NSB Assembly: NSB Assembly — Regular Meeting & Public Hearing

Nothing. And we had no way. And that was my frustration. So I'm not saying you guys ain't doing enough. I understand.

You know, there's those one offs that happen every now and then and that's just one of those one offs that I think we from this side of the table need to be able to address and help make change. So I just want to tell you guys, thank you for all the work that you do. I just got a couple more and they're more thank yous versus any concerns going to the Health and Social Services. You know, we talked about it in the beginning. I just want to shout out and say thank you for the walking Wednesdays, understanding tomorrow's men's mental health awareness and you know, being able to say that out loud on the radio.

Hopefully people will participate. I know I'll be there. And your young adult speak, I went to that. I met one kid there.

I would encourage more people to show up. There are empty tables. But it was an opportunity to meet young kids and just listen to them speak. They want a story to tell, they want to be heard. We've had too many young men die recently and over the years and that's why I think we, when we start talking about roads, it's not just connectivity, it's improvement to life on the North Slope.

And that story to tell, we hear it all the time. I'm sure you hear it more than all of us. So having the opportunity to really improve the lives on the North Slope, whether it's through the Health Department, through government affairs, fighting for roads, through your voice, championing everything that you have been, it's not easy to get the Secretary of Interior up on the North Slope. I'm sure that guy's got a busy schedule. And those partnerships that you guys been able to make, I can't tell you.

Thank you enough.

It's a very unthankful job, I'm sure at some times. So I also want to say thank you to the planning department for listening about how to compile the five year CWOT report and how there's some cost savings there.

Once again, it's roads, right? I don't know how many times I'm going to say roads in a day, but I appreciate it and thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Thank you, assembly person Brunel. Do we have any more questions or comments on the Mayor's status report?

If not, all entertain a motion move. To approve the Mayor's monthly status report. There's a motion to approve. Do I hear A second Second. It's been seconded under discussion.

Question Question has been called for all those in favor of approving the mayor status report do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Opposed say nay. Hearing none, Mr. Mayor, your mayor's status report has passed the assembly. Thank you for the healthy discussion and adoption of the mayor's status report.

With that, we'll move on to 6F executive executive session. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Members of the Assembly, I would request an executive session for matters pertaining to the finances of the borough and would request that the Finance Department, Government External Affairs Department, Law Department CAO and myself along with the Chief Advisor are in attendance of that executive session. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Move to get into executive session. There's a motion to get into executive session. It's been seconded under discussion. Question question has been called for all those in favor of getting into executive session do so by saying aye.

Madam Vice President. Opposed, say nay. Hearing None, Madam Clerk. The caller number has been text to the all parties involved. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

So does that mean we just get off.

With me?

All.

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Sam.

We see it every day. You gotta give 100% of your life to God. 100%. Not just part of it. You gotta give it all.

Give it your all. Give up every earthly thing you have in your life. Give that up and give your all. To God Because Jesus is coming soon.

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Or Braxton. I'm from Barrow, Alaska. This is kbrw, Barrow Radio. From the top of the world.

Good afternoon.

Okay. Good afternoon, Madam Vice President. Sir. Robin. With that, we are still in executive session.

Another kind of executive session. There's a motion to get out of executive session. It's been seconded under discussion. Question has been called for. All those in favor of getting out of executive session do so by saying aye.

Aye. Articles follow. Opposed say nay. Hearing none. We are now out of executive session.

With that, we'll move on to 6G monthly financial report, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President, Members of the assembly listening audience, before I turn the floor over to Director Lamani with the Department of Finance, I'd just like to point out that the mock up of the modeling for the helicopter paint scheme on the front page and specifically the tail number and it represents the book of Isaiah, chapter six, verse eight. And so that's the latest design concept for the first delivery of the AW189 Cleena.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Director Lamanni.

Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly, for the record, Fadil Malani, Director of Finance Madam Chair, for your consideration is the monthly financial report for the month ending April 30, 2026.

Please present the financial report. As we enter into the last quarter of the fiscal year, our financial positions remains very strong with respect to revenues. As of April 30, the general fund revenues totaled approximately 571.4 million, which represents about 92% of the FY2026 adopted budget thus far. As you all know, property tax, specifically within oil and gas represents the majority of the borough's tax revenues in excess of 90%. And so we've seen the assessed value increase over time as a result of the continued investments that are taking place within the oil patch.

Another segment of the general fund revenues is the intergovernmental revenues. These are grants that are received and appropriated on a monthly basis to date the year to date actual amount is about 10% million at month end. Also, the investments earnings with central treasury have continued to outperform the initial conservative expectations by more than 24.1 million to date. And then also the charges for services continue to accrue in line with the budget expectations and we're seeing more than 50% of that being realized to date. One of the unique features with respect to the revenues in in which we'll see here at the end of June is that we're very unique in the sense of when we issue out our tax bills.

So by the time that we issue the tax bills, we get the payment by June 30th generally and the collection rate around that is 95%. So we'll see our cash position even though it is within the current fiscal. It's something that from an accounting standpoint will defer into the next fiscal year. But our cash position is going to increase substantially as we get into the latter part of the fiscal year without to the June 30 assessment. On the expenditure side of things, the expenditures totaled $352.6 million or 67% to date.

For FY26. The spending reflects just the routine operating expenditures with respect to the different departments. Thus far we've committed 100% to the operating transfers to the school district and 73% to the Ellislavik College. And over the next few months will be reflecting the remainder of the appropriation to the Elisavic College. We also have made thus far $7.8 million in the debt service, primarily around the interest only.

And we're expecting to see substantial debt service payment here at the end of June in the sum amount of approximately $114 million. So today the overall departmental spending remains with budget expectations at 67%. Now we do anticipate with year end orders and year end closeouts, we'll anticipate seeing the expenditures ramp up because this is also that time of year where we start to convert from a cash basis to a modified accrual, which means we're starting to recognize a lot of our accruals from pension to pension expense, amongst many other liabilities that generally are done on a cash basis throughout the year. So we'll see the ramp up in the expenditures. Moving on to the capital improvements as of April 30, 2026, we're seeing approximately $1.3 billion that's being invested and capital projects that are completed to date or active.

That represents approximately 82%. We issued roughly $200 million in Paramount of the general obligation bonds. 2025 And the next few days you will be reviewing the capital ordinance as it pertains to the upcoming bond sale which is going to reflect another $150 million or so. And I think over the last several years. That the mayor alluded to in our meeting yesterday is that it's in excess of $500 million just over the last several years.

In terms of investment that's being made in into the infrastructure within our North Slope communities, which means creates jobs, creates a lot of economic opportunities and just building the infrastructure on the enterprise funds. Again, these are done on a cash basis throughout the year and we converted them into a modified accrual basis. To date. Service Area 10 and Real Property Management Fund reported positive income of approximately 11.4 million or 3.7 million for the Real Property Management Fund respectively. The increase reflects on the demand in services with respect to service area 10.

Also the power generation reported an operating loss of approximately $18.7 million to date. Thus far we've recognized 75% of the operating transfer, which is about 17.6 million and after the transfer is still resulted at about $1.1 million of a negative net position as part of the year end audit process. We'll anticipate of doing that true up and seeing where that lands and do the remainder of the operating transfer. Also with respect to the technical Training center also reported an operating loss of approximately 3.1 million. As we're seeing part of that enterprise continue to scale and come to full capacity.

Moving on to the investments and fund balance. With respect to the Central treasury, our investment balance totaled approximately $941.5 million at month end of April. This is down by approximately 50 million from 991 million at the end of March. This is primarily driven just for the OPER operational budget needs which resulted at about $33.7 million reduction or spending from prior year. Also the intermediate account was relatively flat from prior month at 200 million.

And also the bond proceeds for all the CIP funds being at approximately $550 million. We started to see an increase of approximately $22.1 million in the permanent fund. As you recall from the last month we had a little bit of a swing. Just the short term volatility that was taking place on the global financial markets. We've been able to see that swing the other way, primarily driven by the global equity.

We've seen a strong performance within that asset class by more than 22.3 million. And the global equity represents more than 50% of our total assets. Within the Permanent Fund we also saw private credit and real estate also generated positive returns. On the private credit side we saw an increase of $1.1 million approximately 2% while the real estate assets gained also approximately 1.4 million or approximately 0.93%. But overall month of April was strong for the Permanent Fund with equity market appreciation more than offsetting modest declines in the private equity space.

Moving on to Madam Vice President. Assembly person Bernal. Thank you. And thank you Director Lamani. Going back to the Enterprise Fund, the Technical Training center operating loss of 3.1 million is that year to date through the Chair.

Yes.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, assembly person Brunel. Thank you, Director Lamani. Continuing on, Madam Chair. With respect to the grant's activity as of April 30, 2026, the borough is administering more than 160 active grants that total approximately $183.3 million.

