have to sell their houses and they speak about not thinking they— that wasn't their plan, their plan of living in Kodiak in their homes.

Now they're selling their homes and going to little apartments without probably the garden they wanted to have, or without— and it's, it's, it's really sad because we are the foundation. We worked our butts off. I worked 3 jobs in this town. I worked at the hospital, I worked at the bank, the title company, and my best job is being a mother. And I'm just frustrated.

I'm frustrated with the spending of money, the things that are happening that are under the table, and people are getting rich. And what is money for? I mean, my— for me, it's eating healthy, having healthcare, And having community, and there is community here, but some people want to get rich and go live the life of the rich and famous. That's not what I want. And I was going to sell my house, but my son said, Mom, I'll buy it from you.

He's in college. I mean, how many years is it going to take? Is the house going to still be standing? Oh, that thing hasn't beeped yet, and I'm almost done. I urge you to be conscious about every single— the children to seniors and the working class.

You know, a lot of people don't come and speak to you because they don't have time. They have 2, 3 jobs to try to pay for living in Kodiak, and at one point you break and you have to leave, and that's not what I want to do. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, council members, my name is Michael. I'm here also to speak about the agenda item to go into executive session. When I saw that on the agenda, I felt compelled to come up and talk. Um, in the agenda, I was under the impression that there's kind of 3 reasons why you would be able to go into executive session according to your own bylaws. One, there'd be a financial burden of some undefined factor.

Two, there would be some sort of prejudice of a person that needs to be discussed behind closed doors. Finally, the third option would be a confidential matter that you need to discuss as a council without the public's ears. I feel pretty confident that the last option doesn't pertain to the process for hiring a new city manager. That's not confidential. Similar to what Eileen said, I want to take a different lens.

That is a public process, and that's what I want to speak to is the process. I know I've talked to the council before about the importance of process. Process is the tool that gives citizens like me the understanding about when we can show up and talk, how we can show up and talk, where we can show up and talk and be heard. And it's an articulation of how you each measure yourself on success, and it gives you the guardrails to define and state to the community, this is what we're going to do and here is how we're going to do it. That allows us to say that you did your jobs.

If we don't know what that process is, that gives the creative minds on whatever platform, you know, Conversation or Facebook, to determine that you don't want us to know what that process is. I'm not assuming malice, but what I'm asking is that that conversation take place in public. I think transparency is the tool that we need in order to instill trust. Similar to what Eileen said, there has been a degradation of trust throughout this process of hiring a new city manager. I acknowledge that not all of you have been on the council the whole time.

Um, we're even seeing one council member come back who was starting at the process, left the council, and is coming back. It's extremely protracted, and I think now is the opportunity to start to rebuild that trust. Not only do we want that, I think we're all hungry for that as a community. I want that for our next city manager. They're going to be doing what, 2.5, 3 years of backlog of work.

Don't set them up with a PR nightmare on day one. I want that person to walk into that office and feel confident that the community is behind them, that we understand why they're there, that we know that they're qualified, and that they're the right candidate. The only way we can know that is if we know what that process is. I just encourage you to either have that conversation in public so we know what's being said, or if you decide to go into executive session, I encourage each of you to please make a public statement somehow via KMXT, the newspaper, Facebook, to share what that process is. Thank you for your service.

I know it's not easy work. Thank you, Michael.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council. My name is Melissa Schoenwether, and I'm here representing Kodiak Economic Development Corporation. KEDC works to keep Kodiak's economy strong by bringing businesses, organizations, and residents together. Thank you for the chance to share what we are doing in Kodiak. Kodiak is a place that people choose.

For everyone who wants to call this island home, KEDC is committed to opportunities to grow here, work here and live here. That means careers that provide the means to build a life, homes that are available and within reach, and a community people are proud to stay in. Most of this work starts with listening. More than 200 residents shared their perspectives and experiences with us and helped shape the housing action plan. Our housing action partnership is now bringing locals together to carry out that work.

Over the last 2 years, KEDC has also leveraged and brought in more than $285,000 for supporting mariculture. I am proud to say that investment is to become something that you will see. It is funding a fully engineered shovel-ready plan for WildSource to build a miracle processing space right here downtown, a place for mariculture to grow. With new jobs and new construction downtown. And in April, almost 90 employers, educators, partners, and curious citizens all joined us at the Kodiak Workforce Forum.

They told us their biggest needs are hiring good people and keeping them. Earlier this week, some asked what KEDC does and what is the value that we bring. And that's a fair question. I'm glad that you asked. Listening is how we work best, and your questions tell us we need to share our progress more often.

What I'd like to share now is what we are building right now. Work Local is our force— or is our focus— helping people build a career and life in Kodiak Station. This fall, it begins with 3 paid interns from November to May. The response has been inspiring. In just about a week, 18 students applied.

And more than a dozen came to our open house last night to learn more. Our interns will receive more than 440 hours of direct paid hands-on training and valuable certification. They work as a team on real KEDC projects, practicing what employers told us they need most: reliability, following through, and professional communication. You'll actually hear them come and speak to you for 3 minutes throughout the next several months. They leave this program with experience, reference, practice, and local connections, as well as the confidence to step into a Kodiak career.

The bigger picture is how people can find a good career and a home within reach, and they build their lives here. Work Local helps Kodiak's emerging workforce see that a future can be right here in Kodiak. KADC is committed to continuing this work and sharing our progress with you, our valued partner. Thank you all. Thank you, Melissa.

Would anyone else like to address the council?

Sure, go ahead. I didn't, I didn't realize that KDC is here, but I've heard about it, and I do not agree that we pay so much money to what, 3 interns? I mean, that just makes no sense to me. And I'm sorry, I don't know much about all this, but it just doesn't— I mean, you could bring a good teacher and learn, teach a whole group of kids about things, and I have friends that would do it for free. Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh dear. Um, this is public comment. I was—. I thought she wanted to just, uh, add a little to her last comment.

No, we, we can't have a, a discourse during public comments. Yeah, smooth.

Is there anyone on the phone? Would anyone else like to address the council here?

Okay, the next item under persons to be heard is a proclamation declaring Extra Mile Day. Council Member Davidson, would you please read the proclamation?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Proclamation declaring Extra Mile Day. Whereas the city of Kodiak is a community which acknowledges that a special Vibrancy exists within the entire community when its individual citizens collectively go the extra mile in personal effort, volunteerism, and service. And whereas the city of Kodiak is a community which encourages its citizens to maximize their personal contributions to the community by giving of themselves wholeheartedly and with total effort, commitment, and conviction to their individual ambitions. Family, friends, and community.

