Cordova: September 2, 2026, Council Public Hearing & Regular Meeting

Thank you. You think we need lights now?

Who's calling? Dave. Mike and Dave are there. Casey's, um, maybe he was supposed to update me if the Yeah, I know I made enough this time to kill several male trees. Too many baskets.

Well, because so many of them— Is everybody's mic—.

No Aaron or something. Or NATO, who's assessing. Right, he's gone. He already gone. Left yesterday by the warehouse.

They saw parts.

Yes, for the second reading of ordinance. Want to wake up? That's 15 minutes, and then regular. So maybe—. Are you—.

Should I start this first part? It's running, so you'll get ready then.

All right, we will call the City Council public hearing of September 2nd 2026 to order, and will the clerk please take the roll? Mayor Smith. Here. Deborah Adams. Here.

Lee Holland. Here. Aaron Hanson is absent. Jason Kinsman was absent. Mike Mickelson.

Here.

Wendy Rainey. Here. Dave Zastrow.

Here. Thank you. So we're having this public hearing to take comments on Ordinance 1240, an ordinance of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, amending Cordova Municipal Code 5.10.050 to increase the sales tax rate from 13% to 14% on transient lodging, motor vehicle rentals, sales of marijuana, marijuana concentrates, and marijuana products, cigarettes and other tobacco products, and alcoholic beverages, and removing the exclusion of watercraft as a motor vehicle subject to this tax. Are there folks who would like to comment? Well, I, I guess I'm uncertain.

I was listening to a conversation beforehand. The very last part of the audit ordinance that talked about removing the sales tax exemption or the personal property tax exemption on watercraft. It kind of sound like you guys were talking about rental boats. Is that what you're talking about, or is it all boats? Rentals.

Does it say rental in the ordinance? I believe so, because there's a section that specifically calls them, right?

Yeah, yeah, I guess I was just concerned about personal property tax on watercraft, which could include the plane boats. Now it has nothing to do with personal property. This is sales tax. Sales tax. Fourth.

Yeah. Yeah, the, the language says 14% on motor vehicle rentals, including, and the change would be to make it read including watercraft, but it's rentals specifically says rentals. Okay, well, and then the last thing I would just say that I would, I'd be against. You make a point with that. I'd be against the—.

Go ahead, say your name. Okay, I'm Brent Davis. And I was just going to say that I would be against raising any taxes. Um, I was just thinking, if I was the— not that I'd go there or care if it exists in town, but like there's a marijuana store being built that there's going to be, you know, property tax received from, and they're not even open yet, then they're— and the city's considering raising you know, a tax on them. Um, I don't think that's fair.

I don't know who they are, you know. And it seems to me that people I know, when you raise the taxes more, say on alcohol, just get their alcohol from Costco, and then the local businesses suffer, which then ends up getting less money into the city. Um, so as far as the, the bed tax for short-term, I mean, I'm fine with that, but the rest of it I'd be, I'd be against. Um, just that's my personal thought. Okay, thanks.

Thanks, Barb.

Okay, any, any other comments about the ordinance?

So if no one else is commenting, then maybe we'll take a recess until a few minutes before 7, and we'll open it back up again in case there are people who want to comment before, before we close the public hearing. Take a recess until 6:55.

So, thank you.

She got them. Oh, good. I was texting with her earlier.

Putting the audio back on.

There's also the ones on our side. We'll pull that from other view.

Um, I don't know what she was saying, I'm just curious. Right. I don't know. Well, I think that's just what we— conversations, maybe. Oh, um, and I know you confirmed Okay, maybe we'll, um, call the hearing back into session for a few minutes.

Is there anyone who's joined us in the last few minutes who wants to make comments on ordinance 1220 about—. 1240, Excuse me, not even 420, that would be even better—. Amending the code, uh, 5.10.050 to increase the sales tax rate from 13 to 14% on transient lodging, motor vehicle rentals, marijuana sales, cigarettes, tobacco products, alcohol beverages, and removing the exclusion of watercraft as motor vehicle subject to this sales tax.

Well, maybe we'll adjourn the public hearing then.

Call the council meeting to order at 7. Uh, call the regular city council meeting of September 2nd to order. And will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And will the clerk take the roll?

Mayor Smith. Here. Deborah Adams. Here. Lee Collins.

Here. Aaron Hanson is absent. Casey Kinsman. Here. Mike Mickelson.

Here. Randy Rainey. Here. Dave Zastrow. Here.

That's formal council.

So we have an agenda before us. Are there any amendments to the agenda as presented?

So hearing no objection, we'll consider the agenda approved. Disclosures of, of conflicts of interest and ex parte communication. Are there any disclosures?

Um, I will recuse myself from any voting on Ordinance 1240, and due to the fact that I'm, uh, rental water taxi and hotel bed tax So this is the second reading, right? The second reading. I recused myself from the first.

I called it a conflict, so conflict at the first one. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. I didn't realize that. You voted on it though.

No, I didn't. But you were at the table? I was at the table, but I didn't vote. Okay. And I bet that I know I didn't write those minutes correctly.

I didn't get you as reflected on that first meeting. Well, it's up to you guys. Yeah, either case, I mean, whether it was, we talked about it and that wasn't an issue. Yeah, I mean, this is the second reading and you're making this disclosure. And, but I guess I'm also thinking that you're just collecting sales tax, you know.

Right, you don't charge it or impose it. You're not changing. I charge it, right? But you're just collecting, and it affects my business if we raise it. So I don't know what that—.

I'm just— it's a rental and it's—. It's the med tax affects my business, correct? So how you want to read into that is right. I guess I'm thinking the criteria say, um, if it would make a difference of more than $10,000 in the aggregate of 12 consecutive months, that would be a substantial conflict of interest. So, I have to look them up.

