Kodiak Borough: Assembly Work Session of July 30, 2026

All right, it is 6:30, and I will call the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly work session of Thursday, July 30th, 2026 to order. We will begin with citizens' comments. For those who wish to call in, we are having some problems with our phones here in the building. IT department, they are working on it, but you can still try to call in. The local number is 907-486-3231.

Toll-free number is 1-855-492-9202.

And please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback. If you can't get through with your call, feel free to email your comments to the clerks or call in next week during the regular meeting so your comments can be on the record. For those in the room who wish to speak under Citizens' Comments, please come to the podium and sign in, turn on the microphone, make sure the green light is on before speaking. And speak directly into the mic. State your name for the record and address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

Mr. Mayor, if I may add a comment, um, the IT director just leaned in and gave us the thumbs up. We got the phone. We do have a thumbs up with the phones. So did I do everything? Yes, I think so.

Yeah. Okay, well, my name is Karen Yashin. Hello to everyone here this evening. I've been on the board of the Humane Society of Kodiak for about 30 years. Since its inception.

Prior to that, I was in another animal rescue group called People for Pets, so I have some history in Kodiak with animal care. As I get older, members of our Kodiak government get younger, which is the way of life, but that also means that some history gets forgotten. Years ago, there were big issues with loose dogs packing up and the population of feral cats growing. There were problems with the inhumane treatment of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens. There was the fear of these unvaccinated pets potentially spreading disease or injuring well-cared-for family pets.

Or worse. Around that time, the shelter was a kill shelter, so every 3 days pets were put down. Imagine being out of town, you're on a vacation, your pet sitter accidentally loses your dog but doesn't realize they should check with animal control or the shelter, only to find out upon their return the pet was euthanized. This is a true Kodiak story. It's just one of many, some very sad and sometimes horrific stories that happened back in history because of, um, a lack of the services that Over the years, the Humane Society of Kodiak, a no-kill shelter for friendly adoptable pets, has done much to make sure that animals are treated humanely and that unwanted animals aren't being born.

And if they are being born, we have programs to make sure they find new homes and won't be procreating accidentally. Each year, the Humane Society of Kodiak must raise approximately $75,000 in order to pay for the veterinary care of all animals surrendered to the shelter. This includes spays and neuters as well as any other necessary veterinary procedures. But this money is only used for animals surrendered to the shelter. In years past, we were fortunate enough to receive a grant for spay/neuter from the Bob Barker Fund.

Since his death, we have no longer— we don't have that access, and it's been years, probably 10 years since he passed. But at any rate, um, it's hard to find money for shelters and for animal welfare. In years past, we were fortunate enough to receive a grant for spay/neuter from, the borough. So, it's not used for shelter pets. It's used exclusively to help support spay/neuter for borough residents.

So basically we have a, a system where we give out a little bit off on a spay or neuter. It's incentive to help them go get their pets spayed and neutered. So if they can't afford it, we have— we help them. Having been lucky enough to receive this borough grant for a number of years, We can tell you that borough residents use it faster than city residents use the same grant the city gives us for a similar thing. For city residents, we help with spay/neuter.

When the borough gives us this grant, we help with borough residents only spay/neuter. Your hard work is greatly appreciated, and it must be very difficult to make decisions on how to spend available nonprofit money, but we hope you'll consider awarding the Humane Society of Kodiak the requested funding so we can continue our outreach program for borough residents. The shelter manager, shelter employees, and Humane Society of Kodiak board members are the engine that runs our organization. The funding that comes in from memberships, donations, fundraisers, and grants— that's the gas that ensures our programs will survive. Thank you.

I appreciate your time. Thank you. Are there any calls?

No. Okay.

To think about it. Sorry, just had my knee operated on.

I am here also to represent the Kodiak Humane Society. Our organization would like to thank the Kodiak Island Borough for the opportunity for funding through the nonprofit grant program. You should have received a letter today via—. Lori, can you introduce—. Oh, I'm sorry, Lori, my name is Lori Murdock.

Thank you. Sorry, I got so excited.

Who, you? Yeah.

Okay, sorry about that. So you received— should have received an email today detailing some of our points that for asking for our funding. Regarding the Humane Society's request for funding through the nonprofit grant, we feel that we need to provide clarification of what the Kodiak Island Borough is supporting with the funding provided each year. The City of Kodiak Animal Control Kodiak Animal Shelter budget, that covers just the animal shelter. It doesn't cover the spay and neuter for pets outside of the— in the borough.

So the allowable expenses covered under the contract with the City of Kodiak are wages for shelter staff, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, and taxes, cleaning supplies, euthanasia expenses, utilities as trash, water, electric, heating oil, shelter maintenance, and insurance. Our contract for the 2000— excuse me, yeah, 2027 contract year is $152,200 for our— $200,000 for the animal shelter services. So that's what we contracted with the city for, but we still need to make up the funding. The funding from the borough helps to augment these expenses, also funds the budget for animal control officers, which is a really big deal. Your funding along with the city's ensures that there, there's a facility and staff to take care of pets from both inside and outside the city limit.

Outside the shelter contract, the Humane Society of Kodiak is responsible for raising funds and through grants and donations to fund all of the veterinary services and supplies, food, and anything else for shelter pets, as well as programs offered by the Humane Society to the community. One such program is the compute— community spay/neuter program. We provide coupons for reduced-cost spay/neuters for members of the Kodiak Island Borough, including The Villages, which has been funded in the past by the borough's nonprofit grants. Historically, we have had more requests for spay and neuter assistance from borough residents than from city residents. From FY19 through FY26, our organization funded a total of 265 residents from the borough versus the city.

From FY19 to FY26, our organization funded— oh, I already said that. Never mind. Which came to a total of $51,700.

So we really rely on your grant and we really hope that you will continue to fund us in the future and thank you very much. And I have 19 seconds left. Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Carleen. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is one of my most favorite topics, and I've been reading a lot in the newspaper about the wild dogs and the feral cats up north. And I remember driving up Pillar Mountain in the '70s and '80s, and you would see the wild packs of wild dogs. And I know the dog catcher really loved dogs.

So he'd open up the back of his truck and feed them. I must have gathered the food somewhere. But in a civil society, this is something that we take care of, and it's very important, or else that's what we have are a lot of wild animals and feral cats. And up north, they have quite a problem with that. With rabies and the different viruses and bacteria, the Lyme, whatever.

But I have a special story, an anecdote, Jared.

When I got off work in the early 2000s, I would run into Douglas Dawson, and I told him, there's a cat in the newspaper. Her name is Chloe. She sounds like a wonderful cat. So he went and tried to get her, but it was given to someone else. Chloe ended up back there, and so he got Chloe.

And his mother, Mrs. Dawson, had been superintendent of the schools, and she was bedridden. And Douglas told me that the cat spent a lot of time on his mother's bed. So it really made me feel so good because of the way the stories are written.

Nup, that's one of my best parts of the Kodiak newspaper are about the pets because it really describes them and it makes me laugh. And then my brother loved his cats. He would get me to cat sit for them. And so I got to watch Turner Broadcasting. I got to watch TV and he had snacks.