And whereas the City of Kodiak is a community which chooses to shine a light on and celebrate individuals and organizations within its community who go the extra mile in order to make a difference and lift up fellow members of their community. And whereas the City of Kodiak acknowledges that the mission of Extra Mile America is to inspire communities across the nation to recognize those who do go the extra mile in volunteerism and service and is proud to support Extra Mile Day on November 1st, 2026. Now therefore, Terry Haines, Mayor of the City of Kodiak, do hereby proclaim November 1st, 2026 as Extra Mile Day in Kodiak and urge each individual in the community to take time on this day to not only go the extra mile in his or her own life, but to also acknowledge all those who are inspirational in their efforts and commitment to make their organizations families, community, country, or world a better place. Dated the 22nd of October, 2026. City of Kodiak, Terry Haines, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Davidson. And this proclamation will be sent to Christine Ott with Extra Mile America.

Next is reports from boards, commissions, and committees. Are there any reports from ex officio council members Serving on boards, commissions, and committees.

Councilmember Woods. I was waiting to see if Bob was—. Hot potato. Well, the Investment Committee met yesterday, and it was a great update. I'm not going to be able to capture everything.

A little out of my depth, to be honest with you, but it was a great update. Uh, we heard from both firms that oversee the city's investments, including 3+1. I understand our overall score increased, um, where for those listening and the general public that may or may not be aware of it, um, the city has a firm that kind of safeguards, uh, the city's investment policy and the way that we oversee those investments and the financial health of city funds, and they give us a score out of 100, and we've been at 90 for a while. We did not start at 90, and the score can increase or decrease based on our, our policies and procedures, all going around how we take care of our investments. So through really hard work, uh, from city staff, particularly city manager's office and our finance director Julie Liew, working in tandem, uh, with 3+1, our scores increased to 92 out of 100, which is a really grade score.

I am not the right person to properly explain how big of a deal that is, but it's— it means that we're moving in the right direction. And staff is also looking into improving the city's investment policy, and that's still in the works as well. So that is my rough report. Well, thanks to you and Councilmember Bob Stanford for serving on this committee. The work that you've been doing has been significant.

Any more reports? Any questions from the council? Council Member West. Thank you. I did want to say, when you said I'm not sure on the Finance Committee how impactful it is, in the state of Alaska, I think there's only one other community that has a higher score than we do.

Oh yeah, thank you. So if you want to know how well our finance and management department have been doing along with the committee, that I listened in. I was not ex officio. I also listened into the airport advisory board meeting this last week, yesterday, I guess.

There is a draft for looking at Trident Basin, and I was very, very impressed how the pilots at that board meeting gave a lot of input to the people making up the plan on, well, you have an airplane and anyway, the people that were writing up the plan are aviation specialist planners and stuff, but our pilots know our harbor our Trident Basin really well. So it was, I was very impressed at all the work that went in and all the thought that went in. They're going to come back with another report and there's going to be a public meeting in November 4th. Yes, November 4th. So there'll be opportunity for everybody to come and look at the big plan and have their input as well because I've heard that we can do better together.

Also, I've been put on— I've been asked to join the SATPAP. All right, everybody, I just decided to make a name out of that acronym. Southwest Alaska Transportation Policy and Process Board— process procedure— actually don't remember the last word. So SWAMP-C is working with DOT and they're having regional, regional policy boards. Our region is Southwest Alaska, so all the way out the chain, different communities.

It was real good. I've been to one board meeting and just working with all of our needs and what DOT is offering. So I found that Found that really exciting. I'm just going to throw in one more. Thank you, sir.

I went— I like to sit in on the AML infrastructure meetings on Tuesdays. This last one was on freight.

Mostly they talked about highways and railroads, right? There's the rail belt in Alaska and there's a lot of highways and so forth. But I kept bringing up, yeah, we're an island and our piers and our docks and our ferry system and our freight comes by boat. So don't forget. So they had these, a lot of freight people that were— but it's really true for people in the interior, the highway and the railroad bring everything to them.

But I was— so it was just nice to be able to speak up a little bit and let the freight people of Alaska know that we need help too.

That's all I got. Thank you, Council Member West, and thank you for volunteering to be on that planning committee. That's really a great good faith effort by the Department of Transportation. And, you know, SMWAMC had to step up and be the administrator. But that's kind of an attempt to fill that gap in between the State Department of Transportation and their projects that they'd like to put forward.

And planning at a local level, you know, all over Alaska. We're so far-flung, and usually, you know, they're getting it by phone call or something. And this is a way to have local people in the region be part of that planning process so that the Department of Transportation is better informed when they start to move on these projects. So thank you.

Any other questions from the council? The next item on the agenda under unfinished business is second reading and public hearing, Ordinance Number 1477. Authorizing the city manager to sign a loan agreement borrowing from the Alaska Clean Water Fund in an amount not to exceed $3,400,000 to pay the cost of the Aleutian Homes Phase 7, Project PN20-05/700047. May we have a staff report, please? Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Uh, this agenda item is presented for the purpose of authorizing the city manager to sign a loan agreement with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation State Revolving Fund program. Engineering design for Lucian Homes Phase 7 is 70% complete, and bid advertisement is tentatively scheduled to start in January 2027. The total cost of this project is estimated at $12 to $14 million, and construction will occur in at least 2, possibly 3 phases due to the cost of the project. Um, this loan is for the first phase, will be from Birch Avenue to the 800 block of Hemlock. And will replace approximately 2,100 feet of, um, 50 to 70-year-old sewer main and water lines, um, servicing approximately 74 homes in the Aleutian Homes subdivision.

Um, and so staff recommends council adopt, uh, ordinance number 1477. Thank you. Thank you. What is the council's pleasure? Councilmember Woods.

Thank you. I move to adopt ordinance number 1477.

Satisfied. I am now closing the regular meeting and opening the public hearing on Ordinance Number 1477. Comments will be limited to 3 minutes each on this ordinance. If there is anyone who wishes to address the mayor and council as a whole, please approach the podium, sign in, and state your name, or call in at 907-486-8610. And again, due to the slight delay in broadcasting, I will be pausing for a moment to allow public members to call in.

There being no further testimony, or no testimony, I am now closing the public hearing and reopening the regular meeting. Is there any council discussion?

Will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you, Miss Woods. Yes, Miss Davidson. Yes, Mr. Walker. Yes, Mr.

Stanford. Yes, Miss West. Yes. Does anyone wish to change their vote? Motion passes, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. The next item on the agenda under unfinished business is second reading and public hearing, ordinance number 1478, authorizing the city manager to sign a loan agreement borrowing from the Alaska Drinking Water Fund in an amount not to exceed $2,200,000 to pay for the cost of the Aleutian Homes Phase 7 project, PN 20-05/700047. And we have a staff report, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This agenda item is presented for the purpose of authorizing the manager to sign a loan agreement with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation State Revolving Fund for the, Alaska Drinking Water Fund.