Yeah, I mean, I, I guess I'm just thinking, I, I think maybe there would not be a substantial conflict of interest, but, um, given those considerations that we've talked about, so that would be my take on it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That is—.

Council okay with that?

Objections? Hey, Mayor Smith. Yeah, I want to disclose that, um, for agenda item 13, which is ordinance 1241, I have a potential conflict as I work for the Economic Development District in meal processing, which would be part of this, uh share Siku facility.

Um, oh, I guess I'm thinking the same criteria apply, you know. Would there be substantial conflict of interest of $10,000? Would your salary change? You don't have an ownership share in this? No, I don't have any ownership in it, and I wouldn't expect any change in income.

Because it was a new facility. Yeah. So I don't think you have a substantial conflict of interest. Others would disagree, or if you feel like it's—. I just want— okay.

All right, so communications by and petitions from visitors, we don't have any guest speakers. Um, audience comments regarding agenda items. Are there audience members who want to comment? Might listen— limit comments to 1 minute tonight just because it's sunny out. No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. Audience comments, 3 minutes per speaker on any item on the agenda.

I mean, I can say something. I do have an agenda item up. I don't really, um, I don't really feel the need to say anything about it, but if you guys have questions about it, I am happy to answer them. Okay, but I can do that when it comes up too. I don't know how that works.

Yeah, um, do, do folks have any questions for Christian right now?

It can also be at the time. I'll do that. Okay, no other comments. Do you want to— yeah, come on up.

Chairpersons and representatives of boards and commissions.

Should be live. Okay, manage superintendent schools. Thank you, City Council. Just a few things to update you on. Um, so this last week, actually on the 31st, the state did announce that we would get the, um, allocation that was budgeted for.

Yeah, so the one-time funding as well as the energy relief. So for the state, that's about $115 million. For Cordova specifically, we'll get an additional $400 $140,000. Wow. And that's all based on ADM, um, average daily membership, or basically student enrollment.

And then we'll also get, um, $99,000 for energy relief grants in that as well. So yes, very exciting. Um, I hope in one of the future board or council meetings to be able to explain just a little bit about educational funding and the complexity of getting this money. Uh, it's exciting, but it's very difficult to spend after we've started a fiscal year in a way that's efficient. So I do want to be able to share that with you before we even make decisions on how we're going to budget with that money.

And then another thing, I just emailed you today, and it was very late, about e-rate. So I have sent out a letter to FCC. Really expressing our concern about any changes in e-rate funding, whether it's the language of how it's disseminated or who gets it. Basically, e-rate funds our internet access as well as your public library and so on. So in the letter, I didn't put dollar amounts.

I was told that might raise red flags, like, are we charged too much for internet, all of that kind of stuff from people that don't understand Cordova. So I didn't put those in there, but For you to know, we pay $134,000 for internet access. E-rate pays $120,000 of that. So it's like, well, what's $120,000 in our budget? As I tried to explain in that letter to the FCC, that's one teaching position.

So if we have to fund this ourselves, we're one less teacher. Or you could equate it to other staff, 1.5 administrative clerks, office clerks, or 2 paraprofessionals. This is basically personnel. That's where we can go to make the cuts straightforward. So it is pretty substantial.

Um, if you get any chance to advocate both for the community, um, the library and the school district, that'd be greatly appreciated. Um, all right, good stuff, really good stuff without any yes-buts or anything. Um, if you haven't heard, Emily Moody, our high school, uh, social studies teacher, she was awarded the 200 26th State History Teacher of the Year. So I'm pretty excited about that. She has a chance for the National Teacher of the Year.

I think we hear that later, um, in the fall, whether or not she was selected at the national level too. So, um, we're gonna recognize her at our upcoming board meeting next week. Um, and then as far as just things going on in the school, it's going full speed now. So on the drive side, AJSTAR, which is our state assessment, the results are— will be totally released to the public tomorrow. Um, had a meeting with all districts today as well as, um, the commissioner, and, uh, looking at the results statewide and how we compare.

She went pretty fast, but there were some graphs in there. Basically, I can say that Cordova's, uh, achievement level is in the top 5 in the state, so very well. And then, uh, in math, we were in the top 10, might have been the 11th. I was trying to count really fast, but still in the top out of the 52 school districts that were represented there. So a lot to be proud of, and again, I'm excited to become part of all the success that happens here.

Um, and then with testing, so those, those results were from last spring. Takes a while before we get them. Next week we'll start our fall benchmark in this, in the schools. So we start the year after week and a half in the classroom, 2 and a half weeks in the classroom, and let's start testing. But it honestly has value because it gives us a good foundation of where students are needed in our new classrooms, right, as they move around.

So it is valuable data. Um, all right, other things that are just happening around— and it's been fun to see the start of the school year. Field trips start right away. In many school districts, that doesn't—. They wait till the spring for field trips or wait till the kids are, you know, ready to go out.

And, uh, the kids did a field trip to Sheridan Lake, junior high kids, the first, first I think it was the third day of school. Um, trust in student body, you know, that's what that tells me is we got kids and teachers that have already built relationships to be able to do something like that. So they study some rock out there that shouldn't be there and all kinds of curiosity and scientific experimentation going on. Um, other things, um, the Fungine Festival coming up, we've got things going on in the classrooms that are connecting to that. So it's really neat to see that as well, how the school and the community have similar conversations taking place.

And then for sports, we have cross country's already had one meet. They travel again, junior high is going as well as varsity and JV to this next one. Then we have a home meet, check our calendar for sure, but I believe it's the 12th, it's the first home meet. Um, we have swimming's going to get started, their first meet in San Feliz on the 18th. Uh, thanks to Samantha and the city for getting that pool up and running and getting the kids in there swimming the week before that meet.

So that was little bit of relief for our coaches and swimmers as well. Volleyball's going to get started. Um, they have the home games the 25th of September, and I think those are the main ones that are coming up. Any questions? It's really awesome.

