NSB Assembly: NSB Assembly — Regular Meeting & Public Hearing

So let's just stop the river, promise, let it hang until then, as best as you can.

Take that binder. I'll call the North Slope Borough Assembly regular meeting and public hearing to order.

Today is October 13th, year of our Lord 2026. It is now 1:35 PM.

We have roll call, Madam Clerk.

Avayak Brunel. Here. Frederick Brower. Here. Trina Paul.

Here. Martin Edwardson. Here. Chalmer Panik. Chalmer Panik.

Crawford Pakudok. Here. Robin Collette. Here. Thomas Naparak Jr.

Here.

Michael Donovan.

Here.

Celia Atungarak.

Maybe she's still flying. Eva Kinovac.

She should be on shortly, Mr. President. You have a quorum. Green up, Madam Clerk. What's the wish of the assembly on the absent members?

Move to excuse. There's a motion to excuse. Do I hear a second? Second. And seconded.

Any discussion? Of course, nothing called for. All those in favor of the excusal of absent assembly members, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

As opposed, say nay. Hearing none, absent members are excused. Hopefully they'll be joining us. Next item on our agenda is invocation. If we can all stand.

Again, we're reminded by the Word of God. He tells us in Genesis 2:7, "For the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." And thank God for that breath of life today. Biinon ya'at'in. Thank God for our elders that are always reminding us. And as an elder in training, I'll do my best to remind us all about the Word of God.

Amen. Biinon ya'at'in. He tells us also in Revelation, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will sup with him and he with me. Thank God for His presence in our lives that we can call upon Him. And He's faithful.

I'd like to ask our new assembly member, Panik, if you can lead us in invocation this afternoon.

Okay. Oops. Thank you. Let's pray. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the power and the glory forever. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Thank you for that wonderful, powerful prayer. Kasimala siyukut. Next item on our agenda, well, I'll go through the agenda.

Item 4 is the approval of agenda and agenda— consent agenda. 5, Approval and/or correction of minutes. 6 Is the communications.

7, Community and assembly comments and audience participation. Item 8, introduction and/or approval of resolutions and ordinances. We have, uh, 8A Resolution 61-2026, 8B Resolution 62-2026, 8C Resolution 63-2026, 8D Resolution 64-2026, uh, 8E Ordinance 2026-3C, an ordinance appropriating money out of the treasury for fiscal year ending June 30, 2027. Public hearing date is set for November 10th. We have 8F, Ordinance 2026-07.

8G, Ordinance 2026-08.

8H, Ordinance 2026-09, authorizing acquisition of eminent domain of a perpetual right-of-way easement and related property interest in Project Track Number 25. Owned of record by Andrew E. Kroll for the Barrow, Alaska Coastal Erosion Project. Public hearing date set for November 11— I mean, November 10, 2026.

8I, Ordinance 2026-10D, Ordinance Adopting a Long-Range Capital Improvement Program Financial Plan Providing for the Acceptance of Certain Power Transferred and Appropriating Funds to Accomplish the Capital Projects Outlined. Again, public hearing date set for November 10, 2026. And Item 9 is public hearing. We have Ordinance 2014-01-2, an ordinance amending Title 4 of the North Slope Borough Code of Code to establish the North Slope Borough Department of Commerce, recommended to be postponed until November 10, 2026. 9B, Ordinance 2026-3B, an ordinance appropriating money out of the treasury for fiscal year ending June 30, 2027.

9C, Ordinance 2026-10C, an ordinance adopting a long-range capital improvement program and financial plan providing for the acceptance of certain powers transferred and appropriating funds to accomplish the capital projects outlined. Item 10, old business. Item 11, new business. Item 11A, Resolution 67-2026, a resolution authorizing the mayor to designate certain individuals to act as mayor during temporary absence or disability. Item 12, parents' request.

Item 13, adjournment.

Move to approve, Mr. President. There's a motion to approve the agenda and consent agenda. Second. Second it. Any discussion, Mr. President?

Any discussion? Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to pull 8C.

8C has been pulled. Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon, Eva. Good afternoon.

I got the right call-in number, just to let you know. I'm online and I'd like to pull 8B. Thank you. 8B has been pulled.

Any others?

Any further discussion? Question. Under discussion, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to clarify that the memos of confirmation don't require a 24-hour notice, but I believe most of them made it in under 24-hour notice.

And item 11A As new business resolution code allows for 24-hour notice to be placed on, but it can't be a part of the consent agenda. So thank you for accommodating the last day resolution.

Great enough, Mr. Mayor.

Any other discussion?

Question. Question hasn't called for. All those in favor of the approval of our agenda and consent agenda, do so by saying aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Hearing none, our agenda and consent agenda has been approved with item 8B and 8C being pulled. Bring it up.

Next item on our agenda is the communications. What's that?

Under communications, we have 6A, Employee of the Month. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. For getting us started here this afternoon. I'm pleased to announce the October Employee of the Month as an employee coming out of IHLC, Ms. April Brooks.

If you can please come up and accept your award and the appropriate supervisors come and help me acknowledge her service to the borough.

All right. Bonne nuit. It was my secret all day long. It was no longer a secret. People were calling me.

So I'm pleased to announce April as the October Employee of the Month. She currently works as a division manager for the North Slope Borough Department of IHLC. Since October of 2025. For about 20 years, April has been employed with the North Slope Borough in various roles, including serving previously as the director of search and rescue and a firefighter EMT for the fire department. In addition, April has formally volunteered for the North Slope Alaska Search and Rescue Association for approximately 6 years.

She currently serves as a North Slope Borough firefighter. April has also supported Search and Rescue Dogs of Alaska including all North Slope Village's search and rescue efforts. She's a compassionate person who demonstrated her life-saving skills on the morning of September 10, 2026, when a fellow employee fainted and collapsed, and she immediately cleared the area and performed CPR, saving the coworker's life until the ambulance could arrive. So with that, I think it's important that, like we have before, we acknowledge employees that that go out of their realm of responsibility on their job description, but do the right thing for people that are in need. And with that, we acknowledge April for stepping up and doing that.

Mr. Levitt, if you want to share a few words. You've read it into the record. Thank you. April, congratulations. Congratulations.

If you want to share a few words, you're more than welcome to. Brooks, for the record. First of all, uh, congratulations, Mayor Pudgaduck, on your election. Also, thank you to my co-workers over at IHLC, um, my former co-workers at the North Sabora Fire Department, and of course Search and Rescue, uh, all the training, um, the guys, the lieutenants, the captains, um, the medics. I wanted to thank them.

Uh, we went into, uh, scenarios where there's going to be that one time where you're going to have to take the lead. And all the training that I contributed to working at the fire department, um, it kicked into high gear. So thank you very much. Thank you.

Stephanie, you gonna stand up here with me?

Congratulations. Thank you, sir.

Congratulations.

Moving on on our agenda. Congratulations. Item 6B, Mayor's Status Report. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience.

As always, I think it's important to start with the preamble of the Home Rule Charter of the borough. And it's a monthly status report dated October 13th, 2026, for myself to assembly members. Good afternoon, Assembly members and listening audience. We the people of the North Slope area, in order to form an efficient and economical government with just representation, and in order to provide local government responsive to the will of the people and the continuing needs of the community, do hereby ratify and establish this home rule charter of the North Slope Borough, Alaska.

Just out of the mayor's office for the month of September, Healthy Communities partnered with the North Slope Borough School District to recognized senior athletes and supported the Health Department's Hoop for Hope basketball tournament. Health community has also continued coordinating meals for IHLCA Elders and Youth Conference and the North Slope Borough Health Conference. MIAC focused on student recruitment and preparations for the First Alaska Institute Elders and Youth Conference. And I'm happy to report that we're seeing near record level numbers of Mayor's Youth Advisory Council willingness to participate from the students. It's always good that they're interested in learning the opportunities that lie ahead of them, whether it's with the borough or any other organization.

A total of 34 student project outlines were received and 18 students selected to participate through MIAC and an additional 16 students attending the North Slope Borough School District delegation. MIAC students also had the opportunity to meet with gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Christ Tompkins to share their perspective on issues affecting Alaska's youth and discuss opportunities for greater youth involvement in shaping the state's future.

With that, maybe I'll read the next one to Government Affairs. External Government Affairs team supported the Kaktovik water incident by activating a joint information center and coordinating life safety communications and ensuring consistent public updates. The team also supported NPRA communities preparing for public scoping meetings, addressed flight safety concerns with the SAR department and FAA, and engaged with federal agencies on key regional issues. Additionally, the team submitted comments on Arctic offshore development, Waters of the United States designations, and the NPRA Impact Mitigation Grant Program, while continuing to monitor developments related to proposed NPRA rule and the AK LNG. Under the Department of Environmental Management, in September, the team continued advancing the borough's environmental compliance, cleanup, and contaminated site closure efforts in accordance with EPA and Alaska DEC requirements.

Borough-wide tank secondary containment and RCRA audits continue across communities with coordination underway among affected departments to assign responsibilities and address identified deficiencies. EPA also offered a potential pathway to eliminate the requirement for dedicated hazardous waste storage facility in Deadhorse depending on twice-yearly waste backhauls from each community and 2 years of demonstrated compliance. The borough continues to await federal review of its proposed revisions to the EPA consent decree. Which we are calling the renegotiation of the consent decree. CIPM, just to highlight, water— Wainwright Power Plant walls have been erected and the contractor is working on the roofing to get the power plant enclosed before it gets too cold out.

CIPM is preparing for the projects to receive funding from the 2026-10 bond sale, which will be posted next week in New York. Fire Department staff continue Firefighter 1 and EMT training across the slope, including including village coverage and emergency trauma technician training in Point Lay. Staff also participated in Utqiaġvik 5K Color Fun Run and Back to School Barbecue and traveled with the mayor's office for community updates in Nuchsit and Point Lay. The department is planning future EMT-1 and hazmat operations and awareness training and continues to work to remove AFFF from borough fire stations. Just an update on that, we were able to coordinate with the state of Alaska to get out a number of drums of AFF that have been sitting for the last 8 years or so here in the Barrow area.

Below is the breakdown of the call volume, whether it was fire, EMS, alcohol-related, drugs, and then the number of staff, whether they're paid staff or volunteers. There's also the Aeromedical Division Detailed report, open to answering any questions that may arise from that. For the HESS Department, for September 19th, they have a schedule provided for the next— what they've done in the month of September and then what's to come in the month of October. So just very quickly, September 19th, we did the Talk to the Tundra at the Tuzzy Library for the 25th through the 27th. September 27th, with partnership from the Mayor's Office, Konikow, Philip Sili-Salvik, and the City of Iqaluit presented and hosted the Hoops for Hope, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament that featured 18 teams, some guest speakers, and messages of cultural resilience and community support.

For September 29th through October 1st, we hosted the 2nd Annual Health Conference, bringing together community members, health professionals, stakeholders in the health realm to discuss ways we can improve the services that we provide, along with celebrating the wins that we've had in the mental health area over the last couple of years. On the 21st of October, AWIC is hosting the Four Directions Walk to raise awareness, advocate for an end to domestic violence, and the walk will begin at 4 locations and conclude at the Tussi Library. Lunch will be provided. Coming up on October 27th through 28th, in partnership with Alaska Training Cooperative and UAA Center for Human Development, the Health Department will host community mental health trainings focused on suicide prevention, understanding psychosis, and addressing secondary trauma and compassion fatigue. I do know that Director Heppa has some plans for November and early December that she'll be communicating the schedule of to the outlying communities for other opportunities.

For Human Resources, we finalized the Safe Workplace Program listing with minor job description revisions forthcoming. Accurate job descriptions are now being used in FOLI. Public Works elected to retain the current CDL qualification language, while HR provided options for addressing employees who have not obtained their CDL within the required time frame. Search and Rescue has also requested that pilots be added to Safe Workspace Program. Program.

HR continues developing the RCRA and supervisory training in NeoGov and working with SAGE to clean up internal data in E1 and NeoGov. Additionally, HR plans to repurpose a vacant budgeted HR3 position into an employee training specialist role under HRIS to strengthen employee training and develop across— development across the borough. You'll see the breakdown of jobs offered, jobs declined, temp hires, positions posted, and positions Closed. For the Planning Department, they continue advancing land management regulations and community planning initiatives following the approval of North Slope Borough Municipal Code Titles 18 and 19 amendments. Staff began updating permit stipulations and reviewing coastal development protections.

The planning fee schedule and comprehensive plan updates for Nuktuup Pass and Nuktasook are progressing toward Planning Commission review in October and Assembly consideration in December. Planning efforts also continued in Northside while the zoning commission addressed traffic safety and right-of-way concerns. The Planning Commission approved Resolution 2026-18 supporting the ASTAR project, and staff also provided commercial recreation permit updates, and Eskimo Zinc submitted its required BLM year-end report for the seawatt project. In the police department, during the reporting period from August 16th to September 15th, 2026, the police department responded to 524 incidents, 69 of which were alcohol-related. Breakdown by community is in parentheses.

And 3 reported vehicle thefts. A total of 39 criminal cases were designated for submittal to the District Attorney and 6 to the Juvenile Probation Office for prosecution. 31 Individuals were arrested in the reporting period. Police Department staff attended and participated in multiple community events during the reporting period. A few highlighted activities including participating in Coffee with a Cop events, throughout all communities, assisted with the Color Run in Utqiaġvik, and escorted Walking Wednesdays.

For the Interdiction Task Force, detectives across North Slope Borough, Anchorage, and Fairbanks continue to participate in multi-agency task force with our law enforcement partners to include the DEA, Homeland Security, and the United States Postal Service. Drug and alcohol seizures occurred within the North Slope Borough community or conducted by a task force officer where the intended destination was identified as a North Slope Borough community are documented in the list. Seizures not inbound for North Slope Borough communities are not reported in, in the list below. So a total for alcohol: 6/5 of distilled spirits were intended for Wainwright with an estimated street value of $725, 3/5 intended for Utqusa Nassauk, where estimated street value of $750 were seized. 8/5, Uh, were seized in Prudhoe Bay with an estimated street value of $2,000.

2/5 Were seized in Pointe-Laye with an estimated street value of $400. A total for the drugs: 167.7 gross grams of fentanyl, roughly a third of a pound, approximately 83,000 potential lethal doses doses were confiscated. An additional 155.2 gross grams of methamphetamine, again roughly a third of a pound, which is approximately 776 doses, were seized. An additional 1,967 gross grams of marijuana THC products with a total estimated street value of $172,195 were also seized. In addition to the above totals, the US Postal Service seized 1.8 pounds of various controlled substances with a street value of over $92,000 inbound for the North Slope.

I just want to thank the assembly for the work over the last couple of years as it relates to the drug interdiction. With your support, we've more than doubled the size of the police department, whether it's 24/7 coverage or staffing the new Homeland Security and US Postal Service positions as part of the MOA working with those two federal agencies. Couldn't be done without working together on that item. For Public Works, the department coordinated storm preparation and response efforts in Point Hope, Point Lay, Wainwright, and Qaluvik, reinforcing sea walls, erosion berms, and drainage systems to protect critical infrastructure. Minor flooding occurred in Point Hope with no significant infrastructure damage reported.

I do want to acknowledge the community-led incident command effort, uh, by the Native Village of Point Hope and the City of Point Hope for standing that up. We attended as kind of a precautionary call to arms, and I think it shows that the incident command process that we've utilized for borough incidences are being able to be used by other organizations to run those types of responses in their respective communities. We are proud partners of that local control and self-determination at work. Crews also completed post-storm repairs and drainage improvements, power generation and distribution, advanced electrical infrastructure upgrades, including streetlight repairs and replacements in Point Hope and Cocteauvik, service upgrades in Unaktuvuk Pass, transformer replacement preparations in Wainwright, and completion of the automatic— automated metering infrastructure metering project in Nourksuk. It.

Water and sewer operations. There was a total of 333 trouble calls for September 2026, 322 of which were water sewer repairs and 11 for the bare utility systems. The breakdown of the repairs are below, and I have confirmed with Acting Director Terzioski that we are prepared for the freeze-up to happen with all of our ground thaw equipment and frost fighters prepared. So if there are any questions on the breakdown, we can discuss them. For search and rescue, we received updated updates on the AW189 helicopter progress, which is now slated to be inspected the week of December 14th and on slope in March of 2027.