So the last ordinance was for the Clean Water Fund. Um, so this is the same project, a different source of funding. So, um, this is for the Drinking Water Fund, uh, also for Aleutian Homes Phase 7. The project is at 70% completion, design completion. Uh, bid advertisement tentatively scheduled for January 2026.

Again, the total cost of the project is estimated $12 to $14 million and is in the, um, first phase will be from Birch to the 800 block of Hemlock Street, um, serving 74 homes, replacing, um, old sewer main and water lines. I just recommend approval of this ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. What is the council's pleasure?

Council Member West. Move to adopt Ordinance 1478. Second. I am now closing the regular meeting and opening the public hearing on Ordinance Number 1478. Comments will be limited to 3 minutes on, on this ordinance.

If there is anyone who wishes to address the mayor and council as a whole, please approach the podium. Sign in and state your name, or call in at 907-486-8610. And again, due to the slight delay in broadcasting, I will be pausing for a moment to allow public members to call in.

There being no testimony, I'm now closing the public hearing. And opening the— reopening the regular meeting. Is there any council discussion?

Will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you. Miss Davidson? Yes. Mr. Walker?

Yes. Mr. Stanford? Yes. Miss West? Yes.

Miss Woods? Yes. Does anyone wish to change their vote? Motion passes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

The first agenda item under new business is Resolution Number 2026-36, supporting the Community Transportation Program, CTP, in the State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities 2027-2030 State Transportation Improvement Plan, or STIP, or STIP. May we have the staff report, please? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This resolution came about the state's draft 2027-2030 is out for public review. Comment, um, is, is due on October 29th.

Um, this is one of two resolutions. Um, the second resolution, um, which was kind of the companion to this resolution that didn't make it in the packet but will come before you, is for the short trail and support for this short trail. So, um, and so this is in support of the community transportation program. Currently in the STIP, the short— the Kodiak Short Trail is listed for funding for design under the community transportation program. So it is mentioned in this resolution.

However, um, this resolution is separate in that the community transportation program is was designed and is a competitive surface transportation program for both rural and remote communities, and it is held every 3 years, administered by the DOT. And the last call for projects was in 2023, at which time we had, we had nominated Mill Bay rebuild and also Mission Road rehab. Although those projects weren't awarded funding, these projects all met the criteria. And at this time, the draft STIP from 2027 to 2030 does not have an allocation for the Community Transportation Program. So without this program, or without this community transportation funding, or a comparable competitive rural community program, really there's no clear pathway within the STIP for this type of locally identified priority or any of our city streets to compete for federal surface transportation funding.

So that's exactly why And that's exactly what this resolution does. It supports that program and including it into the STIP. Um, and, um, so our hope is we can reconvene the council at a later date and approve the Kodiak Station Short Trail resolution, the companion to this, approve it and formally submit it to DOT for the city's public comment. Period for this step. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. What's the council's pleasure?

Council Member Walker moves to adopt Resolution Number 2026-36. Second. Is there any council discussion?

Will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you. Mr. Walker? Yes. Mr. Stanford?

Yes. Miss West? Yes. Miss Woods? Yes.

Miss Davidson? Yes. Does anyone wish to change their vote? Motion passes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

The next item on the agenda is authorization of a Kodiak Economic Development Agreement in the amount of $150,000 annually to the Kodiak Economic Development Corporation. May we have a staff report, please? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We discussed this agenda item on Tuesday evening. Since that time, have done some work to further some, some more actionable deliverables in the agreement relative to Gibson Cove and, and also to other items of priorities of the council.

So at At this time, we would like to recommend Council postpone the authorization of the agreement to the December 3rd regular Council meeting. Thank you. Thank you. What is the Council's pleasure? Council Member West.

Uh, can I go right to the secondary motion? No, I didn't think so. I'm learning just a little tiny— yeah, so my first motion, or the first motion of the Council, is Move to authorize KEDC Economic Development Agreement number 270581 in the amount of $1,500— uh, nope, $150,000 annually, with funds coming from the non-departmental administration economic development line item, and authorize the city manager to sign this agreement on behalf of the city. Second. Second.

Is there any council discussions?

And this is when a secondary motion might be made. Council Member West. I'd like to make a secondary motion. Move to postpone the authorization of KEDC Economic Development Agreement number 270581 to the December 3rd, 2026 regular council meeting. Is there any discussion on the motion?

Second. Second. Oh, sorry, got ahead of myself. Is there any discussion on the motion to postpone?

Will the clerk please call the roll on the postponement? Thank you. Mr. Stanford? Yes. Miss West?

Yes. Miss Woods? Yes. Miss Davidson? Yes.

Mr. Walker? Yes. Does anyone wish to change their vote? Motion passes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.

The next agenda item is certification of election. May we have a staff report, please? Thank you. The City of Kodiak held a regular election on— or a municipal election on October 6th, 2026, and voters cast ballots for the two 3-year city council positions, one 1-year city council position, and voted on Proposition 1, number 1, amendment of the charter of the City of Kodiak, Article 3, Section 1, Concerning the city manager residency requirements, the canvas board met on October 14th, 2026 to tally the votes of the, um, admissible questioned personal representative and absentee by mail ballots, together with votes counted for early voting and on election night. Of the 3,974 registered city voters, 554 cast eligible ballots.

For a 13.9% voter turnout. Um, I reached out to Mr. Paulson and Mr. Calderon to determine their interest in serving, as they were our tie vote in our write-in candidates. Um, and Mr. Calderon has accepted the position, um, to serve as a city council member. Thank you. Thank you.

What is the council's pleasure?

Council Member Walker. Proposed motion: Move to certify the results of the October 6th, 2026 regular election and declare Nick Mangini and Jose Calderon elected to the City Council for 3-year terms, Charlie Davidson elected to the City Council for a 1-year term, and Proposition Number 1 passed with 344 votes. Second. Thank you. Is there any council discussions?

Council Member Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, thank you to all of our candidates who chose to run. Thank you to all of our voters who participated in the election. And also, I'm just going to say it, Kodiak 13.9% is sad voter turnout.

We can do better. And I know that people have lots of opinions about how the city is managed, and the best way to make a difference is to vote for the people who you think will represent what you believe in. So please, Kodiak, vote. Thank you. Councilmember West.

Yes, you have another chance to make up for that in November. So I really just enjoyed reading the write-in tallies. I, I got a big kick out of it. Yes, we had 2 that had 4 votes, but I just want to say that the next amount of votes that people received was 2. There were 4 people that received 2 votes.

And two of them are our outgoing city council members. So I want to say, evidently, we love you and don't want you to go anywhere, but we understand, uh, that you do want to go somewhere else. So be free.

Thank you. Councilmember Woods, then Davidson. I wasn't going to say anything, but I'd like to thank the two people who voted for me even though I wasn't running. One of them was definitely my mom because she told me.