Good evening, Dave Jenka, represent the City of Cordova on the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council. Just wanted to pass a little information along to you and, and see if you, as best as I understand it, Staff was sort of surprised about a week and a half ago to find out that Alyeska had put in a request to the Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management to do their right-of-way renewal 6 years in advance of it expiring and in an expedited form. They want it done by the end of the year. So this was a The last one was in 2004 for a 30-year lease and it was expiring in 2034. It's, uh, we're at the council, we're limited to the terminal and the tankers.

We can't really comment on this about the pipeline, but I know others will be. This time around there will be no environmental impact statement. It'll be an environmental assessment. Which is much more narrow and simple. Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management have significant discretion as to the scope of the review.

And of course, all of this is federal. There will be a state one coming up. And What's obviously pushing this is the upcoming election. They, they don't want to get one later on. Not that I don't think there's any way in the world that it would not be renewed.

It's just as a good one to get time for them, the oil industry, to get it renewed without any significant add-ons. You know, XYZ at the end of it. So we have a, a working group was established with, uh, staff, board members, uh, our committee volunteers, and a couple of, uh, of experts, uh, to keep an eye on, uh, councils. Or the, uh, RCAC has already submitted a letter asking for an extension of the comment period about this. That's one that the comment period started last week, even before there was any news announcements about this happening.

So, it closes on the 10th of this month. 15 Days. 15 Days. Very short. Very short.

And they have— and we've asked for an extension. We've also asked if the assessment, the environmental assessment of the comment period, We haven't heard that, heard back. Could go either way. Because all of this is, like I say, driven by the election, but also executive order. This is coming down to Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management from on high with an executive order.

And in that executive order, actually, the Friday Week renewal was mentioned specifically. So to push those resources in Alaska and expedite, simplify everything, that's what's going on.

And personally, I'm not quite sure if there's any chance of getting any significant input into the process, but I'm sure you'll be reading more about it. Let you know if there's any, anything else. And that would be the answer to your question.

Any questions for you, Dr. Adams? Are our representatives in Washington aware of this? They are. They are. I think, if I remember right, I think there was some effort from one of them to get the public comment period extended.

Lisa, I think, was concerned about that. So because it's executive order, there's no recourse for us just outside of the, um, public comment period, and, uh, not—. It's not in— it doesn't feel to me like there's too much chance of that doing much of anything. The last time this went through in 2004, um, it was a full environmental impact statement with that. Um, there were a lot of comments related what could be done.

I think there's a lot of comments related to just the threat of the— to the Copper River by all the crossings of the pipeline. And, uh, Even then, it was kind of blown off that everything at the mouth of the Copper River, the whole fishery, Cordova, native village Eyak, was expendable. It was all the whole— for the benefit of the whole state, that would be a drop in the bucket if we lost all of that down here. That's kind of the Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management's— yeah, I know, kind of makes your head explode, definitely. So we have ongoing meetings with the working group again pretty soon here to look at some additional comments.

And we have a board meeting in Whittier in 2 weeks. A topic we have also asked strongly, Bureau of Land Management come and speak. We usually have a representative from BLM there, but it's usually more local. Local office person ask for more input on that time. So right now, keep an eye on the news.

That's kind of where we're getting some of our stuff mostly.

Okay, thank you. Thanks. Thank you for bringing that to our attention.

Okay, any other chairpersons, representatives?

All right, we can move on to the consent calendar. Consent calendar is before you. Nobody's pulling anything. I'm going to take the roll on the consent calendar. Dave Zastro.

Yes. Lee Collins? Yes. Deborah Adams? Yes.

Karen Hansen is absent. Casey Hansen?

Casey, are you there? Wendy Raining? Yes. Mike Mendelson?

Yes. The consent calendar is approved.

And yes, sorry, Susan. Thank you.

Great. All right, minutes have been approved. We have no bids or proposals for contracts to consider. Takes us to report— reports of officers. Written report in the packets and meeting that the AMHS director is— had told us about with regard to seeing if they could shave any time off the period for which the Aurora would be in the shipyard.

That meeting's happening tomorrow, so I will be staying tuned for any updates coming from coming from Director Tongra. You see the comments I put in there about the Housing Supply Accelerator Committee and the presentation we got from the Sitka Land Trust, which was really great.

And yeah, I think we'll be planning to have a The next meeting of the committee will be after the Northwest Community Coalition, Community Land Trust Coalition, Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition meeting is in Sitka at the end of September 1st, last day of September, first 2 days of October. Yeah, so I'm planning on going to that and then we would have our next meeting after that so we can bring an update to the group. And if anybody is interested in attending or wants to hear more about it, we've—. The meeting we had last week or last week, two weeks ago was recorded. Yeah.

So, and then let's see. Yeah, the disaster declaration. Yeah, we submitted a lot more data. They Yes, apparently sitting on the 2024 submission since January 25th, when I raised it with Senator Sullivan, Sullivan was here in the middle of August and got a call the next day from Fish and Game saying that NOAA had asked them for more data on the 2024 disaster declaration request. And so we sent them more data and hopefully get a response before too long.

Yeah. So I do want to say too, just follow up on what Dave was saying about the pipeline right-of-way lease renewal, that one of the conditions I think in the lease is decommissioning of the pipeline. I think there's some provisions in there for what's supposed to happen when the lease expires and the pipeline is no longer in use. And I would also say that we should be make— asking them to make sure that there are provisions in there for decommissioning the line, because otherwise, you know, they would be within their rights to just walk away from it. But I think they're supposed to be setting aside money every so often to make sure there's a fund for decommissioning and taking the line down.

So, so there's that. So I think what I heard is that the school district would like us— would appreciate a letter of support for the E-rate program. So if council could encourage, I could draft something. We need to include Ashley in on that because it is also our library. Okay, so she's, she's— there you go.