SAR met with the state of Alaska delegation to discuss aviation communication issues and identify improvements for better capabilities and coordination of flight information. There were 10 emissions for this reporting period across the slope. Below is the breakdown for each community. As far as the equipment report, we have 100% availability on the King Air, we have 100% availability on the S-92, 97% availability on the PC-24, and now 100% availability on the Bell 412. For the Wildlife Department, for September, the North Slope Borough Fish and Game Management Committee met in North Kalvik to review wildlife management issues and state border game proposals scheduled for January 2027.

Fall bowhead whale harvest totaled 32 whales across Paktovik, which got 4, Nilfsit, which got 3, and Utqalvik, which got 25 landed successfully. Department of Wildlife Management staff conducted harvest sampling with Utqalvik, with monitoring continuing throughout the season. Staff also participated in the biannual ISEAL Committee meeting in coordination with regional representatives and the NOAA. For IHL Sea, during September, the IHL Sea Department collections Inupiat Museum's team focused on preparations for the 2026 Elders and Youth Conference, which was held September 22nd through 24th. Major accomplishments included installing new museum exhibits featuring over 100 cultural artifacts and newly installed display cases showcasing Inupiat history and cultural heritage.

Staff also printed and displayed 10 photographs of elders from each North Slope community, honoring their contributions to preserving Inupiat history, language, and tradition. Additionally, the department coordinated conference supplies, workshop materials, and logistical arrangements to ensure a welcoming environment for elders, youth, and visitors from across the North Slope. For the Housing Department, the North Slope Borough and Broad Creek Capital are working together to gain site control of sites in Utqiaġvik, Wainwright, and Kaktovik. Utqiaġvik is in discussion with UIC on site control for the project. Wainwright site to build on is currently being evaluated based on the contaminated soil.

Housing Department expects an update this fall to develop a plan to begin the build in Wainwright. North Slope Borough Housing is working with CIPM to procure a site designated for purchase. Once purchased, the next phase of design and construction will be discussed for the site. Housing plumbers traveled to Barrow, Wainwright, Akwesasuk, and Nunavutuvuk to work on emergency heating and plumbing general housing requests. Housing carpenters traveled to Nunavut and Nunavutuvuk to work on the windows program installation.

For the administration department. Recently had a meeting regarding the shipping and receiving building design and the process that will entail currently working with the state of Alaska on a long-term lease of the lot to allow use of capital funds for the project. Computer upgrades project continues across the slope. On Octuvok Pass, Atkasuk Point, Lay and Wainwright are complete. The team is currently in Nukset and we anticipate completion by middle of next week.

Point Hope weather delay and Kaktovik should be accomplished by Thanksgiving. Moving. For the Department of Port Authority, they continue advancing the A-Star project with the Planning Commission adopting Resolution 2026-18 in support of moving A-Star into the next phase of environmental review. A workshop presentation to the Assembly is being scheduled for next month. The Port Authority also coordinated with the Department of Transportation leadership regarding the potential A-Star funding opportunities and other eligible programs, building on DOT's support of the planning and environmental linkages.

Package study. For the seawall project, the Bureau of Indian Affairs identified the need to revise consent forms for NSB right-of-way applications. Individual native allotment consent forms are being collected, and the revised NSB application is under review by the real estate specialist. Easement acquisition and eminent domain efforts for the Crow property remain ongoing with additional surveying and appraisal planned. Fawn Trackway boat dock training was also completed in Barrow.

And that's what we have for the monthly status report. Open to any questions, Mr. President, members of the assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any questions on the monthly status report?

On the new helicopters, Mr. Mayor, can you remind us what the tail numbers are what were proposed?

Thank you, Mr. President. We'll see if Heather— Director Digman remembers.

Director Digman. Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, Assembly members, for the record, Heather Digman. The tail numbers are November 6-8-1-Sierra-Hotel. That's number 1. That is for Isaiah 6:8.

And then the second one is November 1-2-1-Papa, which is Psalms 121. Hadiya. Just making sure you're not trying to put your initials on the tail numbers of the aircraft, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any other questions for the mayor on his status report?

Mr. President, would you approve?

Go ahead, Eva.

I have one on your housing.

What's Broad Creek Capital? Is that for the 10-plexes for the last 3 communities?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly, for the line of questioning. Yes, that is correct. It's to finish out the first phase of the plexus that were built across the slope, either 8s and 10s. We have partnered with Broad Creek strategically to bring in their essentially Costco sale type pricing for building in partnership with Nana for prefab. And the different barging companies for maximizing efficiency on the size of the prefab buildings that can fit most economically on a barge to be shipped in.

And so there'll be a few setbacks that we're working through with the Wainwright location. There was pretty broad contamination and pretty deep contamination that we're still going through through the data collection that we did this summer on, and we'll be developing a plan for remediation and cleanup for that site, then to begin foundation work and construction work. We were able to get, with partnership with UIC, an agreement to purchase land for the housing plex. It's not finalized yet. We're still in negotiations for different things that need to be ironed out between Broad Creek, the North Slope Borough, and UIC.

We will report once that sale is concluded and agreed upon by all parties. And for Qaktovik, I believe we're beginning design for the plex that's going to go there. We were able to work with Qaktovik Inupiat Corporation over the last couple of years to purchase the properties that are required for the complex building. And so thank you for the question. I hope that answers it.

Does that help, Eva? Yes, thank you for the detailed update. Also, on the windows, I thought under housing, wasn't that going to be implemented this, this summer, or what happened to that project? Maybe I missed I missed that. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, Director France can speak to the details of that. Director France. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, Assemblywoman Kinneback, for the line of question. Jack France, Director for the Housing Department. For the record, we are working with TC to finalize the contract.

I believe we were waiting on funding to get that going and And we are also waiting on some material for the finished work for the windows. I believe we have about 140 windows that we have to install. We're going to get them installed as quickly as possible once the contract is in place and all of our materials arrive.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jack. Before we entertain any other questions Any questions? I'll entertain a motion to accept or approve the mayor's report. Move to approve. There's a motion on the floor.

Do I hear a second? Second. Under discussion. Do we have any other questions?

Mr. President, Tim Luman Bernal. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the mayor's status report. 6 Pages is quite the report. You know, just want to also acknowledge all the whalers, the successful whalers across the North Slope, and all the help Public Works was able to give, especially here in Barrow. You know, I haven't seen a spring like this or a fall like this in all my years.

So thank you to all the Public Works employees, operators, laborers grabbing the rope from the waters. I mean, you name it.

It. Really, really, really good time here on the North Slope and a lot to be thankful for. So just really want to thank the Public Works Division for that.

You know, speaking of water, the incident that happened on the lagoon, my question's around training. Training and equipment. The last 2 years I've asked about that in the budget.

Almost zeroed out 2 years ago in training compared to what it was the prior year, and then equipment was zeroed out this year in the budget, talking about it'll be supplemental. Um, that kind of transparency behind what we're seeing when we're reviewing these You know, Employee of the Month, congratulations to April. That training kicked in, saved somebody's life. You know, for a lot of people watching what happened, it just seemed like we weren't prepared as a borough, maybe as a fire department, first responders. You know, we thank them all the time.

And the one time we have, if you, in my eyes, a failure of training somewhere, when that happened, that it brought back a lot of emotions for so many family members that have lost loved ones to that same issue. My uncle, my cousin specifically, you know, this is somebody's loved one. You know, the response time, the training, the equipment, whatever it may be, we've got to step it up this time of the year, you know, and it's not just the borough. It starts at home. I understand that starts with the families, starts with the parents.

So, you know, unfortunately, I just believe we got to do better.

I think there was a lot of things that could have been done better. You know, I think if we all thought about it and if it was our kid, it wouldn't have took almost 30 minutes to get him out of the lagoon.

Not that, not that part of the lagoon. If you're local here and you know it, that part's shallow. It's not that deep.

So it's one of those things where I, I know it's a sensitive subject, but I believe it has to be talked about because this won't be the last time. Could almost guarantee you won't be the last time something like this happens. Um, it's still warm out there, you know, the ice is still thin. There's still no barricades around the lagoon. We're quick to barricade off a road when it's underwater.

You know, I just think there's safety measures we still could do and put up in place of some of these lagoons around town. So thank you.

Green Bayak, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly, Assemblymember Bernal, for the line of questioning. I guess just a couple of things off the bat as far as budget and training. The borough lost its legal ability to formally do state-accredited training in about 2020. It took about, about a year from 2024, that first part of the year, to 2025 to come into alignment with the state state accreditation program to where we were able to receive our accreditation.

So now that we're able to legally host trainings put on by the North Slope Borough. And so since then, obviously, we've been hosting as many trainings as possible as it relates to Firefighter 1/EMT, using both in-house training officers. We zeroed out some of the training travel budget to put in a training officer in-house to the North Slope Borough.

There was still inter-village travel budgeted for bringing volunteers or paid staff from each of the communities to one location to do the training with, with Reese, our training officer. In addition to that, we partnered with Ilisavutlik College College, who has an accredited individual, Mr. Joe Digman, to come and host different trainings. And so it's something that we've been working diligently towards, getting back into a formal, normal, scheduled training opportunities for all of our paid staff and volunteers.

I don't have any necessary excuses to why we couldn't be trained, but I will say that it didn't get— the ability to train didn't get derailed overnight, and it's not going to be rebuilt overnight. I think we're working very diligently to rebuild it. As far as the equipment goes, we zeroed out the $10,000 and over budget budget for operating dollars, knowing that we can utilize capital dollars to purchase jaws of life, all the other different things that Chief Nechoke and Deputy Director Texeira had kind of eyeballed for this upcoming budget season. And so that funding is still available through the capital process or through the supplemental process. It doesn't really take action of of the assembly, we've carved out a pretty heavy contingency budget.

I want to say we're in the $20 million range, that as those needs arise, we're able to meet them. As far as this specific incident, I don't think it's for me to discuss the state of mind of the victim, but there are other things that I think people aren't aware of that contributed to the loss of that young man's life. So with that, I give an opportunity for Chief Nyakop to share anything as it relates to banana boats, the boat that we have, and anything else. Mr. Mayor, Chief Knuckle. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President.

Thank you, Assemblyperson Bernal, for, for that insight for that incident. It is a very tragic incident. And, and as he stated as well, it is a big failure to have that type of situation happen.

Not only for the fire department but also for the family members that were, um, affected by it.

And it is something that we are definitely looking into. For the past 3 years, um, the fire department has been stabilizing off as much as possible with, uh, new employees, new volunteers, new training, uh, division, new, uh, it's almost like wiping the slate clean for the past 3 years. And now for the next 3 years, um, we're going to grow, um, within those specific areas to— for the responders, for the volunteers across the slope within each, each aspect of fire and EMS.

We are still a relatively young department, not only age-wise but also experience-wise as well. So I don't want to say that is the main weakness that is taken part in within that incident, but that is something that we've— we know our weaknesses, and that is something that we are going to keep closely on our radar for the fire department, for our responders, for our people.

And I hope that, uh, answered your questions, or if you have any more, I'll be happy to answer them as best as possible. Reno Chief Naco, that helps. Why did you have a follow-up? Yes, Mr. President, and thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Director Naco. Um, I think it puts paint to the picture when we start talking training.

Thanks and accreditation across not only this department but the rest.

I know how you are. You're willing to take action.

I think that's why we could be so stern with you, because you take it to heart, especially when it happens in our community here in Barrow.

Bero. I'm trying to think of how many people have died in the lagoon since I've been alive. The last 20 years.

It's unreal.

Whaling captains, family members, you know, so young kids. You know, it just feels like we could do more, whether it's lighting, maybe it's different lights on the lagoon, around the lagoon, barricades, more reminders in the school when school starts, more, more education. More educating. I, I could say the list goes on, you know. So I, I know you try.

So it's just the level of accountability at our level, um, with what we see when it comes to the budget and things that are later on down the road, how it impacts certain things. And what I'm talking about is, is that painting the picture on how it's being funded, how it's being utilized, you know, isn't always remembered. So I appreciate that in that response, because one of the first things I thought of was those two questions I brought up the last two years.

And I know it's a difficult job. It's not easy, you know. First responders, that's a stressful job, and I commend you guys for being able to do that. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Greenup. Assemblyman Burnell, we have any other questions or follow-up?

Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your report. Thank you, Chief Nowakook, and your, your staff to to the response to the situation. Although it wasn't the outcome that was— could have been, it was an effort by everyone on board.

Having been a former firefighter, surface water instructor, surface water rescue instructor, my tenure at the borough, stuff like that just naturally kicks in in a response effort effort. Um, but in regards to training, if there's an opportunity to do more surface water rescue training for volunteers across the whole North Slope, including, uh, volunteer search and rescue entities that, although they may have their own opportunity to create their own funding, the training and the opportunities of that for those said organizations may go above and beyond their capabilities. And if there's an opportunity for the North Slope Borough to partner with those volunteer search and rescue groups to get all on one page when dealing with the situation like that.

Situations that happen out in the ocean may go beyond the opportunities and efforts of individuals that are out there, but the people that who are going to respond, how do they deal with large boat incidents? How do they deal with situations like that at a moment's notice? And getting a key in on to real-world responses and, and how could we critique those and make things better to be faster, be more efficient. Um, I feel it was a great response and an effort for everyone trying their best that they could do with the knowledge that they have. And do you agree that training is key to, to any success?

Uh, because it retains. I've got an extensive list of fire training that I've done in the past, and it's just there. It helps me when I'm out hunting, when I'm out there in the field field. Um, but it comes with funding, comes opportunity with real trainers that could train in the real world sense. And if that takes funding, we as the assembly should support that, and the North Slope Board should support that, along with the volunteer organizations across the slope.

We're all just trying to meet one goal, is to protect and save lives. Thank you.

Do you want to respond, Mr. Mayor? Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, Senator Brouwer, Senator Burnell, for the comments and questions. Um, I, I agree wholeheartedly with that, uh, collaboration effort between the volunteer organizations, the borough search and rescue, and the fire EMS department. One of the first things after after that incident, talking with a few of the rank and file members is just creating that opportunity for the fire department and their neighbors behind them with the volunteer organizations to sit down and have some coffee, maybe have a picnic together or something like that, get to know each other so that we can continue that cross-training. I will say that between the ROV trainings that we've had over the last couple of years There's the funding and hiring of a search and rescue coordinator in every community that was not there before, bringing everybody together for that training.

There is that collaboration, more so around the ROV stuff, but I think we can recreate that same collaboration for different types of scenarios. I think it's important to remember that we're having to reignite this whole training engine, and it's slowly happening. It's not going to be everything we want it to be in the first year, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to fund it, put the effort forward, forward and make sure that those opportunities are available for volunteer or paid personnel. Thank you.

Green up, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any other questions on the mayor's report?

Mr. President, Assemblywoman Kineba.

Thank you, Mr. President. Just listening to the conversation about— I hear so many times about the lagoons or the lakes where we lose loved ones. It reminded me of just recently, maybe 3 to 5 years now, that we've lost 2 people in our river. Are inland. And one, as a community, is go— I don't know if any, any community members go up there and pray, because once we lose loved ones, whether it's drowning, whether it's accidents, murder, suicide, that blood cries out.

That's why it keeps happening more and more And yes, we do pray over our land, but we, we pray over the areas where we lose our loved ones. But we can't just pray not just once, but, but to maintain with, with prayer constantly. Because this, this just reminds me of when that blood cries out, when there's spill on the land or when there's a life lost in certain areas, there, that blood that passed, it's crying out for more. So, um, just food for thought, and I just thought I'd share that. Thank you, Mr. President.

Do we have any other Questions, comments on the mayor's status report?

Mr. President, Mr. Bernal. Thank you, Mr. President. And once again, thanks, Mr. Mayor. You kind of get sidetracked or caught up in the moment, but I wanted to say thank you to the health department for allowing me an opportunity to speak at the Hoop for Hopes, or Hoops For hope.