And welcome, Jose. And welcome back, Charlie, who just couldn't stay away. We're happy to have you back. Council Member Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Um, thank you, Council Member West, for bringing up all the write-in tallies, because I'm going to do a little plug here. If you wrote in your friend's name, then maybe you should talk to them about why you think they should be on City Council, and maybe they'll run next time. Or maybe you should run next time.

Any further discussion from the council? Well, it was another well-run election, and I always say our local election officials and the clerk's offices and all our volunteers and everyone who makes it happen do such a fantastic job, and they really, they really deserve a lot of credit and our admiration and our thanks. For helping make democracy work. So thank you. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Thank you. Miss West? Yes. Miss Woods? Yes.

Miss Davidson? Yes. Mr. Walker? Yes. Mr. Stanford?

Happily yes. Does anyone wish to change their vote? Motion passes, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Next are staff reports, and first is the city manager's report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, um, nice to be here tonight and spend the evening with you all. Thanks for having me. Um, tomorrow Spruce Cape will be closed tomorrow, October 23rd, for paving the road crossing at Wastewater Treatment Plant. The road will be closed between Cut-Off Road and Carroll Way, and the closure, closure is just for tomorrow.

We have a PSA out on our Facebook, and also, if there's any questions, to call Public Works Engineering. But that'll be tomorrow only for the traveling public in the Spruce Cape area. We have—. We have—. I just wanted to say, follow up on the great partnership we have with DEC and the state revolving And, you know, it's a great program.

And talking with all these candidates who have been coming into town, federal, state, you know, this is just a great partnership on how we're able to fund our infrastructure projects. If we had a project like this similar to federal and harbor, and we would have been able to maintain our harbors, I think a lot better, you know, something between TIFIA and DOT, something similar like this. Very, very low interest, you know, to keep our harbors, you know, better maintained. So this, this has allowed us to, to, you know, to fund these water and sewer projects that are so critical to our community. So I just wanted to say that it's a, it's a unique program and, and it works really well for us.

And so I do appreciate that and your support for those loans. Our library director, Lori Madsen, is retiring November 6th, and so we'll be gathering here on November 6th for her, uh, send-off into retirement. Um, more to come on that. Um, I believe November 4th we'll be reviewing the city's— the results of the city's compensation classification study with you and also with all of our employees in advance, um, earlier that day. We'll have Malena Halverson here, our consultant.

She's been wonderful to work with. She's been a real whizbang. We have about a 30-page report. And I think you'll really— I think you'll really enjoy the results of that study. We reviewed it again this afternoon.

And anyway, I think That is about it. Stay tuned for more news on Harbor funding. And that's all I have, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you.

Any questions from the council? Council Member Davidson. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. When was Melana Halvorson going to do that report? Did you say what time, or do we know?

November 4th. November 4th. Thank you.

Council Member Woods. Just a comment. It's really nice to hear a local name attached to the compensation study. I think that's pretty cool.

No way. What? That's crazy. Okay, well, it's still nice. I mean, I don't know what to do with that.

Any further questions? That's a great taste in names.

Next is the City Clerk's report. Thank you. There will be a Port and Harbor Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday, October 27th, 2026 at 10:00 AM at Fisherman's Hall. There is a tentative City Council work session— correction, there's a City Council work session tentatively scheduled for Thursday, October 29th, um, at 6:30 PM here in the library multipurpose room. There will be a Historic Preservation Commission meeting on Friday, October 30th, 2026, at 1 PM at Fisherman's Hall.

There is a City Council work session on Wednesday, November 4th, 2026, at 6:30 PM here in the library multipurpose room. The next regularly scheduled work session is scheduled for November 10th, followed by a regular meeting on November 12th. Both of those meetings will start at 6:30 PM here in the Kodiak Library multipurpose room. And finally, I would like to just extend this clerk's office gratitude and appreciation to Councilmember Woods and Councilmember Stanford for your service. It's been truly an honor and a privilege to work for and with you guys, so thank you very much.

I'm sorry, that concludes my—. Thank you very much. Are there any questions, Council? Bob might have one, but I don't, so have—. Bob, did you have a question?

I just said we love you, Brandy, and Daniel and Grace. It's been awesome.

Council Member Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry, I got cotton in my ears. What did you say was happening on October 29th? Yeah.

There is a tentative work session scheduled that evening. Thank you.

Council Member West, um, do we have a plan for the resolution to be able to, um, talk about the— to support the KST? If—. How we— how are we going to do that? What's the plan? We could do a special meeting before the special work session.

We, um, through the mayor, um, Council Member West, we could do a special meeting, um, in advance of this special work session. Thank you. Um, on same day? Yes, because it's due before 5:00 PM on that day. We could do a noon meeting, 1, or 1, 1 1 PM.

Thank you, uh, Miss, Miss Warnecke. So I'll extend and say they will have a special meeting tentatively scheduled for October 29th at 1 PM as well. All right, thank you very much for that clarification. Thank you, Council Member West. Council Member Walker.

Thank you, Bob and Amika. It's been, you know, it's been a great ride. Happy trails. And, uh, wish you the best of luck out there in your other endeavors, especially the new baby. So, uh, good luck, guys.

May, may, uh, may you guys, uh, move on with your lives and have a great, great life.

Any more questions from the clerk?

That will bring us to mayor's comments. And I just want to extend my heartfelt thank you to outgoing council members Woods and Stanford. You know, I have to say one thing about these two that has really shown above maybe a lot of the other council members. Is they are a terrible pain in the ass.

Sometimes they would just start talking about things and I'd be thinking, oh my God, can we just vote? And sure enough, after a while you realize that they're actually on to something and they're just discussing something that's relevant and that I'm very glad that they decided to dive into that. And that has certainly been a common theme for both council members Bob Stanford and Woods. They've been great at digging into things, and when they find something, they don't walk away from it. They yell about it and we get something done with it.

And they've helped us in so many different ways, you know. And the Investment Committee is just a great example, you know. The Investment Committee is just doing things that we never did before, and it's, it's really been great for the city. So, in conclusion, I can't imagine better council members. And I hope that we can be as well served in the future as we have been through these two council members.

So thank you very much, you two council members, West and Stanford. Thank you, Terry.

Next is council comments. Maybe we should start with Council Member Stanford.

You know, it's funny, my daughter and I were just talking about, uh, align in this, and I'm going to be proud to report to her that I finally made a pain in the ass. She'll probably agree with you. She just graduated from her Air Force school. But, you know, 6 years has been— I don't normally write my comments down, I never have, and one thing I wanted to mention is, uh, Djuna touched on it about serving and I, I was able to serve because of Councilmember John Whidden. He asked me in the same time of thing, was write-ins, and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have done it.