Then every once in a while he'd bring home to his house pizzas and then I'd go home when he'd show up. So He really loved his cats. But thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Any calls? No.

Okay. We will move on into our agenda. So first up, our manager's comments. Amy is out today, so we have SEEMA, thank you so much for filling in. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

For the Manager's Department, we have had two interior tours for interested parties for the Signal Hill buildings. The negotiation kickoff meeting for Providence Lease was held on July 22nd. Assemblymembers Roberts and Smiley were able to attend, and the next meeting is scheduled for early September. Landfill bear management plan has been approved by ADEC, and on Wednesday, July 22nd, staff met with ADEC and ADFNG to discuss current issues with bear access at the landfill. We are meeting with vendors to consider software that would modernize our HR processes, and C&D— or Community Development, E&F had their first meeting to discuss the drainage work that will need to be completed prior to KIB being able to move forward with the approved land sales.

And lastly, we are recruiting for the— a new maintenance employee in EF and—. Gosh darn it—. And an appraiser tech in assessing. In community development, the director and code enforcement officer met with the Canna environmental team to discuss a hazard mitigation mitigation plan and how we can work better together to assist village communities in their efforts to plan for future hazards. The Community Development staff assisted the borough's clerk office in reviewing the renewal application for, um, Aquamarine Restaurant that they had submitted for their restaurant eating place license.

In finance documents, the 2025 foreclosure documents submitted to the court have now been signed. A lien has been placed on the real properties until the delinquent taxes are paid. Since additional interest and fees continue to accrue, please call the Finance Department for payoff amounts. First half payments for the 2026 taxes are due August 17th since the 15th falls on a Saturday. To verify we have received your payment, please go to the online property access module, which is accessible accessible on our website.

Finance staff is working with Tyler Finance team to complete remaining outstanding items such as delinquent notices, data exports, and reports. And a finance PSA: through the property information link on the borough website, the public can now access and print property tax statements, make payments, view history, and see general property information. In IT, the IT department has been working on upgrading our firewalls and networking systems to Fortinet with Koniak Cyber and have completed the main KIB firewall upgrade as well as upgrading the switches at KFRC. They've also kicked off the Proxmox migration project, working through the initial project scoping with the consultants. Consult Add LLC.

The Kodiak Cyber and Kodiak Island Borough Cybersecurity Infrastructure Project is under— is ongoing with several milestones completed and is on track to finish on time, which working— which includes working on configuring a new remote access system to our landfill and other KIB staff. The IT and GIS staff are working on documenting our GIS systems and data as well as working on property information for the remaining parcels that don't have association— associated parcel IDs. GIS is also working on creating comprehensive maps for the Community Development Comprehensive Plan and providing aerial imagery to engineering for their bear fence project. In assessing, staff continues to inspect properties in the city of Kodiak. We have 20 seniors and 1 disabled vet applicant that still are in the no PFD category and 26 seniors and 2 disabled vet applicants that are still remain undetermined.

Staff has begun processing exemption applications for the Kodiak Maritime Museum, and next on the books is the Masonic Temple and Calvary Baptist Bells Flats. The 2023 refund case for the Allutiq Heritage Foundation status conference is scheduled for August 18th. The 2024 appeal case was heard on July 24th. We're hoping to have a decision before that, um, August 18th status conference, and if we don't, that will be delayed. The 2025 reconsideration and 2026 application are held in-house and are on hold until the 2024 appeal case is completed.

There is no decision in the Kanna Supreme Court case. Assessing also assisted the borough's clerk office in reviewing the renewal application for the Aquamarine Restaurant, and staff is working on exemption module updates, sketch and photograph errors, and supplement errors with Tyler. But we were also contacted by the Matsui Matsu Borough, and they are having problems with their conversion for their commercial properties too. So now Cofinity, which is a Marshall Swift product, software product that we buy, and Tyler and Matsu and us are all working together to try and figure out all of these problems at the same time. In engineering and facility, KFRC seawater pump extensions are complete for pumps 3 and 4.

The facility is operational and staff is working to realign the building's automation system to its original design. IPA will be returning to install the other pumps on August 3rd. The solid waste RFP is posted on the website and will close on August 4th. A mandatory pre-proposal meeting occurred on June 30th with only one contractor in attendance. The staff continues to till the soil and uncover the land farm in periods of good weather at the landfill.

NWFF conducted soil sampling and we are awaiting results at the long-term care site. And at the Carlick site, Three Tier Alaska is beginning to schedule trips, but delays are occurring due to the driller availability. Small projects include the Port Lions painting project. The contractor has completed painting and is awaiting the arrival of sheet metal for the specified trim areas. Staff will conduct a site visit when the sheet metal has been installed.

The UST removal work is scheduled for next week for the annex building, and the new skid has been shipped, and staff is coordinating the installation timeline at the the leachate treatment plant citric acid dosing skid replacement.

Staff met with the contractor and work will begin— will be scheduled for late this summer for the building roof warranty for this building. Upcoming contracts are the environmental services contract. Staff has issued a notice of intent to award to NWFF and are currently in the protest window. You will be voting on this item at the August 6th regular meeting. Staff has issued a request for qualifications and pricing for the contract roster.

A not-to-exceed contract will be awarded for— or sorry, not to exceed $50,000 contract will be awarded to the responsive parties. And the KIB facility snow removal and ice contract ITB, Invitation to Bid, has been posted. Upcoming HFAB meeting will be August 4th and the July projects report is attached. Thank you. Okay.

Any questions for SEMA or for SEMA to pass on to Manager Williams?

All right. Seeing none, thank you, SEMA. Thank you. We will move on to our agenda items for the work session before getting into packet review. First on the agenda is review of nonprofit funding, and it was up and now it disappeared.

Yes, Mr. Smiley. I think two— a couple of points are really crucial here.

The first is I think we should give everybody the same amount. If they've asked for the full amount, I think whatever our analysis ends up at, I think we should give everybody that. That means that people can ask for less, and that's fine, but I don't want to get into a position where it looks like bias picking one over another with more money. Uh, there are two categories in large measure., that we have funded in the past. The one— first one is health and safety.

Uh, that has nominally been $25,000 apiece. There's many more now this year than there has been in the past. Uh, my solution to the problem is to give all of those that asked for that $16,000 and to give everyone the smaller amount, which is $3,500. That leaves a grand total of $175,000, which is $5,000 more than what we budgeted. I do think that keeping the amounts the same and trying to avoid the appearance of bias is a crucial thing that we should do.

Thank you. Thank you for starting us off. Mr. Gardner.

Thanks for all the hard work you did on this spreadsheet, Mr. Smiley. In light of, um, you know, public comments today about the, the animal shelter, maybe we can consider taking the $16,000 number— 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of them— and pull that down to $15,000 and think about putting $3,500 into the Humane Society along with the the rest of those groups in there? As it stands now, the $16,000 is about the same percentage of $25,000 that $3,500 is of $5,000. So we start screwing around with those ratios, things get a little tough. But the reason there's no money in that is that the manager said there was other money for them, even though they want to use this money.

