Assembly Work Session of March 13, 2025

Downstairs. Hey, you told you had a real, a real—.

We'll go ahead and call to order the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly work session of Thursday, March 13th, 2025, in the Assembly Chambers. And the time is—. What do I got—. 7:10 PM. Um, first item is citizens' comments.

This is, uh, local number is 907-486-3231, toll-free number 855-492-9202. Anybody wishing to speak, please come forward at this time or, or call in.

Hearing and seeing none, we'll move on to agenda items. The first one is review draft ordinance to allow remote participation in meetings. Staff report. Let's see, is this Nova? Thank you, Nova.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. This is an ordinance, a draft ordinance that was requested by Assemblymembers Dave Johnson, Ryan Sharrett, and Bo Whiteside. They submitted an agenda item request form. I initially gave a whole bunch of information to Assemblymember Johnson. However, he came back and suggested that we start off the discussion, or the assembly starts off the discussion, with the draft ordinance that is before you.

It was the source of the language, most of the language from this ordinance is from the city of Kodiak. So he wants to start off the discussion with that. So this, it's before you for you to discuss. I'll open the discussion. Who'd like to speak first on this?

One of the initiators, Scott.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] I was an assembly member a while ago when we debated about this. I think the salient argument that prevented us from adopting this was that the citizens have a right to see and talk with the people that vote on issues that are pertaining to them. You can't do that with electronic communication. It's a barrier. In addition, there— we tried to talk, or the issue came up principally about getting participation from the villages in the borough assembly.

In the past, we have had people from Port Lyons, I believe, and we flew them in, paid for their flight to come in for meetings. I think it was— they were connected electronically for work sessions and came in for regular meetings. I might be mistaken about that, but I think that's the way it was. But we voted it down because of the fact that you weren't there for the people to talk to you about it during, before, or after.

Thank you for that update. Yes, that's what I remember too. Bo? Thank you. One thing I would like to to amend, and I don't know when the appropriate time to do it, or propose an amendment, I suppose next week.

Under Section E, Electronic Participation, to the previous point, I would add to include an operational webcam. That would be, so participation would be contingent upon that. Repeat where that's at exactly. So it's Section E, Electronic Participation. Or line, the line item.

84, Excuse me. Thank you.

I do believe that it should, it should be also, you should have video capability for the reasons that were just stated. It's not quite as intimate as being here in person, I agree, but I do support this just because this is, this is how business is done these days. You know, if we're gonna expand our reach as far as those who want to run for office, Most people these days aren't able to just dedicate their lives to this. Most of us have full-time jobs, many of which require travel off island. That shouldn't restrict folks from wanting to contribute to our community, including reasons for traveling on behalf of the municipality is included in here.

So I think it's just getting— modernizing, getting with the times here. It will, it will increase the amount of folks willing to run for office, and I think that's a good thing. I do believe the restrictions in here can be up for discussion as far as how many times you could do that. I wouldn't want it to be a scenario where someone's consistently up on a screen instead of here in person, but I do think that the reasons listed are appropriate. I would be more up to debating the, the frequency per year or whatever we wanted to— however we wanted to look at that.

But I do support this. Also, Bo, this is not up next week on the meeting. This is—. It's not in for introduction yet. So the place to make changes is now.

Okay. On here. May I continue then? So, Madam Clerk, if I may, if we can insert some language in Section E that video, an operational webcam to provide video and sound would be more appropriate in my opinion. Noted.

Thank you.

Thank you. Steve.

I have mixed feelings partly from having done as much as I could remotely this summer. It seems I had pretty good web there, but it still seemed to cut in and out some. As for the flying here, for the actual meetings, except for two, every one of them I had a plane reservation to try to get here, and I missed the meeting because of weather. So the idea of flying people is very limited.

And it's the way it is. I've got unexcused absences even though I had a plane ticket and tried to get here. And so that— I do understand that part of it, and I could have maybe done the meeting if this electronic was set up. Um, I also— we do need to include the villages. And I very strongly believe that, but at the same time, anyone who does it remotely from a faraway village is probably really only representing their village.

And whether that's a good thing, worthwhile thing, and not knowing the borough as a whole, I've got mixed feelings on. Um, but we do need to try to be more inclusive of villages and their needs. So it's going to take a little thinking, reviewing this and seeing whether any other changes or modifications are going to need to be made in my mind. Thank you. Larry.

Um, just a couple of comments. Um, they have systems now. I think the college uses one in their conference room. You're at a meeting, even if you're around the table, and you speak and your picture comes right up on the screen. And everybody's face is on there, but when you speak, you're right there.

It's a really neat system. And I think if this happens, I think it was mentioned perhaps by Beau, that you have to be able to see your assembly members. And currently, you know, they don't see a lot except a distant shot, and we can't see ourselves. And if we had a system where when we spoke it came up on screen and when somebody was in Florida or wherever they are, that we could see them during the meeting and they could see us. So I believe that's a critical component.

The things that I've learned to be concerned about is when we have, for instance, a dilution of vote— voting power. When we have only a quorum here, one person, just one, can shut down a major vote because you have to have all four votes. And so then instead of the assembly making an important decision, you have one person making it. And that's fairly scary. I had to fly back a week early from California when I was on the assembly last time because the vote— because of that kind of thing, the vote to to accept termination point in Long Island would have been lost if I hadn't flown back.

Okay, that's how silly some of this gets. And that shouldn't happen. I think the borough elected 7 people to be here, and we should do everything possible to make sure that we have as many people here to make that decision. So we actually, um, have the wisdom of a crowd instead of individuals, and I think that's important.

I don't think it— I think Bo and Assemblymember Whiteside intimated, you know, some restrictions on that, and I think that's easy to do and to make sure it's not abused. And, uh, but I think the public elects a whole assembly, and we should try to be there. And also, this is really common nowadays. It's not like old technology. Our technology is really old, but the technology is very, very different that's helping companies do this all over the world.

So I'm generally in support with restrictions because I don't like vote dilutions— dilution going on.

Let's see, Jared and then Steve.

Thank you. Yeah, I have— I think generally I'm okay with this. I also, you know, share the concerns of making sure that, right, we are present here for the public. Right now, all levels of government are facing, you know, deserved criticisms of transparency and things like that. And so, there's something about, right, the physical presence and the appearance of transparency, which is important.