And so I owe a lot to him for reaching out, and I know many of our council members have done that, been trying to get people to do that. I wanted to add one more twist to it, and my In my life, my faith is important. And over 30 years ago, I had a, I had a written-down revelation given to me. And whether you get it through church or revelation or inspiration or just a gut feeling, it was told me that I would serve that I would do service to my community, and I never felt like that had happened. It was that that was being fulfilled until Councilmember Whidden asked me.

So if that's the case in my life, I believe everyone in this town, that you're known and you're needed and your voices are very important. So whether it's early in your life or late if you have that prodding, however that comes, I encourage you to give your talents. As I look around this room and I think about the wonderful people that I've served with, Mayor Branson, many of the council members from previous, Mayor Haines, it's definitely made a difference in my life. There's, I see the quiet service that people don't know about, how much effort that Council Member Walker put in, in our paid-for fire hall. And I'm so excited about our new council members.

I got excited when Council Member Woods, she would tackle things that I just cringe. She knew about records management and she was so thorough on things.

Mayor Haynes' abilities and his longstanding knowledge in the fisheries. You know, and Sandra, I'm gonna miss bantering with you, but single-handedly you brought that short trail to where federal— our federal senators actually know it and know you. Djuna, you're so thorough. I—. Our, our town council, I believe, is well suited to go forward, and I look forward to welcome Charlie back and our new council member.

I encourage us all to, and I believe we do, we listen. Sometimes people don't think we do, but afterwards it's— I'll just give you one example. Aileen, if you hadn't come up and told us about the park down at Baranoff, we had no idea. And that ended up putting a kid's playground in for $500,000. So we do listen.

You just, because we can't talk back a lot of times, you don't know what that outcome is. I want to thank the administration. You know, I've, from previous with Michelle, Brandy, you filled her shoes exceptionally. Daniel, Grace, it's just been wonderful. I enjoy seeing you when I come in, and Josie, and I think I probably spent as much, if not more, time sitting just getting therapy in your office or I've enjoyed it immensely.

Tim, I'm glad you're there. And I know I'm going to be forgetting people, but so many of our— you know, before I even started, Mark gave me— our previous utilities manager, Mark Kozak, he said, read your packet. There was nothing more frustrating for a director to put all that work in and then have a council not understand what they were saying. So to our current management, they make it happen. All these grants and these different— Josie talked tonight about the different, uh, you know, she mentions things that people don't even think about, TIFIA and all these different loan programs.

That takes a lot of work to keep up on those. It makes a difference in our town. So again, I know I'm getting a little long-winded here, but I, I've I feel very, very honored to have served with everyone here on this council. I appreciate it, and those that mentored me along the way.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Stanford. Thank you very much.

And next time we see you in person, we'll have a lovely plaque for you to represent. Councilmember Walker.

Wow. Uh, you know, Bob, uh, you came on and we were just trying to get the finance committee together and seeing and learning and working with everybody on the council to make it better, and it's gotten better and better and better. And, uh, I think some of us didn't even know how to read paperwork if they were giving one to us. But, uh, this is, uh, we've had quite a good group over the years here, and, uh, I sure hate to see some of them go, and I already hate some that have already gone. But, uh, please, people, get involved.

You know, this council boot me off of here, whatever the case But we need fresh blood coming in there. We need people that come in and actually sit on this council and really help for the future of Kodiak. Thank you.

I heard you, but it will be my last time of saying turn your mic on, Rich.

New one. Council Member Davidson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, there are so many things that I would like to say right now, but I will try to keep it brief. Um, I'm going to start by thanking Lori Mattson for her service as the librarian.

Um, I've known Lori for most of my life because her daughter is one of my best friends. Uh, and it's cool to grow up and be an adult and see Lori and be a colleague instead of just like, my friend's mom. But Kodiak was lucky to have her. So congratulations on retiring. Another plug for better voter turnout because I really believe in Kodiak as an opinionated place full of people that really care and really have strong feelings.

And strong feelings don't matter if you say them in a vacuum. You got to like get out and get involved. Like our fine outgoing council members, our fine incoming council members.

I'm going to take a little shout out to my colleagues at the Aleutic Museum. If any of you read the paper today, you know that two of my colleagues at the museum have received statewide recognition for their work at the Aleutic Museum. Alex Painter for her work on our new exhibits and Amy Steffian for Lifetime Achievement after 30 years of service at the Aleutic Museum. I know this isn't government work, but it is important work that makes Kodiak a meaningful place to be, and anything that brings recognition to Kodiak is good for Kodiak. So props to them.

Thank you, Bob and Annika, for your mentorship in my first year of service. It's been great to learn from how you, you two choose to express your concerns and your passion for the community. I'm not sure who's going to replace Bob in the Finance Committee. It ain't gonna be me. My dad will tell you that.

I'm not the one to be responsible. No, I'm just kidding. No, but I really appreciate the work that I have learned that Bob did to shepherd Kodiak investments into a stronger place. I know he's not solely responsible, but I know he worked hard for that. Um, and then finally, I'm just going to wrap up by, uh, being excited that, um, Nick Mangini is coming back to serve.

I think he is a great candidate to continue to shepherd Kodiak's future. I am excited to have the opportunity to work with Mr. Calderon as a council member. And I am delighted to welcome my Uncle Charlie back to service. I'm gonna get a little sentimental. You guys know him as your council member who served over 3 decades, um, but I've known him my whole life, and his passion for Kodiak and commitment to the people is awe-inspiring.

And if anybody thinks that Kodiak politicians are getting rich, then you should talk to Uncle Charlie.

Thank you, Council Member Davidson. Council Member West. Thank you. Uh, thank you to Bob and Annika.

Did I wake you up when I said your name? No. Everybody's crying. Everybody's crying about Uncle Charlie and, uh, Yeah, that's good. That's good.

Yeah, I love it when people cry. It's a gift to everybody in the room. So thank you for that.

We appreciate— there was a candidate here for Lieutenant Governor, and Josie and I got to go on a tour to show them our harbor and the needs. Well, we went to the fire station and the new police station, which leaks, and so show them the harbor. And it was great because the harbormaster and harbormaster William, they helped us. They gave us a great tour. So it was just great to go along and see there's more Saturday work that's done.

Than we might imagine by our staff. So thank you. That was, that was really good.

Yeah, I do appreciate that Bob recognized that our congressional delegation knows about the Kodiak Short Trail. They do. And it was really interesting. I went to talk to the air station Captain Dusty Williams to let him know about the short trails coming up and if they wanted to make any comments. And he goes, oh, I know about it.

I used to work with Senator Murkowski. So that was a real fun loop there.

The other thing is we had a meeting where someone thought that the City Council was, um, a little flippant or, or, um, made some decisions about asking businesses to pay their sales tax. And I'm going to make a little talk about paying sales tax. It's online. The delinquent sales tax filing as of September 9th. There's over 70 businesses that have missed more than one quarter.

I didn't count the ones that missed one quarter because we all miss, but there's over 70 businesses that have not paid their sales tax.