This is an increase of roughly $30 million from prior month. A lot of this is attributed to some of the NPR grants that have been awarded by the State Department of Commerce and Economic Development. The majority of our grants span in a variety of different things, including the MPRA impact projects that include transportation, housing development, energy efficiency initiatives, environmental monitoring and public safety, amongst other areas as well. Again, as we close our quarter and enter into the last phase of the fiscal year, our financial position remains very strong. We're going to see some ramp up in expenditures, but I suspect that we're going to have a budgetary surplus at the end of the fiscal year.

With that, Madam Chair, I'm available for any questions the assembly may have. Thank you. Director lamani. Thank you. Mr. Mayor.

What's the wish of the assembly.

To approve the finance report? There's a motion to approve second it's been seconded under discussion.

Do we have any questions from the Assembly?

Call for question.

Question has been called for all those in favor of approving the monthly financial report, do so by saying aye.

Opposed say nay. Hearing none. Your monthly financial report has passed the assembly, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the discussion and deliberation.

With that, let's take a ten minute break and be back at 4:25.

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It's all things considered from NPR News. I'm Scott Detrow. And I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Let's talk now about a new book about a specific country. The book describes that country as being heavily influenced by, and I quote, a movement that harbored dreams of social justice, equality, independence and political freedom.

Can you guess the country? It's Iran, or at least Iran at the time of the 1979 revolution. The path from 79 with the toppling of a monarch through the decades that followed, decades of oppression and economic turmoil to this current moment is mapped out in the book Stolen Revolution, Betrayal and in Modern Iran. Co author and journalist Yegina Torbati is here to talk about it. Welcome.

Thank you so much for having me. So I was so eager to read this book because it feels like we've got Iran in the headlines every day Right now. But missing from the coverage is often the voices of ordinary Iranians, which you have six of them in this book. Six Iranians. Tell me how you picked them.

How did you arrive at this particular group? My co author and I really wanted to be able to tell the story of Iran through a diverse set of sources and through the experiences of both ordinary people and then also people who had, at one point or another, held great power and influence inside the country and really sort of show what had happened since the 1979 revolution through their eyes. So in this book, there's a story of a cleric who is a devoted follower of the founder of the revolution who rises to great power and then is ousted. And we sort of see through his eyes both the promise of the revolution and why he believed in it, and also kind of what happened to that promise over time. Yeah, you know, there's a poet activist who was part of the reform movement and then the green movement.

There's a businessman who I think gives us a window really into the corruption and the pressure on the private sector in Iran in the modern era. And then there's Gen Z, you know, women who really had a completely different experience of the revolution, of the. Of the Islamic Republic that resulted and never really had that faith in it that some of our earlier characters had. To raise a practical point, it is risky for people to speak their minds in modern Iran. How did you get these stories?

How did you get people to talk? A few of the characters are now outside the country, and so it was much safer for them to be able to speak. I do think that, you know, we had the luxury of time. We worked on this book for over five years, and we were able to sort of convince people over time, gain their trust. But I also think, of course, the sources, they showed a great deal of bravery in speaking with us.

There were times where we asked people, are you sure you want to go on the record? Are you sure you want to have your name out there? And they were very comfortable with it. They wanted people to know kind of what had happened to them and what actions they had taken over the course of their lives. Yeah.

I'm thinking about a point you make in the book. Our understanding outside Iran, of Iran, its people, its stories. The country has been so fractured because it has been so hard to hear voices like this. What do you. You think the consequences of that are?

What are you hoping this book might be able to do to change that? I think one of the consequences is that we hear a lot from the government's perspective. And I think that's been magnified over the last few months when the Internet has been shut down in Iran. You know, it would have been very difficult for us to report this book under these conditions because we relied on people having Internet connections and being able to speak with us for sometimes hours at a time. Interesting.

So you couldn't have maybe gotten all of these voices now. Not at this moment. Right. And I think what we wanted to do was talk to supporters of. Of the government and also opponents, really a wide range, but just have a more nuanced understanding of kind of their experience of what it's like to live in Iran, what it's like to kind of contend with this system.

And we don't really paint any of our sources, for sure, as a villain or as all good. We think that, you know, people have to make choices to survive, whether it's. American or American or anything else. And what you're saying resonates, you know, in a very different country here speaking the United States. But the idea that it often is voices on the extremes of our political spectrum that are the ones that get amplified and it's harder to hear from the relatively quiet people who are somewhere in the middle trying to figure it out.

I saw a story you wrote recently about a sense of hopelessness in Iran. Tell me how you went about reporting that and what people told you. So I've done, you know, obviously I can get in touch with people in limited fashion. Fashion. But, you know, it's a complicated issue.

I will say that, you know, last year, during the 12 Day War and after and at the beginning of this round of conflict, I did hear from a lot of sources that they were happy that this was happening or that they were at least hopeful for it. That, you know, in their view, they have tried a lot of different things. They tried electing moderates and reformists in the 90s. And as you kind of see in the book, that effort is stymied. And for a certain subset of Iranians, they feel like they've tried everything.

Nothing has worked. The regime, the government, like, refuses to make significant changes. And therefore, maybe a military attack is the only way to dislodge external pressure,. Is the only way that we're going to have anything changed. And I think, you know, for some of the, I'd say many to most of the people that I've spoke, that I've spoken with who had that view, they've been quite disappointed by what this war has brought them.

There's no signal to them that this regime is changing. And so I think people just feel like, well, nothing has worked and what do we do from here? You, in that same story, though, write about a rock concert in Tehran that has just sold out and about, you know, hipsters, young hipsters in Tehran who are still hanging out at cafes and having fun. It's fascinating to read. Joy continues, hope does continue, even amidst a wider sense of hopelessness, life goes on.

You know, I think even people in war zones figure out ways to have those moments of joy because you sort of have to to keep going to. Bring it back to the six people that you center. In your book, you write that they have diverging visions for Iran's future, from the total overthrow of the Islamic Repub to its reform from within to the return of the monarchy. I read that and I thought how fascinating, how surprising is it that given how dramatic the events of the spring have been, including the killing of the supreme leader, it's resulted in none of the above. None of those things have happened.

Yeah. I think most of the Iranians I speak with are quite disappointed with kind of where the country is at this point. And it's like all these dramatic things happen and we've ended up with a supreme leader who's also named Khamenei. And, you know, very much the same system, perhaps even kind of more hardened and willing to kind of exact revenge from those that it sees as its internal enemies. These authoritarian systems are very powerful.

It's not 1979 anymore. They have tools at their disposal that the shah didn't have, including surveillance and technology. And the opposition movements inside have been quite repressed. Outside, it's been difficult to kind of form a united front. I think at this moment, a lot of the people I speak with are quite despondent.

Yegana Torabadi, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. She is Iran correspondent for the New York Times and co author of the new book Stolen Revolution. You can hear our full conversation on our national security podcast, sources and methods. Wherever you get your podcasts,.

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Voters in six states are weighing in. On primary elections, and all eyes are. On california and iowa. Democratic voters in iowa are choosing their. Candidate for a key senate race, and.

In california, they picked the two candidates. Who will compete compete to replace gavin newsome as governor. What the outcome means for the months before the midterms. That's on the next morning edition from npr news.

Sam.

It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Ailsa Chang. And I'm Scott Detrow. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Cuba. Needs systemic reforms and possibly new leadership.

I really don't believe this system is capable of reform unless new people take. Over or a new mindset takes hold. More on his Senate testimony after this. Summary of the day's news.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Duane Brown. President Trump has signed a long awaited executive order on artificial intelligence. As NPR's Deepa Shivaram tells us, it asks AI companies to voluntarily address security. The executive order was expected to come out last month after the Trump administration decided to reverse course and tackle some safety measures around AI which they were staunchly opposed to at first. But then at the last minute, Trump pulled back on his plans to sign it, saying he had concerns it would stifle the U.S. s lead in the global AI race.

The order he did sign sets out to design a voluntary framework with AI developers and asks that the companies share Frontier AI models with the federal government up to 30 days before they get released. Any actual regulations or mandates around the technology would have to come from Congress. Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, the White House. A plan by the Trump administration to send Americans to Kenya if they've been exposed or infected with Ebola has been. Blocked by a court there.

The facility in Kenya appears to be on hold for now. Medical experts say the US Plan is unprecedented and problematic. Speaking to reporters from the White house this afternoon, Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of Medicare and Medicaid Services, seem to agree. We are confident and the State Department is working on this diligently that they're going to be able to work out something with Kenya. There has already been a fair amount of.

We're back on.

We're back on. Thank you with that, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the assembly, Ms. Dotts, for your constructive criticism on ways that we can look to improve the behavioral health interaction that we have with the Department of Health and our residents. I would encourage and personally consider as we look to expand and finesse the delivery methods as we are restructuring, kind of how that looks with the Health Department, that there be some collaboration opportunities taken up between the department and yourself with your written testimony here. And I did receive the copies of both letters either this morning or yesterday.