I am fine with the restrictions in here. I actually appreciate them. I like the addition of the webcam.

And if you look, you know, on lines, you know, 94, there is still, you know, F Section 2 or Section F2. You know, there is language in here that, requires 4 Assembly members physically present here anyway, which I appreciate. And then lines 102 through 104, attending a maximum of 4 regular meetings electronically during a 6-month period.

[Speaker:COMMISSIONER OVERMAN] I think, you know, I think a restriction like that is okay. I think I would rather see it, you know, be 4 to maybe 4 to 6 meetings over a 12-month period beginning from, you know, October through September from, you know, election to September of the following year. But this is something that I could live with. But I think also we have to trust voters. And if they— and if there is someone on the assembly who pushes this or abuses and they get the sense that they're— an assembly member is not engaged, not participating, never there, especially if they can attend all work sessions electronically also and special meetings too.

I think I would trust voters to also make a decision and put somebody else in who can participate too.

So that said, though, I was worried about this ordinance coming through, but I think this is a good compromise between the demands of 21st century working. And the demands of the assembly and responsibility to the public. Steve, and then Bo.

Um, there was a comment about, you know, our technology being outdated, but the meetings I've attended are on Zoom, and it's just a matter of turning some things on because I do 2 meetings regularly every week, and just like assembly member Ledoux has said, just a whole bunch of little pictures because we're all in separate places, but here would be one picture of the assembly and whoever's gone, and they click on that, that person becomes large and the others become small, but it's all done with Zoom. So we have the basic technology already. It's just a matter of how it's configured.

One meeting I know it was just done at a guy's house, and it wasn't that hard, so it shouldn't be hard. For us to be able to do that.

And since COVID it really is amazing how much is still— is being done remotely still.

Major cities are having half-empty office buildings because this has become a kind of standard practice.

Thank you. Bo. Thank you, and I certainly don't— from my perspective, don't intend to have this as a replacement. And if anything, I would encourage my fellow assembly members to think about tightening the restrictions that, that would be— seem reasonable. And I certainly welcome public input on this one.

So I—. Another thing that, that has me supportive of this ordinance, draft ordinance, is thinking about the past few weeks. We are pretty skinny here. We had some difficult complex topics we were discussing, or complex, I should say, topics that we were discussing, and we were pretty shorthanded here in soliciting input from fellow assembly members and our mayor and manager. So remote participation for these rare scenarios where we have, whether it's AML or NACO or whatever it is, folks are out on municipal business or you're out on the Hill, if you could, you know, sneak off to your room for 2 hours and help us with some decision-making, I think that'd be fantastic.

So I think about it in that way, but I certainly don't— I would much rather be here in person. But there are scenarios that, that do pull us away. You know, this is not a full-time job for, for any of us. And so with that in mind, I, I'm certainly supportive of this and encourage the public and fellow assembly members to think about What, what restrictions would make sense?

Thank you. Um, one of the things, um, I'll say is even though I don't agree with this, I'm going to say that the, uh, 4 meetings in 6 months is way too much. That needs to be no more than 4 in a year is the first thing that needs to change. And, and I would then look at changing the be restricting it even more later. But part of the reason I don't agree with this is we've had— both Scott and I were here when we had the people basically speak out against this and it was defeated before.

And one of the things you don't see the state legislature, be it the House or the Senate, allow anyone to attend remotely on anything there. So except for the public to call in on there, but the members have to be there in person in order to vote. And I feel that that is part of the process. And you know, when we advertise for replacements on the assembly, because it's a 3-year term, but if somebody resigns or that. One of the main questions is, do you have the time to participate on this?

And that is leaning towards in-person meetings. So yes, it is, and, um, I have called in on some work session things, but as a mayor, it doesn't work to try and do it remotely at all. That is not feasible on there. So I don't feel that that, that works at all. So, but needs to be, needs to be tightened up, and I think it should come back for another work session, not before introduction on it, in my opinion, on there.

So willing to hear anyone else on this at this time. Anybody else have any more comment or I think we've given some direction that the clerk can rewrite this and bring another draft forward at some time. Nova. The policy that the assembly adopted is that if assembly members requested an ordinance, it needs to be added to the agenda within 60 days or introduced within 60 days. If you're going to have another work session on this, I just wanted it to be clear that we're going to miss that 60 days.

And if you're okay with that, maybe we should discuss it again at the next work session, and then you can decide then when you would like it introduced. How many people are on the, on the sheet? 3. You're the only one here, Bo? Okay, you get to— what's your determination?

Well, I mean, it's It's— if I'm understanding, folks, folks, that really the, the one— another item that we could address now would be to expand the, the time period on line 103 from January 1st to December 31st. And then that just leads us down to discussing the total amount or the frequency of absence— or not absences, but remote participation. So that's one The thing I am feeling that we are okay with at least expanding, we all agree to expand it out not just 6 months but for the entire calendar year. Starting after the election. Right.

So we could add that. But as far as—. And then reducing it to 4 rather than 8 for right now. Is that 4? It's at 4 now.

In 6 months. I'm saying 4 in a year.

That doesn't seem unreasonable to me, to be honest. Again, I don't, I don't wish to this for this to be a replacement. I think it should be a rare circumstance where folks use it, and if for a year, I wouldn't be surprised if I had to use it that many times personally. I can't speak for the other two, but I think that's a reasonable starting point is to keep it at 4 and expand it to the entire year. Madam Clerk, um, through the mayor, if you're comfortable with those two changes, I think I can make those changes.

If you wish, you know, this could be introduced on the April 3rd meeting, and then you have another opportunity to discuss it further at the work session under packet review. Larry.

So I'm clear, when you say 4, you mean 4 uses of electronic, not 4 absences? Yeah, I think 4 is a really high number. And that's regular meetings, correct? Limiting the regular meeting participation to 4 a year starting after the election up to the next election year, but there— it's still unlimited for Work sessions. Correct.

Okay. And we are allowing special meetings as well? It is already in there. Right? There is no limit to special meetings?

No. Okay. Yes. Yes. No.

Yes. None. I thought I saw it. Would you like that language then changed to for regular? Oh, wait, no, that's—.