You know, seeing a basketball tournament, seeing the gyms filled, you know, where I was taught, you know, there's two seasons: whaling season and basketball season. And to see the gym filled with so many kids, family members, community members here was a good sight to see. And being able to talk about suicide prevention Presence matters was kind of my theme.

I really think that that kind of engagement from us as assembly members helps, gets you out of your comfort zone. And I also just want to say thank you for the second annual health conference. You know, something else that is being started, getting people together to start talking about what is really going to make change.

For our kids, for our communities, for the region. I think it's really helping. So I just want to say thank you for that. And IHLSEA for the Elders and Youth Conference that they held. You know, when we start talking about getting our kids together from around the North Slope because they're going to be sitting in these same seats one day and to have that kind of camaraderie and trust built from a very young age, I think is very important.

So thank you for the support in that, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President. Green Bayek. Mr. Mayor, thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, Assemblywoman Bernal, for the line of questioning.

We As we look out for the health of our residents, understanding that it's physical, emotional, and spiritual, that was part of what I shared at the health conference, and I think that's a— sometimes we forget that one of the bigger crossroads of behavioral health is the spiritual aspect of it and your outlook outlook on, on life. And so when those things can change for the positive, the result may be that mental and physical health can improve also. So not leaving out the spiritual aspect of mental health, behavioral health, and physical health is what we try to incorporate. And I want to thank Director Hepa and her team for for the couple of days of approaching all of those things and recognizing that they're sewn together with our professionals that come and help in the Health Department. So thank you for recognizing that.

Last thing I'll say, I guess, in regards to this incident is let's remember to pray for peace for the family that was affected. I know that there were a few days there of things that were happening that we've had to help with, and we just, we pray for peace for the families that are hurting. That surpasses understanding, because some of these things you won't be able to reconcile in the worldly understanding. So thank Thank you. I just wanted to add about, you know, what I believe, what I've read, you know, it says don't remove the landmarks, you know.

I know they fill it up, they combat it every year through the kayaks, and I don't know if you guys ever thought of building a bridge, opening it up and building a bridge, because there's like 1, 2, 3 3 barriers that are stopping from, from the water from flowing in and out. I just, that just thought just came to mind thinking back.

Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, uh, Assemblyman Punick, for the line of questioning. Um, that, that is something that we take into consideration as far as the infrastructure and the water level management of of the middle and lower lagoon, upper lagoon included, but middle and lower is usually where we see the concern for overflow, deep waters. And so unfortunately, during the storm prior to the emergency incident, there was damage to the causeway under the road. And so that, in addition to the work that's being done with the seawall that will allow allow for kind of a surge protection so that we could drain and lower the lower lagoon kind of on demand despite what's going on in the ocean.

That will come to fruition in the next couple of years with the seawall project. And then we've worked with Public Works Department to begin to put together the PAR and ROM PAR and ROM for the replacement of that causeway. It's a causeway that was framed up, looks like the same lumber that was used for the Utilidor system, so roughly in the '80s or so is probably the last time that it got worked on. The level of the road has gone down just due to grading and maintenance over the last 20 years where you're starting to see typar on the surface, and so So all of those things will be kind of working together, whether it's the road lift, replacement of the causeway, or the seawall that will allow for us to drain even if we have that and the big surf. So thank you for bringing that up.

Mr. Mayor, do we have any other Any other questions? Mr. President, Assemblywoman Paul. Thank you, Mr. President. I thought Avayaq was going to bring this up, but to make sure that we're going to each of our communities too and hosting the same events like we've been doing here in Utqarvik. And when I think of the elders and youth I challenge them to, if we're going to have it here on the North Slope, share it and go to a different community to do it, to have more participants from those communities participate.

Um, and I was looking at the report and I was wondering if we had an update or a report of the Koktowik water. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Assembly. Senator Paul for the line of questioning. Multiple things as it relates to our water storage, reverse osmosis systems that create the water, and then the systems that keep them from freezing. So there's the north tank and the south tank in Cocteau Vic, and through our environmental management team Right, with our RIQWIN consent decree, we have drum management. That was one of the failures where there was a mislabeled drum.

It was emptied. It was chlorine. It was emptied. Used glycol was put into it. It wasn't relabeled.

The used glycol could have been from a borough contractor, from a borough employee. That's still under investigation. The used glycol was then, with the understanding that it was chlorine, brought to the water plant to dose chlorine into the south tank. Um, upon, uh, putting it in the dosing hopper, uh, they recognized that there was about, uh, 2 to 4 gallons of glycol put into the south tank, which is 3.5 million gallons, if I remember right. Um, and so that was immediately isolated.

That was one incident. Uh, That prompted us to do testing throughout the entire system for glycol, and there's two different testing regimes that we use. One is to test the chlorine levels. Glycol and chlorine fight each other and eliminates the chlorine level. So if there's glycol in the system, your chlorine test will go down, and that's the every 4-hour test that's done across all of our water sewer operations.

That was the first indication that there was glycol present in the rest of the system, even though that south tank was isolated. So then it led us to doing boil tests that have to go to the labs in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Takes about 2 weeks. There's chain of custody involved with the testing to make sure that, you know, there's a documented chain of custody so that they can't be altered. That one tests what exactly is in the water.

And so there's the, the test that says that the chlorine numbers are good, and then there's the test that tells you what exactly is in the water. And so the test that every 4 hours, the field test that says that, um, that the chlorine levels are good, was the first indication that there was glycol in the entire system, even though we knew that the contaminated 3.5 million gallons was isolated. And so that sent us on a source detection process throughout the entire system while we were waiting for the boiled samples to come in to tell us exactly the amount and type of glycol, because there's food-safe glycol and there's heavy equipment glycol. And so, um, a number of things were taken into consideration. There was a water sewer cut that was near the waste heat loop system from the powerhouse, so that was considered as one of the ways that glycol could have entered the system, where they opened the water line.

If you don't maintain pressure while you're fixing it, then there's reason for contamination. That wasn't found to have been the issue. Any standing glycol within the pit that they dug up from the waste heat loop system was not found to be the issue. We We began checking boiler systems in individual homes. If they don't have backflow preventers, they might pump glycol into the system.

That was not found to be an issue. Simultaneously, we were checking all heat exchangers, and so in the north tank, we found a heat exchanger that was installed in 2003, didn't receive replacement, maintenance schedule, anything like that, that was leaking roughly 50 PSI per hour of glycol. And so that was rectified, changed. We drained out that north tank. We're just on the last few feet of creating new water with reverse osmosis right now to replenish that.

All waste heat loop— or not waste heat loop, all heat exchangers are being put on schedule to be changed. And then implementing an SOP for testing and maintaining them on an annual basis. The other component of this is that water work criteria for your wastewater Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 operators in the state of Alaska follow federal water treatment and creation criteria. And there's no policy as it relates to glycol testing mandated from the DEC because glycol and waste heat exchangers are only used in the state of Alaska. And so that's one of the lessons learned that we've taken away is that we need to mandate glycol testing.

So technically we're in compliance, but we're not testing for glycol. We're not testing for glycol, even though we have heat exchangers that use glycol. And so we're working with DEC to make that a requirement. To get your Level 1, 2, 3, or 4 operator certificate, you need to have the training to do the— to implement the glycol training in accordance with DEC, and your system won't be certified without that SOP and training for the contractor. And so those are a couple of the lessons learned.

The other is, as it relates to the environmental management perspective, the labeling of drums, waste drums, new drums, continuing to tighten that down. I believe we now have the compliance officer employed in Qaqtoowik, and that allows for the checks and balances for Public Works to making sure that labeling, all of the RCRA consent decree requirements are being met. And so the other aspect of this is the boil test results that came back, they don't align with the amount of glycol that is even present in either of the systems. The math says that it should have been roughly 400 gallons of undiluted glycol, which all waste glycol that would be put into that drum would be 60/40, 70/30, or 50/50. So that would have had to have been, uh, like 6 drums of 50/50 diluted glycol in order to get to that amount.

So the other thing that we're starting to do is the field test kits that give you a color on a, on a more frequent basis. So we're doing field test kits for glycol, not just chlorine only, that will give you a live color. It takes about 5 minutes to give you a notice that there's either glycol present in the system or not. So that's being rolled into the SOPs, and then we're replacing all heat exchangers, as I mentioned, across a slope, in addition to the quarterly testing, pressure testing of the heat exchanger. So it's about all I can remember off the top of my head from the Khaktovik situation.

But the, the do not drink designation that comes from DEC has been lifted based on the positive test results that came back from the lab in Pennsylvania.

—So, you know, Mayor, hope that helps. Do we have any other questions?

Mr. President, Assemblyman Brunell. Thank you. And just to follow up with that, do we have a cost on what that incident has cost the borough so far financially? Not yet. It'll be— it'll be up there, though.

I think we chartered in with rights, cases of water. There was some good neighbor policy help by ConocoPhillips, which I think we just pay for fuel. So probably a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of cost associated with their response. So that includes the draining of the tank and change out of the heat exchanger. So—.

Follow up. Yeah, just— I know Trina said something about more going out to the villages. I know I talked to Health Department staff and talking about the trilaterals and making sure there's real engagement there once they step away, in a sense, to take ownership in their villages and their communities in events. So, and obviously the elders use there's probably infrastructure issues there and to bring in that amount of people. So thank you.

Do we have any other questions on the mayor's status report?

Mr. President, Mayor, just on that local control, self-determination, we're an open door to all of the leaders of the different trilateral organizations. One of the things that I I really enjoy is when we get to like Easter or Pīraahteh, or even Christmas game holidays, I ask the city mayors to help choose which holidays the borough should recognize for that community. That's a surface thing, but with all of our EIEP funding, really any opportunities that the borough provides in partnership with the communities, we really work hard to make sure that they're they're given the opportunity to create that event or that budget with borough resources at the local level. And then it makes it very simple to hold accountable that that local leadership is helping decide how the borough functions in their community. So we'll continue to do that.

I know with all of the engagement that the different departments participate in, there's as much communication as we can try to do with the trilaterals of each of the communities, or the bilateral in the case of Pointe-lez. So thank you. Any other questions?

Any other discussion?

Question? Question has been called for. All those in favor of the adoption and approval of the mayor's status report, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. I was supposed to say nay. Hearing none, Mr. Mayor, your status report has been approved by the assembly. Thank you for the discussion and approval.

Next item is 6C, monthly financial report. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. We have the executive summary that goes into high-level detail of the attached presentation below. Feel free to ask any questions as it relates to any of the items, and I'll ask Director Lamani to walk us through the executive summary.

Director Alemanni. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. For the record, Fidel Alemanni, Director of Finance. For your consideration is the monthly financial report for the month of August 31st, 2026. This is the second month of the new fiscal year, and we opened the financial position of the borough with great strength, strength following another year of a very strong financial performance for fiscal year 2026.

On the revenues for the general fund, we saw approximately $630.1 million, which represents about 117% of the $536 million of the approved budget. As you all recall, whenever we put the fiscal year '27 budget, we take a conservative measure in relation to the assessed value, which was at about $28 billion. That assessed value came in a substantially higher figure at $34.9 billion, which resulted in additional $125 million in additional revenues. And that will be reflected on the monthly financial report, uh, as the supplemental appropriation was done at the September 15th assembly meeting. So we'll see those resources being allocated accordingly.

With respect to the intergovernmental revenues, we have $1.1 million thus far in the few months into the new fiscal year. The charges for services at $615,000 and the investment earnings relative to Central Treasury within the general fund are at approximately $2.4 million. On the expenditures, been relatively a slow start on a department-wide level. We show $69.8 million through August 31st, 2026, which represents approximately 13% of the overall $529.8 million. Of that, we have, from the department's standpoint, approximately $46.1 million, or 12% of the departmental appropriations.

Thus far, we've been able to make available $19.4 million to our component unit, the school district, which by municipal code were required to provide the 50% appropriation. And we're getting ready to, uh, here in the next month, uh, be able to administer the other portion of the, uh, appropriation. On the Ilyasović College, we've been able to thus far appropriate $4.4 million, um, and as we stand for the general fund thus far, we see approximately $560.3 million at month end, which is revenue exceeding the expenditures. This by all means does not mean that, um, it's the surplus that we have. It's just a matter of timing of when cash flow— obviously we receive property tax revenues way before the advancement of the new fiscal year, and so we recognize the expenditures, uh, over time.

Also, no debt service has been made. We make that semi-annually. Once in December, by December 31st, where we have interest-only payments, and then June 30th is when we have the substantial portion where we have principal as well as interest. With respect to the capital improvements, as of August 31st, 2026, we've had approximately $1.6 billion in total appropriations with respect to the capital projects. The to-date expenditures have totaled approximately $1.169 billion, and encumbrances have totaled approximately $170 million, which brings the total project costs of approximately $1.3 billion, or 84% of the total appropriations.

The month-end activity was slightly over $1 million. And then moving over to the enterprise funds, as you all know, the enterprise funds activity is reported on a cash basis on a monthly level and then converted to the modified accrual basis at the end of the fiscal year. Thus far, we're seeing for Service Area 10 revenues of approximately $3.5 million and a net positive position of approximately $33.3 million. On the real property management, we see a net position of approximately $204,000. The power generation and distribution reported a net operating loss of approximately $1.3 million, and the technical training reported net operating loss of approximately $222,000.

As part of the fiscal year '27 budget, we had approximately $29.5 million of operating transfers from the general fund that goes primarily to the power generation and distribution. We anticipate on doing 75% of that appropriation at some point in the fiscal year. And then at the end of the fiscal year, when we go through the audit process, we do a true-up for the remainder 25%. Also something worth noting that we've discussed in a couple of different times at the assembly level is with respect to Service Area 10. We've been undergoing through a feasibility assessment with Burns and McDonald relative to adjusting our rates for the water wastewater, as well as considering going before the Regulatory Commission of Alaska for the solid waste rates.

We're nearing that completion of that analysis, and we'll be looking forward to bringing those results to the assembly in the coming months. And our hope is to be able to adjust our rates, knowing that they've been stagnant for more than, uh, 10 years since we last evaluated those.

On the investments in, in fund balance on the central treasury side, the portfolio totaled approximately $1.23 $1.3 billion as of August 31st, 2026, in comparison to $1.274 from the last month. Uh, this consists approximately of $500 million in the operating fund, $200 million in the intermediate fund, and approximately $532 million in the bond proceeds across 25 different, uh, funds. This represents slightly a $40.9 million from the last month, and this is just due to the normal daily operations of the departments. And the Intermediate Fund has remained stagnant relatively. It's actually increased over time just because of the reinvestment that, that takes place.

The Permanent Fund continues to grow. We have an all-time high of approximately $1.4 $4.7 billion, which is an increase of approximately 1% or $14.2 billion from the last month. A lot of the increase is primarily driven by global equities, and it's due to the quarterly reports on the corporate level, the optimism around AI as well as tech. That's where we've seen the majority of the increase of approximately 13.2%. Or $13.2 million or 1.79%.

We also saw private equity that contributed to additional $1.4 million or 0.68%. Performance across alternative asset classes was mixed. Real assets declined by $1.1 million or 0.72%, partially offsetting gains elsewhere in the portfolio. And the absolute return strategies increased by slightly under 8%. Overall, the portfolio is well balanced and diversified, and we're seeing continued increase of the entire net position of the permanent fund.

Also, something worth noting relative to the permanent fund, as part of the FY '27 supplemental it was the mayor's commitment in wanting to see us invest additional dollars, and we're getting ready to appropriate the $2 million commitments that we had made for the permanent fund.

Moving over to the debt service, the borough's outstanding general obligations bonds principal total approximately $410 million at August 31st, 2026, with approximately $70 million in interest, bringing that total to $480.2 million. We have a scheduled debt service of $100.3 million as of June 30, 2027. We're also in the midst of— while we've been able to invest significantly in a lot of the capital improvements infrastructure, in fact, I think under the mayor's administration, we've had more than $660 million of infrastructure investment that we made, we're also taking the measure of being able to take some of that debt out way in advance. And we're going through a process right now of defeezing a lot of the school-related bonds, which is approximately $54 million. And a lot of these bonds had longer-term maturities, 10 years out, and that was primarily due to the school debt reimbursement program.

