Kenai: 06/03/24 City Council Meeting

Hello, everyone. I'd like to call the June 3, 2026 City Council meeting to order. If you're able, please rise and join me in the pledge of Allegian.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of. The United States of America and to. The republic for which it stands, one. Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council member Sonart. Here. Mayor. Nexted. Mayor.

Here. Council member Daniel. Here. Council member Grimmie. Here.

Vice mayor Askin. Here. Council member Petty is absent. Council member Kasena is absent. And student representative Bowling.

Here. You have a quorum. Okay. Thank you, council. Before we get to the agenda and consent agenda approval, I'd like to bring to your attention.

Lay down materials that you have before you have at item E3, public hearings, ordinance number 3523, 2026amendment memo from council members Grimmy and Casina. And then add item E5, Public Hearing Ordinance 3525, 2026amendment memo from administration. Pleasure of council. I move that we approve the agenda and consent agenda along with lay down materials. I'll second.

I request unanimous consent. Are there any additional revisions to the agenda or consent agenda from the council? Would the clerk please read the consent agenda items into the record? Thank you, Mayor. Naxted.

Approval of the regular meeting minutes of 2026 brought to you by the city clerk. New business action approval bills to be ratified, brought to you by the administration. Action approval confirmation of the mayoral nomination of Missy Wallace to the beautification commission brought to you by mayor Nachstad. Introduction of ordinance number 3528. 2026, Accepting and appropriating $42,867.04 in asset forfeiture.

Sharing funds for the purchase of law enforcement equipment into the general fund. Police department brought to you by the administration. Public Hearings scheduled for June 17, 2026. Introduction of Ordinance Number 3529. 2026, Increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general fund.

City manager for leave cash out finance, information technology salaries and benefits and public works administration salaries and benefits in excess of budgeted amounts brought to you by the administration. Public hearing on June 17, 2026 and introduction of ordinance number 3530. 2026, Accepting and appropriating a grant awarded to the Kenai senior Center from the Kenai Peninsula Foundation, Inc. And the Alaska Community Foundation, Inc. Through the Elmer and Ruth Schwantz fund for the purchase of meals on wheels. Delivery of bags brought to you by the administration public hearing on June 17, 2026.

And that is your consent agenda. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any. Oh, first off, I'd like to.

Are there any public comments on any of the consent agenda items just read by the clerk? Sorry about that. Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Hearing or seeing no objections.

The agenda and consent agenda are approved. We have no administrative reports. We have no scheduled public comments. Now we're down to unscheduled public comments. Are there any members from the public who would like to speak on any item not appearing on the agenda tonight?

Come forward. State your name and your city. Thank you.

Johnny, you know how that works. It's been a minute. Jonavich. I am from Kenai, live in Kenai. I'm here representing the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank.

Wanted to gently remind you all that we're in the middle of a food fight. So starting on June 1 through June 30, the City of Kenai and Soldotna are in a food fight. Two towns, one mission, to feed our neighbors. So as of this morning, Soldotna was ahead at 400.25 pounds, and Kenai had 164 pounds. So if you haven't seen the flyer or the drop in anything along those lines, you can go to our Facebook page or our website, kenai, or kpfoodbank.org and you can donate directly there.

You can drop food. We have six locations. The other city has their city hall, their chamber, their library. Then we have Kenai City Hall, Kenai Library, Kenai Chamber, and this ends on June 30th. And then the winning mayor will throw out the first pitch at July 5 Oilers game.

So if you have any questions, I'm here for them. Other than that, I'm just here to gently remind you of the food fight. Any questions for Johnna? You know, just. Just a clarification on donating, you said, where you can donate too.

But if you put a dollar in, that's good for two pounds. Reverse. $2, One pound. $2, One pound. Yep.

Yeah. And that. That money, that dollar amount is actually set by Feeding America. They take into consideration how much it costs, like at grocery stores and that type of stuff. So $2 is one pound of food.

Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you all. We did win last year. Nobody won last year.

Nobody won. We didn't have it last year. What was the last time, though? Yes, the last time Kenai did win it. The trophy, my understanding is currently at the chamber, and Sam is very dedicated to keeping that trophy in Kenai.

So you guys know what to do. All right, well, we'll keep the pressure up here. I'm waiting for it. And I'm wearing red just to, you know, signify where I'm at. So thank you for everything.

Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else from the public that would like to speak to any item not on the. On the agenda tonight? Seeing no one. That brings us to public hearings. The first public hearing Tonight is Ordinance 3521, 2026, increasing estimated revenues and appropriations in the general fund Police department and accepting a Grant from the U.S. department of Transportation passed through the state of Alaska Department of Transportation and public facilities for traffic enforcement, overtime expenditures.

Expenditures brought to us by administration pledger of council. Vice Mayor Askin, I move that we adopt or enact ordinance number 3521, 2026. Second, is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3521, 2026, Signal 1, bring it back to council. Council comments.

Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Nakstad? Yes. Council Member Daniel? Yes.

Council Member Grimmie? Yes. Council Member Askin? Yes. Councilmember Sonek?

Yes. Student Representative Bowling? Yes. You have five yes votes. Ordinance number 3521 to 2026 is enacted.

Thank you. And thank you, Dave Ross, for all your help on that, too. Now we're on item E2, ordinance 35 22, 2026, accepting Alaska Division of Forestry volunteer fire assistance grant in the amount of $8,602.97 and appropriating funds for the purchase of wild land and firefighting equipment for the city of Kenai Fire Department, brought to us by administration pledger of council, Vice Mayor Askin, I move we. Enact ordinance number 3522, 2026. I'll second.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3522, 2026, saying no one. Bring it back to council? Council discussion.

I just want to say that I'm always appreciative of when grant money comes through our public safety departments and we can purchase equipment to continue the good fight. It's just. It's a good thing. So thank you to the fire department for doing this, Chief Teague, I believe. Thank you for that.

City Manager Eubank, do you have an idea what kind of equipment we might expect with this funding? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council? I don't know all of them. I know some of the bigger ticket items they're replacing.

I think they call them porta tanks. They're basically portable water reservoirs that they're able to set up on fire scenes that they shuttle water in. Can shuttle water with the current tanks we have are aging and leaking. So this will purchase some of those. And I'm not sure exactly of all the other equipment, but I think those are the bigger items.

Thank you. Any further discussion saying, none. Clerk, please call the roll. Council member Daniel? Yes.

Council member Grimmy? Yes. Vice Mayor Askin? Yes. Council member Sonart?

Yes. Mayor Nakstad? Yes. Student representative Bowling? Yes.

You have five yes votes. Ordinance number 3522, 2026, is enacted. Okay, thank you. Now we have item E3, ordinance 3523, 2026. Adopting the annual budget, salary schedule and employee classification plan for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2027, and committing $4,584,359 of general fund fund balance for future capital improvements brought to us by administration.