If I may. Go ahead, Bo. If it's not in here, I think it would be reasonable to me if the special meeting took place on the same day as a regular meeting, that would count as one. Absent that, they would be one each, in my opinion. So if you were to call a special meeting outside of your normal meeting day, that would count as one of your meetings.

One of your 4 that I hope will go to 2.

Larry. Hi. Special meetings are unpredictable. People who schedule their meetings around, you know, avoiding those so that they can be here, and then if the mayor calls a special meeting, all of a sudden, boom, you're not here. That doesn't make any sense to me.

I think special meetings that you can't plan for And I think all of us, you know, may not be here for a week, and if we have a special meeting, then, you know, it shouldn't count. So no limits on special meetings and work sessions? Okay. And limited to 4 for regular meetings?

Sounds like a good starting point. At this time. All right, let's start with that. Thank you.

Thank you. Jerry. And just to clarify, I'm comfortable with moving this on. That's what she did. So this is going to be on—.

Be for introduction. April 3rd, introduce it then.

Okay. And then the public hearing would be on the 17th. I need to make sure there's at least 5 people here, so one person.

Thank you, that's all I have. Okay, then we'll move on to the next is a discussion regarding the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center seawater pumps. And Amy Williams, borough manager. New meeting, I do it once at the beginning. Thank you, Scott.

Artmire Dixby Alaska Pump and Supply supplied KFRC with 4 seawater pump assemblies in 2019. The seawater degradation of the systems has been significant significant. The degradation of the pumps has led to issues with maintaining the operation of the pumps, and this has caused disruptions to observation— operations for the tenants of the building. In an effort to understand the issues and causation of them, staff contracted DXP Alaska Pump and Supply to travel to the island to perform an evaluation of the seawater pump assemblies. Staff requested that DXP provide a quote for one new pump.

They provided a quote on January 31st, 2025, in the amount of $99,446. Due the need of the site visit, that quote was delayed. DXP was on site from February 26th to 28th for pump house pump evaluation and maintenance. Initial findings indicated that 2 new complete pump systems would need to be purchased for pumps 3 and 4, which are currently out of operation. Pumps 3 and 4 are located in the shallow well and are used as backups.

The quote provided after the site visit investigation increased by $5,219 on February 18th bringing the total cost of one pump assembly to $104,665 before shipping, with a lead time of 20 weeks in addition to the shipping time before arriving on site. Dixby has noted that due to recent tariffs, this amount is anticipated to continue to rise. To maintain compliance with the procurement code, the possibility of alternate pumps is being investigated and other quotes are being requested. And I'm happy to say that we do have other quotes and they are much cheaper, and that's why we wanted to bring this up. Um, We absolutely do have a problem at KFRC.

We were really worried that we're going to have to buy 2 pumps at $109,000 each plus shipping. So Cody has done a lot of investigation on pumps and has the handout that he gave you will give you the report and he has some information on the new quotes that we got.

Cody.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and assembly. A point of clarification on the fiscal impact of this. The budget inaccurately represents $1,137,911.91 remaining. Dora Cross, the finance director for the Kodiak Island Borough, educated me. Every day is a school day.

The total is $3,251,034 for that. Um, so with— are you on the, on the actual, um Agenda item. Oh, thank you. The fiscal impact. Figured $2 million was worth noting.

My bad on that. So, yes, we have the quotes from DXP. That was a substantial change. Two points that I would like to point out on the quotes. They are going up.

The previous quote that was presented, and I inherited this, Mr. Dave Connor, the ENF Director's out, as we all are aware, and so I'm just kind of filling in for some of the maintenance things. Um, and the first quote that we received was January 31st, 2025. Uh, the total was $99,446, and so it increased, um, in February to $5,000— additional $5,219 when I requested to have that quote itemized. And that's due to the tariffs that are going on. And so All of these pumps essentially are custom made, and a little part of that is the 20, 20-week to 27-week lead time.

And so I've reached out to some of our state partners, Sea Life Center, and then Geno has another KFRC essentially that was designed after our facility, to see if they too are experiencing similar issues with the pumps. They indeed are, and they're working through that. They found some things, and through some past connections with past projects, I landed on Mr. Bud Selle out of Seward, out of the SeaLife Center, and he got me in touch with Alaska Industrial Pump, and that's the quote that I handed out to you, which is significantly less. The DXP field report was one of those handouts as well.

Failed to incorporate that timely, my apologies again. The other pump from GLM, which is an energy LLC out of Anchorage. I'm still awaiting that quote. Um, they weren't able to get it to me today, but they're supposed to get it to me in a week, and that should fulfill, um, our code requirements for getting the minimum of the two quotes. However, because this was urgent, um, we weren't going to go out to bid for it.

We're going to go under, um, open procurement for emergency use, uh, because our number one pump is also needing the packing replaced as of yesterday's investigation.

Scott, you're first. Um, I did my graduate work at a place called Friday Harbor Labs in Washington State. They have been running seawater through a system for 40 years, and the pumps that they use are lined with glass, which prevents the corrosion that you get in many of them. And I wonder if you had talked to them or if any of the other people that you've talked to at the SeaLife Center or at Juneau Auk Bay have dealt with glass-lined pumps. None of them have dealt with glass-lined pumps.

The pumps that you see in the quote that is referenced are the pumps that the facility is designed to hold due to the configuration that it has. I believe that you can change that. At any rate, I suggest you contact Bernadette Holthuis at Friday Harbor Labs. She's the operation manager. And ask her who her source is.

Will do.

Larry, and then Bo. Thank you. In the handout that you gave us, you have suggestions for improvement. And they all look significant. Based on reading them, do you have any kind of estimate on the cost to take care of these?

One point of clarification, those are not my suggestions. Please don't take them as such. That is the field report that came from the DXP representative that came and inspected the pumps at KFRC. That did not come with a quote. We did have a structural engineer conduct a site visit.

We toured that facility to look at, um, Essentially installing a beam to lift the assemblies up and replace the two that are defective. We're going to pause that and reexamine how we do that work based on some recommendations from outside entities, but I can get a quote for—. No, I'm not interested in a quote so much. I just was more interested in whether we had a chance to evaluate what all this means and what it might mean in the future, what is critical, what is not, particularly the electrical and the pump house. You know, those kinds of things sound pretty serious, and it seems like if we're going to be working on the pumps, we need to.