And we'll have a follow up with health Department leadership to incorporate some of those things that you spoke to from a personal experience base, which I think is important feedback for how we improve our services that we provide. So. Oh, yes, thank you. I think most of its homeless population I think, well, I've been at the store, the library, but I actually mainly went there for a shelter during the winter, so. But I can see it as a resource center instead of specifically for mental.

Health needs because most people go there. As a source of to get resources, I believe. So I just wanted to put that input. And thanks for listening to my feedback,.

Madam. Madam Vice President. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Members of the assembly, Ms. Stotts, really appreciate you taking the time to come and speak to us at the kind of the intimidating factor. Right, we recognize that, but know that you know, your ability to come and speak up isn't falling on deaf ears.

I think, as I've stated, we're ready to incorporate feedback and constructive criticism. So again, thank you for taking the time to come out and your patience and sitting in the audience.

Mr. Mayor. And again, Ms. Dots, do we have any other audience participation.

Hearing? None. We'll move on to the city of Anaktuk Pass.

Hi there. Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam President. This is Susan Mori. And with the mayor's office.

Officer Plunkett was here. He stepped down a minute and there's. No one here for village concerns. Thank you. Have a great afternoon and evening.

City of Anaktuk Pass. With that, we'll move on to the city of Arkasuk.

Good afternoon everyone. This is Jenna Kripi. It's just myself in the office today. The departments are doing great. We do have one from the fire department though.

The guys at fire department said that they could use some support help on their radios and one more from the community from an elder at the age of. She is still currently experiencing smoke smell odor in her apartment. And you can now add perfumes or doterra scents or you know, the home, those home scents that people use in their homes. You know, like doterra and stuff. She is on oxygen every day and smelling even just those kind of incense triggers her asthma.

She told me to let you guys know the last time it happened she got medevac and was in the ER for 17 hours, maybe a little bit more. She is tired of getting medevac and sent out for marijuana smell in home scent smells. Housing department have been putting notices on our doors. I'm sorry, I'm a tenant over there as well. But they put notices on our doors that there's absolutely no smoking in the buildings nor 50ft from it.

I do see other tenants, you know, going across the road to smoking cigarettes, but she still is experiencing smoke smell, doterra home incense smells. She also wanted to mention that when the housing man, Eldred, goes to put up notices on our doors, he doesn't put one on hers or give her the notification as a tenant. She wants to get those notices as well, even if she is not a smoker.

That's all her complaint. Thank you. Thank you, Jenny in the city of Arkazook. Mr. Mayor, thank you, Madam President, members of the assembly, listening audience and Jenny, for relaying the concerns that were communicated. I am aware and have spoken with Director France about ways in which we can get to the bottom essentially of the different allegations.

The fragrance issue is compounding on top of existing issues that have been that we have been made aware of. I know one of the aspects of it is being able to.

Build proof to make a determination on either violation of the tenant contract or the contract between the North Slope Borough and all of the employees as far as classified employees rights. And so I know there's been some discussion on placing a camera on some of the entrances from the public side so that we can make informed decision. So if there's anything else that Director France, you'd like to add, feel free. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Madam Vice President, Jack France, North Slope Borough Housing Director.

For the record, we. I did see the email, Mr. Mayor, and we will look into the email and address concerns as as needed.

Thank you, Director Front. And thank you, Mr. Mayor. The fire department, she was asking for fire department support. Yeah, thank you, Madam President, members of the assembly, listening audience, Jenny again, for relaying the concerns of the fire department. I know that as we've had some experiences from the service provider, from the telecommunications service provider, whether it's Aztec, Quintillion, now GCI or any other interlaying with the borough owned private LTE function.

Most recently we had some dual use, unauthorized use from the service provider of a channel that we were intending to utilize. And so we've rectified that. Not aware of any specific issues or a solution. But Director, Deputy Director Saxton can speak to, I guess, the general concern. Deputy Director saxton.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Vice President, Paul, Members of the Assembly. Yes, we have a tech out there in Akrasuk right now. We're aware of some handheld individual radio issues. The system is fine, but some of the radios have to get reprogrammed.

If they have to get sent back to Barrow, we will and send spares out there, but we do have somebody. Working on them right now.

Thank you, Deputy Director Saxton.

I hope that helps. Jenny, with the city of concerns. There's one more for the housing. I forgot to Mention, and so. And I apologize for that.

But apartment E, that's the handicap apartment. That apartment did not get those circular vents installed into her apartment. She's just wondering why she couldn't get one. The rest of us did, but not her. It acts like a little vent and it, you know, brings cool air into our apartments.

Thank you. Thank you, Jenny. Director France.

Thank you, Madam Vice President. Jack France, director of the Housing Department. For the record, we'll look into this unit. Jenny and I do recall one unit where we couldn't get access into, so if it's not input, we'll put it in quickly.

Thank you, Director France. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Jenny.

With that, we'll move on to the city of Cocktovic.

Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yeah, we could hear you. There's me, myself, George Khalil, senior, Noreen, Caleb. We have also Officer Beans and Cynthia Adams.

And no concerns. No concerns. Good afternoon. All right. Good afternoon, city of Coctovic.

With that, we'll move on to the city of Noxit.

Star 6. Good afternoon. From Nuxit to Salavi Singha. Yeah. Okay.

Good afternoon.

There's no one here with any concerns. Good afternoon and good afternoon to the city of Knoxville. City of Point Hope.

Good afternoon. From Point Hope. We have from the mayor's office, we have Papsy Kenya back, myself, Christy, and we have no concerns. But there is a resident with concern. Michael Tisrael Jr.

Please state your name. Good afternoon. Michael Tzerlick Jr. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Assemblyman, assembly woman. Thank you for the time, but I just had a few concerns probably regarding towards health department.

We've been having this dog issue here in Tikiyup for a number of years with these two individuals. I built my own home because of no housing here and to have this dog problem here in the village. And I'm a whaling captain and I've been successful. And the way we take care of our abura, the flipper, we bring it home and we watch it tell cover up to pass it out. And these same four dogs from our neighbors keep getting into our garage and trying to eat our havaruk.

That's one. Number two, I just got a ugroup after hunting for two days and I cut up all my ugroup, get it ready to hang dry to make me put up duck. And I look back outside and all these same four dogs is eating my hard work.

Let me see here.

I did contact the animal control worker. I went to the police station last night because I was getting pretty tired of it. I don't know what else to do. But I heard there was this meeting so I wanted to come over and share my concern Also. Another concern is about the water and sewer hookup.

I kind of heard today that that's not happening. And like I said before, I built my own home living off of a septic tank, water tank and when we're busy here for whaling. But we're every event Christmas, we're out of water and they, they don't want to deliver us water through the weekend. We can't shower, we can't wash clothes. So I'm just kind of upset hearing knowing that we're not getting hooked up to the water system this year and we want to know why.

As a resident here in Tikia, I know the borough has two septic tanks here. I had to build my own septic tank because they caused a fortune to get up here. But thank you for your time. That's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael Taz Rolich for your concerns. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Madam President, members of the assembly, listening audience, Mr. Taz Rolic for voicing the various concerns. I will have health department speak to the efforts for animal control and then we can talk a little bit about water sewer connections. But just very clearly, I don't think it was communicated that we're not doing water sewer connections. Through the project review committee process, all sorts of capital projects are vetted and the committee allocates recommendations for funding to different above ground, below ground service upgrades and connections on an area wide basis. And so over the next two days actually we'll be vetting the capital projects lists totaling $180 million in a recommendation this year.

And I can guarantee that there's water and sewer work happening a part of that $180 million. So I don't know where the information came from. There's a list that we manage within public works to do water and sewer connections as it's being funded. So the other thing is on the service delivery we can work with the contractor and service provider to ensure that there's coverage into the weekends. It's something that we experience in every community that we do water truck haul.

And so I'll relay that to Director Danner to make sure that there's that availability. And then with that I'll ask Alung OK to speak to the loose dog situation. Lastly, congratulations and I hope you enjoy the festivities coming up in the next couple of weeks. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Director Hepa.

Thank you, Mr. Duzerlick for bringing in your concern. It is the first I heard about specific dogs. So I will look into the situation with our ACO in Point Hope and our vet program here to kind of get a sense of what's happening with the dogs. I'm not too sure if there's ownership issues or anything like that, but we'll make sure to get it addressed.

Thank you, Director Hea. And thank you, Mr. Mayor. Does that help? Mr. Tes? Thank you.

Yes, it does. I also forgot one other thing. To the water and sewer. There is a big number, not a big number, but five of the six homes that are built here were built by locals like ourselves, individuals. So I just thought, you know, we'd get some help, you know, from our North Shore borough trying to help us hook it up, you know, due to low housing here.