And because that program has been suspended at the legislative level, at the state level, we are going to take some of that debt out because there's no point of us being able to incur the expense when we have the resources to be able to take some of that out.

I want to say that the NPV savings on that one, last time I think we conducted the calculation, saves us a few million dollars at least. And one of the principles or policies that we have in any time that we're evaluating for the opportunity to defuse debt is we have to make sure that there's cost savings in doing that. But also, it also positions the borough from a fiscal policy standpoint, which one of the points that I'm going to make here with respect to the rating agencies.

Last, moving on the grants activity. As of August 31st, 2026, our grant portfolio is approximately $160 million in total awards, which approximately $65.3 million has been expended to date and about $19.8 million was encumbered, leaving approximately $72 million available on a combined Basis approximately $85.2 million or 54% of the total grant awards.

You good? Thanks. With that, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, with respect to the grants We are in the process of finalizing our NPRA applications for the second round, which is approximately— we're estimating the funding to be at approximately $18 million. We're going to be meeting here soon to be able to finalize that list and be able to submit that to the state of Alaska. And on a final note, what I'll reference is that recently we had our bond rating meetings in relation to the 2026 bonds, and we went out to New York and met with the rating agencies, and we made a strong push with both S&P and Kroll.

And I'm here to present to you— while we didn't get a full notch increase, S&P improved their credit outlook for the borough from a stable to a positive, and a lot of that is due to the financial position of the borough, the reserves that we have, the sound fiscal management policies coupled with the increase in the fund balance of the permanent fund. All of those things attributed to a favorable rating outlook. What that means also is that within the next 16 months Assuming all things equal and things are relatively stable, S&P would look to making an improvement to the credit, which means that they would upgrade us to an AA+. And so I just wanted to share that with the assembly with respect to the borough's financial position. And Madam Chair, I open that to the assembly for any questions you may have.

Have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Director Lamani, for the monthly financial report. Do we have any questions or comments from the assembly?

Madam President, assembly person. Thank you, Madam President. Um, thank you, Director Lamani. Thank you, Tony, for the financial report. Um, did I hear you say that you're— the board's finalizing the second round of the NPRA grants, that $18 million?

Through the chair, yes, that's correct. We have a preliminary assessment that was done with respect to the underlying underlying communities. We went through a process of looking at the NPRA requests coupled with the supplemental funding that we had made available, including the capital projects as well. And we have a comprehensive list of what those are. We just need to go through the deliberate process of understanding what we want to push forward on the funding of the $18 million.

Okay, so thank you. Just to follow up, Madam President, so the— just to get a better understanding, those projects weren't picked out yet from the PRC committee, or is that— do they do those? NPRA grants get approved from the PRC?

Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. For the line of questioning. No, the project requests— we put out a request to all departments for NPRA grant funding opportunities, and then they turn in their requests. We judge them based on a number of different criteria and making sure that in the example of senior vans that we got approved for the NPRA communities, making sure that the other communities that are not NPRA also getting senior vans.

Those types of things is what we discuss. And then we bring them to the assembly for your guys' resolution approval. And then that's submitted. Again, we're not in charge of the NPRA grant distribution. That's submitted to the Department of Commerce and Community and Economic Development, and they have a member— they have a committee made up of members at their discretion within the department to judge the different grant requests by city first, so each city gets priority.

And then if there's any money left over from a project, from, from the project list from the cities, then they begin to judge the borough projects. And so, um, it in a way it could be seen as competing with the communities, but that preference is given to the city government levels, which I think is a good thing. And then Separately, we've been working on the NPRA endowment that the assembly adopted the structure for a number of months ago, and that would require what we believe is a change in Code of Federal Regulations, so a change in the law from Congress to recognize that endowment model, which we have support from all of our city governments in the North Slope So I guess 3 different things that are moving similarly. PRC, the NPRA grant process, and then the NPRA endowment as a separate thing. So thank you for the line of questioning.

Okay, Mayor, hope that helps. Koba. Thank you, Mr. President and Mr. Mayor. Just one more follow-up. Um, I know the borough usually takes, uh, Malid on that second round of, uh, NPRA grants for, um, whatever the borough's needs are.

Um, are you going to— is this borough pushing for more funding towards the, um, needs in the outlying communities with that? Second round of funding as well? I mean, through the cities, or is the borough competing with the city governments on the second round? Is that how it's done?

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly, Assemblymember Napakayak. Um, as the mayor noted a little bit earlier, is that our— as we approach NPRA in the selection process, as we give deference, primary deference to the communities in every which possible way we can. But also understanding from a capacity standpoint, as a lot of these MPRA funds start to ramp in, a lot of the communities and the cities don't have necessarily the administrative capability, meaning to scale that quickly. And so that's generally when the North Shore Borough will step in on the back end to making sure that we have projects readily available to request in excess of what we believe the funding to be available in any given one year, just so that way it doesn't go to the state, because then ultimately goes through a waterfall effect where once they meet the set— the expectations of the impacted communities that are most severely impacted by resource developments, then it goes through a waterfall effect to where it goes to their education fund, it goes to the permanent fund, and ultimately their general government spend.

And so our objective is to put more requests than they possibly can, uh, even if they consider denying some projects, just so that way we're not leaving money on the table. And so that deference again is given to the impacted communities first, and the borough comes on the back end.

Thank you. Hope that helps. Uh, Director Lamani, um, one last question, Mr. President. Good. Um, so the NPRA grants that are funded, they're followed through with the, um, what's that community, uh Board was just here for that, the mayor mentioned earlier.

Department of Commerce and Community and Economic Development? No, the, uh, the comprehensive plan, um, that our communities have in place. That is that what the majority, um, how the, uh, board applies for our, or what prioritizing our needs are for the community, is that through the comprehensive plan? Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Mayor.

Mayor, thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly listening out in— for the line of questioning. No, the comprehensive plan is designed to inform the 6-year capital plan, which we've never actually implemented a 6-year capital plan until this coming year, where now we have the broad authorization that allows us to from the voters to fund the $1.5 billion 6-year capital plan, and then we're left to administer it. And so what you'll begin to see in the next, uh, probably 12 months is a change in the, uh, you'll see the reality of the change that we've made with the, um, capital budget process. And that's as projects are available to move on, we can secure the funding for, so it doesn't require the annual annual authorization from the voters to indebt the borough for those different sections that have been authorized. And so the comprehensive plan through Titles 18 and 19 in the Planning Department inform the 6-year capital plan.

The 6-year capital plan then goes through the PRC process and the PRC committee to— in conjunction with the Finance Department, fund that year's capital budget. So in the prior years, you've seen $75 million, $90 million when I was on the assembly, $110 million the year before I took office, $100— $200 million the year that we took office, $140 million and $180 million with a blend of $150 of debt and $30 of cash this last year. And so that comprehensive plan informs the 6-year capital plan, which the PRC committee works off of to fund In prior years, we've only been able to fund that lower amount for that next calendar year— fiscal year. And so now with the broad authorization— I didn't even check, I think it passed— we have authorization to come to the Assembly via resolution to authorize the administration to indent the borough for different projects under that $1.5 billion 6-year capital plan. So the comprehensive plan, to your question, has never been fully executed because we couldn't fund a 6-year capital plan, and that's what we've done differently.

And so we're now— now that you guys canvassed the election results, we now have authority from the voters to fund the 6-year capital plan, and we're entering into new waters. So I hope that helps inform your line of questioning. It doesn't necessarily speak to the prioritization of NPRA grants, the comprehensive plan. It speaks to the capital budget process. So now, if we're able to get the endowment model ratified by Congress, we can have the endowment money that would automatically capitalize annual basis from the Department of Treasury, United States, a percentage of all rents, royalties, bonuses, and leases within the NPRA into this account that would be interest-bearing, much like the permanent fund.

And then based on the framework that we asked the Assembly to adopt, it would allow for a committee made up of each of the city mayors or designees from the NPRA communities with the tiebreaker as the sitting mayor. Of the borough to prioritize funding up to 8% of whatever the total value of that account is, which would be growing every year from the funding that would be coming from the NPRA. We would also seed fund it. $20 Million is what we put— $25 million that we put forth in the ordinance. And then I believe we'd be at the point of of having the PRC debt process that works off the comprehensive plan work in conjunction with the NPRA Endowment Committee program.

And so we get to a point of essentially being able to pay cash for more stuff versus getting into debt for things. And so I guess in the simplest example, it would be that we go to Powersports and we buy 4 snow machines and we pay if we're 3 of them with cash and 1 of them with debt, those different cash amounts, uh, 1 snow machine would probably be bought from the endowment model, 2 would be bought from just rolling cash that we have, uh, and then 1 would be bought with debt. And so we would be, um, in a more cash-positive situation, uh, for the health of the borough. Don't quote me on those exact numbers, but that's the model that we're looking forward to pursuing with all of these different moving parts. So I hope that helps.

Green up, Mr. Mayor. Hope that helps. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for a pretty clear picture of, um, what the administration— your administration is pushing for. And, um, that's— I look forward to that model. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any other questions? Mr. President, move to approve the financial report for month ending August 31, 2026. Motion by Frederick.

It's been seconded by Robin. Do we have any other discussion, any other questions? Mr. President, it's Raymond Bernal. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Director Lamonti, for the monthly financial report, and Mr. Mayor, for some of the responses. And some of the keywords I heard was Congress, government, um, and even in the mayor's status report, a candidate.

Understanding in the next 30 days there's going to be an election and what we saw prior with their governor was the threats to our revenues, in our taxation. Have we had any talks with candidates from our end as to expectations, things to look out for, whether it's oil and gas, in our region?

I, I just don't want to be surprised by a new governor comes in and says, you know, we're going to take away their tax base kind of attitude.

I guess just any kind of insight as to what the candidates' priorities are around the state and in our region. Thank you. Green Bayak, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. I'm in Bernal for the line of questioning.

Short answer is yes. Before the primary, we had 16 or 20 candidates. I don't remember. Had—. Was it 17?

We had outreach with what we determined to be kind of the more popular ones and those policy discussions around what things are important to the North Slope as it relates to both balancing resource development onshore, opposition to offshore development, but also as it relates to protecting the tax base that not only affects the North Slope Borough as a borough, but all other boroughs, including Fairbanks North Star, Denali Borough, and Kenai Borough, and Valdez. And so we have outreach letters of request for meetings with 3 of the 4 candidates. One of them has responded. We have established relationships friendships and have hosted a few of the candidates in our home, in my home at least, 3 of them over the last 4 years or so. So we'll see what November brings.

And I think the other aspect of this is the governor can't do anything without the legislature, right? And as we've seen the attacks on our tax base or on the NPRA grant program, we've been able to work closely with members of the legislature to make sure that those are kept intact.

So trying to walk and chew gum at the same time as it relates to the candidates that are running for governor. So I hope that helps.

Any follow-up? Why? No, you're good. Any other questions?

We have a motion. Question has been called for. All those in favor of the adoption and approval of the monthly financial report, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay. Hearing none, our monthly financial report has been adopted and approved by the assembly. Mr. Mayor, clean up for the deliberation, discussion and adoption. Mr. President, if I might, last thing that we're going to be working on as it relates to the monthly financial report in the next few months is a report on the investments that are allowed under the ordinance change that we asked the assembly to adopt a number of months ago as it relates to 10% of the value of the last fiscal year of the permanent fund being invested for the purposes of driving investment in the North Slope. We have some pretty good news initially, but we'll put the empirical data together to present to the assembly.

One of the investments, I think, netted 5x in the first little bit. So we look forward to presenting the proof in the pudding as it relates to some of the plans that we put in place. Very good. You know, next item is 6D, memo to the North Slope Assembly from Mayor Josiah Putcutt, dated October 13, 2026, re: request for confirmation of the Chief Administrative Officer. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President, for reading the subject and date from myself to the assembly. I'm formally seeking confirmation of appointment of Scott K.S. Danner as the Chief Administrative Officer for the North Slope Borough in accordance with North Slope Borough Municipal Code 5.070, subsection A. Scott K.S. Danner has called Barrow home since 1974. His life and career reflect hard work, adaptability, and a deep respect for community.

Starting as a teenager construction laborer in Barrow, he advanced through the trades, established a successful contracting business, and later served as Chief Operating Officer in the corporate sector. Continuing to learn at every step, when he first joined the North Slope Borough in 2017, he brought a private sector perspective focused on efficiency, accountability, and employee development. As Director of Public Works, Scott emphasized mentorship, continuous improvement, and practical leadership. He encouraged employees to question established practices, learn through experiences, and pursue purpose over position. His leadership supported the department's commitment to reliable, essential services services, innovation, and strong community relationship, and we look forward to the experience and knowledge he will bring to his new responsibilities.

Scott and his wife Corinne share a family of 8 children and 20 grandchildren, and I expect him to honestly answer any questions that might come from the assembly, and I would ask that he come and share a few words to the listening audience.

Green up, Mr. Mayor.

Maybe, maybe before Mr. Scott gets the floor, let's get to action by the Assembly. Move to approve the confirmation of the Chief Administrative Officer, Scott Taylor. Motion is confirmation. Second.

Under discussion. Do you have any questions?

Comments? From me?

Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Director Danner. For the record, Scott Danner.

I want to thank the mayor for his confidence in me. I look forward to his vision. I share his vision for the borough. I look forward to implementing those things. So I'm just happy to be here and proud to be part of this team.

That's all I have. Only since 1974. Okay, only since 1974. Yes, and I was a teenager once, once upon a time. Yes.

Any other, uh, discussion on the motion?

Question hasn't called for. All those in favor of the confirmation of CAO Danner, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Who's opposed, say nay. Hearing none, confirmation has been approved by the assembly, Mr. Mayor, and congratulations. Mr. Danner, we look forward to working with you.

Next item, 6D, memo to the North Slope Borough Assembly from Mayor Josiah Putkuduk, dated October 13, 2026, re: request for confirmation of the B, confirmation of the borough attorney. Sorry about that. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. Let me find the proper memo for the borough attorney.

Thank you.

Since you read the date and to and from, confirmation of borough attorney Memo 26-89, please confirm my appointment of Won H. Kim as the borough attorney for the North Slope Borough in accordance with North Slope Borough Municipal Code 2.10.020, subsection B. 2.10.020, Subsection B. Won was born in South Korea and came to the United States at the age of 11. Her parents are Chi and Young Kim. After graduating from law school, she practiced as an attorney in a private law firm in New York specializing in real estate law for nearly a decade before joining the North Slope Borough Department of Law in February of 2020 as an assistant borough attorney.

She has served in the role of borough attorney since January 2026. Juan first visited Qałuvik in January 2020 on a family vacation and fell in love with the Arctic, which led her to relocate her life permanently to Qałuvik. And for the last 6 years, she has loved learning and experiencing the Inupiaq culture and deeply appreciates the friendship and respect that she received from the community. She is committed to continue working for all people of the North Slope Borough and hopefully the nirlaks that she plucked this spring she's had the chance to eat. So please consider my appointment, Mr.

President, members of the assembly. Mayor, what's the wish of the assembly? Move to approve. There's a motion to approve. Second.

Been seconded. Any discussion?

Any questions for the—. Any questions? Really?

Call for question. Question has been called for. All those in favor of the approval of the confirmation for Borough Attorney Juan H. Kim, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Hearing none, confirmation has been approved by the assembly.

Mr. Mayor, clean up.

Ms. Kim, did you want to share a few words?

Madam Counsel. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly, listening audience. Wan Kim, Borough Attorney, for the record. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to continue serving the borough in this role. It's a great privilege and an honor, and I don't take that lightly.

So I'll continue doing my best to support the borough. Thank you. Congratulations. We look forward to working with you.

Like my good old friend Oliver used to say, gotta watch out for the accountants and the lawyers.