Okay, you, um, yeah, so I'm happy to answer any questions. Yes, Councilman Adams. I would just like to direct— when our ferry schedule does come to fruition, I'd like us to write a hearty letter of thank you to Senator representative students, hopefully senators too. Right. I mean, I think she really put a tremendous effort down for us, and we need to— and at the expense of Kodiak, right?

Yeah. Mayor Smith? Yes. Yeah, just a question on the fisheries disaster declaration. In your report out, you say that Lindsay Hammer with the Economic Development District put together a comprehensive review for over several years.

How many years back did this review reach?

The standard in the— I think it's in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, or maybe there's another piece of legislation— asks, says that you have to show substantial change of revenue within a 12-month period. So we looked at 2022 to 2025, I think. If you do much farther back, you know, though, I think some of the fisheries revenues are affected by the pandemic.

But the one thing that we certainly qualify in terms of the change in income for the pink salmon and chum fisheries from Either way you look at it, from 2023 to '24, there was a drop, I think, of 88%. And from 2024 to 2025, there was an increase of 87%. And there's an 80% threshold. So either way, in that regard, it seems like we would qualify. And then what she also found was she was looking at comparing income by sector, uh, we're looking at the wage earned income because NOAA says, well, are there ways that fishermen could make up that other income?

And we were saying, you know, fishing is such a big part of our economy that it's hard to find jobs in those other sectors. But if you compare to— and also the fishermen are self-employed, so they don't show up in that wage labor income. But if you compared where their standing was I think it was in 2023, either in 2023 or 2024, it must have been 2023, that the earnings for pink salmon would have been ranked 4th by sector in the economy. Excuse me. And for chum, that segment would have been ranked 10th for a sector in our economy.

And a year later, those two sectors have fallen to 14 and 16 if you rank the sectors in our county by their income. So, wow, significant. Yeah, thank you. And that's great that we have the Economic Development District here in the community doing that kind of work. So thank you.

And I'm happy to share that. I can send that out to the council or send it to Susan. She can distribute it. That would be great. I'd like to see that.

Thanks.

Okay, yeah, other questions?

All right, uh, we can go to the city manager's report. Oh, roll that.

Who's ready for a pool party? Woo! Pool, uh, will be opening for, uh, we're just gonna open for a party on the 12th, I think, and then open for regular hours on the 14th. What day is the pool party? Uh, the 12th.

Okay, from 2 to 5. Um, and then we'll open for regular hours on the 14th. We just certified SIPS new lifeguards over the weekend. So it's super great, uh, to see that. It was, um, just amazing to have everyone there for the weekend.

I don't think I was so excited to be at the pool on a weekend as much as I was this weekend. So very proud of everyone. We had a lot of employees step up to the plate to, uh, fill those roles just that we needed for safety, uh, for the lifeguards. I've also just been meeting with everyone involved in scheduling with the pool, the superintendent, the principals, the AD, the Wolverines coach, just making sure that we communicate what we can do safely for them and try to accommodate them as much as we can for their practices. And then getting the school in there, they're back on the 28th, so we're just gearing up for it.

Does anyone have any questions about it? Or, um, I noticed I saw your schedule, I think it was on Facebook. Um, are— do you have plans for Saturday swim time at all? I do. So what had typically— we're trying to save our temp funding is what's happening right now.

So if typically what would happen on a Saturday, if it looked like this outside, I would not have anyone in the pool and we would be— have a lot of employees there. As everyone knows, we're kind of limited on our budget this year. So having a pop-up Saturday, like a pop-up play, is something that we're looking at to do when the weather's not great out. So just kind of gauging that just so that we can save that temp funding. And then hopefully in the future we can staff.

But for right now, that's what it's like. So we would just put it out in the morning that we would have a pop-up swim Saturdays.

And is it two city policy, two lifeguards always? We have, yes, two lifeguards always. Is that during school time also? Yes, we're implementing that this year during school time.

Mayor Smith? Yes, Council Member Jastro. Yeah, a question, Samantha, about— I know one of the reasons why you delayed getting the pool open was you wanted to be sure that it was going to be open then closed again. You want to make sure all the systems were functioning properly so we weren't open, closed, open, closed. Now that it's open though, is there any part of the operation as far as the infrastructure that you're concerned about that you see in this, in at least the mid or later future?

Nothing? I mean, there's a lot of things out there I know that we could do, but As far as the pool remaining open and functioning, is there any concern in the mid-future? Yeah, so we did have some issues with the burner in our boiler. Um, I— we've been running it right now on a low fire on an auto instead of manual. Um, we need to adjust it if for different reasons.

Um, and so we did just receive a quote on getting a new burner for it. Um, we do have some funds that are still there from the budget amendment that we had. So I've been meeting with Sam about this too, that it's— we're probably going to go ahead and replace that burner just because we know that it's going to come up in the future. The other thing that I'm getting a quote on is the heat exchanger too is at end of life. And so that's something that if we can replace, we should.

It would take us down for a very long time if it happens. So those are the two things that I'm concerned about right now, but we're working um, to get those replaced. Great, great. Good to hear. All right, thank you.

Work. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Pippa. I can answer any questions that are out there.

Uh, one thing I do want to mention, and then we can talk about it at pending agenda, is doing a special meeting for the Barefoot and the RFP closed. We received a proposal. We're discussing and kind of negotiating through that proposal right now, but we'll be ready for council approval next week. So we'll be looking for a special meeting.

Um, I—. Cheryl will be out of the office pretty much for the next month. My anticipation is that we will start our core budget the first meeting in October. So be ready for meetings because we're going to have to do some meetings to get through, to get me done by December 3rd. Um, we are, uh, moving forward internally.