And I want to say shame on them. They are stealing from everybody else. Who wants to use the library, who wants to call 911 when they need it, that wants to drive down the streets, flush a toilet, and turn on a tap.

So, um, I've been thinking about this many, many ways, what we can do. Um, the chamber is, um, getting ready to— I went to their luncheon today. They're getting ready to promote a new, uh, you want to start a business, we can help you. If you've already started a business and you're having trouble paying your taxes and figuring out the bookkeeping, ask for help. I was thinking about, I told, uh, a KEDC board member, you know something that would really help this economy?

If you could get people to pay their sales tax, like teach them some bookkeeping, maybe what it's going to take is somebody to come up from off island to anonymously help you, because it may be embarrassing that you don't know how to do your bookkeeping. I am not a businesswoman. I do not know how to do bookkeeping, but I have learned to ask for help. So I want to reach out to people and say, ask for help. I know that the Alaska Small Business Development Center, you can call them for free.

And talk to them. They're in Anchorage. They also have classes that are less than what you will pay for being— for missing your payments for one quarter. So, yeah, just—. It's just—.

I know some of these businesses are— have quit, are out of town, left town, but not all of them. There's a lot of businesses and it must— it can't be easy. It's got to be hard. That's why people are not doing it. But please pay your sales tax.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member West. Council Member Woods, you know, I will say, um, besides being called mom, pain in the ass is probably my favorite title that I've had so far out of all the different hats that I've worn over the years. That's really fun. And, you know, I'm proud to be a pain in the ass in this role.

It means I'm doing my job that I promised that I would do. Um, I will say, as a junior council member, when I had my first meeting, um, I got some really good advice from some senior council members. Um, I, I sat down with Laura Arboleda when I was first thinking about running my campaign. And she told me to keep it real. And that was really good advice.

And I've always tried to in the last 3 years, um, to just be blunt. And that's kind of how I've always been ever since I was a child. I don't really know how to be any other way, but to just be honest. And I think that served me well. But some advice that I got from Bob Stanford was keep flipping rocks.

Keep asking questions. Um, and I think this council in the last 3 years has flipped a lot of rocks. And there's— in my mind, I'm always going to remember the things that I didn't get done. That's how I am. I'm my biggest critic.

But, um, I'm really proud of this council and the staff for the things that we have gotten done these past 3 years. It's gonna haunt me that for the entirety of my term, we never hired a city manager permanently. That is going to bother me so badly. Um, but you know what?

I have a feeling that we're close.

It was not for lack of trying. Gosh darn it. You scared them all. It's probably because I was a pain in the ass. I wouldn't want to work for me either.

But I, you know, when I first found out that I was pregnant with my son, I, in January, I was like, you know, I need to make a decision on whether or not I'm going to run. I had always planned on running for a second term. If, if everybody would have me. I like to say elections are not a guarantee. It's not something that you feel entitled to.

But, you know, it's— my whole world changed. And sorry, I'm like 5 weeks into postpartum. So I realized that this was the right decision.

Um, I'm grateful, um, welcoming Charlie back for filling that 1-year seat. Um, the city is lucky to have you, Charlie. They really are.

But thank you also for putting in, because you're the only one that did. And, um, I'm glad that Nick decided to run for a full 3-year term. Um, Nick, I know you're not here today, but you're doing great. Um, and Jose, thank you for running as a write-in. Otherwise, if you hadn't, we would probably be— the poor clerk would either be going down the list of that, of those write-ins, or we'd be making an appointment, which in my opinion is my least favorite way to put in an elected official.

I think all elected officials should have to go through an election if possible. I think it's important that the community chooses them, not just the 6 of us. I hate seeing appointments.

And, you know, when I decided that I wasn't going to run again, in my mind, I was going to have this big speech of saying goodbye and lessons learned. But, you know, it's not really goodbye. This is still my home. I'm still going to be around. I'm not changing my phone number.

So instead, I'll just say, see you later.

Thank you, Council Member Woods. Well, just because you're not on the City Council doesn't mean you can't still be a pain in the ass.

Double dipping, Council Member Davidson. We'll see you at public comment. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna hold you to that. They're the worst ones.

Uh, the next item on the agenda is oath of office. Will the clerk please administer the oath of office to the newly elected officials?

The right hand, and you can repeat after after me. I state your name. I, no, both of you, do solemnly affirm, do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution, that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States, and laws of the United States, the laws of the state of Alaska, the laws of the state of Alaska, the ordinances of the city of Kodiak, the ordinances of the city of Kodiak, and that I will faithfully and honestly Now, basically, honest, perform the duties of council member. Perform the duties of council member, so help me God. So help me God.

Congratulations.

Is it okay to make a comment? Oh, of course. For a nipple, do you want me to—. No, I'm fine. First of all, I, I, I It's touching to be back.

I'm sorry. Thank you, Sandra. They're not tears of sadness. They're tears of joy that I live in such a beautiful community and beautiful people. And I'm— I don't apologize for my tears in public.

I welcome them because it gives me relief from my emotion. But first of all, I want to thank my wife who has been behind me. On anything I've ever done for this community except this time, because I never told her I was running.

I want to gracefully thank Bob and Annika for having served. I know, and the whole city staff, you are just—. You would—. The people from the rest of this country have no idea what a wonderful community we have here, the number of volunteers. There's just so much that we can be thankful for, but I just wanted to let the committee know that, and I hope Richard doesn't mind for a little old blood coming back.

But that's all I have, and thank you very much. And I just can't be happy about anything else but living in this wonderful community. Thank you.

Sure, Mr. Calderón. Please. All right, guys, so I am excited to be next to you guys and making a difference here in Kodiak, Alaska. I know that's going to be hard to top off. You've been here longer than I have, so, um, but yes, I am excited.

I am probably going to be a pain in the ass for sure, um, but I am excited, and I thank you all for just being here with me, and let's get things done. Yeah, thank you.

The next agenda item is presentation to outgoing elected officials, and Bob's going to have to get his in person at some later date, I guess. But I do have this for Annika, and it says, in grateful appreciation for your dedicated service as a member of the Kodiak City Council, your leadership, commitment, and contributions have strengthened our community and help to guide the future of Kodiak. Your years of service, 2023 to 2026. A sincere thanks and appreciation from the City of Kodiak.

Thank you so much.

And let's get Brandy. Get a picture. There you go. Doesn't say pain in the ass on here. No, we, we'll have it etched on the box.

Yeah, there we go. All right, thank you again. Thank you two so much for your service. This is probably the most times KMXC listeners have heard pain in the ass on air in one hour segment. Yeah, we're going to hear from the FCC.

Uh, the next agenda item is audience comments. Comments will be limited to 3 minutes each. If there is anyone who wishes to address the mayor and council as a whole, please approach the podium. Sign in and state your name, or call in at 486-8610. And again, I will be pausing for a moment to allow members of the public to call in.