Also, our we that build our own houses have to pay for our own heat trace, which our bills, our electricity bill is more than double, triple higher than everybody. Every other resident that don't pay for heat trace. Is there a way we can get some help with this heat trace? Because our bills are one month. Our bill was twelve hundred dollars in December, and everybody pays, I don't know, two hundred, three hundred, whatever.

So just wanted to bring that heat trace up also, because everybody else don't pay for heat trace, but we that build our own homes have to pay for heat treats. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tazerlick. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the assembly, Mr. Tzerlik, for the line of questioning.

Before I pitch to Director Danner for further discussion on the water and sewer stuff, I will carefully say that if my life was threatened by a dog on my private property and I shot it, I probably would have a just use of protecting myself from ferocious dogs. So I'll leave it at that. Director Danner.

Director danner. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Chairman, members of the assembly. Thank you, Mr. Tas Rolick, for your question. Yeah, I'm familiar with your situation. As far as the heat trace, I'm assuming you're talking about the heat trace connected to your own sewage tank that you provided.

That is not something the burrow would pay for. However, once you are hooked up to the pipe system that the burrow operates, the burrow would assume the heat trace costs for our pipe systems. We do not cover the heat trace costs for privately owned sewage tanks. And as the mayor commented earlier, your home and those other homes in Tikiaok are still on the list, are still prime for connection. The reality is they wouldn't be hooked up this year.

Because of the. We do a summer season install in Point Hope and we are better prepared for next year. So how it works is that we didn't, we didn't take, we didn't kill the project. We moved funding as we have done in the past and will continue to do work and best be used immediately. For this instance, it was moved from Point Hope to Wainwright for the Blair street project because that project needed funding.

It doesn't mean this project in Point Hope is not going to be funded. It means it's going to be delayed until next year where frankly, it's going to be more realistic to get material in to do the project again. This is something that is common for me. Rather than have funding sit and wait, we put it to work on projects that it can be done. And I'll just.

For example, the Point Hope paving project is a perfect example. We move money to accommodate the common sense of paving the project while we have the equipment and the contractor in the community doing the airport. So not to say we're not going to get to your house to hook it up to the system. I'm just saying that it will come when funding is available and I expect that we will do that next year. I hope that helps.

Mr. Tozruelk. Thank you. Mr. Daniel. Yeah, there's just been. Residents been waiting here for 12, 13 years to be hooked up.

You know, it would just be simply easier for us if we just get hooked up so we could stop paying the teachers. But I'll stop there. Thanks all for everything. God bless everybody. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, God bless you, too. I'll say one more thing and then I'll stop. I want to hook up everywhere. Otskisuk has not had a hookup since we installed the system.

Barrow, there's. The list is long. I'm telling you, there are hookups, residents that I want to hook up everywhere. So we're doing the best we can. And I can promise you that we are making forward progress and we are going to start getting people hooked up.

And I'll let it go at that. Thank you, Mr. Tozrula.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tesreal, for your concerns. Mr. Mayor. Yeah, thank you. Madam President, members of the assembly and Director Danner.

Probably not the way I would have said it, but communication has gotten across essentially that if CIPM sees a delay in a project that's not associated to funding, rather than have the money sit there and wait for the delay to be taken care of, in this instance, it's being delayed a year, we'll recapitalize that fund when the delay that caused it is fixed. In the meantime, we'll use that money to push forward a project elsewhere in the same section. And so to contextualize, aside from the water sewer hookups in the 80s in Otkasuk, you know, we just concluded the first hookups in Unaktuvuk for the first time in almost 30 years. And so it's not a particular problem to the residents of Point Hope. It's a problem that we have across the slope as far as being able to keep up with the growth and then install the expensive water and sewer infrastructure.

Not to say that we're not going to do it, but it's all part of the capital outlay plan. And so, yeah, I hope that makes sense. There's plenty of other examples where. There. Has been a delay on a project.

And we know that the delay, whether it's caused by materials, contractor availability, logistics, maybe there's contamination on a project that force us to change the schedule, then we'll understand what that delay is. And if there's a way to advance another project that is waiting for money that doesn't have other delays, we'll use that money for that and then come back and reappropriate the money that we essentially borrowed from a project to keep it moving. So in this instance, expect to see, as Director Danner mentioned, capitalization of the water sewer connections. Once the other delay, the other reason for the delay is surpassed. So probably next summer.

Mr. Mayor, do we have any other comments or concerns from the city of Point Hope?

No, there are, Madam Vice President. Thank you. Thank you. City of Point Hope. Is that assembly person Kinnevak?

Yes, Madam Vice President, just listening to the, the concern about the water and. Sewer.

And hearing from Director Danner and also for the concern resident. Can we get, can we get the number of homes from each village on, you know, on the list of hookups, you know, you mentioned Director Danner mentioned the, the long list, but also the long list that you need to include is the pilot project or the above ground.

So I'm requesting we get the number of homes that need to get hooked up from each village so we can see where the need is. And for the transfer of funds from Point Hope to Wainwright.

Can I get the, the time frame when that was transferred? Because I, you know, I just don't recall, you know, and I know we have the backups of the, of the, whether it's in our agenda on the transfers. Let's see, on the ordinance or we make where we make transfers on either these or the or the resolutions. So I sure would like to see how much was transferred and like that was stated, they needed more than us. It would be good to see the report on the list that that should be, that should, that we should have on hand.

So. So with that said, I'll look forward to the report from each village on the list of the hookups we need. And you're right, we sure need rest of our community hookups, but it's going to take a lot. Thank you. Thank you Assembly Person Kinnevak.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you Madam Vice President. Members of the assembly listening audience, we'll follow up with a formal list, but we have Mr. Holmes available to read the outstanding list for the outer communities. And then as far as the actual transfer, I want to be clear that I gave authorization to the appropriate departments to put the paperwork process in place to facilitate the transfer. But that transfer cannot occur without assembly concurrence.

And so that ordinance that would facilitate that transfer would happen under next month's CIP ordinance. And so. So it's nothing that has already happened or is contemplating to be happened this month. So again we could follow up with a complete list, but I think for the purposes of shorter turnaround on some of the answers, if we can have engineer Holmes read across some of the numbers that they have based on submittals to the project review committee. Thank you Mr. Mayor.

Vice chairman Paul Assemblymember Kinniviec so the list we're maintaining right now, Anituvik Pass had 27 connections, we've completed 23. There's four more to go this year, so we should be wrapping that up. AkaSUC we have six applications, so these are papers that people have submitted for requesting service. Kaktovic we have zero applications. New Witsick there's two applications on file, Point Hope has five and there's rumored to be a couple more according to the village supervisor that I have yet to see.

And we have done one project in Point Hope in 2011-2014 for service upgrades or new services. Point Lay does not have any service applications at this point and Wainwright has eight on file. Barrow for the above grade. We're tracking 27 initial connections and as that builds out, there's more to come, but we can provide that information separately. I just don't have that at my FingerTips.

That's around 86 total. There's around 86 total applications on file for Barrow. That would include the above grade connections.

Thank you. Mr. Holmes does that help assembly person Kinnevak?

Yes, it does. And it. It would be helpful if we can get that emailed to us. Thank you. Thank you, assembly person Kinnevak.

With that, we'll move on to the native village of Point Lay.

Hi, this is Dorothy with the teleconference. Officer Satillo is here. There's no concerns here.

Thank you, native village of Point Lay. Moving on to the city of Wainwright. Good afternoon from Wainwright. It's myself, Sophia Sullivan with Abraham and Officer Stevens. And we have no concern for Wainwright.

Thank you. Thank you, city of Wainwright. Dead Horse, do we have any concerns from Dead Horse? Good afternoon from Dead Horse. A pey here and I have officer.

Grubs with me here. And we have no concerns. Thank you, Mr. President. You have any concerns?

Maybe he's off.

Do we have any audience? Who were you asking who had concerns? I was asking you, Mr. President, because you're in Sagawan. I don't have no concerns.

Do we have any audience participation?

Audience participation? She. She did.

No, we had. We had. She. Can.

We have an individual coming?

Good afternoon. You want to push the button? Good afternoon, President, Assembly, Mr. Mayor and listening audience no. 1V for the record, community member.

First, I want to apologize for being late. I know that you guys already passed community concerns, but I just wanted to give a shout out to academic because I was running late because they donated an entire pallet of all kinds of stuff for the shelter. So we were pretty excited getting that all in. So thank you.

Several months ago, I came in to invite the mayor and facility maintenance for a site visit of the emergency case management shelter to provide a visual and to have a good understanding of what takes place in the shelter. There's been some concerns as to what actually happens in the shelter. Not only going to the mayor's office, but even I've even heard it at the ACRC meeting. And also just community members in general. So I think it's really important just to educate the community in regards to what takes place.

For one, one of the concerns is shelter clients walking the streets during the winter months that no longer is taking place. From October 1 to April 1, they are allowed to stay within the shelter, but they are on a structured schedule. They're still required to be up during the day. And we have different schedules implemented into the program, such as physical fitness and providing them a meal job search, addressing any kind of case management needs that are that adhere to their case plan. And if it's not a service that we're able to provide, we refer them to the appropriate resources.