Like, we have implemented the budget tool, which is super cool, and we have— we will be— I'm getting budgets back to me later in the later part of the month, and then I'll be reading through those and keep talking. And, uh, of course it's always the revenue that kills us because we really don't have a good idea what that's going to look like till the end of October. Um, so we'll see how it goes and, um, go from there. Um, any questions?

Any questions online from the city manager? No, you did not. I heard you. I should have.

Sorry. That answer fewer questions, doesn't it? I do too. Okay.

Then I think we will move on to the city clerk's report. Um, nothing substantial. I'll just say that we passed the August 31st due date for first half property taxes, so hope everyone listening got theirs in and isn't due a penalty. Um, but the ladies, the front office, Colette, and the finance staff And you've had Brenda, we're cranking all of last week, really all the last few weeks. But a lot of people are right on the last day, Monday.

And I think it was a big day Monday, 600,000 or so received it in on just Monday. But yeah, we're not as volatile as SalesNav can be. It's pretty known entity what we're going to get because we go for it. We get it. This would have that good hammer, which that hammer is another thing that Colette's been working on now, closing out the expiration of the redemption period for the foreclosures from '24.

Just one taxpayer is on that. They are aware of the date, it's coming up in October. And then, um, there's still quiet lists for 2025, but they're slowly hang up and getting off of that list, and then they have another year to redeem their property before we do foreclosures, actual foreclosures. Um, that's about it. I was just proud of the ladies, did really well.

Yeah, and we'll talk about the special meeting at Pennington. Thank you.

Okay, so that's our input to the officers. We have some correspondence, uh, a letter of support for the lease to Comforter Brewing, um, an earlier letter to the delegation about the disaster termination request. That's it. Any comments or questions on correspondence? If anybody's wondering about that first letter, that movie, Tsukapa River, just didn't turn out to happen.

They went a different route. So he was supporting something that was trying to happen, but then in the end they went a different way.

In case anybody was curious.

All right, so that brings us to ordinances and resolutions. Um, so we'll start with Ordinance 1240, and I would entertain a motion.

Mayor Smith? Yes. I move to approve the Ordinance 1240, an ordinance of this Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, amending Ardova Municipal Code, Code Section 5.10.050, to increase the sales tax rate from 13% to 14% for transient lodging, motor vehicle rentals, marijuana, marijuana concentrates, and marijuana products, cigarettes and other tobacco products, and alcoholic beverages, and removing the exclusion of watercraft as motor vehicles subject to this tax. Is there a second? Second.

Thanks. Moved by Council Member Adams and seconded by Council Member Collins. Council Member Adams, do you want to comment? I don't think there's much more to say about this. We've talked about it numerous times and, um, just, um, did my own little homework.

You know, the bed tax in Anchorage is 12%.

Um, so I don't think we're so far out of line.

Thank you. Member Collins?

Yeah, kind of the same comment. We've already had discussions on this, and yeah, I think it— I think it is the appropriate time to, uh, to be increasing this at 1%, given that, you know, we have the part of the same agenda was approving for the the new marijuana dispensary in town, but I think this, it just makes sense for city revenue. Thank you. Other council member comments?

Anybody online? Yeah, Madam Mayor, I think just appreciate the conversation around this. I can understand the that it's— it really is a pretty large encompassing tax increase. I think it is, as we have discussed, looking at different ways to tax a broader group and to tax not as many local, and this is an avenue for us to tax out-of-town people. I can understand And appreciate Council Member Rainey's concern and hesitation about that as well.

Um, but this is an avenue for us to tax a broader scope of people within really the city of Cordova to include, and probably even a little heavier on folks who come to visit our town. So, again, appreciate the conversation around this.

Thank you.

Further comments?

I don't see anybody coming off of mute. Okay, so the clerk, would you like to— I guess hearing no further objection, I think we can— or further, uh, call for discussion, I think we can move to a vote. And this is the second reading, so it will be a roll call vote. Yes. On final adoption, it requires a roll call, uh, on adoption of 1240.

Lee Collins? Yes. Deborah Adams? Yes. Casey Kinsman?

Yes. Mike Mickelson?

Um, Aaron Hansen is absent. Wendy Rainey? No. Dave Zastro? Yes.

Mike, you want to try again?

Okay, we'll get that after. Uh, we'll go with 4-1, and so motion carries. Thank you. Okay, so, um, should have said this earlier, but for ordinance 141, I am going to recuse myself, turn the chair and leave over to Council Member Rainey. So It's, it's for, um, I know that I am involved with— we're going to just stick with from footprint.

Yeah, you just say 3 hours. Step into the bedazzle. Okay, we are looking at Ordinance 1241, an ordinance of City Council of Cordova, Alaska, authorizing the city manager to enter into a lease with the option to purchase agreement with Franklin Sound Economic Development District for Lot 2, Block 7, Northville Development Park. This is a first reading. Do—.

I would entertain a motion.

Vice Mayor Rainey, um, I move to adopt Ordinance 1241, an ordinance of the Council of the City of Cordova, Alaska, authorizing the city manager to enter into a lease with an option to purchase agreement with the Prince William Sound Economic Development District for Block 2, Block 7, Northville Development Park. And do we have a second? Second. Okay, Council Member, uh, Collins, do you want to speak to your motion?

Yeah, um, yeah, I think, uh, this was, uh, this issue's, you know, been voted on by Council a few times, I think, in the initial meeting where Multiple proposals were discussed. It was obviously overwhelming community support for this facility, and I think, uh, this is just a step in the right direction for, for development in our community.

Councilman Adams. I'll be repeating what Councilman Collins said, and, um, that this is an opportunity for startups in our community and for diversification. And it's the last lot there that can be developed. So I'm happy to see that it's an opportunity for locals to grow their businesses.

Any comments online?

Council members, after all?

No, I concur with the two previous council members and what they've had to say.

Councilmember Kinsman. Yeah, I've looked. I mean, I think there's— there was a lot of support for this, and I can appreciate the support that's for this. There also was a lot of questions. Now, looking over the lease, like, some of those questions were answered.