Mr. Whiteside, thank you. Yeah, so, um, there's also a spreadsheet that Manager Williams put together for us in the packet that we took Mr. Smiley's spreadsheet from last meeting, and she took our suggestions and incorporated that into this spreadsheet. So notable items in there are there are $75,000 allocated to the Humane Society through the Animal Control funding that we passed in the budget. So they are already receiving $75,000 from the borough. So if we do not add additional funding, they're still getting $75,000.

So I'm trying to make sure that for folks that testified and might be listening and then the assembly that they are receiving a substantial sum of money there for this next fiscal year. Other notable items, it wasn't Although it's noted on Amy's version, there's asterisks, double asterisks, asterisks next to several of the nonprofit items there under Health and Social Services, but they were not deducted from that sum on the bottom of that column. So we have, you know, $15,000 for Brother Francis Shelter, $5,000 for Kodiak Mentor Program or the camp program, KCHC $4,500, CODAC reentry, $4,500. Those are captured if you scroll down under the opioid funding section there. So there's $68,169 available there.

Suggested funding would be $67,000.

So if we were to subtract those from that health and social services section, that would reduce our number. I don't have it calculated yet. I'll do it when other folks are chatting about this topic. But so that gets us down really close to our budgeted amount, which is $85,000. And I agree with discussion last week that I'm not amenable to KCH's ask.

I don't, I don't think they should receive that. So that would get us below our total allocation for Health and Social Services, Education, Recreation and Culture, we are within the allocation there. There's also items there that are noted in green that the manager color-coded for us there that could be, that could be debited from the tourism fund. We have plenty of resources available there to cover those. And then down to colleges and libraries, Kodiak College, there is— we budgeted for $100,000, that was the ask.

We're good there. That additional $28,660 for Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center will come from the Fisheries Development Fund, which we have a growing and healthy balance there. So I guess, coming full circle, we can easily stay within our budget allocation based on the manager's spreadsheet here, which is an adaptation of Mr. Smiley's and our suggestions or input. From last meeting and stay clearly under our allocation without exceeding it. So I like this version with the one change I would make would be to remove the $4,500 for KCHC.

And if we wanted to reallocate that towards other ones, I will let the Assembly toss that around.

Mr. Smiley. Well, there are several that I cut. In my version. Uh, KCHC I cut. Uh, Rural CAP asked for two different, um, uh, requests.

I limited them to one, which was Head Start, and not the other one. Um, for the others, the, the tourism group, what I did there was $14,000 total, uh, that would come out of the tourism budget for a Ludeck Museum, Island Trails The History Museum and the Maritime Museum. Opioid was, I think, the same as Amy's with Brother Francis at $19, Kodiak Mentor at $12, KCHC at $20, and Kodiak Reentry at $16 for a total of $67,000, which I think is well within the budget that we have there.

I do think we should tell people that one shot is enough, not two.

Any other discussion? Mr. Weitzight. I will take one more bite. So, Madam AO, if you could pass this along to Manager Williams, I think we are— it seems like we are very close with her version. So if anyone has any suggestions for Manager Williams through the AO on how we get to that final version, I feel like we are pretty close with Amy's version here, looking at Mr. Smiley's suggestions.

I think if we could, Madam AO, have an updated version of this that subtracts— separates out from Health and Social Services in that top section, removing the items that would be funded under the opioid funds so we can have updated sums that show that we are within our budget allocations. And I think the next meeting then we are down to just fine-tuning if we have extra capacity within our total allocation for nonprofits, if folks wanted to redistribute those to increase amounts. I think that would be where we are at. Yeah, I— thanks, Beau. I find that prudent.

And remember, next week is when we will make the formal amendments for things that you want to change. But I would concur with Bo's suggestion, too.

Any other big thoughts that you would like to see on paper or in the table for staff before we vote on it next week?

Okay, so let me just make sure. Okay, we're going to go with Amy's numbers, removing anything in the top blue part to just be funded by the bottom pink part, right? If I may, Mr. Mayor, is— oh yes, so if we could, um, so we have these different sections. If we could have at one section specific to each funding source. I think that would clean it up for us instead of bouncing around between colors.

So if we have a general fund category, omitting any of the ones that have the double asterisk that can be funded through the opioid fund, move those down into the pink section. Same for the tourism fund. If we could group those into one funding source category, that way every funding source has its own associated nonprofit ask, and then we can see the sums there, and then a grand total at the very bottom to see if we're within allocation or if we have some extra capacity and folks want to look at redistributing or changing those around is where I'm at. But I'm, I'm not, uh, I can't speak for everyone. I mean, I, I like it.

Uh, Mr. Smiley, um, the opioid funds are very narrow in what we can do with it, and they're not the same.

— As the ordinary request for funding for Brother Francis, for example. So they get 2, okay? I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't— that we're not subtracting the $15,000 in the top section because they have $19,000 in the opioid section. I think they're different things.

Do you want to give Brother Francis the $19,000 in the OVI funds and the—. And the $15,000.

In the health and social service. Okay. If I may, I mean, that's what we did last year with the opioid funding is they came from two pools for Brother Francis, for camp, for—. Yeah. And they're very narrow.

What you can spend it on. So— Mr. Whiteside. Thank you, Mr. Smiley. So I misunderstood that. So I assume a slight modification if we could cluster those that need to remain in Health and Social Services together, that way we can— with a sum and then— yeah, great.

Thank you. Thank you.

Anybody else?

Caroline, you good?

Okay. All right. Just be prepared with any amendments when we dig into the resolution for vote next week. All right, up next, discuss an ordinance— there we go— change to the recently adopted primary residency covenant Property Tax Relief to apply to the purchase of all vacant lots. And this one is Mr. Gardner's.

Yeah, there's not a whole lot to unpack here. Um, it's pretty simple in my mind. Um, I talked to SEMA about this at length, and, um, it seemed like it'd be more fair to extend the same deal, if you will, that we have on these recently discussed properties in this, this primary residency covenant idea that they get basically 2 years to start construction and 3 years after construction commences to complete construction and achieve a certificate of occupancy. And in that time frame, if they successfully filed for an exemption, to extend that deal to all vacant lots across the borough. So even if I had a vacant vacant lot and wanted to sell it to anybody else and they had planned to put a primary residency on it, they could qualify for that same exemption.

And yeah, just extending it to the general public instead of just the recently discussed parcels. Wanted to see what you guys think.

Mr. Whiteside, thank you. I co-sponsored this one, so I agree with Mr. Gardner in principle here. So things that I would like to discuss or have open for discussion at a future meeting is— so folks that currently own vacant lots, I think that we could extend this to them as well, but remove that 2-year initial waiver and have them— give them the 36-month tax abatement from when they begin construction, but for folks who buy new lots, that are sitting right now, then they get the full 2 years to begin construction, 3 years to finish. I'd be okay with that. But if it's folks just sitting on lots now, I don't think that would be a good, a good approach on our end.