Pleasure of counsel. Vice Mayor Askin, I move we enact ordinance number 3523-2026. I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3523, 2026? We have someone to come forward.

You know how to operate the light so we can hear you and state your name and what city you're in, please. My name is Sarah Castamore, and I'm actually from Soldotna, but I am the treasurer of the Penins Sopranos swim team. And we are just here to thank you for considering the amendment to the budget that includes a grant for the utility costs should we be able to reach an agreement to take over operations of the Kenai pool. And we encourage you to vote for. That amendment and approval of the budget.

Thank you. Ms. Castmore, would you mind standing for any questions council might have? Thank you for coming tonight.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak to Ordinance 3523, 2026?

Seeing no one, we'll bring it back to council. We have four written amendments, three in our packet and one lay down and probably just two. Keep things moving. The best thing to do would be to go through them in order and then. And then discuss.

So,.

Vice Mayor Askin. Pardon me. The first one is.

Okay. Okay. I move we amend the draft FY 2027 budget document as follows. Under the general Fund Legislative Page 85, increase grants to agencies section from $21,100 to $67,502 General Fund, Legislative Page 86, add Peninsula Piranha Swim Team to the 5,047 grants to agencies. List in the amount of $46,402 for a total of $67,502, for an overall increase of $46,402 to the FY2027 budget and request unanimous consent.

Mayor Knoxted, I'm sorry, We got a last minute correction from finance, and that should be $67,502. Is that what you read? I thought you said 400. I'm sorry, that was different than what was on here. So I'm sure she got it right.

Thank you for checking on that. So we're not going down the wrong rabbit hole. Okay. You requested unanimous consent. Was there a second?

I'd second that. Okay. Is there any further discussion on the amendment, Mr. Daniel? Thank you, Mayor Nexted. Just.

I really appreciate the swim team and getting, you know, working together to try to find a solution that we can all benefit from and the city being a partner. And I really appreciate this coming together like this and thank you for coming out and seeing it to the end. So thank you, everybody. I really. I will be in support of this.

Thank you. Any further comments, City manager Eubank? Question? Well, I'm in support of this, but I was curious just how the increase happens, where we're at with how the funding goes. When does the money get transferred?

At what point? What level of certainty do we have to be at?

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council, what this amendment does is it puts the funding in the budget to allow us to issue a grant. We still would have to work on a grant agreement with the club. The club. Obviously, I think, like Ms. Kasmore's testimony, they still have to get an agreement with the district to operate the pool.

So there's a few hurdles left, but I don't think. You know, obviously distribution of funds wouldn't take place till we had the grant agreement and all those provisions in place. And we still have to work on that. But it sounds like everybody's working in the right direction.

Thank you for that. Any further discussion? Unanimous consent was requested. Is there any objections? Saying none.

The amendment passes. So now we are back to Ordinance 3523, 2026, as amended. We have another amendment, second amendment. I move we amend the draft 2027 budget document as follows. Under Airport Fund, Airfield Page 214, increase Professional Services section from $14,435 to $84,434 for an overall increase of $70,000 to the FY2027 Airport Fund budget and request unanimous consent.

I'll second that. Any council discussion on the amendment? Council Member Daniel thank you, Mayor Knacker. Just maybe a quick question for city manager. First of all, thank you for putting this together.

It seems like this is a logical amendment, logical need for us to collect that revenue, I guess. How are we. How does it work right now? Just people pay at the airport or. I'm just curious about this process.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Daniels so currently it's the responsibility of the administrative assistant and the airport manager at the airport to monitor the activity of, you know, landings and transient parkings and things like that at the airport. And I think that is where the hole is in our system is that requires them to actually see this activity. And then obviously they're only there during normal business hours.

There's a lot of airport activity that takes place in the evenings, mornings, evenings before they get in, and then on weekends. What this is is a new service that's being prop to the city. The service utilizes some aviation databases out there where all landings are logged and things like that. And they use that to then generate the billings based upon those records. And they.

I think they're pulling from three separate sources from different databases to get that information they're interested in piloting with the city of Kenai. This will be the first. We'd be the first airport in Alaska to be utilizing this service. And it comes at a cost, I believe. First year, it's 12% of the revenue collected is the fee that they're proposing.

Based upon some preliminary reports they ran for us. Looking backwards at activity staff over there, I believe the increase in revenue would be about $130,000 a year. That's our current leakage for this activity that's taking place. It's not being caught. So it certainly more than pays for the fee that's being expected here.

So that's what this is. And happy to answer any more question.

Any further questions on the amendment, Councilmember Grimme? I don't have a question so much as, I guess, a statement. I want to put an exclamation point on this part of the memo you mentioned. About $136,000 is what we're losing annually. The last sentence.

This service will not only pay for itself, but will also provide an additional. So beyond the $70,000 we'll be paying for this service, 65 to $80,000 in revenue for the airport fund I think that is worth putting an exclamation point on in regards to why this would be a wise decision for the council to adopt today.

Thank you for that. Any further discussion? Consent was requested. Are there any objections saying none. The amendment passes.

So we are back to Ordinance 3523, 2026, as amended. And the next amendment is mine. So what I would like to do is ask the gavel to surprise the vice mayor. So do you want to read the amendment? I would.

I'd like to make the motion. Okay. If I might, I'd like to amend fiscal year 2027 budget document as follows. General Fund Human Resources, page 98. Decreased the Professional Services section from $5,300 to $500 for an overall decrease of 4,800 to the fiscal year 2027 general fund budget.

Is there a second? I'll second it.

Is there anyone from the general public who'd like to speak to this Amendment on Ordinance 3523-2026?

I'm prepared to talk about that.

I want to be Mary Gabriel for another two and a half years. I think that's okay. This is a small amendment and what I brought it for forth for discussion purposes primarily so we could talk about it. During the budget process.

We kind of gave the nod, I think, for an increase in professional services for the HR Department to help the council with the review process for our three employees, the city manager, the clerk and the attorney. And after that, I was in agreement because we can always, you know, find something that works, works better. After the meeting, council member Ceballa Casino, who's not here tonight, unfortunately, he told me he had a great process that was very similar and it worked out very well. And another council member thought that they could probably work on that as well. So I guess what I'm asking council is if this is something that perhaps the council might want to work on with.

I was going to try to rope Mr. Kassena in that first and give it the first stab, perhaps saving the taxpayers $4,800 and then go forward. I wouldn't mind also if we did move forward, removing my motion to amend. Keep the money in there in case we did need a portion of it. But I had to take it out to be able to discuss it. So that's where I'm at.