Next item is 6F, memo to the North Slope Borough Assembly from Mayor Josiah Patkodak, dated October 13, 2026, re: request for confirmation for Chief of Police. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly. In accordance with North Slope Borough Municipal Code 10.040.020, subsection B, please confirm my appointment appointment of Jeffrey Brown as the North Slope Borough Police Chief. Chief Brown has served as the North Slope Borough Police Chief since 2018, which is the longest serving police chief that we've had in the last, uh, 3 decades or so.

In addition to his work for the borough, Chief Brown serves on the executive board of the Alaska Police Standards Council, the executive board of the Alaska High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, and is a member of the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs for the Alaska State Defense Force. Amidst his demanding roles, Chief Brown finds strength and support in his wife Misty, who teaches second grade at Apalik Elementary, and their son Carter. Chief Brown embodies dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to enhancing his community, the organizations he serves, and the broader field of law enforcement. Thank you for your consideration, Assembly members. We look forward to any questions.

What's the wish of the Assembly? There's a motion to adopt. Second. Second it. Any discussion?

Question has been called for. All those in favor of the confirmation of Chief Brown, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Those opposed, say nay. Hearing none, Chief Brown has been confirmed, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President. Deep Brown. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. First off, I truly appreciate the continued opportunity to serve the North Slope Borough and the community I appreciate the continued vote of confidence. It's not an easy job that I do.

I appreciate the open conversations that we're able to have and that I'm able to have with the community. It's the accountability, and I hope to be able to continue to build where we're weak. And ultimately, my goal would be to get as close as I possibly can to giving the police department that the community deserves. And that's all I could say. Thank you.

Thank you. And congratulations again.

Next item is 6G, memo to the North Slope Board Assembly from Mayor Josiah Puttkudock, dated October 13, 2026. Hari, request for confirmation for treasurer. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly listening audience, to establish The last officer of the borough is the authority of treasurer. We didn't have enough time to get the full bio sent in before yesterday, so maybe we can have Lamani speak a little bit to his work history.

But simply put, please confirm my appointment of Fidel Lamani as treasurer for the North Slope Borough in accordance with North Slope Borough Municipal Code 3.01.020, subsection B. Thank you for your consideration. Mr. Mayor, what's the wish of the assembly? There's a motion to approve. Second.

Any discussion? Any questions?

Any additions? Subtractions?

Just—. Mr. President, I said we've been—. Brunell. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor, before we move on, you know, Chief Brown, when I, when I think of the appointments of who we're looking at and the seriousness of your guys' job to protect and serve not only the community, the financials, legal counsel, our communities, the mayor, and that kind of support, I just want to tell you guys thank you.

Having sat here for the last 2 to 3 years, 2 to 3 years, watching how stressful the job could be, highly criticized at times, and not wavering in that support to the North Slope Borough and its residents. So I just want to tell you guys, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Arigato.

Green. Any other? Any other discussion?

Question has been called for. All those in favor of the confirmation of Fadila Lamani as National Board Treasurer, do so by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Those opposed say nay. Having none, the confirmation of Board Treasurer Fadila Lamani has been approved by the assembly. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Under 60 seconds. We're out of budget for time. Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. I want to thank you all. Thank the mayor for his continued support.

And trust in my ability to lead the finances of the borough. It's truly a privilege, uh, and an honor. As I spend and reflect over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, I've learned a lot over the years, learned a lot about being able to deal with a lot complex financial situations.

But the most important piece that I've learned in those 20 years has been spending time here on the North Slope, learning a lot from a lot of the elders that are no longer here, being able to reflect on what's important for the work that we do. Humility, respect, the care for the culture, and knowing that the work we do, it's not about any one individual, but it's for those that are around us. And that's something that has resonated with me for better part of 20 years when I first set in front of the assembly then.

I don't take my role lightly. It's something that I take great pride, um, and, uh, work long hours, and my family can attest to that. And I couldn't do it without their unwavering support. And over the last 18 months, I've truly had the atmost honor working with the mayor and understanding the vision that he has for the region, the North Slope, of what we want to accomplish. Uh, it's truly phenomenal, and for me to be part of that process, um, greatly humbled, deeply appreciate the continued support and And I look forward to serving as the director of finance, and I will uphold the borough's finances in the most compliance, yet yielding the highest benefit to our residents.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mr. President, and members of the assembly.

Thank you, Fredille. Reminds me of your relationship with our late leader Jake Adams and the standards that he, he had. And it also reminds me of the time we were able to introduce you to Uncle Isaac Akutik and some of the tough questions that he had for you at that time. Time. So again, congratulations.

Uh, item 6H, memo to the North Slope Borough Assembly from Mayor Josiah Potkodok, dated October 13, 2026, re nepotism report. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. Uh, in compliance with the municipal code, uh, this is just a notice of the action authorized for the nepotism waiver dated 26-78, in accordance with Municipal Code 2.20.170, subsection 8, subsection 4, no appointment shall be made to any position where such appointment would constitute or appear to constitute nepotism by the direct supervising employee or the appointing authority unless waived by the mayor and reported to the assembly. This prohibition includes hiring of a person who cohabits with, is the spouse of, or is related by blood or marriage within and including the second second-degree of kindred to the direct supervising employee or appointing authority.

Second-degree of kindred means a person who is by blood or marriage a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister in a full, half, or step relationship. For the clerk's office to conduct the gaps in election workers, we have in the community of Barrow, Ambrosia Levitt, who is sibling with Sheila Burke, and she served as an election chairperson for Barrow Annie Burke, who is the daughter of Sheila Burke, served as an election judge, for your consideration and review. I know the clerk is upstairs working on runoff election stuff, but if there are any questions in regards to this waiver, we can ask her to come and speak to the assembly. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any questions from the assembly?

Mr. Cooley, on the report.

I think it's just a report. There's no action required. Thank you. With that, we'll take a 7.5-minute break.

That's the wonder, the wonder of you, Winnie.

Para la rifsy ou vengakoutour akpik, welcome to KBRW's Inupiaq Word of the Day. Today's word is arigaa.

Arigaa means good, oh how nice, and is spelled A-A-R-I-G-A-A. A person might say, arigaa sakenyak nuy nyalitxok. Good, the sun will be rising over the horizon again. You can also use this word in this way: "Aadigaakwea suktuni." It's good to be happy. That is today's Inupiaq Word of the Day, "aadigaak." It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday.

He says, Bill, I believe this is killing me, as a smile ran away from his face. Well, I'm sure that I could be—. We'll call the North Slope Borough Assembly meeting public hearing back to order.

It is now 3:56. Next item on our agenda is Nunáknin Tusaayuk Kuwat. Community/assembly comments and audience participation.

An individual with a concern must go to the teleconference centre in their community, be respectful, no obscene or vulgar language, no threats or language that may defame the character or reputation of another No language that may incite violence and no fraudulent comments. Please note that the Nusilu Borough will refrain from making public comments on matters under ongoing investigation or pending litigation. Please state your name for the record, and each participant will have a 3-minute limit unless an exception is granted. Cree Nakpuk. We'll start with Anuktuq Pass.

Do we have any comments, concerns, questions from Anuktuq Pass? You're on mute. Oh, hi. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. President.

There is only myself here, Susan Cameron, at the Tall Conference Center. There's no one here at this time for for concerns or comments.

All right, Green Susan and, uh, looking real good, what, seeing plenty of tutu up there. So good afternoon to everyone up there.

You all too up there.

What a blessing. Yeah, moving on to City of Atkasuk. Do we have any comments, concerns?

Good afternoon, this is Della Saravan with the mayor's office. The only one here, no concerns right now. Thank you, and good afternoon to everyone Moving on to City of Cocteauvik. Do we have any concerns, questions, or comments?

Good afternoon from Cocteauvik. Good afternoon. I have Cynthia Adams and George Kolyak Sr. with the mayor's office and myself, No concerns. Good afternoon. Good afternoon to everyone there in Cocteau.

Moving on to City of Nooksit. Do we have any concerns, questions, or comments from Kukpikmoot?

Good afternoon from Nooksit, Mary Campbell, Mayor's Office. I have one resident here.

Good afternoon. For the record, Bernice.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. First of all, I would like to, um, ask the clerk or someone to send the municipal ordinance or code in regards to the PRC committee and um, who's involved in it, and also for the city, um, where they stand on how to get, um, graded for NPRA grants. I would like those codes sent this way so we can follow the process, because it seems like Nooksack is always, um, last. In any kind of funding. So, um, to be fair, I would like to see those codes or ordinances if you have them and send them to this office here, and we can pick them up.

That's my first request. And the second one I have is, um, uh, I, I'm not sure who or where the AI data center stands within our region, and if the North Slope Borough has information on that, where it's accessible for the public to see, and whether the North Slope Borough has approved this AI data center 60 miles west of here.

And my other next question is regarding how can, how can we stop the outside sports hunters hunters coming to our area like they did at the Northwest Arctic Borough.

We are in competition with them when they shut them off for the sports hunters and then they move to our area. And I think it's going to be more affect for us that live here.

And I would like to know another thing because we live in the heart of industry and we've had firsthand knowledge and impact from industry. And we're just trying to sustain our way of life with caribou. And one of those mitigation measures was with willow, with our conservation And I don't understand why Nosloboro or ICAS or anyone from that department will support this. It's just to protect the caribou. I understand your free will to make money out of taxation, but I feel like if we do more harm to the caribou, you're going to spend more money to feed us.

And with food we don't really want to eat. So there's got to be a give and take with helping us in the community of Nooksack. We've been impacted by oil industries for many decades, and we've learned to live with them by no choice. But when our own municipal government or our own region Conservation don't support this community.

It— I don't know how can we address or fix that.

I know there's a seat open to make sure and ensure that conservation stands. It's only to protect the caribou. I understand that you say we did not get a hold of the Native allotment owners. I mean, they still have free will to have access and to hunt and to do what they do with their Native allotments.

We know firsthand Willow has deterred the migration of the herd from that area. We have to, you know, go a long ways. I mean, these young guys can handle the ATVs on the Nuna, but for us older hunters. It's, it's, it's not like how we used to be able to get on the river and we can get to them and be back in an hour. That migratory route has been altered and changed by CD 567.

And then also, I don't know where does the borough stand with, uh, CD8, which is so close to our community. I feel like there is no support from anyone in our region for this community.

So I would like to know where the borough stands. We have 3 more years with the new— many more years with the new mayor. Congratulations.

And make sure you send us the guidelines as to the PRC committee, first of all, because we would like more funding coming to our community. All of our buildings are aging, and I'm sure all of your borough buildings are aging. And I was sad that we didn't— or the borough didn't apply for funding for other sources that could help.

I did notify your directors, and, um, there's other ways to fund heating systems and garage doors and furnitures in your buildings, and I'm Sad to see when the borough don't jump on these opportunities when it comes to the federal government. Thank you.

Green Bernice, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. Bernice, for your questions, first on the municipal code for the PRC, we'll send over the references via paper with probably the law department making sure they're available to the mayor's office liaisons for more expeditious reference, if you Google North Slope Municipal Code, you can pull up the municipal code as it is and then there's a search tab in there. And if you just look up project review committee, it will give the outline anywhere that that's referenced in the municipal code. The other way— the other thing to search is comprehensive plan or 6-year capital plan.

But we'll send over the the actual code references and the paper copies. As it relates to the grading for the NPRA grants, that's something that DCCED does. The state of Alaska, the North Slope Borough, does not grade. We submit grant applications just like everyone else. We do know that there is a preference for the city governments that have turned in grant applications, so they get priority over the boroughs.

The borough submits grant applications so that there isn't any money left on the table, because if it doesn't go to the cities, if the Department of Commerce determines through that committee that those projects that the cities request aren't eligible for funding, then nobody else is requesting that funding. It goes into the state accounts and they use it for 3 different waterfall things, and we could send that reference of that law over onto how that works. I do know that the city of New York City participated in the same scoping meeting, um, I think it was September 20, uh, with the DCCED, and so there's more information available from them for that. But we'll send over the reference of the state law that guides the NPRA grant grading process. As far as AI data centers.

The data center that you're speaking of is about 20 miles south of Prudhoe Bay in the Great Bear Unit. The North Slope Borough has nothing to do with that project. It's run by Stak Energy, S-T-A-K, and they turned in a study permit earlier this year, and based on that study permit, I've had the planning department looking at specific permitting requirements for data centers, because right now any industrial development that happens within the North Slope Borough falls within Title 18-19, which are flow downs of state law. And so there isn't any specific state law or borough ordinance that guides, um, the permitting process for data centers. And so Planning Department, I've directed them to begin the research associated with the powers that we have as it relates to Title 18 and 19 to begin putting together a permitting regime for data centers specifically.

And so what I do know about the stack project is that it's a state of Alaska owned property with a long-term lease. I haven't seen the details of how long of a lease that Stack Energy has.

And that they're proposing to build a data center based off the natural gas that's near the Franklin Bluffs that's being operated in the Great Bear Unit. I forget the name of the oil and gas operator there. And so we can send over the public documents associated with Stack Energy's request in addition to the other items that we discussed. As far as sport hunters go, we've issued notice of violations for any sport hunters that have been found to be out of compliance with the state law. Based on our Title 18 and 19 powers.

Northwest Arctic Borough has a local resident that serves on the Big Game Board, and we've had a local resident of the borough apply for that Big Game Board position. Also, it goes through confirmation of the state legislature in the Fisheries Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. And we expect to see those positions filled with the new governor. The new governor will come in, he'll name a person that's in, in charge of all boards and commissions, and then they'll solicit applications for all boards and commissions across the state government. We'll provide a nomination of somebody to sit on that Board of Game.

The governor then selects based on all the application who they want to push forward to nominate to the legislature.

And then it goes through that committee process and has to receive a majority vote of both the House and Senate to sit on that board. And so we're tracking that opportunity and we have a few folks that we're sending in for nomination for that process. But to our understanding, there hasn't been a quote unquote successful stopping of sports hunters. What I believe, and we can have Wildlife Department, I guess, put out information on what exactly happened. The declination of the Western Arctic herd led to different takes in cow-calf and bulls, where it reduced the amount of take that a subsistence hunter can take.

And as a part of that, we flew in partnership with the trilateral of Anaktuvuk members from Anaktuvuk over to that Board of Game meeting in Qaqtoovik and was able to keep intact our controlled use area north of Anaktuvuk took and then keep a certain amount of take for cow/calf available to different users in Point Hope, Point Laie, and partially Wainwright and Unaktuvuk. And then what happened with the commercial take is that their quota, quote unquote quota, was reduced in a couple of years. And so now we're at that couple of years point to where they're going into that same reduction in quota for commercial permits. And so the state of Alaska, through Title VIII of the Constitution, treats all users the same. They don't— they can't discriminate on users of resources, and it's the sustainable yield article that speaks to that.

And so if it's on On state-managed lands, they treat subsistence and commercial takers similarly, and only on federally managed lands can we have the subsistence preference. And so we are putting together a comprehensive report of the different game management regimes based on 26A, B, and the other game units that are in the North Slope. With the Wildlife Department based on that change that will disseminate out to each of the communities once we clarify what all of the different rules mean for the changes in the controlled use area of north of Unaktuvuk, the change at the Board of Game harvest limit. And then the other thing that we need to disseminate out to the residents of Unaktuvuk specifically is the access to the Gates of the Arctic with motorized equipment now and what that means. And so we'll follow up with all of the different things that I talked about with the Wildlife Department.

I know Director Wojcicki is listening and taking notes as part of the mitigation measure right away for the conservation easement in the Tasjikpuk area.

Balancing not only the residents of Nuu-chah-siht but Atkwsuk and Barrow who use the area, recognizing that the 5-mile buffer zone that was put into place under Mayor Ittah's administration about 15 years ago, the conservation easement, we believe, went a little too aggressive as far as absolute absolute no development within 10 miles. So it doubled the size from what I remember. It doubled the size of the 5-mile to 10-mile buffer zone. And I personally wrote the portion of the comments from the borough as it relates to the kernel distribution. And so we use the data from the Wildlife Department Department as it relates to caribou migration and calving outside of the 5-mile buffer zone to keep intact the opportunity for calving grounds, uh, outside of that 5-mile buffer zone.