Definitely would want the primary residency covenant attached to this under any scenario, but overall, I support it and open for discussion on how we fine-tune it down the road. Caroline, it's okay. Seema had something to respond to what Bo said very quickly, and then we will get you next. It is my understanding that when we voted on that, we took out the 3-year— do you remember that amendment? So you are only giving people 2 years vacant land because as soon as they are completed construction, they get taxed.

So that amendment that you guys voted on 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago, said that once they are final, once they get their CO, it went to taxable. All right. Thank you, Seema. I have Ms. Roberts first and then Mr. Garner. Yep, overall I support this.

I agree with the principle behind it, and Bo, I like the point of making sure we put the primary residence wording in there. I think that's important. I think this would just encourage people to build more and hopefully help with our housing crisis. I did have a question, Sima, maybe for you. Do we have a definition of what vacant land is and what that looks like, and do we have a way— that we verify it's vacant?

Yes. Thank you, Seema. We do. So we inspect, and so we will know if it's a vacant land. We also have a code called vacant land with accessories.

So if they have an accessory building on it, we know those. What I'm envisioning is because assessing monitors all exemptions anyway, they would come in and apply to us. The thing that you guys need to take into consideration is if somebody decides that they want to do this and it's June, you're not going to give them a reimbursement for their taxes that were due as of January 1st. So they would fill out the application, they would bring in proof of building, of construction, proof of owning it, and we would already know if they owned it or not, but that would come into us and then the vacant land would apply apply for the next year and then probably the year after that, because if they complete their construction in the middle of the year, we cannot go back and say, "Oh, now you're being taxed," either. So, it would be the following year.

So, it would be 2 complete years. It just would start as of January 1st. We monitor these kind of exemptions all the time. We're going to ask our software company to give us a specific exemption ID for this so that we can run reports and always see who's up for— to be— or, you know, to have the exemption and whose time is up. We can send out letters saying, hey, alert, alert.

I mean, we can do all kinds of things. The other thing that you guys would need to discuss is If their 2 years is up and they haven't either begun building or are not completed, what are you going to do? You're— I believe in that other ordinance it says that they can come back and if something happens, they could come back and say, we don't want to do this. You would have to have some kind of— for this kind of property, you'd have to have something that said you have to pay to pay the taxes for the past 2 years or something like that, because it's not like they can give the land back to the other owner.

Thank you, SEMA. Um, anything else, Caroline? No, thank you. Okay, uh, Mr. Gardner. Uh, Mr. Whiteside made some good points.

I like the idea of, um, allowing it to all vacant lots. I see no reason why they couldn't get the exemption, um, and they would just have to start building on it, uh, period to the end. So maybe if somebody already owned a vacant lot, they could come in and apply for the exemption and say, okay, you've got 2 years and you have to start building on that, otherwise you owe us the back taxes plus the interest. And then, um, I would have to go back and look at that old resolution to see about the 36 months. It's, it's in the covenancy requirements on the back page of this submission.

So I will need to revisit that a little bit, but this is kind of in its infancy. And again, just the purpose is to extend the same benefit to everybody on the island. So we'll try to refine this as we go here. Thank you. Mr. Woods.

I think if I remember correctly, and this is a hot minute ago and plenty has happened since, The big concern with the 36 months, with the addition to the 2 years, was the giant increase in a payment that would cost to somebody who was actually— who has financed something. So you'd go from something with a pretty minor payment, and then, okay, suddenly now property taxes is being in there. So you're seeing a dramatic jump in that payment under that plan. Uh, that was the big reason why that got amended. Um, other than that love this in theory.

Either way, we only benefit from it. It encourages people to put more money onto their property, which increases the value of that property, potentially benefits the housing shortage, and either way benefits the underlying revenue of the borough by, in a way, incentivizing people to basically create more property tax by increasing the value of the property. So I love this.

I have a few questions and thoughts. So one I think has to do with our, like, the construction capacity pressure. If all of a sudden this program is offered everywhere, like a sudden increase in projects, would that raise prices, contract bids, labor costs, the cost of material demands without meaningfully accelerating the completion of the project. So I'm just interested in how we think that might affect just our local economy. Can we handle that kind of spike in projects, perhaps.

Do we—. So, Sima, we do know— we can look up how many parcels this is that we're talking about, right? Because they're coded. Yeah, I could have a number of vacant lands. I think to your point, when somebody— like, if I went in and bought a piece of vacant land Until I own it outright, I'm not going to get a construction or a mortgage loan on it.

So it's going to— I think that these are going to teeter. Like, you're not going to get 100 people that are going to come in in one year and say, oh, I have my building permit and I own this lot. If I'm buying that lot, you're going to definitely see where I'm going to have 2 years of paying that lot off before I can even go to that mortgage company and get the financing to build the house. And that would be on current costs for building. And then so you're not going to have a ton of people that are exempt at the same time.

Okay. Okay. I can— I think I can see that. But I, for obvious reasons, really concerned about inflation, right? And if there's, right, suddenly this this opportunity to open up these kinds of projects, you know, worry about the available labor, available materials, things like that.

But maybe it's not a problem. I think I'd like to see more numbers. I would.

How many parcels are we talking about? You know, what would a resulting tax loss look like, you know, in the short term?

And from what I can tell, it doesn't sound like this would be overburdening staff. So that's a plus. And so, I mean, other than that kind of just keeping in mind our own markets here, I think this is a fantastic idea. I think I saw Mr. Gardner and then Mr. Woods. Just to speak to your concerns about inflation and supplies and— you know, competition between contractors and stuff.

As someone who's worked in construction for years, um, you know, both here and elsewhere, uh, when you go to build in Kodiak, you have all of your ducks in a row. You have everything planned out well in advance. You do not plan on going to the hardware store here and being able to pick up a certain size window this weekend. You order it 4 months in advance, and a lot of times you have struggles just with that. So I don't really see that as a possibility, especially with us locally.

Um, you're gonna have, you know, your trusses and, and all your 2x4s and 6s and everything laid out well in advance before you start moving dirt. So I just can't see that. Um, I can't see that happening. Cool. Mr. Woods?

I think the bigger inflationary concern there would actually be tied to fuel more than anything else. We ship everything in, so as long as you're getting orders in and you're going through Carlyle, Spann, XYZ, I don't really see that as being a major concern there, just due to the way in which we get materials here, right? It's not like they're being produced locally. As far as contractors go, that problem already exists. Yeah, that—.

We know that. Yeah, no, we—. How long is it to get a residential electrician here? To take— to go look at your house. Yeah, last 9 months, which I kind of almost think this could be a net positive.

We're seeing a couple other businesses coming from areas like Kenai, Anchorage, coming up here at least on occasion to come do work. Um, if we bring more of them here, I think free market— the free market thing— then you may actually lower costs in that regard.

Anything else?

All right, cool. Moving on to our third agenda item for the work session. Yes. Would you like that to come back as a draft ordinance and then discuss it again at the work session, or how would you like—. I will leave that up to the originator, and we can talk about it at agenda setting, but I am okay with that.