Thank you, Mayor. Next, is there anyone else from the general public who'd like to speak to this ordinance? Seeing no one will bring it back to council discussion from council, Council member Sonar. Thank you, Vice Mayor Askin. First of all, I just want to clarify that this motion is actually decreasing a line item, not increasing, because I think that was your concern that you voiced.

So if I understand you correctly, Mayor, next, that you're saying that you're having to decrease this line item so that we can discuss it tonight. That's correct. Correct. Okay.

I like options. I'm just a person who likes options. I would like the option of being a part of the process of looking at the evaluation and evaluating the evaluation process to see if we can streamline it and make it more cohesive and user friendly for us. I would very much like to be a part of that process.

And Council Member Kasena, as you said, has some really good ideas with this and I would be. I would like to work with him on it. I would also like to have the option down the road. Let's just say we look at it, we work on it and we say, you know what, this is going to work for us, great. We'll use it.

Or if it's not going to work for us, then we could have the option of having these funds there. So I'm not exactly sure what the technical process is to kind of have your cake and eat it too, but I would like to have the options of both.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'll respond to that. I like to be able to eat my cake. Have my cake and eat it too. So I had to take it out to be able to discuss it.

And I don't think there's a problem really leaving $4,800 back in the budget either. But for discussion purposes, what I'm hoping is that council will take this up and perhaps you can lead it. There's a couple other council members that you know of, I think that are interested and working on that. Bring it back to council. So if, if that's pretty much a not agreement, I'll.

I'll rescind my, my motion at the. With the consent of the second. I wouldn't die.

Who seconded was it? I think it was me. It was Councilmember Daniel. So do you agree with resending? Yes, I will resend that.

Okay, very good.

It didn't exist. We had the discussion. So we have one more amendment. It's written and it's, it's in our pat. In our lay down here.

So Councilmember Grimmie, since it's your amendment, you make the motion. Lots of papers today. I move that we amend the draft FY2027 budget document as follows. General fund non departmental page 111. That's 111.

Increase capital outlay and transfers. Transfers by $180,000 capital budget page 289 increase appropriation for council chambers AV project by $180,000 for an overall increase of 180,000 DOL to the FY27 general fund budget.

I'll second request. Unanimous. Moved and seconded. Is there any discussion on the motion? Councilmember Grammy.

This motion is being suggested by Council member Kasena and myself. And unfortunately he's not here today. He's celebrating his kid, which I think is a really great reason to not be here. This, I think, was in the, as I understand it was in the original budget and then was removed before it came before us for our budget meeting, I don't know, a month or so ago. To improve the city council chambers technologically.

The AV infrastructure used for broadcasting and recording public meetings and other governmental communications, specifically, as we know the world, is post Covid very technologically driven. And that's how a lot of people communicate and connect with each other, with public agencies, with their government. And it has increased access and general ability to be part of the process that wasn't there before. People are busy with their lives. They don't often want to come and sit and listen to our meetings.

And thank you, all of you that are here today, especially because it's nice out. They prefer to listen when they can after the fact or to review minutes or meetings online. Our infrastructure is dated and doesn't offer that accessibility, which if we don't continue to move forward and meet residents where they're at, I think it would raise the question as to whether or not we're really participating in open and accessible government activities. Increases transparency and overall, I think it will reduce the cost and burden on some of our staff. It's so much faster to be able to just click and upload a recording of a meeting.

It will, I think, increase our ability to communicate with one another and individuals that come and present. I know seeing this screen is often difficult for all of us or for many of us. I can't speak for everyone. I know it's tough for myself. Other people have expressed the same thing.

So when people are presenting, I don't always get all the information that they're sharing because I can't see it, I can't read it.

An upgraded system would. Would provide that information to us directly on a screen. It would increase our ability to communicate because it would update the microphone systems that we're using. Overall, I think it would put us on even playing ground with other, with other similar bodies on the peninsula.

Any further discussion? Council Member Daniel thank you Mayor Nexted. And it may be way early on this, but I'm curious, so this looks like a complete upgrade. Do we have any ideas on what technology it's going to be or is it too early in the discussion? What exactly are you proposing here?

Because 180, it's a significant upgrade and I understand it's going to cost and I am supportive of this. But I'm just curious what all we're going to get unless it's too early for that. But I understand if it is. I think it is too early for me to tell you exactly. I mean some of the examples that I gave, you know, would be included in that.

And I would, I failed to say a moment ago, I would direct you to the last couple pages of the amendment. It indicates the number of people that are watching meetings online.

And I mean there's some significant numbers there, some significant peaks. And this would further allow that to continue. Like I said, I know it would increase our accessibility with bandwidth, with updated mics.

I guess I don't. I can't think of another specific example unfortunately. I'm sorry, I haven't seen an exact proposal. I think 180 was a ballpark number. I don't know if Madam Clerk has any other specifics that I failed to mention that you're aware of.

Clerk Sanner, thank you. It actually reached out and got us a quote. And the 180 is cameras that focus on the speakers. It's incomplete. AV upgrade in this chambers, cameras, microphones.

Microphones. Your seatings would have screens that you could see what's being presented in front of you. And it's a big quality upgrade. Thank you for that and I apologize for trying to put anybody on the spot. It was just, I was very intrigued by it.

You know me, I like technology and I'm very supportive of this. Just like we've used Zoom in the past right now actually, and YouTube. It makes a logical next step to keep our constituents informed and to make continue to make good choices for the city. Any further discussion, I have a couple of questions for Councilmember Grammy. I barely know how to use my cell phone.

So when you talk about accessibility, you know, we've got accessibility, we've got YouTube and we've got, you know, Zoom. It seems like we've got it. So how is the new accessibility so much better if you could explain that.

At the risk of insulting you, because those Are aging platforms, go right ahead. There are better. You know, technology moves fast, right? I mean, even, I mean, in my lifetime alone. And we're not going to talk about how many years that actually is.

My mom had a computer when I was a kid that, you know, was larger than the clerk's desk. Now I have a computer in my purse that can do substantially more than that computer could dream of doing. So technology is constantly moving fast, and we don't have the ability to stay up to date on all of it. We couldn't afford to. We couldn't maintain that speed.

But we haven't experienced a significant update to the technology available in our chambers in quite some time. And While Zoom and YouTube are good enough, they're not going to continue to be good enough and they're not going to continue to grow with, with us, with the city and with our constituents. And I think it's important to meet our constituents where they are at. If Zoom or YouTube is not what most people are using to communicate and access information, then we're not really transparent and accessible. If we're using those platforms to send information, I think it's important for us to.

To meet them where they are at. Otherwise the information is not. It's not really accessible. It's just there and we're maybe meeting our bare minimum.

I have a question for the city manager. It's obviously not in the budget. Is it in our capital? Normally projects like this would come through the capital projects plan and it would be kind of vetted out with a little more information on when and when we needed to do this. Do you have any information you can provide?