And so essentially, my comments from the Borough Mayor's Office said, um, we are supportive of one of the four sides beyond the 5 miles being used with one road, with limitations on the amount of traffic, consolidating traffic so that dust and herd disruption, migration disruption, could be minimized. And that's with the understanding that a road won't be built unless there's economic opportunity tied to development to build the road, meaning we We wouldn't have a road as far out to Willow without the development opportunity there to pay for it. And so the borough's comments were what I feel is fair and reasonable for all 3 communities in the area that use the area, but also trying to balance the conservation of the ecology for wildlife habitat and also the reality that we can't get a road westward unless there's development opportunity near that. And so I don't know if there's much follow-up on that, but we're open to continued follow-up. And then as it relates to CD8, I've made it pretty transparent that I'm opposed to the what is it, a mile and a half proposal from ConocoPhillips just on the southeast side of the community.

I've encouraged them to work on a different location as it relates to being further north of the community based on the feedback from, I believe it was, I don't know if it was a full trilateral or if it was just Kookby Corporation that I heard those comments from. But essentially opposed to that, that real near proposition on the west side of the Colville River. I've also encouraged both Oil Search and Conoco to work together to see if they can directional drill from the east side of the river where Oil Search currently has its operations.

And I haven't heard back on what kind of opportunity there is for collaboration like that. And so as the comment process moves forward, the borough will be engaged to that degree of what we just talked about. So I hope that helps, Bernice, and we'll, we'll follow up with all the other things that we can follow up on. Yes, that reminds me of a follow-up, please, Mr. Mayor and President. Um, I would like to acknowledge that the Village of Noxet, we do have the trilateral and we face all these impacts to change to Title 19 without the public due process.

It affects us in one way, shape, or another. So I would like to see that ordinance or municipal code in regards to changing Title 19 And another thing I would like to see is if any community in the North Slope want education on what we deal with and all the codes with North Slope Borough, Corps of Engineers, BLM, The federal government, the state, and for them to try to remove the NEPA process of communicating with us in regards to their activities is a detrimental effect to our self-determination as Native And I'm sad that no one's really going forward with supporting and leaving it at as is so the industry can communicate with us. When they remove that process of, you know, informing us what they're going to do it puts our health at risk, especially recently when Conoco came to you guys wanting to dump into their holes untreated— I'm not sure what it was, mud or something— that they usually truck out near Willow. And just imagine that dumping into Tashukwok over time. Time.

They say it's many miles deep down there, but you know, with the earth moving and everything, our ecosystem changing, um, I, I never say never. And at the end of the day, we the residents will feel the effects of all those. I'm, I'm in support for North Loboro and, and a responsible development by including the communities that are affected. But when you shut us out and don't work with us, it makes it hard for us. So thank you.

I'll stop right there because I think I'm on my 3-minute limit.

Green up. Bernice. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. Bernice for the further comment in regards to the Title 18 and 19 changes.

We made the decision a number of months ago to split the process. We weren't going to do both or all the changes that we wanted all at the same time just because we hadn't had that public outreach as it relates to what I refer to as the upside-down cake tiered permitting and the data center permit regulations. And so the changes that I spoke to that passed the assembly a couple of months ago or maybe a month ago, I can't remember, were for community roads within the community, along with parking lots for residential and multiplex facilities. And permitting for duplexes versus fourplexes. And so those were the changes that we worked with the Assembly on over the last 3 months, I would say, that got adopted.

They were all residential-oriented, 18 and 19 changes. A few others where there was a road requirement and a utility right-of-way requirement that was different in Title 18 than there was in 19. And so we made those the same based on the one that we had been using for a number of years. So, uh, we'll get the ordinance, a copy of the ordinance made available that we adopted already. Um, it, it speaks to, uh, being able to essentially— we, we essentially allowed a fourplex to be built on a, a lot in town to help with the, um, housing crisis, and that's across all slopes.

Uh, we decreased the requirement for a parking parking lot from one number to another that recognize the cost of gravel so that somebody can have a permitted house, legal, legal, paid-for driveway without having to build a massive parking lot. But we'll send over a copy of those changes. Now, as it relates to the data center and tiered upside-down cake permitting regime that we're looking at, As we develop what's legal, first of all, and then what is used in other states, maybe, as we develop what that looks like closer to final through the Planning Commission, there'll be public outreach done in each of the communities to discuss and gather input on those proposed changes, both of those proposed changes. As it relates to dumping into wetlands, Wells, the jurisdiction for Class VI subsurface disposal is— the jurisdiction is the State of Alaska. That happens through— remind me of the commission.

AO GCC, Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. They put together the criteria as it relates to Class I through VI wells along with some other criteria that are specific to subsurface use of different resources. And so as it relates to the dumping hazardous waste or injecting hazardous waste downhole, we can provide the— I guess the determination that AOGCC has made. And that determination, I believe, happened right before I got into the legislature. So probably 6 or 7 years ago.

But we'll provide the information as it relates to that. As it relates to your final question on the NEPA process changes from BLM, I had the chance to— I had the chance to meet with their Alaska representatives, Department of Interior Alaska representatives that work out of Anchorage. They came up to Barrow. I believe they were heading to North it, but there was a funeral that they didn't want to disrupt based on feedback from the trilateral. But essentially, they're proposing changes to the NEPA process as it relates to permit by rule.

And there was some confusion that I had on their explanation on what they wanted to do. And the biggest one that I had concern about was essentially daisy chaining. And so what they're proposing is that something within 50 miles of existing infrastructure can be permitted very similarly to the infrastructure that it's near and doesn't need a full environmental review, EIS, NEPA process that can take a few years. And the part that I was opposed to was that if you build infrastructure, it moves that 50-mile radius buffer forward and forward. And so essentially you're daisy chaining your opportunity to avoid an EIS NEPA process.

And so that was something that I was opposed to because it would never end, right? There would be one environmental review and NEPA process done for Willow that essentially could allow building infrastructure all the way at 50 miles at a time. Under this permit by rule. And so we are providing our comments based on the questions that we asked BLM. And I told them that they should seriously consider rescheduling and meeting with the community that they plan to meet with.

Nuxut, I believe they met with Wainwright, Natkosewuk, and Barrow.

To make sure that that meeting happens before they make whatever rule change that they're planning to make. And so we're engaged in the process as a cooperating agency with BLM, both with our Wildlife Department, External Affairs, and Law Department through our lawyers back in D.C. So thank you for the question. And we'll provide the follow-ups. I want to thank you for giving me this time time to speak, and I just want the people in Akwesasne, right in Barrow, that if, um, the no stay, like no change, that's Nooksack's preference, that we have to have this process.

And if you— we get no support from anyone else, then when they go to your neck of the woods, that 50-mile thing you're talking about, they don't need to back to you guys, the villages, or Clary. There's no process to voice your concerns. So I'll end with that, and I hope that people understand that process and what you're talking about, because it's not in layman terms and people don't understand it. And once this NEPA process is changed, then you guys will have no so out there in the communities. I just wanted to share that.

Thank you.

Do we have any other questions from— Good afternoon.

No more comments or concerns from—. Moving on to City of Point Hope. Do we have any questions, comments, or concerns coming out of Thank you. Good afternoon from Saint Hope. We have no one here but me.

I just want to thank Bernice for the questions and the mayor for the explanations. It's good information for everyone. Thank you. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Native Village of Pointe-Laye, do we have any questions, comments, or concerns from Kully?

Good afternoon from Kali. I'm the only one here. Nobody here with any questions or concerns. All right, good afternoon to everyone in Kali.

Moving on to City of Wainwright, do we have any comments, concerns, or questions from Alona? Alona, unmute.

Congratulations to Aulakhrok.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon to everyone in Wainwright.

Moving on to Deadhorse. Do we have any concerns, comments, or questions from Sarawak? Good afternoon from Prudhoe Bay. Say Peely, and I also have Theodore Noyak. With our planning inspector, and we have no concerns.

Very good. Good afternoon. Do we have any audience participation here in the chambers?

Seeing none, green book.

Moving on, on our agenda item 8.

Introduction and/or approval of resolutions and ordinances.

We have 8B that was pulled. Resolution 62-2026, a resolution establishing project-specific eminent domain policies for the Barrow, Alaska Coastal Erosion Project. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the assembly, listening audience. Can read into the record before or after you guys consider adoption?

Mr. President, move to approve Resolution Serial Number 62-2026. There's a motion on the floor. It's been seconded by Assemblyman Brouwer and seconded by Assemblyman Bernal. Under discussion.

Thank you, Mr. President. Resolution 62-2026. 26, A resolution establishing project-specific eminent domain policies for the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project. Whereas the North Slope Borough is the non-federal sponsor of a project to build an erosion reduction structure to help protect the city of Utqiaġvik from flooding and coastal erosion due to rising sea levels and large storms coming in from the Chukchi Sea during the open water period, as described in the United States Army Corps of Engineers Director's Report dated December 11, 2019. Whereas the borough decides— desires to construct an approximately 5-mile-long Rock revetment and revetted erosion reduction berm structure from the bluff area in front of the Wiley Post Will Rogers Airport runway to the Dew Line Road to pass the Navy Arctic Research Lab, along with related tasks collectively, the Alaska Coastal Erosion Project, or project referred to therein, using funding as made available by the Extending Government Funding and Delivery— Delivering Emergency Assistance Act, known as the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022, Public Law 117 -43, and whereas the borough has determined that the acquisition of the property and property's interest necessary for the project across the real property identified as Project Track Number 25 is required for the project, and whereas the acquisition of a permanent easement for the project on Project Track Number 25 is for public use purpose and necessity, namely the construction, operation, and maintenance of an erosion reduction structure to protect the city of— from flooding and coastal erosion in furtherance of this project and the grantee borough has determined that the taking of property interest in Project Track Number 25 is necessarily necessary for such public use.

And the Northumberland Borough Municipal Code Section 2.38.090, subsection C identifies that the exercise of eminent domain proceedings shall be according to policies developed by the mayor and approved by the assembly by resolution. And whereas policy regarding eminent domain proceedings specific to the Borough Elasticoastal Erosion Project developed by the mayor and approved by the assembly does not yet exist, and whereas the borough shall immediately adopt the policy regarding eminent domain proceedings specific to the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project as outlined in Exhibit A upon assembly's approval and authorization of this resolution. Now therefore be it resolved the North Slope Borough Assembly approves and authorizes the project-specific eminent domain policies for the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project as set forth in Exhibit A for your consideration and discussion. Commission, just a brief explanation of the process that is being undertaken here. When we have public projects that are near, adjacent, or going through private property, as that property and that project area is platted, because of Title 18 and 19, there are automatic right-of-way always given to the borough for that platting for utilities and other public infrastructure.

And so what's happening here is that we have private landowners, numerous private landowners on the Barrow Seawall Project. Most of them have been able to work with the BIA if they're Native allotment and the North Slope Borough and the respective Native village, in this case Native Village of Barrow, to get right-of-ways for the seawall that might intersect on private property. And so as the erosion has continued since the original planning 8 years ago or so, the seawall has had to move a little bit, and so it's encroaching more onto the private property versus being on the the watershed, the public watershed. And so we've worked with the Native allotment landowners to get to a place where the borough is purchasing at fair market value, which is normal process, the right-of-way into perpetuity at a fair market value. We've applied that same market rate to the private landowner that is not a BIA jurisdiction landowner.

Those negotiations have not been completed or done, to my understanding. And so this is beginning the process to go down the route of eminent domain. And so if there are any other questions or information, Director Brower with the Port Authority can walk us through other things moving forward.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Assemblyperson Knevec, you pulled this resolution. Thank you, Madam President. Yes, yes, I did. Um, for the landowners, you know, since this has just started been getting the policies in place, um, do we have a, um, a running balance or how much we, we've had to pay for, you know, for all these private landowners?

Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Director Brower. Director Brower.

Thank you, Mr. Madam President, Mr. Mayor. Gordon Brown, Director of Port Authority. And I'd like to say congratulations to all those who got elected. And it was very good to see all that observation and in the canvassing today. With that, I don't know exactly what the running balance is because the mean high-water mark determines how much land has— once that it's reached to that high level, accretion or decretion of— is added to parcels based on mean high water.

That's my understanding of it, and part of it through platting in the past that would determine what has become state and what— that's at mean high water level, below mean high ma'haiwāder is jurisdiction of the state and sometimes the city. So we wrestle with that. We have used the appraisers to look at this and to determine acreage. Each parcel is very different in size because of the meander around the cost and the size of the lodge. So, and I'm going to also refer to my current sidekick, Ian, and he helps me quite a bit with these, and we deal with the Realty Office and with the BIA with majority of the Native Trust Lands, which are quite a few of those versus the privately held fee simple lot.

So the dollar amounts, they vary, and Ian might have some pretty good answers to that. Ian?

Good afternoon. For the record, Ian Stroud, program manager for the Port Authority and acting deputy director. I came onto the project about 2 months ago. Since then, we have committed about $125,000 to payments to landowners for the use of the land that the seawall will occupy. I don't have a running total as to the entire project amount thus far, but prior to my coming on, My predecessor David had passed along to finance a list of the properties, and that's been getting checked off as checks have been cut.

So there is a process in place for making sure that payments are tendered to everybody eligible for them and only that amount. We'll provide a report to the assembly, Madam President, as, uh, current payment versus what's outstanding based on that fair market value assessment. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Director Brower and Mr. Stroud. Does that help Assemblyperson Kinneback?

Um, yes, somewhat. Thank you for, um, the update, and thank you for clarifying even the difference in size, you know, for each parcel, and whether it's state or by the waterways and the private landowners. You know, what would be very helpful, Mr. Mayor, is if we can— you know, this is a massive project— but would be very helpful if we can even get a map as to an idea of all these landowners that, you know, this is a 5— I believe a 5-mile stretch. And to see, you know, the separate cost of having to make sure that this project keep moving forward. I'm just looking at the cost of having to pay that, but that's not even touching the cost of the project.

So to see the magnitude of the funding that, that's going to have to take place for this. So I, I want to take a look at, um, you know, your map and seeing, you know, all this, you know, foreseeable funds that has to be taken care of, you know, for this project. With all the high waters, it's moving rapidly. So, and I ask these questions too because we're at that point and to see that, you know, where our road goes to— for us to, in order to cut our costs too, we're detouring around Native allotments, you know, that potential road going inland. So thank you, and I hope we can take a look at a map or even somewhat a report on on this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblyperson Kinneback. Director Brower. Mr. Mayor, if I may.

Yeah, I think those are important.

This policies that we're looking at are going to establish the guidelines by which how the ordinance will proceed next month. So later on down the agenda, that's going to be scheduled, and that's how we will weigh, um, where we are with the eminent domain. There's also a request from the Planning Commission to do an update to them on the seawall. So I think we probably going to supplement some information for the November timeframe, if that's okay. Thank you, Director Brower.

Do we have any other discussion under Resolution 62-2026?

Mr. Mayor. Good. Thank you, Madam Vice President. The only thing I'll add based on the discussion around the finances is that The acquisition of the land originally agreed to in 2019 is the responsibility of the borough, but the cost associated with that counts towards our 10%, 90/10 federal match. And so the money that we're expending for the right-of-ways counts towards our 10% in addition to there was an additional fill needed where about 20 feet wide, I don't remember how long, cost the borough about $400,000 from what I recall.

That will also count towards our 90/10 match, and that was just the difference in the bluff moving back about 20 feet in the last 6, 7 years. So we'll provide a more detailed report to the assembly assembly in the coming weeks as a follow-up per the request of the assembly. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Assemblyperson Brower.

Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Director Brower, Deputy Director Stroud. In regards to your response, my question regards to this development of the policy in Exhibit A. I understand a specific to this project, the Barrow Arctic Coastal Erosion Project. But in review of the North Slope Borough Municipal Code in regards to imminent domain, um, so if we have a scenario in Point Hope or any of our coastal communities, Wainwright, where we're looking at acquisition of properties, I guess the question is, has there been a policy set before? Is this the first establishment of the intimate, intimate domain, given the authority to do, um, 23 or 2.38.090B, uh, 0B, uh, the opportunity now that the policy is adopted by the Northville Borough Assembly, the authority where the mayor has now set the policy in a situation where emergency arises can exercise his authority or her authority with the follow-up to the assembly.