Is your— sorry, there you go. I've known Bob for over 30 years, and he's an awesome person, and I wish him A good retirement. Where are you so we can go visit you? Somewhere warm, I could tell. But I wish you well, Bob, and thank you for serving.

And Annika, I've known her since she was little at St. Mary's School. Always smiling, always kind, and I'm so happy that you're a mama. I'm here to help you if you need, you know, a date night or something. Thank you. Thank you.

I love this man. He's like a son, even though he doesn't know it, but he's such a joy, and he's going to bring new perspectives of all the members of our city that need help, that don't come here, that don't have a voice. So please listen to him. He's already said he's gonna go listen and write everything down. So that's, that's a good thing.

And Mr. Davidson, thank you for serving again.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to address the council?

And we have no calls on the phone.

The next item on the agenda is discussion with the city attorney regarding the hiring process for city manager. May I have a motion to enter into into executive session.

May I make a parliamentary inquiry to the clerk? Yes. Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, um, because I'm a little sleep deprived. Couldn't tell you why. Um, if a motion is put on the floor, by Robert's Rules of Order, we are owed debate, correct?

And a vote. Okay. And someone who makes— just because someone makes a motion on the floor does not mean that they have to vote yes on it, correct?

Okay, I'm good then. Councilmember Woods. Okay, I move to enter into executive session pursuant to Kodiak City Code 2-04-100, Section C, to receive legal advice from the city's attorney.

Do we have a second for—. For second? Second. Is there any discussion?

Council Member Woods. Okay, um, well, I'm gonna be a— I'll just say a pita, uh, one more time. Um, you know, before public comment tonight when I was reading my packet, I had similar questions.

So I'm reading, it's the same packet that's available online. I just have it printed.

When I'm reading it, I don't actually see where this meets code. And I just need a little bit of background. I recognize I missed the work session. I'm sorry about that. So maybe that background was provided, and I just need a little bit of catching up here.

But, um, Section C reads, at the request of the City Attorney, the City Manager, any member of the council, um, and I don't know from reading this who made that request, but I'll just assume that request was made. The council may vote to meet in executive session to discuss legal matters or receive legal advice from an attorney, including but not limited to pending or anticipated litigation, recommendations regarding proposed legal matters, the disclosure or public discussion of which will or may tend to adversely affect the legal positions of the city. Um, I'm like, okay, sure, we can meet and talk to our attorney. Um, but it says all discussions with the attorney of legal matters considered pursuant to this section shall be confidential. Um, and this is what— this is where executive session gets stuck in my craw, because if it— if it's the city attorney that told us to meet An attorney is always going to tell you to meet executive session because they're always going to want to enjoy that client-attorney privilege.

Like, you know, of course they're going to. Um, but I would like background on why this is being done in executive session rather than just doing this in a work session, because we're talking about process. There's nothing relating to a court proceeding. We're not trying to make a purchase, so we want to make sure that we keep our offer close to our chest, um, and then we're going to go make an offer later and then vote on buying that property later. Um, there's— and it's not a personnel matter, um, and I say that because the city manager contract is a public contract.

It's not the same as dealing with, um, say, letting go a department head. That would be covered in executive session. Um, so long-winded, I'd like to know why we're meeting in executive session.

Okay, great. Um, so to me, this is not— to me, this is not a strong enough reason to meet in executive session. Um, you know, I'm an outgoing council member. I'm a dead duck. Um, a lame duck.

My duck's pretty dead. My term is over, I think, technically sometime this weekend or Monday. Not quite sure. As far as I'm concerned, once this meeting is adjourned, Um, it would— I would strongly recommend we don't go about it this way. Um, I, I understand why our attorney would make this recommendation.

I have argued with our attorney before about meeting in executive session because it's not transparent, and the public, rightfully so, is like, what are you guys talking about in there? And all I can say is, sorry, I can't tell you, and I hate it. And I don't think it's a good way to go about a very public process. I agree with the public comments that we received tonight. I don't think anyone intended any harm by this necessarily, but I do think harm can be done.

So I would point to the way the Kodiak Island Borough handles attorney opinions. I would recommend the council instruct staff to go to the attorney and say, hey, what do you want to tell us? And write it in such a way that we can have it in our meeting packet. Um, and the borough actually has a process for releasing attorney opinions. I don't think the city does.

I think we should adopt it. Um, but my term is over and I'm out of time. So those are my thoughts on that. I will vote no to meet in executive session tonight. Any further discussion?

Council Member West.

You ain't out yet. You just, you're still here. And this is powerful. So thank you. Yeah, I'm not keen either for this.

I know that we had a discussion on let's talk about the process. Like, are we going to put an end date to receiving applications and then look at them? And then all of a sudden we're going to meet an executive. So I'm not inclined to go this way either. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Councilmember Davidson.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Woods and Councilmember West, for your perspective. Uh, I admittedly don't know how I feel about it because I don't know what we're going to talk about. I assume best intent. I assume that if the attorney has requested an executive discussion on this topic, that there is something that they want to share with us.

Um, I think that there is definitely work to be done along the lines of rebuilding trust in the processes of the city, and I know that the hiring of the city manager has dragged on long before my time in this role. Um, but I do hesitate to pad the assumption that executive session means secret and shady, because it doesn't necessarily mean that. It doesn't necessarily mean that there are things to be hidden from the public. It might just mean that we want to figure out how to say what we want to say, or, uh, I don't know. I don't know.

I, I don't know why the attorney called the executive session. Knowing that the topic is hiring the city manager still doesn't tell me enough to know if I think it's a good or a bad idea. My inclination is to go ahead and do it because I'm curious and because I don't assume ill intent. In executive session, and I think that's an important thing for people to think about. Um, it's very easy to be persuaded into believing the conversations we're not there for are obviously skeeving, shady dealings.

Um, but because that's human nature to assume that if I didn't hear them say it, they're probably talking about me, right? That's like fear-based mentality. Um, So I, I don't know that I have refuted what you've said or even agreed with what you've said. I just wanted to throw out that perspective that, um, I don't know why it was requested, but I, I want to try to work on in the process of rebuilding trust and government processes, help people understand that executive session doesn't mean that we're trying to keep things from the public. It means that we're trying to figure out how to say what we need to say.

Thank you, Councilmember Walker. And just to cut it real, real short here, I want to hear what our attorney really wants to talk to us about as far as going into executive sessions. Let's get back in there. I've been in enough of sessions over the years. The first thing that we do is We're hiring our attorney to give us advice on these type of things, and I want us to sit down and find out what we can do to make sure everybody is feeling better about how we are doing things and why we are doing things and move forward.

I mean, it's not that big a deal. It really isn't. I've been into a lot of those over the years. Council Member Woods. So, food for thought.