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council, it is not in our adopted capital plan from this last year.

It is not. Is not.

Any council member. Daniel, just a clarifying question. If this is approved tonight, it would then go into our just in the budget, wouldn't be in the capital plans. I'm assuming it would go through the regular process of getting go out for an RFP of what would we put it in this year's plan? Would that how that would work?

City Manager Eubank. City Manager Eubank. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Daniels, by appropriating it here tonight, it would become an active project to the city.

So it would then be on public works to go through the public procurement process and to oversee the project and affect the changes. Thank you. And I think maybe some clarifying just a little bit from my understanding from council member Grimmy and Mayor next, some of the concerns it's more than just meeting people where they are. It's this. It's our conference room technology, our dais, our chambers technology.

These mics I don't think are in production anymore. And I think our clerk has had to make some creative fixes to make it work. I mean, yes, we could just get new mics and that might be a lesser cost potentially, but if we're going to do it, we should at least look into this and see what would it take to do. To do a real overhaul of this room and potentially make your life easier as mayor when you're running these meetings with technology and make it easier for people to interact with us and for our clerk to do what she needs to do to run these meetings. I know it's not an easy job, so I would support this.

And if it, you know, it becomes a burden this year, maybe we can kick it to the next year. But I do think this is something we should definitely look into and consider. Any further discussion. I want to say that I'm generally in support of this, but where I'm at is it's like buying a car that you've never seen a little bit, you know, you got some money and I'm not sure what all of the components are. Just kind of like not being able to run my cell phone very well.

So. And it's not in the capital project in that list and that really helps me. So. City Manager Eubank, I'm trying to formulate a question here. If we approve this budget item tonight, would it put it, since it's going to affect council because of how we interact and how the public interacts, is this something that you would be willing to bring back to us?

These are the components we're looking at doing and this is. And then maybe these are the needs and maybe there's a couple of wants in there, additive alternates. So, you know, we know what we're getting. Is that something you can bring back to us in the future?

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I could, I mean, I just want council to understand I this the first time I got to see this amendment was the lay down material came out at three o'clock today. So I don't have any of the information that you're talking about. Could I get it?

Absolutely. And I'd be happy to, but I don't have a lot of information on this. So I would direct the question somewhere else on those specifics, but I'd be happy to if that's what's directed by council. Yeah. City Manager I Didn't mean tonight or I meant in the months to come.

Could be six months from now or whatever. Once, once it gets worked on. And so we know what we're, what we can be expecting. I'd rather not be surprised, you know, on what the components. We're going to have a screen here like Councilmember Grammy might suggest.

Had suggested. I want to know what that looks like. Councilmember Grammy maybe to put your mind at ease a little bit. As far as the dollar amount, I think $180,000. Not a hard.

That's not a hard and fast price tag. I think that's the upper. That's the upper limit. I think that some ballpark numbers were put together and that was sort of the high. That was the high end.

The low end. Didn't have all of those capabilities that I mentioned. In my mind, this is sort of, you know, asking for, asking for enough to buy a Cadillac. We'll be happy with the used Chevy. You know, something is better than what we're doing now.

And it might be $180,000. It might be 140 or somewhere in between.

It'll have to go to bid. We'll have to, you know, develop our specifics as we go through that process and with the involvement and the input of our department heads who's. I mean, that's their area of expertise. And I have no doubt that they'll ask us as council members for our opinion. Like, what are the things that would make this easier for you?

What are the things that interfere with your ability to do these things? So I feel confident that we'll have the ability to provide some input in the development process in seeking what pieces and parts we would like to see or don't feel are necessary.

Councilmember sonar. Thank you, Mayor Naxad. And for those of you that are technologically savvy, like Council member Daniel here and our city clerk, Ms. Saner, would these improvements, whether it's the used Chevy or the Cadillac or whatever model you're going for, obviously would be way better than what we have now and would bring us a little closer to 2026.

I know we've had issues with security with our technology in the last several years, and Ms. A has worked really, really hard to clamp down on that and to control it. And so what I'm wondering is, with these advances in this upgrade, would there be better security, added security that comes with the software and the. What's running this new stuff now? I mean, is that also an advantage that we haven't even thought of is the security on this, Councillor. Mayor Boremy Yes, I think as platforms evolve, as we, you know, as people who hack, for lack of a better term, evolve and mature and get better responses need to mature and evolve and get better.

And so new platforms are developed, new applications, new systems, new responses, new security firewalls and responses are developed. And that would all come with an upgrade in equipment and applications and software. I think that would be an inherent piece of that.

Any further discussion was unanimous consent requested.

Is there any objections to unanimous consent? Seeing none. The amendment passes. So we. We now have Ordinance 3523, 2026, as amended.

Are there any. Is there any further discussion?

Daniel? Thank you, Mayor Naxon. No, just thank you to everyone here. You know, everyone here, all the staff members getting these budgets put together. I know it's not easy.

Thank you to finance department and city Manager and thank you to council for a good discussion on getting through this. I know for the public, you may have not seen the full discussion. We had a work session a month ago, but it definitely is a process and it really appreciate everybody's work and discussion and due diligence getting this done.

Anything more from council representer? Would you please call the roll for.

Next? We need a break to finalize the numbers in the ordinance. Sorry, I was moving along here. We need to take a 10 minute break, 10 to 15 minutes, maybe a little more to get the numbers together and then we'll be back. Thank you.

Okay, we're back on the record. Vice Mayor Askin. Thank you, Mayor Nagstad. A fourth motion. We move to amend the title of Ordinance 3523 to 2026 to replace $4,584,359 with $4,303,600 $660 and amend the seventh whereas to replace 4,584,359 with 4,303,660 and amend section three to replace $4,584,359 with $4,303,660 and amend section two, the general fund appropriation amount from $23,341,239 to $23,567,641 and amend the airport special revenue fund appropriation amount from $4,042,144 to $4,112,144 and amend the total special revenue funds from $9,385,051 to $9,455,051 and add a new capital project fund and appropriation for City hall improvements for 180,000 and amend the total capital project funds from $3,370,100 to $3,550,100 to and amend total all funds from $41,633,894 to $42,110,296 and request unanimous consent.

I second that and give you a high five for all those numbers.

Very good. Any discussion on the. On the amendment, any objections to unanimous consent, amendment is approved. So now we are back to Ordinance 35, 23, 2026, as amended. Any further discussion, seeing no.

1. Clerk, please call the roll. Council Member Grimmie. Yes. Vice Mayor Askin?

Yes. Councilmember Sonart? Yes. Mayor Naxted? Yes.

Councilmember Daniel? Yes. Student Representative Bowling? Yes. You have five yes votes.