It was very thorough, which is great. Very thorough timelines. I think if we move forward with this, there is an element of really holding those timelines, really sticking true to those timelines, because there's a lot of variables associated with this. As already established, there's two sides to this prime piece of property. It's a prime piece of property, and I think this is a great opportunity.

Want to see it be successful. There's milestones to ensure that from the city standpoint that we're ensuring that it is being successful and meeting those milestones. So, um, again, I want it to be successful. There are some risks still associated with this, and, uh, I just don't want that to be lost on us as a council, as we're really a steward of— I'll say it again— one of these very prime pieces of property down on that waterfront area. So, I just want to speak to that again.

Really appreciate the hard work that's going to this. Really appreciate, um, really thinking outside of the box on this proposal. Want it to be successful, so I, I hope it will be.

Council Member Mickelson.

Okay, um, I agree with Council Member Kinsman's comments. Um, it was very, uh, complete, and a lot of my questions were answered in the lease. So, um, are there any more comments from the table? Okay, we can— this can be a voice vote because this is the first read. Yeah, yeah, that's fine.

Okay, I can hear them. So all those in favor of approval of Ordinance 1241— do I have to read the whole thing? No. Okay, say aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Opposed? Same. Here we go.

Well done. My moment to shine.

Excuse me. Uh, okay, so that takes us to—. Well, we don't have any unfinished business, um, new and miscellaneous business. We can take a look at the pending agenda, CIP list, calendar, appointed officials list.

All starts on June 29th.

Any, anything we need to consider? So I guess we want to start with the calendar. We've got, um, so yeah, so we were thinking about, um, who always cringes when we say noon, but we're talking fast meeting. This is going to be like a Which after the 14th? No, well, we're looking at Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

Oh, okay, Tuesday or Wednesday. Oh, that works. Tuesday or Wednesday. Good. Um, just because Sydney has a big event on Friday in here, and these tables will already be here for Planning and Zoning and Harbor, so let's do it on one of those days before she has to rearrange the room.

So can I at least get 4 of you Tuesday at noon? Does that work? This coming Tuesday? Yes, then September 8th. 8Th.

Yeah, I'll be here on Wednesday. Will you be able to call or not?

Uh, let me get back to you. Okay. Um, Dave, Casey, is that going to be possible? That works for me. I'll be around.

Tuesday at noon. Casey, what about you?

I don't know, it's strange that they're still there. I know, I don't get it either. Um, can you guys hear me? I feel like I'm going back and forth, mute, unmute. I'm sure it's me.

Did you guys hear me? Okay, I will be catching 61 on Tuesday, so it's about noon o'clock. Wednesday is better for you? Can people do Wednesday? I'll get back to you on Wednesday because I'm catching another flight that day.

So, so you're not doing Wednesday either? I might be, I just need to check the flight time, that's all. And I bet Mike would be better on a Wednesday too. Probably so, right? If there's a Monday 24th, or who knows.

Okay, let's shoot for Wednesday. I'm gonna try and put it out Wednesday at noon. I'm gonna try and put it out on Friday because Monday's a holiday, but we could do it Tuesday if we had to.

And that's the Americans meeting? Yes, the RFP came in and then they've been working it up, and they're ready to bring the item.

Okay, Sam, what did you say, that maybe tentatively the first budget work session would be before the first October meeting? Yeah, that for right now, that's tentatively, and that's October 7th.

Oh, I was thinking October 2nd. That won't be about—. That's a Friday. Oh, okay. So I guess I'm—.

Do I have the wrong year? Yeah, that is Friday. Okay. Okay, that probably works better. So we'll probably do revenue and a look at the first round of budget in one meeting.

Which, which day? When? Before the regular meeting on the 7th. Okay, because I'm having surgery on the 2nd. I leave on the 30th, I'll have surgery on the 2nd.

I may not be back in town by the 7th, but I could call. Okay, okay. I might be coming home that day, so that—. Okay. You could also call in though, if that's the case.

Yeah, but I think I might be traveling home that day, but I don't know. We'll see how it goes. 5 Wednesdays in September. If somehow Cheryl's better sooner, we can think about doing it one week sooner. We'll see.

But we still are— we, we, you know, the budgets are due back to me around the 20th, so we— September's kind of that internal stuff going on, and then by the 7th of the week we'll be ready to get something out with preliminary revenue, which Gotcha. So potentially 6 o'clock, almost 7, definitely 6. Yeah, because we can always pick it up after the meeting, like, yes, like we've done in the past.

And I'll just say now, you appointed, uh, someone at the consent calendar. Thank you for planning, Commission. Um, And then at the end of November, all the board seats turn over. So start visiting with people and getting them interested and applying. And you say all the board seats, you know, uh, oh, oh yeah, yeah, not all the seats, they're staggered, they're staggered, but there are 3 people on— there happen to be 3 on planning that should be coming off.

Oh, well, but could be coming off. They may be interested in staying, I'm not sure. Okay, um, and Harbor Commission has a couple. So this is replace—. This is an open position that this is?

This one was a resignation. Chris Boland resigned from Planning Commission, and, uh, Christian— Christian was the only applicant, and he's now on Planning Commission. He's a good kid.

Okay, so we've got council meetings scheduled for the 9th— no, I'm sorry, like September 2nd, a special meeting on the 9th, regular meeting on the 23rd, 16th. There's 5 Wednesdays.

Okay, and then the 7th and the 21st of October.

6 O'clock. 6 O'clock session on the 7th. I think in the past we did weekly meetings for a while. I mean, the goal is to get it done and over by the third—. That first third meeting, which means by the last meeting in November, we better know where we're at and ready to roll.

So that's the goal. We'll do what we have to do. So really, let's cram it all in in October. That's in November. No, we'll be—.