So, um, the gentleman's name is Alan Noracker. He's coming from Alaska Industrial Pump— the— or Industrial Pumps Alaska, rather, my apologies. He is coming down. We have him scheduled April 1st, free of charge, because I'm not completely comfortable with the the document you have in front of you. There's a lot of things coming from a marine industry background that don't make sense to me when I walk through that facility.

So the gentleman is going to come down free of charge, take a review and provide us with a separate opinion. Thank you.

Good. Bo?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Allen, thank you for the extra lift here. I mean, looking at this, we can potentially, if, if that visit goes well, purchase 4 pumps for the price of 1. These are the kind of savings or cost-effectiveness that, that I really appreciate, thanks to your efforts. Fantastic job.

I guess secondary question, if I can squeeze it in for Madam Manager, are these— so given these pumps last 5 years, it seems. Is this something that we factor into the lease agreements?

So we have gotten permission from— well, it's not really GSA, it's really Building Services Administration now. That's a whole other subject. But yes, we're eligible to use R&R funds for up to their percentage of their square foot of the building, which is 75.3%. So NOAA has 75.3% of that building, so we can pay for 75.3% 3% of that out of R&R funds. Thank you.

And thank you again, Mr. Allen. Scott, do you know how many pumps they've used since— I think that was built, what, in 1985 or something like that? '95? '95. '90S.

Because if it's every 5 years, I think the original pumps lasted a lot longer than that. But yeah. And as I remember, this issue came up before, and part of the discussion was to purchase some new pumps and to rebuild a couple. So we have them in stock. Right.

And that's what I remember, but it sounded like we don't— we didn't do that. Staff told us that was what they pushed for. Amy? We are planning at this price point, if we are— if the $27,000 ones are appropriate, we will be buying some critical bearers, so we don't have to have that 27-week lead time anymore. So that is something we're absolutely going to do for real this time.

Yeah, for real this time. Um, anything else, Scott? No. Cody? Uh, those— so I do have the history, kind of.

Um, I— it goes back way beyond my time here, but the last time that the pumps were replaced was in 2018. And so for 4 pumps, it was $126,000 for 4 pump and motor replacements. And then they'd been maintained throughout— there's 2018, and then again in 2019, there was some shaft replacement issues where they upgraded the stainless steel to 316 stainless steel on the shaft. And then most recently, the new quote that you have for the 2-pump— well, 1-pump replacement Essentially what we were told by multiple pump manufacturers is that the pump itself might be rebuildable and the electric motors can be recommissioned and remanned, but the shaft assembly and all associated components are salvage items. Like, it's kind of you use it and then it goes away.

Okay, thank you, Scott. Usually with marine things, you don't use stainless, you use Monel. Have you looked at that?

I have not. I'm just going with what the building's as-builts show and what essentially the engineers are saying is appropriate for its environment. Yeah, Monel metal is what I recall it being. So you might check.

Thank you. And Cody, one of the things that I noticed before is If you got somebody on the pumps there, it looks to me like there's a bypass that needs to be added in the pump house to make sure that you're able to completely switch over to some of the others. You're not— you're limited on what you can switch over to is what I noticed in there. That was a number of years ago, but I don't think it's been changed. So we found the first part of, I believe, the manager's report that'll be forthcoming.

For KFRC, we worked with a company called Long Technologies. And so, again, wearing many hats, learning a lot of different things, relying heavily on a maintenance background. They installed a lot of automation in things when we lost the pumps that should have had flows and things monitored that would have alerted people so they didn't lose their experiments at the labs. Long actually had built— they they owed us as-builts from when they did their work in that building. So we now have those as-builts.

I worked with the Long Technology people and the field technician to remote in and verify that all the functionality of those systems and get the sensors back up. And we shared that information with the tenants that are there. And with that, we identified the, the old, um, what we thought was the way that the system was supposed to operate versus how the system was designed is not quite the same. And so well number 1 has that bypass loop that you're referencing. And so wet well 1 has pumps 1 and 2 on it, which are completely monitored for things like pH and other things, not to get into the weeds of it, but then well number 2, and you have like a deep and shallow well that has 3 and 4, which the pumps have failed on, is the, is the main issue right now.

It does not have a bypass and it does not have the level of monitoring that Wet Well 1 does, nor does it have the capacity or capabilities to have that due to its configuration as it was designed as to be a secondary to the secondary backup. And so with that being said, when they're running it on 3 and 4, all you get is a flow rate from the well as opposed to the monitoring that's critical to the tenants of that facility. And I'm hoping we're going to take care of that problem. I don't think the pump would fix that. No.

Okay, but we need to get the bypasses in there so we can have full control over that system and in diverting on there. Just something that I noticed quite a while ago. Steve, um, having worked in that building some and spent time, I will concur I agree with Scott on the fact that should have monitoring. It was originally designed to be backup to pump 1 and 2, but it has been used as main pumps for extended periods of time in my experience going down there, not as an emergency backup. Therefore, I do think it needs proper monitoring, or we need to go back to it's only an emergency backup as an operating procedure.

Thank you. It was originally designed— those were backups solely when it was designed. But Steve—. Somebody was operating it poorly. What I was saying is yes, they were originally designed to be purely backup.

But due to extended problems or whatever, they have been used for periods of time as main pumps, not backup. So we either need to make it so they are only backup, or we need to have them fully monitored so they can be used as main pumps. But that's my opinion. It's just some additional plumbing to be installed. So sounds like you're aware of it.

I'm glad to hear that. We'll get it cleaned up. Any further questions of staff?

Thank you. On your— thanks for the research, and I'm assuming you'll be getting back to us, uh, here next week on it. So, Amy, any further you'd like to share there at this time? No, I'm just happy that we are finding other solutions, because when that first dollar amount came back, we were really scared because I know 3 out of the 4 are going to need to replace. So happy that Cody did some research and is finding some alternates.

Thank you. Next time we'll go ahead and move into packet review. Um, under unfinished business, we have resolution number FY2025-20 designating the individual who will serve as the temporary administrative official during the absence or disability of the borough manager and designated administrative official. My understanding, looking at the minutes, is this was tabled. I'm not sure what happened.