Uh, so in regards to this resolution, if we're just looking to set the policy that spells out the process of doing an eminent domain in general nature, should we have approached it in that manner and not specific to one project? Now, if something happens somewhere else, are we gonna have to create a project-specific eminent domain policy for that situation or emergency. But should we have approached it in a manner that's general in nature, giving authority to the mayor, the process of doing Section B or subsection B, and then follow up to the assembly? Although the project is very vital for the community, it could be violent in any other community, but then at that point it may have to come back to the assembly to do another policy specific to that same project, but not in general in nature to the overall municipal code of subsection C, which is the creation of the policies. I do support this, but then it's kind of in the general nature with the municipal code and how it outlines in your authority and authority of the North Salt Lake Borough Assembly is that the approach, in my opinion, should have been more general in nature, more blanket, given the authority.

Something happens at any given during the fall, any time. But if the situation arises, do we have to now then stop, create a policy for that because we've set the precedence in this situation moving forward? Thank you. Then I will follow up afterwards. Thank you.

Assemblyperson Brouwer. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the assembly, listening audience, assemblyman Brouwer for the line of questioning. Thank you for asking, first of all, because this isn't something that I take lightly. I, I In my research of the borough, we haven't exercised eminent domain.

We've made threats of it, but then for platting purposes, before a subdivision could be platted, it's already inherent that there is utility right-of-way incorporated in that. And that change happened in the '80s. The last time that the, I guess, threat was made was when we were trying to put the water sewer infrastructure in place, and there wasn't consent from certain property owners to give the utility right-of-way. And so we established the policy that if you plat any new plots in any of our borough communities, automatically there needs to be consideration of public utility right-of-way for the purpose of the borough to get certain public utility or public priority things in. We're having to come in on the back end of these lots already being platted before that, for the most part, most of these lots being platted before that requirement.

And so I recognize that this isn't something that you just— you go to when— to solve a problem, right? We've been working pretty diligently with all the landowners to get to a fair market value perspective, and our options if a landowner doesn't want to agree to fair market acquisition is either don't build the thing that we're trying to build on that portion of the private property or go down the eminent domain route. And so I guess doubly to your question, based on my reading and interpretation of the municipal code with emergency or disaster declaration, conditions, we could utilize very similar rights that the borough would have. Essentially, it would be eminent domain. The example that I give is if I have to commandeer a vehicle or a house or anything in an emergency on behalf of the borough, we can do that.

We're just left on the hook for fair market value replacement or purchase of that. And so I think this is the most careful, transparent way that we can move forward without having to then come back and pay all of the other people that we've already established BIA fair market value acquisition of the right-of-way. If we treat one unfairly, in my opinion, we have to go back and renegotiate all those other ones to keep it fair. And so I think this is is the balance, right? Because you don't want an overbearing government, but at the same breath, we need to get this seawall project done.

And so to the degree of generalization, it's a slippery slope, right? Because it doesn't matter who sits in this seat. Now they have the power established by this assembly into perpetuity. I think it's important that we keep it to the one little thing. Um, and, and if another mayor and another administration, another assembly has to take on eminent domain responsibilities, uh, I think it stand on its own because it is such a, um, rare and kind of overreaching, heavy move by the borough.

Um, but I believe in this predicament, uh, it's required. So I don't know if Director Brower had anything else Do you have any more to add, Director Brower? Yeah, Mr. Mayor and Madam President and Assemblyman Mr. Brower. And you know, there was a lot of needs to review how we do this, whether— and we thought about the broad nature of policy But maybe that was a time, some other time that with a lot more thought into all of the whole borough. But for this project specific, we're really under time constraints and other things like that.

Phases that are needing to be awarded are kind of waiting on this stuff now. So with that, it was working just specifically for the seawall at this time. And I wholeheartedly agree with the mayor's comments that times will come, other assemblies, and it shouldn't really take this lightly at all. Is it a very striking tool? Striking tool.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Director Brower. Assemblyperson Brower. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Director Brower, for that response.

But again, so I understand the importance of this project, understand the time constraint. In review of the municipal Code, there's been changes to it from 1986, '87, 1999. So there's been an opportunity well before our terms in office that— I guess the question goes back to, has there been a 2.38.090 Section C created, just the general policy? And if so, then is there an opportunity to either change that code? Because now when we move forward to do eminent domain and anything moving forward, our policy is project-specific to the Barrow Coastal Seawall Erosion Project.

So that's just my concern with this resolution. Um, it's very supportive. I do understand what it's discussing, But with it being titled specific, specific for a project and in review of the municipal code, whenever something else happens anywhere else, now we're looking at it to either doing a new Exhibit A, B, C, D, all the way up to Z for any situation that may involve imminent domain. But I feel it should have been more general in nature, setting out the policies established by the mayor and general in nature to deal any situation that may arise in regards to imminent domain policies. That's just my opinion.

And then if so, um, having the opportunity for either this administration or previous administrations having to dealt with this, uh, has this been brought before the assembly before? And if so, when? And are there other municipal code sections that need to be identified, that gives us opportunity for the North Littleboro mayor to set those policies or create the policies. So when we do come into a situation, we're not going into the backdrop of, okay, we need to create this policy to actually do something. Uh, you know, we got a new borough attorney, uh, coming back.

You know, is there an opportunity to, to work on that homework, to go through the full municipal code to identify the sections that may not have the policies created, create those policies. And when something happens in moving forward, that they're already done. We're not going back and trying to create something because the municipal code says we have to. So that's just my opinion. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblyperson Brower. Mr. Mayor, Director Brower.

Borough Attorney Hwan Kim.

Thank you, Madam President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly, Assemblyperson Brower. Thank you for your question. Um, I think you're right, I think you're right on target with your question, Mr. Brower.

When the law department was presented with the current issue, uh, we did the research and we did not find any prior generalized policies on eminent domain. Um, my understanding and interpretation of that particular code is that it was intentionally written broadly and vaguely so that the administration at the time that that is to administer the eminent domain can have the option to implement a broad policy versus the specified policy as we are trying to seek your approval at this time.

Eminent domain is a very powerful method that's provided to governments, and it's a very sensitive topic. And I believe that this method of acquiring property can be construed as a last resort because this is a very sensitive topic for the landowner and also the, the government implementing the project at the time. So my My interpretation of the code, again, is that it's intentionally written broadly to give the administration and the borough and the assembly, um, making determination at the time of the project whether to enforce it broadly or to specify it for that particular project. My understanding is that for the current request, it was a decision made to be specific for this particular purpose so that it's not applied generally and broadly for all eminent domains in the future.

Madam President. Thank you. So in regards to the, the resolution and Exhibit A, which is going to be the policy, is there any opportunity to strike that out, take out project-specific Take out for the Barrow Arctic or Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project in item or Section 1. Eminent domain is to be used only when the borough determines that voluntary acquisition cannot be completed on terms that are reasonable, lawfully, timely, and consistent with any project needs. Taking out, striking out the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project in review and all other sections of the policy doesn't state anything anything specific to that title, thus just removing project-specific and removing Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project.

And then that would ultimately make this Exhibit A a broader generalized policy, not specific to this, but it can apply.

Thank you, Director—. Or Assemblyperson Brower. Attorney Hwang Kim.

Thank you, Madam President, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly, Mr. Brower, for your question.

Um, so to answer your question, Exhibit A and the resolution language can be amended if that's the wish of the assembly for granting an approval for this specific project or broadly. Um, but my understanding is that it was the administration's intent to— intent to specify this resolution and the policy written for this resolution is specific to this particular project only. But Madam Chair, President, but then again, I mean, we can go back and forth. There isn't a policy created This is the policy moving forward. So if we can approve it in a generalized manner, it'll still apply to this project because the policy is now written, inhibiting the opportunity to do Section B of that said policy without the approval and the authority of the mayor, and then a follow-up to the assembly.

So basically it's just asking, can we generalize it and not have it specific to this project? Project in case something else happens anywhere else. The policy is created in a general manner. The wording, verbiage is correct, but it's not specific to any one said project or any one situation. It's just a policy, right?

Or—. Or—. Or—. Attorney Hwang Kim. Thank you for the question, Mr. Brower.

So legally speaking, the resolution and the exhibit, the language itself can be amended.

As wished by the assembly and also the administration. For operational decisions as to whether the language should be amended so that it's a broader coverage, I'll defer those decisions to Director Brower and also Mr. Mayor.

Mr. Mayor. So thank you, Director Brower. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the assembly, listening audience, Suburban Brower for the line of questioning.

Reviewing subsection B of 2.38.090, it says— subsection A, let's just go from the top. Prior to the institution of imminent domain proceedings, the borough shall first make a good faith effort to negotiate the acquisition of property, which I believe we've done. Subsection B, the institution of an imminent domain Proceedings on behalf of the borough shall be by ordinance of the assembly, except in an emergency where the public interest so requires. The mayor may institute eminent domain proceedings without assembly approval, informing the assembly thereof and the justification therefore as soon as practicable. And if you look at item 9H, that's the ordinance that it speaks to, uh, setting forth the exercise of eminent domain proceedings shall be according to policies developed by the mayor and approved by the assembly by resolution.

So I think— I guess where the difference of opinion is, is that what you're saying is to establish in subsection C in municipal code that whatever the procedure is that we're following now be the general procedure that is followed moving forward for eminent domain practice. And I think what we're proposing is that we are following subsection by establishing the policies to exercise this case of eminent domain. This singular case of eminent domain is being prescribed to be followed through this resolution process, and then the public hearing process for the ordinance to follow with 9H. And so the vagueness of the municipal code is the process in which we're following, I guess, is what I'm saying. And I think that if we're over-prescriptive, that this is how it shall happen, for any predicament, if the process in which we decide to follow at that time isn't as prescriptive, doesn't follow the exact prescription of the municipal code, but whatever still needs to happen, then we're left with having to change the ordinance later to line up with the process that we want to follow then.

Then, which would then create, I guess, a minimum 3-month process where you would have to change the ordinance to align with what you are trying to do and then adopt the ordinance that is actually exercising the eminent domain.

Leaving subsection C vague and broad like it is, I believe gives the flexibility for any existing administration and assembly assembly specific to a project to follow that. And then—. So if this becomes precedent, if this is adopted and next month the public hearing happens under 9H and it's adopted, that then becomes what I would consider case law. So if I'm the mayor in 25 years, which I hope I'm not, and I read subsection C, then I do the homework on when has this ever been done, how has it ever been done. I look back in November of 2026 after the ordinance passes, if it passes, and say, okay, so they were very project-specific, recognizing that as it mentions in subsection A, that there's good faith effort made in negotiations, all of these different things.

It doesn't prescribe an easy button, in my opinion, to any administration or assembly to exercise eminent domain. So I guess what I'm saying is we are establishing the policy for this one project that there is the policy moving forward to eminent domain anything else. So if you were to have to apply that to utility right-of-ways as an example on an old plat of town or road right-of-ways, which we have outstanding work we need to do on road right-of-ways where our road right-of-way has encroached on on private property, good faith effort made, there's a specific process that we're following, we're creating the precedence on, and that's that you need to introduce a resolution and then have a public hearing. So you have a month, month and a half-ish time of dissemination of what we're deciding to do. That there is the process now, is that you have to get a resolution a resolution specific to that project, list the description of the property, have it followed by an ordinance that enacts, goes through the public process, requires a different vote threshold from the assembly versus a resolution, that there is the process.

That becomes precedent now. And so if that doesn't work for a few be considered, they can have that discussion on, okay, the code is vague, here's the process that was followed specifically, but maybe that doesn't work. We still have the flexibility within code to decide how we want to approach this.

I think I understand what you're saying in that context. I think that that vagueness is— is beneficial not only to residents and property owners of the borough because now we have this established process that's about a month and a half establishing good faith negotiations, et cetera, but is also flexible enough for the borough to respond. And we still have the out, right, under B, we still have the out that I can determine eminent domain proceedings without the assembly approval under emergency emergency declaration, I believe is how it's read, with just informing the Assembly thereafter.

So, yeah, I mean, this is— we're setting precedent, right? And that's the interesting aspect of setting precedent is that there are going to be differing opinions on how it should be handled. So, because there isn't precedent set to follow. So, thank you for the discussion. I think it's a good one.

Madam President, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Director Brower. Assemblyperson Brower. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that follow-up.

In that response, if there's an opportunity just to remove "for" on the title, striking "for the Barrow-Alaska Coastal Erosion Project," and the new title would read "Project Specific Eminent Domain Policy." policies. In Section 1 of it, striking the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project and leave— let me see— acquisition cannot be completed with terms and at a reasonable, lawful, timely, consistent with, leaving with, and then put and just leaving project needs. Then now you have a project-specific eminent domain policy at whatever title. We're just not specific to this project. Anything that happens in the future, whether it be project-specific, this policy is set for that.

We're just not titled to one project, one, one situation. It's now more broader in nature, but still adaptable to any project or any situation moving forward, understanding that there is importance to this, but it just gives an opportunity to be more broad in nature to any project situation that may involve either an emergency, an opportunity to exercise those— that authority of imminent domain. It is a big thing, but it's just not— just looking at it, we could strike out the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project, leave projects, needs on the title, remove the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project. Now it's a project-specific imminent domain policy. Policy.

Now it's all the rest of it doesn't have to get changed because that is a set policy of what needs to be done. We're just taking out a title of that project. So, Madam Vice President, thank you. Assemblyperson Brower. Mr. Mayor, thank you, Madam Vice President.

Salumi Brower for the line of questioning. I'm not opposed to the vagueness in the title change. The only thing that I would like to consult is our ability and vote threshold to change resolutions' titles versus the body of the context. I know in the legislature it requires a title change resolution. I don't know what the process is for title change here at the borough.

So are you referring to the title of the exhibit or the— okay, okay. Yeah, so the title of the exhibit, I I believe can just be changed by form of motion. I'd consider that a friendly amendment, but I don't hold vote powers or motion powers.

I agree also, and that's just the Exhibit A will be the policy moving forward, not the resolution. Resolution is the enactment of the creation of the policy, but Exhibit A is the actual policy, and that's just where I'm critiquing. If we just take out the section or the project and leaving a project-specific eminent domain policies, then there's the policy. That's just all I'm saying. We're not leaving it to this one project, so broad in nature.

Madam Vice President, or Mr. Mayor, thank you, Madam Vice President. Thank you, Assemblymember Brower.

Um, I think I agree with what you're saying. I just disagree to where it should be. Maybe, um, what would be a I think the better route was we just amend the municipal code 2.38.090 subsection C that says the exercise of eminent domain proceedings shall be according to policy developed by the mayor and approved by the assembly by resolution. And we just line out that may include project-specific resolutions and ordinances, may include XXX. We can brainstorm the other avenues in which we might want to exercise eminent domain.

And I think it meets both of our concerns as far as keeping it vague, but also giving specific examples of what can be used. And maybe that's where the change can be, is under subsection C, and we just add a portion, and we can work with the Code Book Committee on this to line out that it may be done by way of project-specific resolution. It may be done by— and at that point we can have other examples of eminent domain taken under Alaska's Constitution, because I know it's happened elsewhere, and spell out those specific procedures.

It'll still keep intact the vagueness and freedom of any administration and assembly later, but it will also give some guiding principles on this is what we've done in the past and this is— these are other options that you may consider.

I think that's a fairly simple method in which we can line out examples of the policy of how to exercise eminent domain rights while maintaining the specificity of this proposal for eminent domain via resolution. I don't know what your opinion on that is.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Assemblyperson Brouwer. Thank you. Well, that's a code development or code, codebook committee change for the time, for the process that we don't have.

And if the policy hasn't been created in the existence of this code and this is going to be the policy, can we just adopt it broad in nature and then we're done?