So.

Thank you, facility Maintenance, for coming through. I appreciate you guys walking through and getting, taking all the notes that are needed to be able to work on the shelter for all of the facility maintenance needs.

And Mr. Mayor, the invitation still stands.

I think it's important for you guys to get a good idea as to what is happening in the shelter. There's been a lot of change from this the beginning to now.

It's a whole lot more because it's such a young division, we face a lot of change rapidly.

I also just wanted to state that I'm thankful for the staff that is there and everything that they do to provide all of the clients the support that is needed. And we're always open to suggestions and comments and concerns. So thank you. Thank you, Joyce. We appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you, Kenyon, Mr. Belches, Mr. Mayor,. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the assembly listening audience, Ms. Viltras, for your line of questioning and the comments that you made. Yeah. So based on the discussion from the last time this issue was brought up, I know there were some bureaucratic processes that we had to overcome within the borough to get the funding in line to administer project bidding.

And so essentially, there was about a quarter million dollars, just under a quarter million dollars of NPRA funds that were approved. We recognized that the scope of the remodel that was required on the 12 Plex, which is the homeless shelter, was beyond the quarter million dollars. And so to commingle the funds, not formally commingle, but to add other funds to complete the project, not only did we have to get approval from Department of Commerce, Community Economic Development with the state of Alaska, where the NPRA grant sits, we also had to identify the funding as to whether it was operating or capital. Essentially what we did was we found operating dollars because the capital dollars require a lease longer than X amount of years in order to put capital dollars towards it. And that 12 Plex is currently on the building is owned by the borough, but the land under it is owned by uic.

And so legally, we can expend capital dollars on any of those 12 plexes. And so we identified operating dollars. We've got the bids out right now for review. I think we had to follow the procurement process, have three bids that we're waiting to receive and close the window on, and then that'll tell us the cost to do the remodel. And then we'll combine the NPR grant dollars with the operating dollars so that we can get that project across the line.

And then as Far as operational changes, aside from the infrastructure itself. Again, as we continue to have ongoing discussions with the Health Department looking at the programmatic review, I am sure that your opinion, along with Ms. Stott's will be considered and incorporated into whatever the final solution moving forward is. So I hope that helps. As far as, I guess, a status update on the guts on simply changing out the windows and fixing the heat situation over there as we approach the winter months. So.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any more comments or questions from the assembly or from the audience.

Hearing? None. Do we have any comments or questions from the assembly.

Hearing? None. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for your responses, your staff.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Members of the assembly, just generally as we discuss the ability for the administration to address things with more fluidity, meaning quicker versus having to take so long with the existing processes that are in place, I just want to highlight some of the changes to the municipal code that we've took on from the administration standpoint, bringing them to the assembly, vetting them, incorporating them into our day to day operations. What I just described with the process with trying to administer half a million dollars by cobbling together different funding sources to fix it, valiant project like the weatherization type issues at the homeless shelter or any other project that come up as a emergency type response, the flexibility that we've incorporated not only into the Capital Municipal Code about last year, March timeframe, but also the.

The BLT process in which we report to the assembly in the monthly financial statement. Without those types of changes to the municipal Code that we've adopted with the assembly, the works would be gummed up in order to get these things addressed in a timely fashion. So I want to just express my gratitude for I guess, the faith and trust from not only the residents, but from the assembly in making those changes and giving the administration the freedom and flexibility to respond to the needs of the borough as they come up. So just pointing that out as far as the changes and processes that result in our ability to address these concerns in such a short manner, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your you and your administration for your continued due diligence in making the processes easier, for getting our projects out, working for the. For our communities. With that, we'll move on to 8B Resolution 29 2026. Chief Brown is waiting to read it into the record.

Mr. Mayor.

Yeah,.

Thank you, Madam Vice President. Members of the assembly, to read the resolution into the record is Chief Brown and I will follow up with some discussion afterwards. Thank you. Mr. President. Chief Brown,.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Chief Brown, thank you. Madam Mayor, President, Mr. Mayor, members of the Assembly, Jeff Brown, Chief of Police. For the record reading in resolution North Slope Borough resolution serial number 29 TAC 2026 a resolution waiving competitive bidding for a contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. For enhanced digital evidence management equipment and services.

Whereas the North Slope Borough is committed to enhancing public safety, accountability and transportation transparency in law enforcement operations across all borough communities and whereas the North Slope Borough Police Department NSB PD has identified an urgent need to modernize its digital evidence systems, including body worn cameras in car fleet video and Taser 10 energy weapons in order to continue NSB PDs committed services to the borough. And whereas Axon Enterprise Inc. Axon can modernize NSB PD's digital evidence systems by providing an integrated AI era technology suite that includes automated transcription, report drafting and secure cloud storage through the Axon evidence platform. And whereas Axon can further modernize NSB PD's digital evidence systems by ensuring regular hardware refreshes to maintain law enforcement equipment at current standards, as well as providing technical implementation services and applicable trainings for enhanced operations. And whereas it has been determined that a negotiated contract with Axon for the modernization of the NSBPD's digital evidence systems is in the best interest of the Borough to waive competitive bidding and utilize its technologies and whereas North Slope borough Municipal Code 2.3, 6.180, A1D and A2 allow for the mayor and the assembly to make a best interest determination for a professional services contract in excess of 750,000 upon assembly's approval by resolution. Now therefore, be it resolved that the North Slope Borough assembly authorizes the Mayor to negotiate and execute a contract with Exxon Enterprise Inc. For the Enhanced Digital Evidence Management Equipment and Services project, an amount not to exceed $3,054,689.

Thank you Chief Brown, for reading that into the record. What's the wish of the Assembly? Move to approve. There's a motion to approve? Second.

It's been seconded under discussion. Assembly Person Brunel thank you Madam Vice President. And thank you Chief Brown for reading that into the record. I guess the reason I pulled it was just to get a better understanding of what all this entails. Employees training around this and maybe some policies that are set for the use of some of these things and the training opportunities for the police officers and staff that will be utilizing this.

Just double checking, that's all going to be done. Thank you, Assembly President Bernal. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the assembly, listening audience, Chief Brown, for reading that in the record and to kind of contextualize Assemblyman Burnell's line of questioning. And I'll give the opportunity to Chief Brown to dive into the details.

But essentially, as we've embarked on the digitization efforts across the borough, I think you can remember part of the discussion as far as laying the train tracks, as far as bandwidth, hardware, fiber, and then tacking software efficiencies onto that, the first one being the travel process, hoping to roll into contract management all the other digital workflows. This project is part and parcel to that where we had to have the train tracks in place first so that we had the bandwidth capability to function axon body camera process like this. So it's something that's been in the works for a little while as far as facilitating the ability to even have a conversation about what it would take to get body cameras to the level that would allow for, and this is the goal, transparency and accountability between the police department, the administration, the assembly and the residents, knowing that all of those parties are due a level of transparency and accountability. And so this will incorporate a quicker turnaround in review of video evidence associated with any of the events that meet the threshold of the body camera automatically activating, either in one or two phases, video only, or video and audio only, or audio only. And we can customize essentially the parameters around that of which could be when, just like, you know, when you go into the hotel room on some fancy hotel, you pull a bag of chips out of the drawer, there's a sensor that automatically charges your account.

Same concept with the body cam. If you withdraw anything from your duty belt, we can tack an automatic activation of the body camera. So if it's the Taser, if it's a firearm lethal or less lethal, there can be automatic activation of the body camera. So this would help facilitate that. And then more importantly, on the back end, when it comes from comes to the point of transparency and accountability between the residents of the borough and the police officers, the benefit is mutual as far as factual evidence that we can base determinations on policies moving forward.

And so the body camera's ability to connect to the vehicles via the private LTE system that we have in place allows for automatic upload of the data so that there's not a chain of command concern with the body camera being plugged in at the police station to then upload the data. And then for after that, if we were to release body camera footage as part of a not Freedom of information request, but information request within the borough. Part of the issue with currently providing that body camera footage is that we have to manually edit for purposes of personal privacy, the body camera footage. This software would allow for automatic editing and quicker turnaround for accountability with anybody that's requesting information from the police department. And so again, I think there's added benefit not only for the resident, but then for the department as a whole and that relationship with the community.

Right. Because there are a lot of assumptions, there are a lot of feelings about the police department that are partially based on assumption. And we want to clear the room for assumption and get to the fact depending on what the issue at hand is. And so as part of implementation, I know Chief Brown is intimately familiar with what it's going to take to implement this and I'd like to ask him to speak to some of that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Chief Brown, thank you again for the record, JEFF Brown Chief of Police Chief to answer questions and just kind of expand upon a little bit. If we start talking hardware individually, if you think of the body cams that we currently have, and again, we weren't able to upgrade because we didn't have the capabilities with the technology that existed in the burrow to upgrade. We're running off of equipment hardware that's roughly 13 to 15 years old. So if you think through camera developments and cell phone developments over the last 15 years, you could see kind of the need for the advancement there just in the hardware. And by that I'm talking the actual body cams that go on the officers that they wear.