All right. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Let's see. Discuss Assemblymember Whiteside's request to travel to Washington, D.C. There is— you can see the narrative there. Mr. Whiteside has requested to join the cohort going to Washington, D.C. And in our code, it says that if a trip falls outside of a routinely scheduled annual conference requires a formal Assembly concurrence for an Assemblymember to go.

And so that is why it is presented here on the agenda. And so, Mr. Weisheit. Thank you. So the reason I am looking to join our municipal delegation to head to D.C. for lobbying efforts is we landed in a unique scenario this year where we have been approved to receive two new icebreakers, Coast Guard base, and then very recently the spaceport was just contracted out for, I believe, a dozen or more missile defense testings that are going to happen prior to the end of 2028. So those two things combined present a unique opportunity for us to lobby for infrastructure spending specifically.

So we've— most of us are aware, and if you're not, have We repeated attempts through Senator Sullivan to have the U.S. Coast Guard included in the Defense Capital Improvement Program. That was denied again recently this year. And the justification for that is if they do it for— they can't just do it for U.S. Coast Guard Base Kodiak. They have to do it for all the entire Coast Guard. And then downstream of that, you are setting precedent to where if you are going to let that agency do it, what is going to stop you from letting other agencies join that program if you have some sort of association with, you know, DOD in some way, which we do here in Kodiak.

So that said, Senators Sullivan-Murkowski and Representative Begich, we clearly, I would envision, continue to advocate not just for addition to the DCIP, but for bicameral legislation to get the House on board for a companion bill. That basically has the same language carrying through the House and then the Senate, if we can get Murkowski on board, then you have it coming from both sides of the House, getting more people aware of it. But I would also look to leverage that, the fact that we cannot get included in that program anytime soon. And folks know that the Coast Guard development happened, folks know about the spaceport, so we would have a lot of opportunity to meet either with staffers or with senators or the representative, Representative Beggidge or his staffers to leverage their committees. So, it might be a little bit long-winded here.

So, Senator Sullivan, clearly he is the champion for our inclusion for DCIP, so no need to toot that horn too much. But he is also part of the— a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, so we could leverage the recent Golden Dome and Spaceport Development to lobby for funds for infrastructure through that. He's also a member of the Commerce Committee so that we can leverage Coast Guard spending through that committee. And then Environmental and Public Works Committee. So I view all of these expansions into our island and spending as a strain on infrastructure— roads, water and sewer is a big one that I think— I imagine the city will want to lobby for, and then our landfill, which is filling up rapidly and we're going to need to expand in the near future.

So those are what I would be targeting through Senator Murkowski's office. She chairs the Appropriations Committee, so she controls a lot of funding that can be used in many different ways. I would, if it were lobbying directly for the borough, I would request funding for our landfill expansion through Senator Murkowski. But I guess to rewind a bit, this would all clearly need to be vetted through the— through our mayors. And the delegation to get on board with coming up with a one-pager that we can all divide and conquer and blast D.C. with these requests.

And then through Representative Begich's office, he is part of the Coast Guard and— a member of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee. He is also a member on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. And he is part of the Western Caucus. So all three of these folks on our federal delegation for Alaska have resources that we could lobby for.

Leaning heavily on the new Coast Guard expansion and the recent spaceport development. So those are my thoughts. I think we need a lot of people to go out there and get all these ideas in front of every staffer and senator and rep we can possibly get ourselves in front of.

Thank you, Bo. Yeah, and on top of that, I think we're gonna pitch our Also, the Navy presence here too.

There is a couple people we will be working with to help us put an application for DSIP, and that will be good to go there for that. But also, meetings with the Department of Energy. They were just here a couple of weeks ago, and so we want to follow up with them, particularly about our grid and other things. But yeah, it is an infrastructure thing. It's an infrastructure trip.

Let's see, I have Mr. Smiley first and then Mr. Gardner. With all this federal spending in the area, can we get an increase in PILT out of this? I think that's really important to do. So we— so through AML, and this is what our membership dollars go towards with AML. AML is a member of NACo, the National Association of Counties.

And our delegate through NACO is working on that for us. We can certainly talk to them, you know, about that, too. But making a lot of traction. So, that's a good idea.

PILT is huge. But DSIP is also, it's PILT-ish. It's PILT-adjacent. Mr. Gardner.

Um, but we're obviously very educated on, um, all these funding resources, um, and I hate to push back on this, but I have, um, since we know that you've publicly stated that you're not running for reelection, I, I struggle with sending somebody on a trip to DC, um, who's not running for reelection and my hope isn't to, um, to cut the rug out from under you and be the naysayer of no, you shouldn't go, more as it is to force you to run for reelection. Um, so it seems like, um, it's, it's just hard to justify somebody who's not going to run. Um, and we already do have a pretty healthy delegation going, so I'm not 100%, I'm not sure how I feel.

Mr. Weisheit. Yes, so I appreciate that. And so the— this delegation is looking to ask for money now. So that's why I think the more we can get up there and get people spread out in as many offices as possible— this isn't asking for money 5 years down the road, 3 years down the road. It's asking for money this next level of appropriations.

We want to carve some of that out while the gettin's good. Be good. But I totally understand your point. If there were follow-ups after that, then yeah, it's, it's, it's challenging. But my, my intent would be to ask for funding right now.

Uh, Miss Roberts.

Thank you. I'm just looking at the, uh, the schedule. Do I understand there's only really one working day of meetings in this trip?

And the other days are travel, or are there 2 days of meetings? There are—. There will be 2 days of meetings. Um, uh, yeah, I think I'm flying up on Tuesday. It's like meetings Wednesday, Thursday, and then I'm flying right back on Friday.

Um, okay. And can you remind me who all is going? I think I remember, um, it's the city mayor, borough mayor, and the borough manager. Is that correct? Yes.

And I think the city mayor is also going, and also City Councilmember Nick Mangini, I believe, is going, last I heard. Okay, I'm kind of on the same page as Jeremiah. I'm struggling with this one a little bit. Bo, I think you'd be a great representative there. You know what's going on and you speak really well, so I think you'd be a great representative.

But again, it's It's quite a bit of taxpayer dollars, and so I'm on the fence about it, but I am struggling with it a little bit to justify that.

Mr. Woods. Yeah, I don't have an issue with this. One, we're looking at approximately $3,000 to do this. That is not a significant amount of money. In the grand scheme of things.

Also hard to say who somebody's going to be receptive to and who they're not going to be. I don't hate having another body down there. I look at this almost to the equivalent of buying a $2 lottery ticket and sending some— it's about what it is, not even that really in the term of budget-wise. I do know the value of having different perspectives with people who you may not agree with or disagree— you may have a disagreement with. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it in high-stress situations where, screw that guy, but I'll happily talk to this guy, has come out.