Madam Vice President, Mr. Mayor, and, and feel free to, uh, chime in, Attorney Kim. So the, the, the flowdown of the laws and ordinances, right, is state constitution, state law, State Administrative Code and interpretation for any laws that deal with municipalities. Municipal Charter, Municipal Ordinance, Municipal Resolution, Municipal Policy. That's kind of the authority of flow down that I see. And so if the Municipal Code says that you can be broad and we adopt a resolution and an ordinance that doesn't turn into a municipal code change, it's just an ordinance through ordinance process, that level of specificity doesn't trump the vagueness that's in the ordinance.

That's my understanding. We can change the ordinance to either broaden or tighten tighten the authority that happens via resolution. Um, and adopting a resolution right now doesn't constrain the ordinance broadness, meaning if the resolution has a process that we agree upon upon as the assembly and the administration, that doesn't mean that that has to be the process for everything that the ordinance speaks to, is the way I, I interpret it. Um, again, my interpretation could be wrong, but there's nothing stopping this from becoming the precedent in which if you want to exercise eminent domain, it has to be specific to a certain project if it's the development of the Bark Road or if it's execution of project number blah, blah, blah for water and sewer, you would have all of that in the process moving forward.

We've established— we would, if you guys adopt this, we would have established a precedent in which we exercise eminent domain, but it's kept open and vague for any other scenario that might happen moving forward. I think embedding the example of— because right now it says by Assembly by resolution, and so this resolution would establish specific to this project the way in which we're going to exercise our eminent domain rights. So now the bar is, is that each action of eminent domain moving forward shall be approved by the Assembly by resolution.

The world is your oyster at that point, right? The assembly and the sitting administration can decide how that has to happen.

I think it's written in a way that allows for that difference in realities, 'cause I don't know what other scenario might come that would require eminent domain exercise.

But I would trust that the assembly and the mayor at that time that's going to have to deal with it can agree upon by resolution a way in which they're going to do it. So I think establishing the code amendment process, which I'm willing to do, to just give examples of the precedent that we might be setting now and other precedents that have been set by other municipalities or even the state and we can embed those options into code. But I don't want to tie the future hands of the future administration and the future assembly by code, by code. And I don't, I don't think this resolution is doing that. It's establishing a process in which we're going to deal with this one situation.

They can use that as an example if they want later, but whatever they come to agreement on by the assembly, by resolution for that future time, they should have the freedom to do so is kind of my opinion. So, Madam President, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Assemblyperson Brower. Thank you. So in the title of Resolution 62-2026, a resolution establishing project-specific eminent domain policies.

In your analogy and in review of this resolution, we're doing it for this project. So by doing Exhibit A, which is creating a policy, project-specific eminent domain policies, by removing just that project title, now you've got created the policy for project-specific eminent domain policies. But in the— per the code You're doing it as you're supposed to by resolution to the assembly, but it's project-specific for this. But if the policy hasn't been created at all, then now we've just created the policy, but it's project-specific eminent domain policies without a title of a project. So moving forward, any, any type of project, even that's not even changed in the, the title of the resolution.

Discussion, we're creating the policy for project-specific eminent domain policies as per the code. And by just removing the title of this project, leaving projects in hyphens needs, it could be brought to any project moving forward, general in nature.

That's what I'm just trying to get at. In, in our discussion Question: if there's a concern in regards to changing the Resolution 62-2026, the title's there for creating the project-specific eminent domain policies, in this case for a specific project, but our Exhibit A is actual said words that would be used in regards to the said policy. By striking out this project name, it's back to broad in nature to any projects that may come forth, including this one.

Thank you, Assemblyperson Brower. Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the Assembly, Assemblymember Brower, for the, uh, good discussion. I, I guess as far as solution under Exhibit A, I would consider consider it friendly that you strike for the Barrow Coastal Erosion Project from the title, but I would ask that since this would be the policy establishment moving forward, under subsection— Exhibit A, Section 11, the mayor or his or her designee and their respective designees. I would waive specificity to the Port Authority Director because eminent domain might have to be used for any other department.

So the mayor and their respective designees are authorized to take all action necessary. That would be the only other thing that I would ask if this is going to be the established policy moving forward. Just because it can be any director that we need to work with to do those things. So I would consider those two amendments friendly from the administration's perspective. Perspective.

And if there's further work needing to put safeguards under the overall municipal code under subsection C, I'm open to having that discussion with the Code Book Committee also.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do we have any other discussion on the resolution or Exhibit A? I'm chair. So in regards, if we were to make an amendment to this motion with the said discussion, I move as an amendment. There's a motion on the floor to amend the exhibit.

It's been seconded. Under discussion. Any discussion? Mr. Mayor? Madam Vice President, just to clarify the motion, it's to under Exhibit A to strike the words in the title that read "for the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project." If adopted, the title would read "Project Specific Eminent Domain Policies." And then under Section 11, it would read striking Borough Attorney, Port Authority Director, Finance Director, and it would read the Mayor and their their respective designees are authorized to take all action necessary to appropriate, to implement imminent domain proceedings and/or the acquisition.

Is that the intent of the—. The Section 1, removing the Barrow Alaska Coastal Erosion Project, leaving projects and needs?

Again, it's just taking the title out from what is already being struck out. So just to clarify, it would read inconsistent with the project needs, correct?

Okay. And just to clarify, under this discussion of the amendment, we did adopt our ordinance clarifying clerical error and grammatical error corrections. And so we'll make sure that that first section reads grammatically correct, but the intent is— and consistent with project needs. Okay.

Do we have any other discussion on the amendment?

Question has been called for. All those in favor of amending Exhibit A on Resolution 62-2026, do so by saying Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Opposed, say nay.

Hearing none, the amendment has passed the assembly. Mr. Mayor, we are still under the discussion on Resolution 62-2026.

Mr. Andrew Kroll, you're on mute if you are speaking.

Star 6.

Andrew, if you wanted to speak. Mr. Krull, good evening. Named an ordinance 2026-09 tonight. I want to say this plainly: I support the seawall. I served this country for 22 years and I understand what it what it means to protect the community.

This coastal needs that wall, and my home needs it as much as any home on this shore. So I'm not here to oppose anything. I'm here as a willing seller. My letter is in the record. 3 Reasonable terms, and the entire difference between the borough's number and mine is $17,074.56.

And that number isn't mine. It comes from the borough's own appraisal. The one conventional private land sale in it.

$6.94 A square foot applied to the whole easement. I'm asking to be paid by the borough's own measure, nothing more. The ordinance introduced tonight and the policies beside it already give the administration everything it needs to settle this. Section 5.4 says so in plain words. My ask is simple: before November 10th, before public money goes to lawyers instead of the wall.

Sit down with me and close this. My hand has been out since August, and it's still out tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kroll.

Do we have any other discussion on the resolution?

Question has been called for. All those in favor of Resolution 62-2026, do so by saying aye. Aye. By way of roll call vote, Madam Clerk.

Thomas Neparak Jr. Yeah. Michael Donovan. Yes. Robin Collap. Yes.

Avayak Bernal. Yes. Trina Paul. Yes. Martin Edwards Yes.

Frederick Brower? Yes. Eva Kinneback?

Yes. Chalmer Panik?

Oh, he stepped away.

8 Yeses, Madam President.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We have 8 yeses, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the discussion, deliberation, and we look forward to working with the COBOK Committee at its discretion to clarify the eminent domain code separate from this actual project and the process we're following.

No, thank you, Mr. Mayor. With that, we'll move on to 8C, Resolution 63-2026, a resolution supporting continued advancements of the Arctic Strategic Transportation and Resources, ASTAR, regional road system. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Uh, Director Brower, if you can read into the record the resolution and answer any Questions. Okay, Mr.

Mayor, Madam Director Brower, you might want to speak closer to the mic. All right, thank you. Um, North Sloane Borough Resolution serial number 63-2026, a resolution supporting continued advancement of the Arctic Strategic Transportation and Resources, ASTAR, regional road system, where The North Slope Borough Port Authority Department's Long-Range Development Plan adopted by the North Slope Borough Assembly on July 13, 2021, established a planning, funding, governance, and community engagement framework for advancing all-season roads and regional transportation corridors, including the Arctic Strategic Transportation and Resources, ASTTR. STAR initiative, and whereas the Triangle Road— Triangle Community Road Planning and Environmental Linkage, PEL, study evaluated an all-season surface transportation connection among Wetkawik, Utqasuq, and Wainwright communities, including multiple transportation concepts and 6 terrestrial road network alternatives and recommended 3 alternatives for advancement for future environmental review. Based on the study screening and evaluation process and the project presentation summarizes the technical, environmental, and community information adopted through the ASTAR and PEL planning process process, including years of involvement and expressions of support from participating communities, tribal organizations, Alaska Native corporations, and regional organizations; and whereas, the North Slope Borough is also evaluating the potential regional transportation connection between Utqasuq and the Colville River area as part of the broader ASTAR regional transportation And whereas advancing appropriate federal right-of-way applications and subsequent environmental review will allow the North Slope Borough, affected communities, landowners, agencies, and other interested parties to more fully evaluate route alternatives, potential benefits and impacts, mitigation measures, access management, costs, funding, including long-term operations and maintenance and other considerations before any final route selection, project approval, or construction decision is made.

Now, therefore, it be resolved that the North Littleborough Assembly supports the continued advancement of the A* Regional Road System, including the Triangle Community Road and Colville River connection into appropriate next phases of project development and environmental review as priority regional transportation initiatives consistent with the borough's long-term planning interest.

Thank you. Thank you, Director Brouwer. What's the wish of the assembly? Move to approve. There's a motion to approve.

Approved. It's been seconded. Under discussion, Assemblyperson Bernal. Thank you, Madam Vice President. I think a lot of my questions were answered earlier during public comment or village concerns when it came to the NEPA process, seeing how that just happened Friday and how that assessment impact will speed up the process in a sense of this A-Star Road from the east going west.

I guess now it's, you know, just timeline of things of where we are as a North Slope Borough. I mean, I know the A-Star has been a talk for years.

I guess just the timeline as to where we're at, when we'll see reviews finally be done, and how much longer does this add add in a sense of timing of this section when it crosses different landowners.

So—. And any kind of process that may take place doing that. So thank you. Thank you, Assemblyperson Bernal. Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Vice President, members of the Assembly, listening audience. Assemblyman Bernal for the line of questioning. A couple of things. This is—. Not only supporting the Triangle Community, but what we're referring to as the Willowwood Atkwsik portion, Sinimniya Gordon middle section, middle section is what we're calling that just for reference sake.

The PEL for the Triangle Community goes— checks most of the things through the EIS and NEPA review process. We don't have that same process that's done already on the middle section to the same degree. And so it would be the understanding that the middle section is further behind the EIS NEPA process as it traditionally was. Now, what does the rule change from Friday mean? We're not exactly absolutely sure yet.

But what we're deciding on is to keep both projects tied together as it relates to the funding perspective. So if we can utilize Department of Energy loan guarantees— obviously, this administration wants the middle section done, and they'll— they're willing to help pay for it as long as the boroughs lead. Obviously, we've had a long work history trying to get the Triangle community paid for. And so we'll deliberate on what this means now with the rule change moving forward. But it's my opinion that both sections of the road should be tied together from the funding perspective, because we're not going to let them just want to pay for the oil and gas interest, but we also want to pay for the interconnectivity of the three communities.

Communities, essentially to the fourth on the east side. And so if we wanted to move forward with the Triangle Road from an EIS right-of-way perspective, we could do that quicker because the PEL is done. But that doesn't think about how we're going to pay for it. If we want to get the road paid for with loan guarantees, I believe we're going to have to work the middle section as a part of the Triangle community.

And then the biggest question that we're going to have to navigate is how do we establish all road systems through loan guarantee, not a grant, that can still have the protections in place as a private road. Versus a public road. And so that's going to be the bigger hurdle that we're going to have to navigate is that how do we turn loan guarantee money into private money that is owned by potentially a not borough entity, probably an enterprise fund, right? So like what we have in SA-10, that's owned by the borough, but it's owned by a private enterprise. How can we do all of that, turn it into private money in partnership, probably with the tribe or local landowners, which in this case are Native corporations, to make sure that the subsistence protections are in place?

And so there's a lot of moving parts. This is just reassuring that the current assembly, the current administration, we all agree that ASTAR needs to be a priority. We have a couple of letters that we're sending to the Department of Department of Transportation, State of Alaska, that is nominating the middle section to be funded for the PEL process that the Triangle community followed.

So at next month's meeting, I believe we've been talking with Department of Transportation Commissioner Anderson, and he's willing to come and provide kind of a handoff update because there'll be a change in the state administration. And so I think we're angling for a workshop in November to kind of look at this thing as a whole thing. This resolution is just continuing our support of the project. And we couldn't do it this morning because of canvassing, obviously. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Does that help? Assemblyperson Bernal? It does, Madam Vice President. Just follow up.

I appreciate I appreciate the response because when we start talking about subsistence and protections and what we heard from the concerns earlier, sport hunting, private roads, how all those things could impact us negatively if we don't have the parameters in place. So I'm glad that obviously we're thinking about it as a borough, because that's, that's the duty of the borough. So I just had questions about it. And like I said, a lot of it was answered earlier because of this whole NEPA process is new on how that's affecting oil and gas continuance going west.

So thank you.

Thank you, Assemblyperson Bernal. Do we have any other questions or discussions on this resolution? Madam Vice President, Assemblyperson Brower. Thank you. I'd like to disclose that I sit on the ASTAR working group as the energy transportation manager for Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope.

Kind of new to that role, new to being a working group member, and I'm not too sure if that is a conflict, but I don't think there's any financials or anything associated with that. But in my day-to-day role and activities and participation in this said project, just to err on the side of caution, I'd just like to abstain from voting, if possible. Thank you, Assemblyperson Brower. Thank you. Did you want to add any more, Director Brower?

I know you used to talk about the A-Star project.

Yeah, Madam— Madam— Madam Chair.

Mr. Mayor, well, sometimes you ask a loaded question and I'm gonna go off, you know, but I'm gonna try to refrain as much as I could here. Maybe, maybe just tell us where, when it started, you know, a little bit. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, we have a workshop coming and I think it's going to be very informative. We're doing a lot of federal engagement engagement and state engagement, talking to various entities.

And it's— and I think tribal transportation is going to be in the mix. I think there's a lot of transportation money out there with the energy dominance things and things like that. The current administration is looking at these things in this way. So we have workshops with DOT on a financial financial plan and we're going to try to— Drake for deal with us. Get the top treasurer finance guy to help us out in our model with DOT.

That's what DOT wants to do. Hey, we're going to make a workshop about finance plan for ASTAR. And I think that's— it will go into a lot of different discussions on different vehicles I think. And I think Mayor is working on with the government affairs of his staff more coordinated efforts at the federal level as well. So I'm excited about it.

I've been around A*STAR forever. You know, Siwat was created because we were thinking like this. And it was, I think, Native Village of Barrow or the City of Barrow that had a resolution say connect us out there. Anaktuvuk had a resolution solutions similarly from their city back in the day, Edhi, back in the day, and we use those as our path forward to see what the, what the appetite was for the communities to be connected.

To the outside for economic reasons. I think it'll change a lot of things in energy distribution and economics for the borough, but we got to wade through all of the different impacts, and that's always a big thing. And I'm, I'm happy to say I've worked with many impacts in the past and, and try to find solutions, solution or it is very good. Oh my God, with that, I don't— we got a workshop coming in November. It's supposed to be this afternoon, but we'll be ready because we have other participants that would have to come in from DNR and stuff for the workshop.

Thank you, Director Brower. Do we have any other, uh, questions or comments on Resolution 63-2023? 2026. Question. Question has been called for.

All those in favor of Resolution 63-2026, do so by saying aye by way of roll call vote. Madam Clerk. Avayik Bernal. Yes. Robin Kalak.

Yes. Thomas Naparak Jr. Yes. Frederick Brower.

Absent. I know. Eva Kinovac.

Yes. Trina Paul. Yes. Michael Donovan. Yes.

Martin Edwardson. Yes.

Chalmer Pani. Yes. There is 8 yeses, Madam President. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Resolution 63-2026 has passed the assembly.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for the continued support. With that, let's take a 10-minute break and be back at 5:55 PM.

Hello, my name is Dr. Christian Roseborough. I'm from Barrow, Alaska. This is KBRW Barrow.