Ordinance number 3523, 2026, as amended, is enacted. Thank you very much. That brings us to item E4, Ordinance number 3524, 2026, amending Kenai Municipal Code section 2325065, shift differential pay to update shift hours and to clarify eligibility. And section 2355030, qualification pay to ensure appropriate compensation and benefits to city employees comparable to other places of public employment, which allows the city to recruit and retain qualified employees brought to us by administration, pleasure of council. Vice Mayor Askam, I move we enact.

Ordinance number 3524, 2026. I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3524, 2026? Seeing no one, that brings it back to council. City Manager Eubank, you want to give us an overview on this?

Yeah. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, members of council and HR director is here also. If I can't get all the questions answered. But Ordinance 3524, 2026 will codify some of the changes that were proposed as part of the FY27 budget.

Those changes included changing the times where shift differential pay gets paid. This change just changes one of the time slots and it aligns it better with the actual shifts that have been employed at the department for a long time. So basically for this shifts that I think currently it's supposed. The shift reads, it's supposed to start at 2 o'. Clock.

We have a number of employees that are actually starting at 12 o'. Clock. And working till 10 o' clock at night. So they are not eligible. And I don't think that was the intent.

This will correct that. Another proposal that came in the budget was to change the methodology for calculating an incentive pay for our police officers who receive an incentive pay for certification with the Alaska Police Standards Council. There's three certification levels. There's beginner, intermediate and advanced certification. Currently, the incentive is paid based upon, I believe, step A of the police officer range.

It's a fixed amount. This will apply the percentage of the incentive against the officer's current rate and step of pay. And then the third adjustment is to the percentage of incentive paid to paramedics. Our current percentage of incentive pay paid to paramedics is 5% of their pay. This will increase it to 15, which is comparable to other our neighboring departments and other departments to assure that we're able to attract and retain paramedics for our fire department and Stephanie, did I miss anything?

Okay, Perfect.

City Manager Eubank, you got a thumbs up. Good job. Any further discussion on this ordinance? Council Member DANIEL thank you, Mayor Knack. There's a quick question for the city manager.

When this takes, if this takes effect, will this be going forward or will there be any retroactive pay or this will happen? When will employees, I guess, see this benefit in their patients? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember Daniel all these changes will be effective July 1st to their pay. I do think the ordinance itself likely doesn't become active for 30 days because it's amending codes, but we will retro it for beginning with the new budget year so it will become effective July 1.

Council member Grimmy I just want to,. I guess make a comment. The first point of this regards to shift work. Shift work's really difficult on the people working it and their families. So I appreciate that.

We are being mindful of making sure that we are, that we're operating within the spirit of that. In regards to shift differential pay, in regards to the second and third parts, I think it shows that we honor our staff and we are doing our best to, To pay them for continuing to increase their worth to our city. When you are increasing your knowledge or you're a paramedic or you have your advanced certificate through the Alaska Peace Officers association, you're greater value to our community and I appreciate that. We recognize that and we pay them accordingly. And I think that will allow us to continue to recruit and retain the best staff and first responders.

Any further discussion? I wanted to thank Stephanie, the HR department for all your work on this so if there's no further discussion. Clerk, please call the roll. Vice Mayor Askin? Yes.

Councilmember Sonart. Yes. Mayor Nachstadt? Yes. Council Member Daniel.

Yes. Councilmember Grimmy. Yes. Student representative Bowling? Yes.

You have five yes votes. Ordinance number 3524 2026, is enacted. Thank you. Now we are in item E5, Ordinance number 3525 2026. Enacting Kenai Municipal Code section 1420, 246, tent camping on private property.

Amending Kenai municipal code section 1423 20, definitions to provide definitions. To provide definitions regarding tents and campgrounds. Amending Kenai municipal code section 1310060, sanitary facilities for camping on private property and amending Kenai municipal code section 14.22, land use table brought to us by administration. Pleasure of counsel, Vice Mayor asking. I move we adopt or enact ordinance number 3525 2026.

I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3525 2026? No one. Bring it back to council. City Manager Eubank, there's a.

This is new code. It's a lot in here. You want to go over it a little bit? Yeah. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, members of council. So during last year's personal use fishery, we received a complaint from members of a neighborhood about a piece of property. It's a vacant lot within the subdivision in the neighborhood that somebody had purchased. And there were. They had brought in sanitary facilities, they brought in dumpsters, they brought in some porta potties, but they had a number of tents that were housing people that were participating in the fishery.

No primary structure on the property. And the complaint was that this was not consistent with the character, nature and spirit of a residential neighborhood. And when staff reviewed Kenai Municipal Code, we had no tools to prohibit what was going on. Council last fall directed the Planning and Zoning Commission to look into the issue and discuss the issue. The result of that is the ordinance that's before you tonight that they recommended for adoption at their last meeting.

Correct, Kevin?

Through the city manager. Not their last meeting, but it was previously discussed. Okay. So they did recommend adoption of the ordinances before you. And this will create a new section that will address tents specifically and erecting them on private property.

The majority of this is mirrored after the code that deals with recreational vehicles. Campers and RVs both require a primary structure on the property in order to have tents. Or if it's a vacant property, it needs to be adjacent to A property owner with a primary structure, it limits the length of time a tent can be erected to three consecutive days or seven days within a 30 day period where a recreational vehicle is limited to no more than 30 days. That is one difference between the two. And both still have all those other same requirements of requiring them to provide or have adequate sanitary facilities, both refuge and for sewer and things like that.

So this is what was the result of that discussion at Pinsy? Any questions to the city manager, Council member Grimmy?

You said seven days aggregated. Is it seven or is it five?

Five. I apologize. That's okay. I just wanted to clarify. I have a question in that regard.

Then in that vein, you noted that this code was written in the spirit of the current recreational vehicle code. There is a stark departure in the number of days for an RV being 30 days, for a tent being three consecutive five total in a 30 day period. That's a big, that's a big difference for what I think one could argue both equate to transient housing or recreational camping. Housing. Why the, why such a divide between a tent and a camper?

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Councilmember Grimley? I believe the intent was to. They were trying, the intent is try to address the problem that was described which is the personal use fishery and the occurrence during that period of time. If it was set at 30 days like it is for recreational vehicles, then it would not have affected a change.

That fishery is only for 21 days. So that is why it was went from 30 days to three consecutive and five total in a 30 day period. I believe the intent was to still, you know, not make, you know, if individuals have guests come down for a weekend that need to camp or something they can pitch, attend the yard or kids that want to pitch a tent in the yard. And it was to try to, you know, not make all of those activities not permitted. But it was still trying to address the personal use fisheries.

So I think that's, that's the reason for the departure.