I think the more arrows in the quiver, the more odds you have of having a net positive result. So I don't know that I would oppose any one of an additional body going just to have an additional voice. Not saying that you, you're not absolutely suited. I just think that having that benefit of another person to talk and who can, you know, who has a firm grasp of what we're doing, it can only benefit us. Thank you.

And I'll add too that, you know, we're going with very specific things. Like, we have projects, we have dollars, we have timelines, you know. So we're not— it is not just a big general, we're just going to schmooze with legislatures, you know. This is So I appreciate what you said there, Jeff. Mr. Smiley.

Well, I've been there and done that and talked to the senators and the representatives, different people than there are now, but it was a few years ago. They're well aware that you're elected and that you have a term. That's something they're totally familiar with. I think that anyone that goes that has a command of the information like Mr. Whiteside is going to be positive for the community. I think this is small potatoes in terms of expenditure, given what the outcomes are likely to be.

I think there's a great deal of empathy on the part of the senators for people in Alaska, especially cogent people who come up and, and ask them for things that are pretty much shovel ready.

So, I support this. And I will add to that, too, really quick, that, you know, I honestly don't know to what extent we are going to be meeting with the Senators themselves. Most of the time it is with staffers anyway. The thing is that there is money already there in DOE, in DHS, in DOD or DOW, and so, And so, I think a large part of our lobbying is actually going to be at the department level, because like I said, there is billions and billions in that pool already, but the DSIP thing is super important. Mr. Woods.

Not to beat a dead horse too much or to make Bo blush by complimenting him. Oh, there it is.

Bo's also fairly sympathetic. Prior service, works in natural resource. You're checking a lot of boxes for somebody with a lot of experience in those realms. So if you're looking to have a good representative from this body, I— and being the Deputy Presiding Officer, I don't know that we can do a whole lot better than Bo. I mean, I like to think I'm cool, but I'm not that cool.

Okay, so I'm hearing consensus.

Jeremiah and Caroline, do you want to check back in?

It still feels a little bit weird, but I think you've convinced me for support. I know you do a good job there. It's not that much money.

Still feel a little weird about it, but I'm leaning more in your corner.

Caroline, anything else? Yep, I think I've picked my side of the fence in agreeing to send Bo because it really is just— it's not even the $2,900, it's the funding deficit of $850, so it's even less than $2,900 that we're trying to figure out. What— how does the funding deficit get how does that gap get filled? Where does the funding come from to cover that? Good question.

Nova, I think we have, um, cushion in the budget to cover for it. Okay. Yeah, so that makes me feel good about it. Yes, so we— I, I plan for, um, sending assembly members to the newly elected conference and also AML, but sometimes I do not get all of those that I plan to send to go. So I think there's a leeway there.

Okay. Thanks. Thank you. I think you're.

Every year there is always— we have never fully expended the Assembly travel budget. That is correct.

Yeah. I think so. Mr. Whiteside? Yeah, I appreciate the thoughts from everyone, and I guess to be clear, I am doing this— I want to do this for the community. I am going to have to use 5 days of personal leave to do that, so those are 5 fewer days of Not going fishing, hunting, camping, but I think it's important given the timing of current events here in Kodiak.

So definitely want to do it just to help our community out. Yeah. Thank you, Beau.

Okay, do we need a break before moving into packet review?

I'm seeing— let's roll. Let's roll. Let's roll.

Okay. Next, so we're going to move into packet review for the August 6th regular meeting agenda. Up first is a proclamation recognizing and celebrating KMXT's 50th anniversary. And due to an obvious conflict of interest with me, I have asked DPO Whiteside to issue the proclamation, sign it, be the one who revises it. I'm not touching this at all other than introducing it right now.

Any— so I'll hand it over to Whiteside, Mr. Whiteside, to run this conversation, if that's okay.

And yeah, happy to do it. I already signed the proclamation, so we will visit that when the time comes next week. Okay. All right. Next is we're going to have a public hearing on Ordinance Number FY2027-05, allowing an area-wide marijuana retail sales tax, establishing the Community Well-Being Fund, and providing for voter approval of the tax.

Um, a— oh, actually, Caroline, this one's yours. That's right, Ms. Roberts. Okay, I feel like I've almost run out of my two-liners to say on this because we've talked about it multiple times, but I just see this as a really great way to diversify our revenue. I know it's not going to be a huge sum, but I still think it can make an impact. I just— I still support this going to the ballot in the fall for the community to decide, not us obviously, and see if that's something they want to see implemented.

Alright, Mr. Gardner. I'm still not in full support of this, but I did have a conversation that led me down a little bit of a rabbit hole and found a way that I might personally be able to get behind it. The only way that I see this being amenable to me personally is taking out the Well-Being Fund and lowering the mill rate by— and I know this is just a drop in the pond and it's not going to be a massive amount, but lowering the mill rate by whatever that dollar number turns out to be. I can't get behind a new tax to generate more government spending. If there's going to be a new tax, it needs to generate less taxes for the community, in my mind.

Mr. Whiteside. Thank you. I had a chat about that very similar topic today, and my hope for this as well, whether it came through, through a dedicated fund that was used— reduce the amount of spending in the general fund, which gets our overall annual fiscal need reduced, or whether it's through a dedicated reduction in the mill rate, the same goal applies in my opinion, which is to just have more revenue coming from different areas, not to create new spending. I definitely am not in support of that. I don't believe that's the intent.

Of this ordinance or ballot, I guess, if it were to go to the ballot. I don't think— I don't believe that's the intent, is to create new government spending. But fully supported going to the ballot with the goal of reducing the need for general fund spending, which comes straight downstream from the mill rate. Mr. Woods. Yeah, I'm going to largely echo what Bo said.

The— by reducing our draw from the general fund in any way, we're going to lower that, our need, to a degree, um, however we go about that. So additional revenue still has the impact, at least in theory, as long as we're not spending more money that we don't already have, of driving that mill rate down, at least in theory, right? More money in the pot means less spending. I personally hate when a tax on a specific item goes and gets destroyed in the amorphous black hole that is general funds. Um, if you've ever used our harbor, the ramp fees disappearing and our ramp getting worse every year is a personal pet peeve of mine.

Uh, it's practically unusable at times now. It's not practical, it is unusable at times now. Uh, that's, I think, kind of the shining example what I look to with that. I can at least see this in theory going towards reducing our draw on our general fund for the nonprofits. That's a net benefit.

Their expenses are going up too. And ultimately, if we want to have those type of services here, we're going to continue to have to pay into those types of services. So this will be getting my support.

Thank you. Any other comments? Yes, Nova. If there are no other comments, I would like to go through the procedure for next week. At the last meeting, it was requested that we include the definition of marijuana in the ordinance, so that's highlighted in your packet.

So at the next meeting, the motion will be moved to adopt, and then you're going to have a secondary motion which is moved to amend by substitution in order for us to incorporate the definition of marijuana in the ordinance. I would be happy to answer any questions if you have any questions. It will be in your guidelines as well. Okay. Thank you.

Any questions?

Okay. All right.