Um, Gina, I don't disagree with you either. Like, I think we're all kind of thinking the same thing here. Um, I agree that there's no ill intent. It's just more— I think there's two chief concerns that I have. There is the court of public opinion and the PR aspect, as we've as you touched on adequately.

I also have an Open Meetings Act concern, and I'm leaning on my training from when I worked as a municipal clerk. I've taken lots of trainings on Open Meetings Act, most of which were given by Alaska attorneys, and a recurring theme about executive session and their really boring attorney PowerPoint slides is Executive sessions should be used as basically conservatively as possible. And when you're trying to put a meeting agenda together, your agenda packets should basically be put together as liberally as possible, where you can't overcommunicate, but you can undercommunicate. And that's where municipalities can get into trouble. So would this be an open meeting act violation?

I don't know. I'm not an attorney, but I also don't think it passes the red face test. That I know with my— I don't think it passes the red face test or the sniff test. You know, it stinks. I look at that red face as in you're blush because you're embarrassed.

Yeah. Just to clarify.

Yeah. So my gut on this says yes, we pay our attorney. Um, to give us advice, um, but also I don't think that necessarily it needs to be in the dark. I think we've, we've had conversations with and updates from our attorney in work sessions on non-legal, um, things and public meetings in the past. Um, again, if this was a court proceeding or this was dealing with some sort of personnel issue Yes, um, we do have sections in our city code that spell that out, but that's not what this is.

We're talking about a process on how to hire somebody. That's not controversial. Um, uh, to me, it just doesn't meet the very strict requirements to be an executive session. So, um, again, I have to make some assumptions because this meeting agenda item report doesn't really tell me what our attorney wants to talk to us about other than it's about what's in so far been a public process. So I'm like, okay, well then my feeling is then, or my opinion is that the public process should remain public.

I don't see anything here that supports, other than we're going to sit down with our attorney, that we should go into executive session. So that's where I'm at, um, and I guess I will be finishing my term being a pain because I be voting no on meeting into executive session. Council Member West. Yeah, thank you.

Um, you don't think the executive, uh, meetings are, are like secret shady, we can't disclose? But we can't, you know, when we, when we talk about— when we go into an executive meeting—. Microphone. Oh, I We talked about how, if you have to talk about a personnel issue, you know, it could prejudice the reputation or the character of a person. Well, we don't go talk about it later.

We keep it in the executive session.

We meet there. We talk about what happened, what we know, all the facts, which is not— which is we're protecting somebody.

I don't see that as being the case this time. But it, you know, it, I do appreciate that you're saying, you know, the, the perspective is that it's secret and shady and, but it is secret. We can't talk about it.

And we don't intend, we don't have ill intent, but we're just trying to protect people. But I don't think that this is the case this time. This time. Thank you. Councilmember Stanford.

Well, I'm also outgoing, and I don't honestly know if I can even vote because I can't participate, uh, on Zoom. It's not part of the code. But maybe the council— the comments at the beginning might be the right answers, that not knowing— because we don't know what's in the executive session— is, uh, maybe trust our attorney to— and have the meeting. I would also give the report if stuff is not executive session material. It's just, you know, and give a report and then follow up with Councilmember Annika's idea of adopting the borough, and then that could be, you know, go on the agenda setting for if it is just stuff that's not— shouldn't be there in the executive session, then put that on the agenda.

And start that process of making the change. So I think you could probably do both and report on the things that are not to be kept, you know, that would normally be kept in an executive session that might harm somebody, and then go forward with the change, you know, or at least get it on the agenda so you could talk about that as you go forward.

Well, Before we go on with our discussion, I do have a suggestion. If it turns out that we do not vote to go into executive session, I think we are— the reason for that sounds like it's because we're kind of got a catch-22 situation going on here. We have certain instances where it's a no-brainer to go into executive session because that's just the kind of thing we go into executive sessions to discuss. This doesn't seem to fall neatly into any of those categories. I would suggest that if we don't go into executive session tonight, that we request of our attorney a short brief, that if he, if he can't explain to us what he would have in executive session, he could at least explain to us why it's a good idea to go into executive session.

That way we, we would have a better idea, at least why the executive session is, is necessary. And then if we don't go into executive session tonight, we're going to have to postpone that maybe till the one on the meeting we're discussing having on the 29th. So is there any further discussion? Council Member Davidson, uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want a clarification, and I feel like I should already know this, but I'm not confident.

Brandy, as our city clerk, do you have any idea why the attorney wants to talk to us? And if you do I would assume that you would know whether or not it violates the Open Meetings Act. What?

It wouldn't have been scheduled if I thought it had violated the Open Meetings Act. Thank you.

Uh, Council Member Walker, then Woods. I kind of, uh, go along with the mayor's, uh, idea there is call the attorney, attorney, set up a meeting or talk about what it should be about or what it was that he wanted to go to special, uh, meeting or not, and just look at it through that way from both sides and then see if we really need to go that way. If it's something that he's wanting to build he brought up because of his capacity of being an attorney, I would say, okay, that's what we're paying the good money for. So I mean, that's my side of it, this type of stuff that I've dealt with over the years.

Councilmember Woods. You know, I would just say, Mayor Haynes, I really liked your recommendation of the attorney having a brief explaining why And I think that should just be the norm where it just gets put in the packet, because right now we're just kind of— the council and the public all have the same amount of information right now, which is nothing. We have a code section and a proposed motion and trust.

And to me, for executive session, that's just not adequate. Um, I will say I A point of contention for me with executive sessions is, um, there's really no laid-out process or rules on what happens after. There's a code section which we read as part of the motion for what allows us to go into executive session, but then it just kind of goes into the ether after we leave executive session. Um, my plan, something that I always wanted to address And I don't want to get too off topic here, so I'll wrap it up. But I really think the city needs to adopt a policy for handling executive session records, because some things do need to stay confidential permanently, like personal records.

But not everything needs to stay confidential forever. For example, like a legal case that finally gets disposed. Why does it need to be confidential anymore? When we make a purchase on a property, for example, the City Council went into executive session on the purchase of Muskok Storage's storage unit that has been proudly owned by the city since COVID That doesn't need to be confidential anymore. So just saying, there's nothing we can do about it tonight, but my advice to the future council members from an outgoing council member is to avoid situations like this in the future, maybe look into the way that the city handles executive sessions afterwards.

And I think that would really go a long way with establishing public trust around something that the public doesn't get to see, they don't get to know. And asking them to trust us is a pretty big ask when they don't have a whole lot to go off of. If I was a member of the public, which I will be, just a regular member of the public, and very short time, I would be questioning this too. I don't think it's unreasonable.

So that's all I have.

Is there any further discussion?

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Thank you. Mr. Walker? Yes. Mr. Stanford?

Uh, no.