But the number of days in this suggested code would prohibit both of those last two activities. I think I have a concern that we're differentiating strongly between somebody who comes here to use the personal use fishery in a camper or an RV and someone who comes to use the personal use fishery in a tent. It's Alaska and I think lots of us use both or one or the other.

I don't understand and I don't think I'm convinced that there's valid reason for there to be such a difference between being Here in a camper or being here in a tent, I think it leads itself for people to question why the lack of consistency across our codes. They're both temporary housing. Why is it so different? Why do we have such a strong difference of expectation for a tent versus a camper? Is it our personal bias, our perception?

Is it one isolated incident? I mean, I can think of several. I can think of several places off the top of my head just in the last couple of weeks within the city where there have been multiple campers that have showed up and are in one place. They can do that for a month, but if it were a tent, they could only be there for a couple of days. And if a family does put a tent in their front yard for their kids to camp in off and on all summer, as my kids did, or as my son completed his camping nights to earn his Eagle Scout in the backyard, that was seven nights.

So I understand what the spirit is and the intent, but I think there's unintended consequences with the. What seem to be arbitrary days that are in this code and they're inconsistent with existing codes for other temporary housing.

At City Manager Eubank that would. At camper, usually they usually have their own facilities. Water, sewer. Is that part of. There was a lot of questions.

I'm not sure if it was really directed to you, but, you know, there's a difference between a camper and a tent camping. Is that what the city is seeing is, you know, a camping experience where you've got a tent with no facilities, but you've got a camper vehicle with four wheels that has a toilet and a shower on board? Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, you know, I can't.

All I can tell you is I think what the intent of this language was when, you know, when brought back from PNZ to council. And I think that, again, I think the problem they were trying to address or was, they were asked to review was the tank camping issue. So as far as the differences between the two, I, I'm not sure.

And if I might, Mayor Knack said City Manager Eubank's example that he gave was in response to a. A specific complaint that involved tents that had a dumpster and had a biffy on site. So they were providing sanitation options for their garbage and their human waste, but they were sleeping in a tent, not a camper.

So I think the intent. Thank you, Mayor Nexted. I think the intent of this is to prohibit private property owners from converting their private property into a commercial business where a commercial business wouldn't necessarily be operating, if I understand that correctly. My next door neighbors have young kids. I could care less if those young kids erect a tent in their backyard and they camp out all summer and sleep out there.

They're small kids. I know what they're doing. I don't have a problem with that. I'm not going to call the city because that tent is there for two months and those kids are having fun. But I would have an issue if my neighbors had multiple tents and were taking in cash and were.

And was running a commercial business in a residential place. I think that's the intent to try and monitor running a commercial business on a private piece of property where a commercial business should not be run. I did not get the. I did not get that there was a commercial entity involved here, did I? Did I miss that part?

I thought it was a group that owned it and were using it for their own purposes as a, as a group. But it wasn't a commercial and it wasn't a commercial Enterprise. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Green I don't think we determined there was any commercial activity going on. So a group out of ancient that.

Somebody was operating a commercial campground.

Any further discussion? Councilmember, next. I just, I would just like to point out that this isn't just about one situation. We have gotten completely complaints over the years in other neighborhoods about this too. So I just want to make sure we're not just targeting.

This isn't just about one piece of property. This is about complaints that we've received in various neighborhoods throughout the years. Thank you for that. Council Member Daniel, do you have a comment?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor Naxon.

I do appreciate the work that the, the staff and that PNZ Commission put into this. We need some sort of mechanism to help regulate this. Maybe an appropriate motion. And I don't know if this would help would be. We could extend the time a little bit.

Is that the concern? Is the timeline? Is that the concern, not everything else For Council Member Grimmy? Yeah. And that's what I wanted to say in response to.

To Mr. Summers statements as well. My concern is specifically in regard to that is inconsistent with our existing codes regarding temporary housing. Like a camper, this code deviates from that. So my concern is the consistency. I understand that means that they could be here, the whole fishery, and that would fail to address the specific concern that was brought up that prompted this conversation.

But maybe that means that the RV code needs to be reviewed too. I don't know what that answer is. My concern specifically is the Lack of consistency between the two.

Councilmember McDaniel, go ahead. Thank you. That makes sense to me. Let me ask this question to the city manager for pnz. Did has rv does the RV code been looked at yet?

Is that something on your guys radar? Maybe that's the next step for this as well.

Through the City manager, Council Member Daniel and Councilmember Grimmy. We did have discussions during the work session for this particular coming up with these regulations as our directive was not to was to look solely at tent camping. We did not look into making recommendations to council because council's directive was to look at tent camping. There was discussion at potentially looking at the RV code. I think there was some appetite to making them sync up a little bit better.

But because our mission was to look at tent camping we did not stray from that course.

I guess maybe I need some direction then on what my what we could do next if we wanted to what our options would be to ask PNZ to reconsider this or consider this along with the RV code what our step next step would be.

Thank you. If I may, you could either propose amendments that you want to see tonight or you could postpone this and refer it back to PNZ to make changes with you know some direction either to look to make it the two consistent or just look for a different solution.

Thank you. I would move that we send this back to PNZ to review both codes and consider the need for consistency between the two.

I'll second that. And if I may, I'm not saying this in a negative way but just just so council's aware that means that we won't likely have any regulations on the book this summer and not that that's just so you're aware of that. I think that's an unfortunate byproduct of not considering the potential side effects of this before it came before council today.

Would the maker of the motion be interested in stating some dates when it would come back to us? Perhaps we can get that from the clerk. Because I'm not sure what the schedule is.

I'd like to ask our planning director what their schedule of meetings look like. The original work sessions wouldn't require public hearing notice.

Our next meeting is the 24th and then we have meetings on July 1st, 15th and 29th. I believe since council pushed their meeting back in July.

Mr. Granny. So the suggestion is that in my. I ask that my motion include that it be referred back to Planning and Zoning for their meeting on June 24.

I was going to suggest at least a date Maybe it would be coming back to us. So, I mean, they could. They could. They could have a special meeting or one of those. So I guess the question is, what's.

What's a good date that you think. That actually if the planning commission were to look at it on the 24th, then they could make a recommendation for the July 8th city council meeting?

I think that's fine. I'm fine with the June 24 date for planning and zoning, if that gives them enough time to review both codes and consider. Consider figuring out a way to make them more consistent with one another.

So you're amending your motion? Yes. Okay. And that's okay with the second? I'll second that.

Council Member Daniel. Thank you, Mayor Knacks. It best. I mean, because it sounds like we may not get something on the books. Would.

Would we. This is more for Councilmember Grimmy. How would you feel if we just made a motion to keep this, but just make the timeline match the RV so we get something on the book? So some sort of enforcement mechanism this summer? I'm debating if I want to make that or not.