In addition to that, it's also equipping all of our vehicles with in car cameras. That's something that the borough has never had. So that's a brand new function that we'll have to further provide that accountability as well as that evidence for events that take place that will be captured by those in car cameras. Addition to that is the electronic weapons. Again, Taser.

Axon owns the company Taser, that is them. So it's updating that. And again, everything ties into the overall system to where everything's talking to one another throughout the system. So when you start talking training, there's a huge training component to it. With the Tasers, our officers are already train just because they have to be on the latest, greatest.

Again, we receive all of our certifications through Taser. So the trainer that's going to be coming up is not only training all the individual officers, but also training our. It's a train the trainer. So we'll have those trainers available on staff for further training thereafter. Any of the actual evidence management suite that is again on slope in person for our record staff as well as officers to be able to manage all that.

And again this is accessible by all of our record staff that work out in the villages as well, which is where three of the four work are outlying communities.

All the video camera install, that's all being handled by the company. They will be coming to each of the individual's communities to install that equipment as part of this package as well. In addition to that, the reason for the cost in here, that's for essentially a five year contract. We didn't want to have to come back and do change orders every year. So that's spread over five years.

The budget for this is built into next year fiscal year. You guys already approved the budget in anticipation of moving forward on this. So that already exists there. So there's no issues with that occurring. So I think overall it's robust.

It's going to be as close as we could possibly get to full coverage for the officers. Kind of start to finish the calls. A lot of the issues that we had with body cameras failing to operate, that had to do with the age of the hardware. There's where they've changed the actual hardware, where it becomes a lot harder to turn off a body camera again on the ones we currently have. It's just a little switch and you could bump that very easily.

Unfortunately, this one, there's time delays. We can set the time delays. And when you start talking policy, that is something that we're working also with Axon for any kind of model policies to determine where we need to go, that keeps with industry standards as to where we need to be with when they need to be activated, deactivated, how to handle it. Again, as the mayor talks about being able to upload directly from the body cam, just being in proximity to the vehicles versus going to the station and having to dock those. So with this change comes the implementation that follows with the policy as well.

So it will be. It hasn't been developed yet because we have to figure out the overall package. Everything and kind of dot all the I's, cross all the T's so we know what we need to address and that'll happen upon approval and that sort of thing. Moving forward, anticipating again beginning of the fiscal year, July, August timeframe is when hopefully we'll start seeing folks coming in to implement upon approval from you all. Thank you.

Thank you. Chief Brown. Does that help? Assembly person Brunel thank you, Madam Vice President. Thank you, Chief Brown.

It does.

Public safety is a high priority, if not the highest priority, and taking it seriously, making the right investments, keeping that public trust, it's number one. So it's nice to hear these things are changing.

You know, if we don't pull the resolution, we probably don't talk about it.

You guys have been in the news lately, so it's just one of these things where we have to talk about it, I believe, and ensure to the public, you know, as the mayor had stated, you know, the public trust and safety. So thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Chief Brown. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Thank you, assembly President Brunel.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Members of the assembly, listening audience.

I guess aside from the specific resolution, but tied to it, obviously, you know, these structural fixes within the borough take time to vet due diligence and implement this one specifically, as I mentioned, tied to the modernization of the hardware associated with our telecommunications systems across the slope. I mean we've been working on that for two years to finally get to the point where by almost entire term we are able to get from cradle to grave on something as simple as modern body cameras that help with that public trust. And so in addition to that, expect to see some work. If you might recall in your free time, when you've read the municipal code, there's currently a rural justice commission contemplated. I don't know when it's ever been implemented, not at least in my lifetime, that I remember.

And so having personally questioned the different actions of our members of fire and police and ems, because that's our responsibility, the borough as an entity is responsible from a liability perspective if there's wrongdoing according to the law. Having personally reviewed a lot of these very controversial actions that have occurred within our borough since my time in this seat, I recognize the value in having more public involvement, resident involvement in our life, health, safety and law enforcement sector. And I think this is a way of getting to that, to help inform in the decisions that are made at the officer level. And so when you, when one says transparency, there's a lot of to that. And so we look forward to continuing to bridge and build the relationship depending on the community with the police department, because at the end of the day we know that we need just law enforcement that's responsible to our residents.

And so let's work together to get there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any other comments or questions on the Resolution 29, 2026.

Question question has been called for all those in favor of approving Resolution 29 2026, do so by saying aye by way of roll call vote. Madam Clerk. Thank you. 70. Vice President Thomas Nebarek Jr. Aye.

Michael Donovan, Aye. Robin Kaleak,. Aye. Crawford Patkaduck.

Aye. Oviak Brunel. Aye. Trina Paul, Aye. Martin Edwardson, Aye.

Frederick Brower, Aye. Eva Knevak, Aye. Stanley Brower, Aye. Celia Atanyaro, Aye. Assembly Vice President, you have 11 yeses.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Resolution 292026 has passed the Assembly, Mr. Mayor.

With that we'll move on to 8D Resolution 31 2026, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam President. Members of the assembly, for item 8 Delta, we'll have Director Danner read across the resolution and just want to remind folks this is part of the above ground contract. Doesn't require capital dollars for the most part.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Director Diner thank you, Madam Vice President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the Assembly, I read the resolution. North Slow Borough resolution serial number 31-2026 a resolution waiving competitive bidding for a contract with UIC Municipal Services LLC for the area Wide Village water and sewer operations maintenance and training project for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 whereas North Slope Borough Department of Public Works provides maintenance and operations services to the residents of all North Slope Borough communities under the authority of North Slope Borough municipal code chapter 16.02 and whereas public Works is charged with administering the Borough's bulk fuel resources, providing electrical, water, wastewater and solid waste utilities, roadway maintenance, transit and other services to include permitting and regulatory compliance actions required by all authorities having jurisdiction and whereas, as part of these responsibilities, the Borough oversees the daily operations of water treatment, distribution and wastewater collection systems that serve public commercial and residential facilities in Anakdubuk Pass, Akasuc, Kaktowik, Newxet Point, Hope Point, Lay and Wainwright in compliance with all federal and state regulatory requirements and whereas in order to supplement itself village water and sewer operations with qualified technical personnel who meet the minimum certification standards mandated by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and to ensure compliance with operational regulatory requirements, the Borough has engaged technical and professional services from qualified bidders for the past 20 years and whereas UIC Municipal Services LLC is presently contracted to execute the work and possess experience possesses experience in collaborating with Borough's water and sewer system, enhancing and optimizing its processes to achieve a performance standard that is satisfactory to the Borough and whereas the current contract contract number 2020071 was negotiated and awarded in October 2019 and will expire on June 30, 2026 and whereas the Borough is opting to negotiate a new contract that will enhance its ability to administer the contract terms and conditions and aim to serve the best interests of the borough residents and whereas Public Works has projected that supporting ongoing services over the next five years at an amount not to exceed $62,500,000 for fiscal years 2027 through 2031, which exceeds the mayor's authority to sign and whereas North Slope borough Municipal Code 2.3 6.180 A1F authorizes the mayor and assembly through resolution to make a best interest determination to waive competitive bidding and to approve negotiations for supplies, materials, equipment or services when there are unforeseen conditions and the time required for competitive bidding will produce delays in an ongoing project the cost of which will outweigh any potential advantage that might be produced by competitive bidding.

And whereas the Borough and UIC Municipal Services have established a long term relationship rooted in loyalty and trust in which UIC Municipal Services is dedicated to delivering high quality services that comply with all regulatory and industry standards, while also striving to reduce costs for the borough and its residents. Now therefore, be it resolved that the North Slow Borough assembly authorizes the Mayor to negotiate and execute a contract with UIC Municipal Services LLC for the area wide Village Water and sewer operations, maintenance and training project for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 in an amount not to exceed $62,500,000. Madam Vice President. Thank you, Director Donner, for reading that into the record. What's the wish of the Assembly?

Eva, you pulled this resolution. Assembly person,.

Chair move to approve. There's a motion to approve. 31. 2026. There's a motion.

It's been seconded under discussion. Assembly person can evac.

Yes, yes, thank you. I have on the. On the dollar amount of 62. 62 Million 500. And that's for this contract.

It's for four years. Am I reading this correctly? For four years. Thank you, Assembly President Kinnevak. Director Danner.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam President. Members of the Assembly. Assembly, when we can avail for the line of questioning. So it'll be beginning of the fiscal year July of 2026 or next month if approved until June of.

2032.

Fiscal year. So total of five then? Yeah. So the fiscal year for 2031 will be from July to June of 2032. 2031 To 2032.