Moving on. We have one contract to consider next week. This is contract number FY 2026-67, Environmental Services Contract for Various Borough Facilities with NWFF Environmental Incorporated. And first, yes, Mr. Vizcocho. Mr. Mayor, I would like to bring out to the assembly and the public that I am currently employed by NWFF.

It may be a conflict due to employment. I request your ruling regarding my declaration. Well, it's a work session, so I don't have to make a declaration necessarily right now, do I? But I would advise you that, yeah, I think I would find a conflict when it does come to the vote and the discussion. Mr. Mayor, if I may, also Mr. Vizcocho, or Assemblymember Vizcocho, might not want to participate tonight in the discussion as well.

Correct. Yeah, thank you. Um, and so, uh, so I think with, with the conflict, um, I think I would prohibit you from participating in the discussion tonight, but I am okay with you still sitting up here on the dais and listening in. If anybody wants to object?

Okay. Seeing none. And thank you for that, Mr. Viscogia, your first official act. Conflict of interest. No, it's all right.

So AO Garoutt and ENF Director Allen? Thank you, Mayor Griffin. The borough continues to face substantial workload pressures related to environmental permitting, regulatory, regulatory compliance, and reporting requirements across its landfill and related facilities. Given the complexity and regulatory sensitivity of these functions, additional technical support is necessary to ensure uninterrupted compliance. The borough has hired a full-time environmental specialist, but but until they are fully onboarded and brought up to speed, the engagement of an environmental consultant is necessary to support ongoing operations, maintain compliance with permit requirements, and mitigate regulatory risk during this transit— transition period.

This contract is for the environmental services to assist the Bureau and their staff in maintaining state and federal compliance in accordance with permits at the following facilities: Kodiak Fisheries Research Center, the Baylor facility, Borough Landfill, and the Leachate Treatment Plant. The services include all required sampling, reporting, corrective actions, submitting net DMR information, and associated work with ensuring compliance. Staff issued a request for proposal on May 8th, 2026, with an initial due date of June 16, 2026. That was later updated to reflect a June 23, 2026 date. These proposals were received for the following firms, um, listed alphabetically: Dowell, Nortek, and NWFF Environmental.

The evaluation committee consisted of 4 borough staff members. All proposals along with the blank rubric sheet.

Were provided to all evaluators electronically. All evaluators submitted their scores to the project's office, which were compiled and averaged on an Excel spreadsheet. Based on the scores, NWFF Environmental Inc. had the highest cumulative average score. While the score sheet and the professional services contracts are attached in your package, reference Materials and exhibits will be included in the agenda packet next week, but they are the separate handout that I gave to you with the— and I'm sorry for forgetting to include that. A copy was also given to NOVA to include in our supplemental materials.

So our ENF Director Cody Allen is here for any questions that you might have. Thank you, Seema. Mr. Gardner?

Everything I have heard about NWFF is great. These numbers don't look bad in here. I am a big fan of NWFF and yeah, I will support this contract. Anyone else? Mr. Weisheit?

Thank you, Director Allen. If you could refresh my memory, so this is to bridge the gap between services we need now and the newly hired environmental— I forgot the title— coordinator getting on board with their knowledge and skill set. Is that correct? Correct. Essentially, under the direction of the manager, the ask was to essentially provide more of a guardrail system for the new employee and give them time to get on board while we could regain compliance.

There's a lot of things that we're still doing that were supposed to be done years ago. Contaminated soil sites are one of them. So this contract would help us with the immediate work that's not under contract and future work in case something comes up as we start to navigate the access and things. Great. Thank you.

Mr. Woods. Correct me if I'm wrong, too. We only have the one environmental specialist for the Bureau, right? That's correct. So this actually sounds like we're trying to give somebody an actual— essentially, an onboarding process.

Yes. Yeah, we don't do that nearly enough.

Mr. Smiley. NWFF has made an arrangement with the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center to use their advanced machinery to detect various chemicals which the borough does not have. So that's going to be a good connection, particularly for what's coming through the leachate treatment compliant. Any other questions or comments? Okay.

All right. Thank you, Cody.

Next is the resolution for nonprofit funding. We have already discussed that. Anything else that you want to pop in? Okay. All right.

And then two ordinances for introduction. Ordinance number FY2027-06, amending Kodiak Island Borough Code Title II Administration Personnel, amending Section 2.30.020, General rules to establish procedures for Assembly members' absence. And this one is Mr. Whiteside. Thank you. From the last time we discussed this, we did modify the language a little bit.

Notably, the medical section, there were two lines there that didn't adequately address all different types of medical scenarios. So between the Mayor and myself and the Clerk, we have a a newer version coming before you, um, for that. And I also, uh, appreciate the concern that if there are multiple types of meetings on— held on one day, that you get dinged more than once if you're out on personal leave or for any other reason. So I appreciated that thought, and so we are going to modify that as well to where any number of meetings, no matter the different types, held in one day count as one meeting. As far as attendance is concerned.

So I appreciated the input from my fellow assembly members for both of those. So other than that, the rest of the language will largely remain the same.

Any questions? Mr. Gardner. Had a long discussion last night with a friend of mine that, um, very knowledgeable about Kodiak stuff, and he's also a kind of a big-time fishing captain. And my only problem with this is I would like to see an expansion. I'm looking for the number here, I can't find it.

I'd like to see an expansion of allowable virtual attendance.

Um, I think nobody that runs for one of these seats intentionally wants to miss meetings, but, um, my buddy I was talking to last night would do so well on here, but, you know, he's gone on a boat for 6 months out of the year and he could attend virtually, and I think it kind of opens up our pool a little bit, so So, I don't know if that's— if there's a way to write that in there or if that's something anybody else would support.

I believe there's a whole other section of code that deals with virtual attendance. That's not right here, but—. Be another resolution. Or another code revision, I believe, yeah. Mr. Woods.

We discussed this a little bit last time. However, I did put a yellow sheet in about that already. So that might be something to keep in mind during agenda setting. Yeah. We will have agenda setting in a few days, on Tuesday.

So, yeah, we will take a look at that. Yep. So it is being addressed.

Yeah. Okay. Seeing no other comments— Miss Caroline, did you have your hand up? Um, yeah, Assemblymember Wood said exactly what I was going to say, that we submitted that both for people who work not on the island for a large portion of the year, but also for our village community members, so we could expand it so that they could participate and be on the assembly if they chose to.

Great, OK. All right. And the second ordinance for introduction. Ordinance number FY2027-07, rezoning Cliff Point Estates Oceanfront Edition 3, Block 5, Lots 1 through 5, Block 2, Lots 1 through 3, 7A and 8A, Block 4, Lots 3 through 5, Block 3, Lots 1 through 3, 4A, 5A, 7 and 8, from RR2, Rural Residential 2 District, to C, Conservation District And that zoning will correspond to lots created by preliminary subdivision cases S27-001, S27-002, S27-003, and S27-004. Yes.

Okay. So AO Garoutte. Thank you, Mayor Griffin. The Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing at its regular meeting on July 15th, 2026. Commission voted 4-2 with one vacant seat to forward the recommendation approval to the Assembly.