I don't have any specific objection to that. But the point was made earlier that, that if the. If the tent camping code is moved to be directly in line with the current RV code, it's 30 days and the personal use fishery is 21. So that wouldn't resolve the concern that was presented regarding tent camping during the personal use fishery.

Any further discussion.

Go ahead, Council member Son Art. Thank you, Mayor Nexted. I'm going to circle back at the risk of sounding like a dog with a bone. I guess I am. I have a question for Mr. Buettner here, because I'm looking at your memorandum, and when I read it, I processed it and I.

And I came away with something very different than everybody else up here came away with. I'm just going to read the first two paragraphs from your memorandum. In summer 2025, the city received inquiries from residents regarding activities on a parcel located on 3rd Street. Reports indicated that tents, portable restrooms, and a dumpster had been placed on the property. The city has periodically received other complaints from residents in the VIP neighborhood regarding camping on private property associated with Dipnet activity.

Okay. We have private property. We have private property owners. I brought up the concept of a commercial business, and I realized it was not a commercial business because there's no licenses. There's no.

There's none of that. But is there? Mr. Buhner, in your opinion, from the complaints that you have fielded in your Opinion. Is there pseudo commercial business going on? Because when I read this memorandum and I'm thinking, okay, private property owner.

Private property. As a private property owner, let's say I'm the person who owns this parcel on 3rd Street. I'm having to pay to bring in portable restrooms and put on my private property. I'm having to pay to bring a dumpster and put on my private property. I'm a really gracious hostess because then I call all my friends and lacks and say, come on down, come party with me on my private property.

I'm paying for everything. Or is there a, in your opinion, is there a, an under the table pseudo business going on here? Because why would any private property owner go to the expense of pride of providing these amenities if they're not somehow being compensated for it? So I guess I want to just find out if I just totally read this wrong because I came away with something totally different than some of you up here. And I just want to get my mind straight.

So, Mr. Buettner, help me out here. Through the city manager, council member soda. It would be pure. It would be pure speculation. But it could also be, it could be a nonprofit group.

It could be a church. And maybe they're not opening it up to the public. Maybe they're providing this as a service to their membership. I don't know the specifics on all of these different instances. A lot of these do predate me.

The one last year, I do believe was a non profit group. I believe it was a, I want to say it was a church group. So I do not know if they charged any kind of service fee or anything. I'm not privy to that information. But it could have just been something that they put together as a group.

So that's why our definition of a campground is a little bit more broad because it may or may not include a fee. So that's why we were thinking a little bit outside the box on that one. Okay. All right. Thank you.

I will bury the bone wrist.

Any further discussion. I.

If I could ask Mr. Buettner a question so I get full clarification on the motorhomes first. Would it. In your purview perhaps, rather than the. It's all in your purview. But to, rather than go over the tent camping code again, just pick up the camper code and have the same request about looking at making that consistent with the tent capping.

Is that something I think you just, you said, well, it was. There were two different codes and you just didn't want to kind of pick up another one. Is that something that you're planning on doing soon, Mayor? Excellent. Through the city manager, we definitely could.

I think that any discussion that the Planning Zoning Commission does have, we. We would look at both of those. Codes again with the. With the motion that is on the floor, or if council does direct us, we could do that as a standalone, have work sessions on that as well to hammer out those details. But I think being under Title 14, the Commission could look at that in any way that.

And make their recommendation as appropriate.

Go ahead. So I know we have a motion to postpone on the floor, but I might offer an amendment that I think might satisfy everybody, although I'm not sure. But.

I believe if we amended the ordinance to remove section one and just left section two and three in,. That. Would prohibit people from having three or more tents on a piece of property. So people could still have one or two tents on their property for as long as they wanted, but it would eliminate people having three or more tents on their property. Is that correct, Kevin?

Correct, but I believe Council Member Grimmy wanted a repeat. Yeah, I just. You said section one, and I just want to review them. Yep. If we deleted all of section one, but left sections two and three, which defined campground and make them a conditional use in the land use table, or prohibit them in certain areas, then people could still have one or two tents on their property for as long as they wanted, as long as there were sanitary facilities, which is elsewhere in code.

But it would prohibit people from having three or more tents on their property because that would be the definition of a campground, and we could at least prohibit sort of these pseudo campgrounds.

Council Member Granny, I would have to reread the 14, 2245, the recreational vehicles code. Is there something in there, do you know, off the top of your head about the number of RVs.

Thank you. I'm gonna. Kevin says it's two.

For this. Adjourned. Yes. Two constitutes a RV park, which is a land use. Land use table.

So we do regulate, currently RV camp, RV parks. So this would be consistent with RV parks.

I think as long as they're consistent. That's my biggest concern, is the lack of consistency between the two. I think that what you're suggesting would strike a balance in regards to consistency and would address my concern about a significant divide between a tent or an RV and the difference in code between the two. So in order for that to happen, if everybody's comfortable with that, you would have to withdraw your motion with consent of the second and then do a motion to amend the ordinance by removing section one from the ordinance. Okay.

Can we. Let's do that. Can I do that one at a time? I might need you to hold my hand. Okay.

So. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead. Okay. I would like to withdraw my motion to send this back to PNZ for reconsideration.

The second consent. So we're back to where we were. So now you can make your motion. Now I would like to make a motion that we remove section 1 of proposed ordinance number 35252026 6. I second that and request unanimous consent.

Any further discussion on the amendment? I'm going to offer a friendly suggestion. City Manager Eubank reminded me that the title would then be inconsistent. So I think we would also amend the title. And if I may, it would be an ordinance amending kenai Municipal Code 142320 Definitions to provide definitions regarding tents and campgrounds.

Amending Municipal Code.

Section 1422, land use table. So it would remove from the title enacting Kenai Municipal Code 1422 46, tent camping on private property and amending Kenai Municipal Code 131060, sanitary facilities for camping on private property. So to make sure I understand, you're removing amending Kenai municipal code section 142320 definitions to provide definitions regarding tents and campgrounds. And the remainder above and below remains.

No, sorry. One more time. So the title would read ordinance enacting or sorry, an ordinance Amending Kenai municipal code section 142320 definitions to provide definitions regarding tents and campgrounds. Amending and amending Kenai municipal code section 1422, land use table. So it would remove the enactment of section 142246 and the amendment of Kenai Municipal Code section 1310.

060. And just a friend, a friendly addition to that. You would also have to strike Section 3 from the ordinance.

Council member. Grammy. If. If you're not sure, we could take a. Take a brief at ease, just to compare notes.

I'm on board with what Mr. Summers suggested. I was just trying to reread section three because that was one section that Mr. Summers suggested we keep.

Am I understanding correctly? You. No, we would not. Sorry. Mr. Buettner is right.