So five years by calendar math, four years by fiscal year math, if that makes sense. Yes, yes, yes. It does and looks like for this, this contract it'll be for five years for 12 million 500 each year. And can I get the dollar amount as to the last four years how much we're spending? Because seem like you know the.

I know each year everything is getting more and more expensive. I just wondering how much did we pay a year from October 19th to June 30th, 2026 annually.

Thank you assembly person Kinnevel. Thank you. Thank you Madam President. Members of the assembly listening audience for the line of questioning. We will get an accurate answer.

Director Downer can speak to it here shortly. But the other thing that we need to remember that it's as needed as request. So as we find problems with the or emergencies come up with the above ground work will task order. Excuse me.

Well, task order the contractor as needed as requested and then capitalized the contract as needed. So more than likely there'll be a change order on this contract as a whole as far as upfunding if needed. So Director Dan, if you could speak to past performance of the contract and then we'll also follow up via email to all of the assembly members for the accurate year to year number. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Director Diner.

Thank you Madam Vice President. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Members of the Assembly. So the contract that expires this month, the total contract for the past fiscal year is the question. It was 11.8 million.

11,800,000. We expect an increase, as you said, costs are going up. We expect an increase. We're planning for $12,500,000 per year for five years. But as the mayor alluded, we can't project that far into advance.

Five years. But that is the number that we are holding our contractor to for the first fiscal year and then we will assess.

Thank you Director Diner. Does that help? Assembly person Kinnevack.

Thank you. Yes it does. And I just really just was, you know, just trying to see now with all the infrastructure that's you know, really dilapidated now and where all we're having to do is just try to keep up all the repairs. Especially from the Mayor's status report.

Yes, it's much needed. But looking at so in contracts, just looking at this in contracts, is it best practices to do 5 year contracts, 3 year contracts, 6 year contracts? How do you determine that? Thank you. Thank you assembly person Kinnevat.

Mr. Mayor, Director Diner. Thank you Madam Vice President. Thank you Mr. Mayor. For this contract and this contractor, since we have a long history with this contract, we prefer a five year. If we were a newer Contractor which we did not have a long term relationship like we do with this contractor, it would typically more be a three year contract.

I can say for those contractors that Public Works have for many years, we prefer the stability of a five year contract. So we prefer a five year contract for this contractor and there'll be others that we have a long term relationship that we prefer a five year contract. I hope that helps. Thank you. Director Donner, do you have any.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Members of the assembly, listening audience. Director Danner, can you just clarify for clarity's sake? In our boilerplate contracts with most contractors we have the right to terminate service with proper notice, usually 30 days or so.

So though it is and it is intended to be a long term contract up to five years, if there are gross issues that we have with the day to day management of the contract, we reserve the right as the North Slope Borough to terminate the contract at any point with 30, 60 day notice depending on the formation of the contract. Can you clarify that? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Director Diner. Thank you Madam Vice president.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, you are correct. We have language in all our contracts. We can terminate any contract for any reason or no reason at all. But when you develop a long term relationship with the contractor.

Right. That's. There's value in that. There's importance of that. So we wouldn't terminate a contract for no reason, but we just probably wouldn't state it.

So. But it's in this contract. The ability to terminate at any time is in this contract. Is it in all contracts with Public Works? Thank you.

Director Connor. Do you have. I was gonna. Do you have any follow up assembly person can evaporate?

No, that's it. And thank you, Director Danner. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you assembly person Brunel. Thank you, Madam Vice President.

I was trying to understand what would trigger a termination. Are you able to state that? Probably besides gross negligence.

Thank you, SME Person Brunel. Director Downer. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam President. I have not exercised determination yet, but yes, gross negligence, failure to observe best practices in safety, environmental or cost.

If I caught a contractor cheating the borough. Yeah. I'd terminate immediately. That's what would spur the exercise of that clause. But as I said, I have not done that.

We have not found a reason to do that yet. Follow up assembly person Brunel.

How would you know? How would I know what? That if someone was there was a safety issue. All the things that you stated. Yeah.

How do you know? We have metrics in Place that we measure safety, that we measure environmental compliance. And we're watching the dollar every invoice. We vet every invoice. So yeah, I think we would know.

Okay, thank you. Just making sure the audience hears it. He hears you.

Thank you, Director Danner and Assemblyperson Brunel. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the assembly, listening audience, Director Downer for the discussion. I think it's actually important to discuss this because as we've implemented accountability within the ranks of the administration and expecting mayoral appointed positions to actually perform across the board that has had a trickle down into not only the contractors, but the empowerment of some of our local supervisors in the respective communities. An example on this contract specifically is community supervisor, I won't name the village reaches out and says, hey, there's a dig up and there's no fences around the dig up and the kids are playing out because it's nice out.

Do you want me to reach out to the contractor and direct them? Do you want the director to reach out? Do we need to elevate it to the mayor? Needless to say, by the end of the day there were fences around the hole. And so that responsibility to respond first has to lie within the ranks of the borough.

And the contractors will do as they're asked according to the contract stipulation.

And that attitude towards taking proactive measures to look out for the needs of our residents is where it starts. And so if we don't, if we don't actively, if for whatever reason, I don't take the call at 8pm from the community supervisor or from my cousin in one of the communities and says, hey Mr. Mayor, FYI this is happening, or if nothing's done from that call, then why would they want to call to begin with? Right? And so as we've change the attitude towards this job, Director Danner's job, or any other subordinates of his, that it's not just a 9 to 5 responsibility, there's more to it than that. Then only then can our contractor, I guess, be expected to perform at a higher level.

It needs to be mutual, there needs to be responsibility bore by the administration. And generally speaking, any contractor that lasts is a good contractor because as Director Danner mentioned, he likes all public works contracts to be at will essentially. So.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, assembly person Bernal. Thank you, Madam Vice President.

My head started spinning when you started talking about a lot of the stuff that you just said. But it really boils down to the contract amount. Some of the concerns we heard today, even the point Hope concern water and sewer, sewer connections that are going to be added here in the next five years, whatever that looks like.

And the maintenance that's going to have to go into adding services. Are we able to populate a cost to that when we start adding on new service lines to the system and the infrastructure that may increase this number in a change order one way or another in the next five years instead of the 5% increase that you guys just did. Thank you assembly person Burnell. Director Downer thank you Madam Vice President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Members of the SEMSI, thank you for the question. Assemblyman Bruno it's exactly right. As we create new connections, we increase the contract. The work that this contract is going to be responsible for. However, as we upgrade connections, upgrade our system, the maintenance and operations I expect to go down as well.

So I can't sit here and tell you and project three years, four years, five years down the what the cost will be to maintain the system. I can, all I can do Is propose a 62.5 12.5 million per year and manage towards that. I'm confident that we can manage toward that. Because as we upgrade our infrastructure, upgrade our systems, the maintenance and the operation of that system will go down. As we add more connections to that system, as we grow the system, the maintenance operations will go up.

So I. That's the best answer I can give you today. But as the mayor said, I expect at some point during the life of this five year contract that I will come back to you and I'll ask for your change order. I expect that will happen because cost of gas, all kinds of costs, I can't predict in the future. I can't sit here and tell you that this contract's going to be this even next year.

I'll know better in a few months when the costs have settled down a bit. But. But yeah, it's a scary time. But I can't sit here and tell you what this contract will cost and that I won't come back for more money within those five years. I hope that helps.

Thank you Director Donner. Thank you. Assembly President Bernal. Do we have any other questions or Comments on Resolution 31 2026?

Madam Vice President. Mr. Mayor. Assembly Persongarh. My concern is in Point lay. We had more than 2 handfuls of water breaks in the road system.

And my concern is pertaining to the. Styrofoam and spoilage on the road, the nunna. Is there a way we can have locals be hired to get this cleaned up every spring? Because it's been neglected for the past four years. There's a lot of Styrofoam on the tundra.

Thank you. Thank you, Assembly President Donner. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the question.

Assembly Member Atunga, I can commit to you that we'll hire, we'll hire a crew to go out there tomorrow. I can commit to you. We'll hire a pool, put on 10 temporary hires to go out there and walk the nuna to pick up that styrofoam. I know exactly what you're talking about, so. But Timothy is our current village supervisor out there right now.

If he's not listening, I will make sure, I'll reach out to him. I'll put it, we'll put in a request for 10, 10 temporary hires for Point Lay to get out there and pick up that styrofoam in the nuna. I hope that helps. Okay,.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President. I think, and Assemblywoman, for the line of question, I think what Director Danner is kind of leaning into is the vacancies will be posted. Whether they get filled or not is the challenge that we continue to have across the entire North Slope. So we look forward to figuring out that solution on the cleanup.