Planning and Zoning Commission resolution is attached to this agenda. Oceanfront Kodiak LLC requested a rezone of 20 existing vacant lots from RR-2 Rural Residential 2 District to the Sea Conservation District. The rezoning is associated with 4 subdivision cases that proposed to consolidate these 20 lots into 9 lots. The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the 4 subdivision cases at its meeting on July 15th. The C District requires a 5-acre minimum lot size, which is the reason for the subdivision request to consolidate lots.

The proposed ordinance includes an effective date that is related to submittal of the final plat for the 4 subdivision cases, and included in your packet was a rezone map. And if you guys could look at that for a minute. The application that stated that the purpose of the rezone and the subdivision cases was to create larger lots. They would be— believed it would be more marketable based on the difficulty that they were having selling the smaller lots. They actually have 2 of these lots under contract, so that appears to be a good market decision for them.

The 4-2 vote by the Commission— actually, the Chair of the Commission voted no in this, and if you look at that map, she didn't like how dispersed the properties were. So you had RR-2s and then these big lots and— Everything wasn't kind of tied together, and she's an old planning or community development director, so she knows these things. We all just follow her lead. But what she didn't know was, if you're looking at the map, the big lot in the right-hand top and the two other lots that are kind of in the middle there, those cases will be rezoned to C Conservation in the August meeting. So it is all going to be conservation, and she said if she had known that those cases were going in August, she would not have voted no, she would have voted yes.

So that is what I know from being at that meeting. Thank you. Any questions or discussion from the Assembly?

And I found it helpful for those new on the—.

On the Assembly, that when we do have cases from P&Z that come up for our vote, it's almost always helpful to just go back and listen to that meeting, and just to get that context. It doesn't take long. Their meetings are run pretty efficiently, I think, for the most part. So I would strongly advise that you do that. And you learn more about the P&Z process, you know, and what they go through.

Um, all right, seeing none, then we'll move on to, uh, Clerk's comments. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the assembly. So it's a busy election year for us, uh, one election next month, another one in October, and the last one will be in November. So I just want to remind the listening public that nominating packets are available online, and also they are available in the Clerk's Office. Filing period starts on Monday at 8 AM.

So if you want your name first on the ballot, you need to be here 8 AM on Monday, and it will go on until August 17th, and it will be closing strictly at 3 PM on August 17th. All other days it will close at 4 PM, but on August 17th it will be closing at 3 PM. So absentee voting for the primary election will start on Monday as well, and their voting hours, it's going to be in here in the Assembly Chambers, and they will start at 10 AM until 4 PM. It's going to be until the day before the election, so it's 10 to 4. Okay.

There's a question. Oh, question about that. Mr. Smiley. The state canceled the registration of a number of voters. Do we have a list of those, any of them from here like me?

I do not. I can definitely inquire if you'd like. I can do that. Thank you. Thank you.

And I just want to remind the assembly members, I emailed you earlier today that during our absentee voting hours, the assembly chambers will serve as a polling area where electioneering is strictly prohibited. So if you're in the building, please make sure that you do not discuss any candidates or any propositions that are on the ballot. And also, if you have cars, if you have placards or anything, hats, shirts, please make sure that when you come into the borough building during those hours that you're not wearing any of that or your cars are parked 200 feet away from any entrance of the borough building. Okay, so polling sites agreements are now finalized for Harbor Master, Teen Center, Bayside Fire Hall, and Women's Bay Fire Hall locations. We also did an ADA compliance survey for all these precincts, and we have coordinated that in partnership with the state of Alaska.

Uh, so for the local municipal election, uh, Borough Assembly, we have 3 seats and then 1 seat for the 1-year term. The school board, we have 2 seats that are open. Bayview, 1 seat. Uh, fire protection, we have 2 seats. Manasheka Bay, we have 1 seat.

Um, Service Area Number 1 board, we have 3 seats coming up. Women's Bay Service Area, we have 3 seats also. So for our election workers, our precinct chairs have been secured for the Women's Bay and Bayside precincts. The canvas team for the local election is fully assembled and ready. Our election staffing is underway for the in-town precincts, for the Teen Center and the Harbor.

So I've given you a list of other projects that we have ongoing with records. I'm not going to detail those. We do have one liquor license that we are processing as of the moment. It's for Aquamarine. Miscellaneous updates: updates to the borough code are scheduled for release.

We have code supplements that should be available within the next couple of weeks. We held an iCompass agenda management training for staff. It was held on Thursday, July 23. We'll do an Open Meetings Act and parliamentary procedures training after the election. I think that it would be good to have that after the election once the service area board members are elected, or, and even for the assembly and maybe other boards and committees.

And then I've given you another flyer about if you lost the vote, don't sabotage the assembly's action, it says. It's a good read. It is fun to attach little things like that for the Assembly. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Any other questions for Nova?

No. Okay. All right. Thank you. Assemblymember comments.

We will start down at the end with Mr. Woods. No comment. Enjoy the sunshine. Mr. Whiteside. Thank you.

With this amazing weather we have been having, just a reminder that Saturday There will be more, uh, both— well, all weekend, Saturday and Sunday, there's gonna be incredible weather in the forecast. Many people are gonna be out hiking. Uh, that's also when the deer opener begins. So everyone, please be aware of your surroundings, especially hunters. Um, but if you're hiking, it might not hurt to have visible clothing on.

And please keep an eye on your pets. Hunters, do the right thing and make sure you know what you're shooting at.

Mr. Smiley, no comment. Mr. Viscoccio.

No comment. Mr. Gardner. Just kudos to NOVA and your staff. I can see how much work you're doing on this big election year. I know you're busting your butt, so just thank you.

And same to you, Sima. Have a great evening, everyone. Ms. Roberts. I want to say thanks to Mr. Smiley and the staff for all the work that was going into the nonprofit funding layouts. Obviously it's my first time going through it, so I have not too much of a clue of what we're doing, and so it's great to have the wisdom and the ideas passed on.

Alright, thank you. Mayor's comments. Thank you, Sima, for filling in for Amy, and we wish, we wish Amy to come back soon. And thanks to the staff for all the hard work on putting the agenda together. I don't have much.

Over the past probably 3 to 4 weeks, people are looking at Kodiak. I'm fielding 1 to 2 calls from national media outlets a week interested in Kodiak, not just aerospace, mostly aerospace and the icebreakers, but what that means for Kodiak. And I think that we could, we're going to— it's possible that we see a real boom in this town. But some things have to come together, right? Housing.

Housing is looking better and better every week, especially as we're looking for opening up land. But there's still infrastructure things. There's still our harbor. That's why I think this trip to D.C., for instance, at this particular moment in time It's extremely important for us. So I'm really thankful that Beau is going to go with us.

But more and more people are looking at Kodiak as a place to invest and build. And I think that interest is just going to grow over the next 24 to 36 months. So I'm going to be looking for your leadership and making this a place that is welcoming for for growing economy here. Other than that, enjoy the sunshine, watch out for those wasps, and have a good evening.