We'll make some of—. Yes, we have— we charged in October. That's probably perfect. And you'll be easy at budget.

Uh, Madam Mayor, um, along lines of budget, are we due for an update, or is there an update on, uh, collective bargaining agreement negotiations and in that process? There isn't one right now. We're moving on. We were supposed to have a meeting today, but there was a medical emergency on union side, and so we will— and so we'll be meeting tomorrow. Um, so potentially the next meeting, union executive session, to talk about some things, see how it rolls between now and then.

So maybe after September.

And then I guess just an ask in case I like— do you have the information about the bear fence? I know we want to have a special meeting. Is—. Can we get kind of the highlights of agenda even almost to that beforehand? And maybe a little more in depth than just so we can process some of that.

And for some of us who aren't— may not be able to make it on there. Is that okay?

Yes, I'm hoping— I think Kevin had said that he and his guys will get together and he'll be able to give it to me Friday. So if I put it out Friday and then we don't have to vote on it Wednesday, I think, you know, we don't— we don't put out what the proposal was. We just go through that process of approving the contract with the price, the deliverables but we're not actually— we don't have— we don't ever put out just the whole entire proposal. Okay, your expectations weren't different from that? No, they're not.

Thank you for asking for clarification on that.

So I do want to mention that on our standing pending agenda calendar, we have the clerk's and the manager's evaluations in September.

So, I mean, because I think what we had talked about was doing that ahead of the budget season so we could anticipate potential increases if we needed to budget for those in the following calendar year. So I think we need to schedule those, which means, let me think, if we want to circulate the— so what we do, we need to circulate the evaluation forms to all the council members, right? And then, and then do the evaluations, um, at a council meeting and review them with—. Well, no, it's not how we've been doing it anymore, right? You guys are just—.

The last one that I— the only one that I have done, it was done— I don't know how you guys did it, but basically you and Casey came into my office and gave me and reviewed the form, right? Like a form thing. Prior to that, prior to that, we go into executive session, we'll give out the form, we compile all the notes, we as just the council come up with what do we want to present to both of these employees and who's going to do that. So that is all or has been done all in executive session. So if you could—.

Where are the forms? I don't know who put them together. I can talk to Kayleen. I think Kayleen might have them. If you can get those out or whatever, then you guys can have have an executive session on the 16th, right, to do both and knock them both out.

Yeah, we'll get with you when we find the form. Yes. Okay, but we should make sure that that's on the agenda for the 16th. Yeah, all is so fun. Yes, I just remember getting an email from Dave, right?

So I don't know. Yeah, right, we will send out the form and Yeah, we'll have to come up with— when does it have to be back in by so that somebody can compile all the results? I think it came to you. That would be you. Right.

I know. I'm just thinking about the timing. I'm just looking at this timing and thinking— because in theory, you're going to start putting the packets together. But you don't need anything. But I mean— those are executive sessions.

I can—. You can compile all that information and hand it out at the— in the executive session, really. Okay, I think that's what we did. So you have plenty of time. Okay, well, yeah, of course, here I am saying you have plenty of time, right?

Sorry, the one time when you get to do that. Yeah, but yeah, if you wouldn't mind checking with Gene and asking about it. All right, anything else for pending agenda calendar?

Okay. And let's move on to audience participation.

Anybody who's still with us want to come up and make any, any final comments?

Anyone else?

Hey, I had a couple of things to what I said earlier. Sure.

James Jankin again, Board of RTAC. The other thing we've talked about, and it's one thing I'm condu— is trying to get this away from a 30-year renewal. To be that long, especially when they're cutting it short, how do you plan for that? Making it more like a 10 or 15-year renewal, we think, is important. Uh, it's an aging infrastructure at the terminal.

I mean, they've been amazing at some of the things they've been replacing and upgrading, which has been great. Uh, recently their big vapor recovery system, all good stuff, pretty well. But the last permit, the facility was 25 years old. Now it's 50 years old, and some of the stuff is original construction, especially some safety things for holding a rupture in the tank, something like that. I'm not quite sure how I can, you know, because if we get our comments together and approve it and they go out, there's not much chance of sharing that any, any in any timely manner.

If you're interested personally or with the city wanting to try to make comments, let me know and we'll try to— yeah, let's go directly to you if I get something. The other thing they did mention in, in their review process is that if they get comments that are of a similar nature, even though from different people or different entities, They will be counted as one comment. Another head-blowing item there. I don't quite understand how they're going to pull that together. And I do think there is some lacking in the, uh, decommissioning and reclamation as far as their funds.

There is some issues with that. There's also an air quality permit that hasn't been renewed. That went out 2 years ago. So there's a number of little things that are there that should be taken care of before this is approved. But coming down in this executive order, it's kind of like, what can you do about that?

So, any—. Thanks. Let me know if you want direct line with anything. Yeah, if you want to send me a copy of what you want to submit, that'd be great. Oh yeah, definitely that.

Yeah. Okay.

Maybe you can do an executive order.

Yes. Okay, any— no more audience participation? Then let's go to council comments.

Um, let's start with Council Member Adams.

Well, I put down before you even came up a second time, David, I'm really distressed to hear this Alyeska news because I remember the morning of the oil spill as many people do. And that's about all I can say about that. I'm just, I'm very upset about it. And on the good side, I'll save the good for the end here. Really excited about the pool, and I know how much work it took to get to this point.

So thank you very much, Samantha. Um, and then I really wish, um, every success to the Prince William Sound Economic Development Group to, um, make good use of that space.

Thank you, Council Member Rady. Um, I echo those, um, sending healing thoughts to Cheryl, um, and, uh, hope that, uh, we can work, uh, with all the groups that will be utilizing the pool as we move forward with budgets. Now we'll be fighting with services, and, uh, I will throw myself in front of the truck if we try to close the pool. For any reason whatsoever. So there will certainly probably be other cuts happening, but by God, the pool needs to stay open.