As far as the situation of Point lay's water and sewer system, not only have we had kind of a regrouping of what kind of work is going to need to be done over the next six months or so to fully recover from the freeze up that was occurred from the slime that got stuck in the system, but in addition to that, what's the overall scope for recognizing that Point Lay is on a lens and that there are continual below grade water and sewer issues. And so with that, I know that the government external affairs team has been working with Senator Murkowski's office to identify office opportunities for partnership from the federal government to address the major windfall of finances that it's going to take to get Point lay's water sewer system to a more stable status. So not only the short term doing with what we can for the day to day operations and then the fix that's required based on the freeze up that we had earlier this summer, but then also what's the long term solution for getting away from a system that doesn't function well in the Point Lake area. So hope that helps.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Assembly Person Burnell. Thank you, Madam Vice versa. Just a follow up on her concern about the trash. Is that not a contractor responsibility?

Why is that a Borrower responsibility to have to clean up. Thank you, SME Person Brunel Director Downer. Thank you, Madam Vice President, Mr. Mayor, members of the Assembly. The trash he's talking about is Styrofoam. When the contractor does cuts, right?

When they cut a pipe, there's. It's insulation, it hits the insulation, it blows out there. I agree it should be a contractor. Should be a contractor issue. However, whether it be a contractor or a borough, the borough's going to pay for it.

I'm saying that we hire temporaries in every one of our communities to clean our communities. We don't decide who made that trash or whose it is. We are cleaning up the communities. And so the commitment I make to not only Point la, but every community, we hire temporaries in every community to go through there. What you bring up is a good point.

There's a lot of issues that we have with contractors about their scope of work, holding, their accountability to quality of work. Right. There's work that we need to do that way, but at the end of the day, the borough's going to pay for it anyway. So what the key that Assemblywoman Atungarok said that I liked hearing was, she says, a local, a local crew, and I'm committing to hire a local crew to go out there and hire it. This is something I'm not willing to pass on to a contractor.

And they bring in somebody from somewhere else to clean up the village. No, I'm gonna. We're gonna try to hire locally to walk the nuna, as she suggested, and pick up the blue. I know exactly what she's talking about. Pick up the blue Styrofoam.

So I hope that helps follow up to that. I mean, it does help. I understand the local aspect, but in these contracts, when they're bidded, in a sense, it's encouraged to hire locals on almost every contract. Once again, a contractor responsibility. If they want to help, that should be their problem.

But yet the borrower is giving 12 and a half million dollars to leave roadside foam. She's talking about the road foam, I'm sure. Also the blue stuff that just, you know, it's. I view it as a contractor responsibility to hear that we're going to hire a bunch of locals to clean up their mess when it's their mess to begin with. Just sounds like an added cost that the borrower has to pay, is what I'm saying.

And maybe the contract should be 13 million and not 12.5 a year.

No. Okay, thank you, Assembly Person Brunel Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Madam Vice President.

Just to be clear, the the trash that we're talking about is not created by this contractor. This contractor is O and M. It they maintain the infrastructure for us. Their trash that is caused by what Assemblywoman Tungarak talking about. Is the cuts through the road Soft? Yes, through the road, but that's a different contractor for a different department.

So I'm saying that we have an issue with trash on the tundra. We're going to go out and clean it up like we try to do all the time. But I agree with you. But I just want to make it clear that increasing this contractor 13 million is not going to help because they're not the ones cutting the road up. That's a different contract.

We'll argue later.

Thank you. Director Donner. Do we have any other comments or questions on Resolution 312026.

Or no vote.

Anybody online Call for question Question has been called for. All those in favor of Resolution 31 2026, do so by saying aye by way of roll call vote. Madam Clerk, thank you. Assembly Vice President Martin Edwardson. Yes.

Frederick Brower. Yes. Eva Knock.

Yes. Stanley Brower. Yes. Celia Atungarak. Yes.

Thomas Nabarak Jr. Yes. Michael Donovan.

Yes. Robin Khalak. Yes. Crawford Patradock. Aye.

Ayek Brunel.

Yeah. Trina Paul I Assembly Vice President, you have 11 yeses. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Resolution 312026 has passed the Assembly. Mr. Mayor, thank you for the deliberation and decision.

With that, we are now on item nine. But before we do, let's take a 17 minute break and come back at 6:15. My name is Tyler Kramer from Kotzebue,. Alaska and you're listening to KBRW Barrow.

Hello, I'm fanny akpik and welcome to. Kbrw's inibiak word of the day. Today's word is ahonaya. Ahanayak means a girl in preteen n. Is spelled a g with a dot.

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The girl is neat and clever. You can also use this word as. As such I am a girl. That is today's Inibiak Word of the day.

Canada.

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And myself reading.

And.

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Milk.

There.

Foreign.

I'll call the Northo Boro. Regular meeting and public hearing back to order. We are now on nine public hearing. What's the wish of the Assembly.

Assembly person Kinneback. Move to go into public hearing. There's a motion to get into public hearing. It's been seconded under discussion.

Question has been called for all those in favor of getting into public hearing do so by saying aye. Aye Aye Aye Opposed say nay Hearing none. We are now in public hearing with that 9A ordinance 2025 3L Mr. Mayor. Thank you Madam Vice President, Members of the assembly listening audience to walk us through and explain and read into the record Appropriation Ordinance Director lamani thank you,. Mr. Mayor, Madam Chair, Members of the assembly for the record Fidel Imani, Director of Finance for your consideration is ordinance 2025 be enacted section 1 classification section 2 severability section 3 appropriation summary section 4 appropriation of operating expenditures section 5 appropriation of debt service section 6 appropriation of operating transfers and capital projects section 7 designation of fund balance section 8 adjustments if non local revenues vary from estimates section 9 other receipts section 10 ordering supplies prior to the beginning of the fiscal year section 11 over expenditures section 12 financial reports section 13 due date of taxes in section 14 effective date as far as the amendments under appropriations Finance Department Indirect cost of grants in the sum amount of $410,842 for Planning, Community and Service Department fiscal year 2026 inspection support in the sum amount of $489,500 for Health and Social services Area Wide Area Quality Study Continuation Grant in the Sum amount of $202,460 Homeless Food Pantry Grant in the sum amount of $165,290 Health Department Security Upgrades Grant in the Sum amount of $378,512 held Department Security Upgrades grants in the Sum amounts of $14,360 Older American Title 6 Part A Program 2025 upfront in the sum amount of 9724 the Older American Title 6 Part A Program 2026 Grant 143,105 the Older American Title 6 Part C Program 2026 Grant in the sum amount of 66,609 Bringing the total to $980,060 for the health and Social Services Department for Housing Department Home Leveling Program grant and the sum amounts of $989,500 for wildlife management Department Integrating Emergency Technologies with Community Based Observations to Access Spotted Sea Ecology Grant in the Sum amount of $15,583 support for the collection of analysis Indigenous Knowledge of Raging Seal Puppy Grant Puppying Grant in the Sum amount of $271,373 Fiscal year 26Support for developing a non invasive monitoring program for ICL health and habitat grants in the sum amount of $241,917 Support for Beluga harvest studies grant $531,437 FY2026Support for analysis of fine scale ice habitat used by polar bears Grant in the Sum amount of $273,596 Support for the acoustic and oceanographic monitoring of the bowhead feeding Area Grant $603,144 Ecohab 2024 HAP toxin accumulation, exposure, risk and impacts Grant in the Sum amount of $61,444 Bring in the total for the Wildlife Management Department in the Sum amount of 1,998,494 Last Public Department Police Department Public safety equipment modernization project in the sum amount of $1,743,006 bringing the total appropriation to $6,611,402 under the revenues grant Revenues DCCED MPRA and the Sum amounts of $5,000,196,469 the State of Alaska DCCed in the sum amounts of $783,220 Arctic Slope Native Association 233,798 University of Alaska Fairbanks $18,855 DECD DCRA and the sum amount of 308,937 Whole Food Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the sum amount of $70,123 bringing the total grant revenue to $6,611,402 in for your consideration.

Thank you Director Lamani for that for reading that ordinance into the record. Do we have any questions or comments on this ordinance?

Assembly Person Brunel thank you Madam Vice President. On the home leveling program, Seeing that it was for leveling homes in nooks. At,. I take it there's good amount of.

Interaction with a village because this has been a concern for years with the blasting kind of attitude. I hope there's some real outreach there that's happening seeing that the funding is about to be available. Thank you Assembly Person Burnell Director France. Mr. Mayor, thank you Madam President, members of the assembly listening audience. Assemblyman Brunel for the line of questioning.

Yeah, Director France can kind of elaborate a little bit on the community engagement that his department has partaken in numerous trips over the last couple of years to build out the.

I guess documentation required to facilitate the NPRA grant. And so this is kind of the tail end of a lot of that fact finding that the department has done so. Director France.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Madam Vice Chair, thank you for the question. Assemblymember Brunell. Jack France, Director for Housing Department for the record, yes, we've this actually started from requests coming from the residents from Noel Said after the blasting and continually getting concerns coming from the community. We've gone in, we've done some initial reports and.