If some of you could fill me in a little bit, I'd appreciate it. Bo? Sure. I made a motion to postpone. There was, I believe, 4 of us here.

You were absent. The manager was absent. So we weren't really sure what information was known at that time, and I didn't feel that with just the minimal amount of folks here present— being present here that decision would have been premature without having more people involved in that discussion. So that's why I moved to postpone it. Okay, then Amy, I'd ask you for your input.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, because, uh, KIBC Code 2.45.090 was recently changed, it says that, um, any administrative official has to be a permanent employee of the borough for 2 years or more. The only other person that's a department director that's been here for more than 2 years is the ENF director. Neither Nova or Dora can serve as administrative official, and so unless we want to go below the department director level, the only available department director would be the ENF director. Thank you.

Any questions on there? Oh, Scott, I'm sorry. Go ahead. It's on this thing. It says KIBC 2.45.090 preferred qualifications.

Preferred is kind of a spongy word here. And it's asking people to be— have the— meet the qualifications outlined in the emergency operations management plan.

Is that somebody— is somebody going to have to be at all of those meetings? In order to be the third in line for manager? Um, the emergency operations plan does not mention the borough manager, not even once in that huge document. The—. Why is it included in the qualifications then?

Well, maybe I'm not sure about that, Mr. Smiley. I know that Assemblymember Sherrod wanted that in there because I believe that he thought that as time went on, some of the emergency management responsibilities were likely to shift to the borough. So I think that's why that's in there. But this is the third step. I mean, there's manager, AO, and now the, the AAO.

And do we have to go that deep on emergency meetings for people? I don't think so, but Any further? Jared.

Can you— I guess I'm confused. The discussion is about the manager nominating the assessing department director, but the resolution is about recommending the ENF director. So at the meeting that we missed There were two resolutions. The first resolution was to name the administrative official, like the main one, and that was updated to the assessor. The one that got tabled was who would be in that second position in the event that both Sima and I were out, who would be the administrative, uh, official in that third place.

Okay, got it.

Any further questions? Bo? I mean, absent another suggestion, I'm comfortable with Mr. Conrad serving in that role. Okay. When is he coming back?

May I— I can attempt to respond. You want to attempt to respond? Sure. Okay. Well, I mean, given we are barely ironing this out, I mean, we could always bring this back up if there were— if the absence were to continue, we could bring this back to the table.

But currently, we need to assign somebody to this role. I'm still comfortable with Mr. Conrad absent. Another suggestion? Amy. Well, when Mr. Conrad was acting manager, he used Jenna as the administrative official in his absence, so we do have someone that's done it before, if we want to put someone in there until we find out when the ENF director will be returning.

My preference is not to put somebody in it that is not here and we're not sure on there. So I would rather see somebody that's here.

Bo? Sounds good. Okay. Amy, you'll take care of that. NOVA?

So are we changing the resolution then and giving you a substitute version or a correct version? Correct. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss that with Jenna first. She does have a full-time job and now she is acting ENF director, so I don't want to just name her and say that that's that without a chance to talk to her. You put her in her place.

Big feed. She's giving a thumbs up. Okay, if she's giving the thumbs up, then yes, if you'd please update that, I think that would be an excellent recommendation. Thank you. You want something done, you give it to the busy person.

Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll move on to contracts. First one is contract number FY2025-47, Pool Facility Conditioning Survey by Jensen Yorba Wall, not to exceed $59,540.

Staff report, Amy. [SPEAKING SPANISH] As you will remember from the joint work session last night, we are preparing for a full survey of the pool. The high school pool has been discussed for multiple years regarding the unanticipated repair and replacement of components, both structural and mechanical. The visible repairs are indicated by the presence of rust appearing on the interior tile surface, creating discoloration of the grout and tiles in specific areas, and the lifting of drains. Similar repairs have been completed during the last several years.

In the spring of 2023, the Kodiak Island Borough hired Water Technology Incorporated, or WTI, to visit Kodiak and conduct a comprehensive evaluation on the pool facility. This included a full tour of the facility and related amenities and met with staff to discuss operation. WTI's report included recommended repairs or replacement. At that time, the assembly elected not to move forward with a proposed contract to work directly with WTI for the repairs. In January of 2025, staff was directed by the assembly to prioritize the project.

In doing so, staff reached out to the borough's architectural and engineering firm, Jensen Yorba Wall, for a proposal to conduct a facility condition survey. Jensen Yorba Wall provided a proposal for conducting a condition survey for the pool facility for the cost of $59,540. The proposal includes site visits and coordination with aquatic specialists from WTI. So it will be the same person that was here before. Structural engineering from P&D and mechanical and electrical engineering from RSA.

The team will work together to provide a comprehensive condition survey of the facility, identify any major issues that require more in-depth investigation, and provide recommendations. Cody is here if you happen to have any specific questions about the project. Kody, I'd ask you to go into it a little bit deeper and what you see based upon, you know, the inspection that we've done there, and you're going to be doing more, and I'd like to eventually go through the rest of the facility under the, the building there, but please continue. Yes, so this was the first Assembly-directed initiative that I've received, so I reached out and wanted to try to make sure we got everyone involved that we could. The architect— we were using our P&D, our structural engineers, RSA, Jensen Yarbrough Wall, and then of course WTI.

And the reason for that was WTI had already worked with JYW. And so it just made sense because they had already been here as a cost savings measure. With that being said, we have them tentatively scheduled for March 19th through the 21st. Uh, to the reason for— not March, May— belay that, I apologize again. The, um, May 19th to the 21st.

And we're working with our community partners, the City of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough School District, because the Kodiak Island Borough School District incurs an $18,000 cost every time that we drain that pool. And so we have to completely drain the pool and get it back up before Memorial Day to do the structural inspection and the mechanical and electrical inspection of the space. With that being said, this is the first phase. They'll come through, review everything. We are seeing the rust in the tile.

They've replaced and kind of cleaned that up, the school district did, the trough and the floor this past summer. We do still have hollow spots in the tile. We have some heaving in the drains, and then rust and things in the mechanical space. And then there is a whole issue with, like, the pool chemical issues and things like that. So this will be a holistic approach with all the appropriate parties to give us a final professional opinion, if you will, of what the overall condition of that, uh, facility is, and then we'll bring that back to you at that point in time to make a decision on how we should proceed based on their recommendations.