And thank you for staff for putting together a packet, working hard as always.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the screen behind us and start with Dave, Council Member Zastro. Okay, uh, thank you. Um, yeah, thanks to staff as always, uh, putting together the packet and, uh, great reports both from Mayor, uh, from our City Manager, and from our Clerk. Really appreciate all the information.

Um, also really appreciate hearing from our new school superintendent. A lot of great things going on there, uh, as well as funding coming online. All that was really fantastic news, and I'm looking Looking forward to hearing more about that. Um, also very excited, as, as other council members have already said, about, uh, um, Good Vibes coming online. Uh, I, I guess I didn't realize until I really dove into the packet, uh, with their packet on all the things that they have to abide by when it comes to a marijuana retail facility.

Um, I, I hope everybody has a chance. Anybody has any questions about the community to really dive in deep and see all the requirements that are placed upon that operation on how they need to conduct themselves. Also very excited about the Copper River Brewing and what they're moving forward to do, and as well as with the Economic Development District. These are all really fantastic things for our community. And like everyone else, I am really distraught over Dejanca and his role with RCA— RCAC and this fast-tracking of an EA, of all things.

I know that for a couple years now, most environmental assessments at the national level have all been somewhat fast-tracked, and in some situations, that's not a bad thing. I think in this situation, it's certainly not a good thing, and I totally support some direct commenting through our mayor, through RCAC, through Dave Yank and his representation, specifically on decreasing it from a 30-year to something less, understanding that the infrastructure is old and will start to fail. And these are all things that we need to have within the permit, or if it's not already there, but I'm sure that it's in the permit. In order to deal with these things as they come up. So I think a lot more needs to be done there, and hopefully our mayor can work with RCAC to hopefully get that sentiment across.

And yeah, pool, yay pool, go pool. I'm so excited to go swimming again. That's all I have. Yay. Thank you.

Councilmember Mickelson.

Hey, can you hear me okay? I'm both pretty loud. Uh, yeah, I, I would echo my other council members' comments. And Madam Mayor, thank you for working on that 2024 disaster money. That means a lot to the community.

And, um, yeah, it's definitely not a for sure that we'll get it, so it's, it's good to help push it along.

I, I'm also happy to hear about the pool being reopened. I think that's super exciting and good news for our community. And, uh, yeah, thanks to the staff for all the reports. And, uh, I'm also very distressed about the news from, from Dave about the pipeline renewal and everything. So anyway, thanks for bringing that to the radar for us, Dave.

Mike, can I put you down as a yes on Ordinance 1240?

Yes. Yes. Thank you. Oh, both of them? Or—.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Kitzman?

Yeah, thank you. Um, I mean, I think we have a pretty united voice on our messaging, so this is This is great. I do want to— a little extra attention to snowing and kudos to Samantha. I mean, this has been a project and I don't want it to really— I don't want her to be discouraged. I want her to know that it is appreciated, the amount of time and energy and effort and really perseverance that she's put into it and making some tough decisions.

It wasn't easy for her. I know we've had conversations. To choose to close the pool at times or not open it immediately at times. But that just speaks to her, her leadership. And again, just a really heartfelt welcome from, from myself and other people in community that I've spoke with.

So thank you for that. Thank you for getting that valuable asset up and running. And I look forward to going through the budget cycle now and, and seeing how we can fund it, because we will. I'm with you, Council Member Rainey. We will fund it.

We're going to get creative. It's going to be interesting. But, uh, on that, on that note, I just want to really say shout out to the community. If, if you heard October 7th, the first October, uh, council meeting, uh, we're going to start talking about the budget. And before that meeting, we're going to be going over the budget.

And this is your money. This is— a lot of this money is your tax dollars that you pay into it. So Come be informed. Come be involved with this whole budget process. It's going to run really through the first meeting, ideally through the first meeting, will be done the first meeting of December.

But come be involved with the money and how it's being spent in your community. If you don't like it, then come get involved. So I'll leave with that. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Uh, Council Member Collins.

Yeah, um, I think, uh, this— I appreciated this packet and all the staff reports in it. And, uh, guess the one thing I would add is I think, yeah, you're coming into budget season, you know, we passed some things here that are all great potential future revenue sources for Cordova. So I think that's a big positive. And The most positive thing I'd say was just hearing from Superintendent Hanish about school getting additional funding. I hope those increases are something that continues for the school and really positive for the whole community there.

Not so positive the whole week with the, the potential for the E-rate to go away, so I hope we're able to have some input on that and make sure that They don't have to be kind of positioned just to pay for their internet access, because that's completely critical in the classroom nowadays. I don't think it's necessarily an option to say that students can learn without digital access to digital media.

Yeah, that's a fact. Broadband is now like a basic utility, you know, it's something that everybody uses. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to pile on with thanking Samantha for the work on the pool. It's amazing.

It's an amazing journey, and you have been leading us, and I know you had some difficult, dark hours, and you always came out with a smile. I want to say thank you for all of that hard work and just leading the team and not giving up. That was huge. Yeah. Not giving up.

And yeah, kudos to the school district. You know, hearing about student achievement and where we rank in the state, that's really terrific. It's great to hear. And yeah, it's great news that there's this additional funding, although it sounds like they're going to have to do a little bit of some gymnastics to figure out how to, you know, fit it in to cover expenses. It's not easy money, but it's something.

So that's great. Yeah. Yeah, and Dave, we'll certainly work with you on a letter, a comment letter for the Taps by Roy Rudall. So, okay, that's it. We don't have an executive session, so I think we can call the meeting adjourned.

Wait, I guess somebody— no, you call adjourned. Okay, move to adjourn. Meeting adjourned. Yeah, thank you.

I'm going to spend it on—. Yes, there you go.