Thank you, Cody. Any questions on there? Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, Jared, I looked and I didn't see your hand. Go ahead, Jared.

And Bo, did you have yours up? Yes, sir. Thank you. Um, okay, run me through the ARPA funds again. So we've, we've, uh, dedicated some for the fire gear, we've And we're probably going to dedicate $350,000 for this change order.

That still leaves us—. That will leave us with no dollars. Um, this project was something that we tried to include with the ARPA funding originally, but the assembly decided that that original WTI proposal wasn't thorough enough, and so we went back and added the mechanical and the structural. And so we have P&D and RSA both coming out to get included into that, so there is no ARPA money involved with this unless you're talking about new ARPA money that we have not touched yet. And so that'll be a conversation later down the road once we figure out what the cost is going to be.

The cost for this study? No, I mean the cost for the overhaul. Right. So where then— where is, where is, uh, the cost? Where is this $59,000 then?

R&R. Yeah, the right out of the R&R. So I would recommend changing the fiscal impact note then too, because it still says to use ARPA funds. Oh, good point. Thank you for that.

Okay. That was— I guess my confusion there. Perfect. Any further—. Both.

We would like to use ARPA funds. Dr. Griffin beat me to the punch. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you, Cody, on that.

Then we'll move on to contract number FY2025-49, KFRC C-Pump Assembly Replacements from DXP Alaska Pump and Supply. And we've been talking about that, and so you'll have updates. We would like to delay that contract at this point in time until we find out more information about the alternates. So you wish to take it off the agenda? Yes.

Okay. Thank you for that information. It has therefore been removed.

Then— ooh, manager's comments.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Megan Christensen and I are working with the borough attorney to create an MOU for Island Trails Network to be able to complete trail improvements on borough property. The MOU is scheduled to last for 3 years and hopefully encourage ITN to continue their trail improvements on Kodiak Island borough land. When we were working with the attorney, the attorney is worried about risk management and he wants us to put signs, more information on the trailhead signs that say that the trail is not maintained, used at your own risk. Use at your own risk.

And Island Trails Network does not want to put a sign up there that says the trail is not maintained because they're attempting to maintain it. So we're trying to find a happy middle ground between those two requests so that Island Trails Network still is able to go out there and we are covered as far as liability goes. So we have some more emails out waiting for answers about that. As Cody mentioned, we had our monthly meeting with NOAA. Um, I'll get into the specifics about that later with Long technology, but we discussed the changes with GSA and our— how our GSA leases are working.

168 Out of 173 GSA contractors were let go over the last couple of weeks, and so if you will remember back to previous manager reports, there is a whole section that says GSA items not done or not included or no change. I imagine that that's going to be there for a while longer. We did have a new GSA agent assigned to the building to work with our two GSA leases in that building, and we never actually made contact with her. And so we have been informed that the Building Services Administration will be taking over that role, but we're not sure what that's going to look like yet. So we had some good information, um, uh, past about that, and then From the February meeting, there were a lot of action items with information requests, and staff was able to give all of the information that Noah wanted to Noah, and I think they were really happy about that.

Um, I went to a comprehensive economic development strategy meeting for Kodiak yesterday. The meeting is focused on the road system portion of the region. Kanna is the one who produces the suds for our area. They do an excellent job with all of the village communities, and this is the opportunity for the on-road system to put their knees into the document. They do a rewrite or update every year and a full rewrite every 5 years.

So they have a series of meetings going on right now. It was a great meeting. This morning I went to the Emergency Operations Center at KPD for the first time. We had a briefing on Mount Spurr. The slide deck that was presented is in your packet tonight, and you can see that the volcano is at a 50% risk of erupting.

And I've heard a lot about this recently, but also the volcano has been at a 50% chance of erupting since October. So I don't want to alarm everyone, but there is a new Facebook page for the emergency services for Kodiak, and on that Facebook page he has put, you know, what you should have at your home in case of an emergency, which is always good to review anyways. So if you want more information about that and you're listening, that will show up in the manager's report tomorrow when the clerks put it onto the website. If you're just looking at our agenda, you'll see manager's report and there's a link there that you can access that information. Today, Assemblymember Griffin and I attended the Rural Community Assistance Corporation Recharge Our Communities economic workshop number 1.

It was number 1 of a 4-part series. Mr. Smiley's wife was there as well. They have an excellent facilitator who's come into the community to kind of direct a bunch of different stakeholders' desires into an action plan, all to be done by the end of May. Today we did a before 1940 all the way to 2020 decade-by-decade history lesson that was absolutely fascinating. Learned a lot about Um, and maybe Assemblymember Griffin will tell you more.

I don't want to take away his thunder in case he was going to talk about it. Um, last night we decided that we were going to create an ad hoc committee to discuss the details of North Star. Um, and so I believe Mayor Arndt said he was going to be in charge of that, so we should know more about that coming up soon. Um, starting at our next work session, um, on the 27th— although it says March 13th work session, it's really going to be the 27th. We're going to start with our departments.

On the 27th, we will have the Finance Department, Manager Department, and the Clerk's and Legislative Budgets in addition to our regular items. When you get your packet, we'll have just those three sections in your packet to kind of help focus the discussion on those departments. However, if there are other questions that you have, please feel free to reach out to me or Dora so we can make sure that we're answering questions along the way. We have a couple of recruitments that we're currently doing. We've had 3 interviews for a temporary laborer.

We offered the job today, and that employee is going to start on Wednesday. We have an interview scheduled for Monday for our full-time secretary that will be going into Community Development Department, and we got another application in today too. So she should have a second interview there. In our foreclosure process, March 14th, tomorrow, is the 4th newspaper publication of the annual notice of foreclosure list. 30 Days after that last newspaper publication, staff will file lien documents with the Court for Real Properties for those with delinquent amounts due.

For non-real property, small claims documents will be prepared for those with delinquent amounts. Please contact the Finance Department for an updated payoff amount. For the Property Assessment and Taxation Implementation Project, our due date— or our go-live date has moved from June 2025 to August 2025. So we've hit a little bit of delay there. In Community Development, our hazard mitigation plan that you approved last week has been submitted to the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and then it will go to the FEMA for approval.

We expect some significant delays once it leaves the state and goes to the federal level for reasons I'm sure you understand. The Planning and Zoning Commission held a work session, uh, last night. The work session focused on commissioner training a review of code amendments on pet-related issues, and a review of code amendment on assisted living facilities. The commission scheduled the code amendment for pet-related issues for the regular meeting on May 21st and code amendment for assisted living facilities on June 28th. Uh, no cases were filed in March, so they have canceled their regular meeting for March 19th.

In assessing, the notice of values were mailed on February 26th and were in the appeal period that goes through March 28th, appeal literature was updated to include versions in Tagalog and Spanish. And you know how proud I am of my MAPDR infographic, and so it's everywhere in the building so we can talk about it all the time.

There is a staff retirement in Community Development. Jeannie Friel is going to be celebrating her last day at the borough on April 1st, which is kind of funny. She— oh, did I— Sorry, it's assessing, and she's going to yell at me tomorrow for that.

And so April Fool's Day is going to be her last day, so that's fun. We're having a taco party that day to celebrate her time at the borough. In engineering and facilities, we talked about obviously the mental health buildings tonight. There is a forum that starts at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, March 25th. It's going to be in the large conference room at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center.

So if you imagine you're going to the touch tank, you just go straight forward into the conference room instead of going downstairs to the touch tank. That's going to be open to everyone. If you have ideas or suggestions on how we could use those buildings, that is your night to come share. There is also a survey that's available, it's posted on the borough website and our Facebook page if you're not able to make it that night and you still want to put in some comments. Structural engineer was here.

Brian Nielsen from P&D arrived yesterday and conducted walkthroughs of projects. He was at the KFRC pump house to look at the hoist situation. He looked at the scale shack platform, the Mill Bay Beach stair replacement project, and the East Elementary roof. We're working with the engineer to look at alternative solutions to regain full capacity of the Baylor floor again. So that's a really fancy way of saying saying we want to be able to drive the machinery we used to drive on the baler floor on the baler floor again.

At the KFRC, Long Technology has provided staff with the as-built and upgraded their current monitoring capabilities to reflect all of the sensors installed. And thanks to Cody for reaching out to them. We had the sensors, we just didn't know much about the sensors. And now, um, not only do we know, but we were able to give those as-builts to NOAA, and now they know about their sensors as well. We worked with the vendor remotely so they didn't have to come, and they established functionality of the monitoring equipment that Cody mentioned earlier.

Um, out at the landfill, staff is beginning preparations for the spring household hazardous waste event, and we're discussing potential changes to improve the event's efficiency. When we have a community cleanup day or a household hazardous waste event, the community hears everything that goes to the landfill is free. That is not true. It's still 260 pounds a day, so don't go crazy, but bring your stuff. Um, and so what we're looking at is how can we, um, maybe change the policies with household hazardous waste to make sure that it doesn't all have to come to the landfill on one day, that people can bring it at more times throughout the year.

The important part is that it gets there, not that it gets there on one particular day. So Jenna has some great ideas on spacing that out and how to make that program work a little bit better. Staff is also reviewing the current fee schedule to determine if updates should be proposed to the assembly. We have not raised the per-ton rate at the landfill in quite a while, so there's a meeting next week with the finance director to find out what our fiscal situation is at the landfill and how much money we have. Um, we did go backwards last year, and so, um, once we get a better handle on those numbers, we'll come to the assembly.

That's not a decision we make without you. At the Leachate Treatment Plant, the last time I reported, I told you about the foaming issue that was coming out of the plant. We still have the foaming issue, but it's a lot less now because leachate changes all the time. At the Peterson School roof project, the staff is anticipating the replacement of the damaged metal over spring break, so it will be minimal disruption to the staff and students. In the service areas, I know you had a lot of conversation at the work session last week about service areas.

Um, on Friday, February 28th, the road service areas all got an invitation, um, to look at the bid documents, um, so they could find out what was going to be asked of potential contractors. And they, um, the individual service areas were asked to provide feedback before tomorrow, March 14th. Um, and then, uh, because of the assembly discussion last week, Um, we'll be talking at agenda setting on Tuesday about adding— and I've already put a placeholder in an item on the March 27th work session if people want to come in and talk about service areas, um, have, uh, the discussion that came up last week's meeting so people can come in and talk about what's good and what's not working with their service areas. In information technology, they are working on a grant proposal for the third round of the local Cybersecurity grant program. Uh, we have gotten quite a bit of money through that program and are making some great upgrades, and Fred's doing a great job working with that.

Uh, we removed IT equipment from the projects building, um, that is across from the, um, borough building. The—. We had a very large Xerox printer over there that is now in Patricia's office, so she has her very own printer that hasn't been used in a couple of years, so it's nice to see it back in use. They are also working on where we are going to install our swipe cards for our new electronic timekeeping system. And they are working on implementing disk encryption on laptops.

And in the GIS world, they are working with Community Development to make interactive maps for our development planning scenarios as we move in to work on our comprehensive plan, which includes a vision statement and the kind of strategic planning. So whether we schedule or not, we're going to loop you in on that to think about the vision statements and stuff. Included tonight is a letter from Senator Sullivan's office. Senator Sullivan helped us out with our Vessel of Opportunity program. The Coast Guard was looking at making— enforcing regulations of a certain level of training that had to be done before people could go out and help on vessels with oil spills.

And so the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council reached out to Senator Sullivan. I'm sure Cook Inlet did too, and said that we need these vessels to be able to go out and respond to oil spills immediately. And so asking the Coast Guard to relook and delay those regulations so we can make sure that we have those vessels of opportunity. And then finally, in your packet is that slide deck from the Mount Spurr presentation. This morning.

Are there any questions? Any questions? Larry. Um, I noticed today that, um, Matsu published some information for families in case there is, um, Pocanacash in the community, how to protect your computers, different things to think about. I thought it was really well done actually, and I'm not trying to cause any kind of panic, but it was— a lot of it was just common sense information that I thought people might be aware of.

I haven't seen that yet, but we can absolutely look at that. I'm sure our emergency manager will be happy to have more information. This morning we did talk about, um, the use of masks. I think COVID has all taught us about masks, but in ash, if we do have ash scenario, you also have to worry about your eyes. So we talked about safety goggles.

Um, in 1992, when we did have an eruption that affected Kodiak, people taped their windows, uh, to make sure that nothing could get through. Um, and again, thank you for saying there is no reason to panic right now, but as we're in an elevated advisory status for Mount Spurr, it's something that we should be thinking about. So, um, I'll let Mr. Gonzalez know that we should look for that Matsu information and see if it's appropriate to post here as well. Any other questions? What—.

Steve, this is kind of a general one for you and facilities. The statement about the monitoring on the KFRC, I'm wondering if Long could— because right now it sends off alarms to our maintenance people if there's a problem. Yes. And I'm wondering if just seawater alarms could also be sent to NOAA so they would be immediately aware and maybe take other preventative actions with their experiments. And whether, you know, whether you could ask Long and how hard that would be.

I'm sure we could. The way that the alarms go out, just NOAA would have to want to be notified in that way. But I'm sure it's possible. They said the NOAA set up a— a group email distribution list, and so that correspondence happening where it goes to more than just one person. Thank you.

Any other questions? Seeing none, we will move on to clerks. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. I have been working on those two ordinances, the one that you saw tonight, and then you have another one that is coming up. We get done, hopefully, with the, um, liquor licenses, I should be able to refine the code change that I've been working on since last year.

So hopefully, once we get this done, then I'd be able to introduce that ordinance to the assembly. Records update: as of today, we have successfully processed 28 records requests. And we have 4 that are pending and one that's pretty extensive, and we're involving the lawyer on that one. The borough protest on REPL 3293, Second Floor Restaurant. So we protested the continued operation, the renewal, and the transfer of ownership and location.

Those are scheduled to be heard. I just heard today, this afternoon, those are scheduled to be heard before the ABC board on April 8th, and the meeting will start at 10 AM. It's going to be via Zoom. The agenda for that meeting will include— they don't have an agenda yet, I just found out through the email— that the agenda for that meeting will also include the City of Kodiak, Kodiak's protest for renewal and transfer of that license, um, the transfer of ownership and location. The Borough Alliance Committee meeting that was scheduled on Monday was canceled, and I think the mayor will be scheduling one pretty soon.

We're in that appeal— the appeal process for BOE is underway. BOE meeting scheduled on Monday, Monday, May 5th. The training for the regular Board of Equalization scheduled on April 24th. When I say regular, it's the other group, not the assembly. Board of Equalization filing of appeals to the clerk's office started on February 27th, started on February 27th, and it will end on March 28th.

Pretty much that's all I have. I included a little Jurassic Park parliament article in my report. I think I'm going to start printing this out and just adding them to my report. You know, when you have extra time, then you can just read them. It's— this one is 4 fundamental guidelines for successful meetings.

That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Nova. Any questions of the clerk? Seeing none, we'll move on to assembly member comments.

Bo, I'll start with you. Thank you. So just looking at the manager report here, reminders for budget discussions for FY26. We have the opioid settlement funds to discuss, accommodation taxes, and consideration of the junk vehicle removal line. Folks have been reaching out.

They are still upset that they are being levied the DMV tax. I agree that we need to address that. It still seems to me that we are double dipping on that one. I haven't received a satisfying response on how we're addressing that, and folks are upset, and I completely understand why. And we are also facing some potential difficult budget decisions here in the near future based on what was presented, um, at the meeting yesterday evening.

I think it's not a scenario of asking more, it's what we're going to have to cut to accommodate a potential request. So I think folks should encourage people to start thinking about where those cuts would come from if we are going to support an increase in the ask. Thank you. Jarrod.

You know, nothing really. I have been traveling the past couple of weeks. I have been to a lot of meetings, and I think I will have something more formal during the committee reports next week. Okay, Steve. Um, I would like to see this year when we're going over the budget stuff like we did last year and go line by line just so we have a clear understanding.

That's just a personal request. Other than that, no comment. Larry. Um, I want to make sure that when we look at our facility needs and ARPA money that we remember the auditorium lighting that needs to be addressed or that it's going to fail one of these days according to the people that have looked at it. So I hope that the assembly and the people that manage will keep that in mind or we could lose our ability to use the auditorium and I just don't want it to slip by.

I think it's an important community asset, not like the pool, but certainly it attracts as many people to the— as the pool. So I hope that we take care of that before we have failure. And this has been going on for a long time, and I want to advocate for that. Um, I really appreciate, uh, the joint meeting we had with the school board last night. I think that was very, very productive, although, um, I am very, very concerned, um, with, um the needs that are going to come down the road.

I think Assemblymember Whiteside mentioned this coming year. I'm worried about the following year and the year after that because we have a cascade effect of what's going on. And I'm not questioning the decision-making that the, the school district has made. What I'm concerned about is that if you follow the trail of where it may lead, it would be to an excessive need from the borough, which would necessitate a pretty massive increase in the mill rate to respond to it. So I think we need to be— I'm not sure how to do that, but I think it's really important that we somehow take a 3-year look at that budget because, again, not to make decisions, but the potential financial impact on the borough 2 years from now.

And so, but I do appreciate the meeting. I appreciate the presentation by the superintendent. I thought it was well done. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Scott.

I'm worried about the school district too. I'm worried about the borough too. And the bottom line is we have to balance the budget. The state doesn't seem to have to to do that. And they're not following through on their responsibilities for school funding and haven't for a long time.

And now in the federal government, there's all kinds of chaos, at least the way I read it. I don't know what we're going to do if the, um, changes that have been proposed turn out to be real. I don't know whether they're going to be real or not. But the bottom line is it's going to end up on us, and I think the idea that we're going to be able to avoid it in some way by not increasing taxes is fallacious. So my two cents.

Thank you, um, Mayor's comments. I'd like to, uh, thank staff from Engineering and Facilities tonight. Thank you for coming and helping fill us in tonight on the issues. And I'd like to also thank Sima for being here too from assessing. So, um, that's all I have.

And at this time, we'll go ahead and adjourn the work session at 8:26. Thank you all for attending. Good night.