We would also need to remove Section 3, which amends existing code on sanitary facilities for camping on private property. Okay. So with that in mind, I would withdraw my previous motion.

You could amend your. Your motion to include. Okay, I was just gonna withdraw it and do another one for sections one and three. I can write it out for You. If you give me.

Give me two minutes. I think. I think I got it. Okay. I simply want to.

I want to amend the motion to remove sections one and three.

That would require a second. Right. And then the next one would be a second step.

Sorry, I think you need to write the second. The other section out then. Okay. If you don't mind, I'll do it really fast. Thank you.

We'll take a. Take a brief. At ease. Five minutes or less.

Okay. We're back on the record. Council member, Grammy track, where we're at. I think you've got a new motion, so I just remove the old one. Okay.

I think I did ask to remove the old one. Okay. I move to amend ordinance number three. I should double check. Are you ready, Madam Clerk?

Okay. I move to amend Ordinance Number 3525, 2026 by amending the title to read an ordinance amending Kenai municipal code section 14, 20.320, definitions to provide definitions regarding tents and campgrounds and amending Kenai municipal code section 14.22, land use table and delete from the ordinance sections 1 and 3 and renumber existing section 2 and 4 to 1 and 2.

I'll second that and request unanimous consent. Any further discussion on the amendment as consent was requested. Is there any objection? Seeing none. That brings us back to Ordinance 3525, 2026, as amended.

Vice Mayor Askin. I also move that we amend Ordinance 3525, 2026, Section 2, by adding the following footnote to the land use table. Classification of campgrounds does not apply to city owned property. C KMC 18.35010 overnight camping and request unanimous consent. I second that.

Council. Discussion on the amendment. Councilmember Daniel oh, not on the amendment. I apologize. Okay.

Is there any further discussion? Announcement? Consent was requested. Is there any objection? Seeing none, the amendment passes.

So we are back to Ordinance 3525, 2026, as amended. Any further discussion? Council Member DANIEL Now I have discussion. Thank you, Mayor. Next.

Just I want to make sure we're all on the same page here and we found a good compromise. I just have a question for maybe the city manager or Mr. Buettner. What do we have? Is this enough teeth, I guess, to get the job done? And in terms of making sure that we're not having, for lack of better term, tent towns, I guess, if you will, and that these, you know, lots, these vacant lots, we can do what we need to do.

If you're moving all these other Things in here because we had a very cut and dried. You have to have this. You have to do that. You know, you can only be there for so many days. But now I guess we don't have a lack of a timeline.

It could be there as many days as they want. It's just. It's just the quantity. So I guess my concern is we don't have enough teeth here. What does this look like from an enforcement perspective?

Maybe that's my question. City Manager Eubank.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember Daniels. I think you said it. I think what enforcement wise, what this allows the city to enforce is erection of the fourth tent.

This will allow three or fewer tents on a parcel.

Go ahead, please. See Manager for council member DANIEL what was in Section 3 with the requiring sanitary facilities? That's still encoded. It'll stay in title 13. So there is still a little bit more of that enforcement as well.

That has been stripped out. It was originally going to be moved to 14, but as it stands with the motion it would stay in 13. So there are a few things still left in encode.

Mayor next said, if I may just clarify that a campground is defined as the three or more tents. So this would allow two tents. The third tent would then qualify as a campground.

Councilmember Daniel. Thank you. I appreciate it. I would support this as a good compromise. You know, get something on the books for the fishery.

I don't want to send this back and have to wait and not get something there. And we'll try it, see how it goes. If it doesn't work, we'll have to readdress it and potentially look at timelines or other things. So I would support this.

Any further discussion on the ordinance as amended, seeing none. Clerk, please call the roll. Council member Sonart. Yes. Mayor Nachstad?

Yes. Council member Daniel? Yes. Council member Grimmy? Yes.

Vice Mayor Askin? Yes. Student representative Bowling? Yes. You have five yes votes.

Ordinance number 3525, 2026 as amended, is enacted. Thank you very much. Now we are on item E6, Ordinance 3526, 2026, amending the official zoning map by rezoning parcel number 04106318 with physical address of 6575 Kenai Spur highway from a split zone of rural residential RR to general commercial CG to the zoning district of general commercial CG brought to us by administration. Pleasure of counsel. Vice Mayor Askin, I move we enact.

Ordinance number 3526, 2026.

I second that. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3526, 2026, Signal 1. Bring it back to council. Council discussion.

City Manager Eubank, did you have anything you wanted to add to this? Clarify?

Not necessarily, Mr. Mayor, but I give just a brief rundown on it. So members council. So this, what this ordinance does is this property owner in the past petition to remove a lot line on their property and make one contiguous lot. That lot line. The back parcel that was combined was zoned row residential.

The parcel that fronts the Kenai spur highway was zoned commercial. The intent when the vacation of that lot line was approved was that the property owner once, once the lot was combined would then request this rezoning to eliminate a split zone on the parcel. So this is the last step in that process. This individual is operating a campground. I believe that permitted or conditional use, Kevin?

Conditional use. It's a conditional use that they have been approved for on the parcel. This just brings like that one whole parcel now into a single zone. And I believe this was the intent all along.

Any further discussion, I will concur with this, with this ordinance. And it's a. We do have a business and a campground in town and it's something that I think that's best done by, you know, by private industry. And they will not any longer require a conditional use permit. So I think that's business friendly.

Once the zoning changes. It is not correct. Sorry, Mr. Mayor. No, the conditional use permit will still be needed because to have a campground in the commercial zone, it requires conditional use. It just removes the split zone that is on the property right now.

Got it. Thank you very much. Is there any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll. Mayor Naxted?

Yes. Councilmember Daniel? Yes. Councilmember Grimmie? Yes.

Vice Mayor Askin? Yes. Councilmember Sonart? Yes. Student Representative Bowling?

Yes. You have five yes votes. Ordinance number 3526, 2026 is enacted. That brings us to item E7, ordinance 3527, 2026, determining that approximately 7682 square feet of portion of city owned property described as that portion of Government Lot 10 lying southwest the bridge access road and lying north and northwest and Northeast of USS 4563amended is not needed for public purpose and authorizes the sale and exchange of the property to RABUF llc brought to us by administration. Pleasure of counsel.

Vice Mayor Askin. I move we enact ordinance number 3527 2026, I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3527, 2026, seeing no one bring it back to council for discussion? Excuse me. Eubank.

There's some pretty good details in this.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. So council, what initiated this process was and Ray Buff LLC is Pac Star, I believe it's one of the operating canneries there on bridge access approached the city requesting to tie into city water and sewer.

That is a long bridge access road. The original request they asked to extend a service line down the city's right of way, which we objected to. It's not good practice for us to have service lines running through our right of way. As an alternative, working with them, we proposed a. Effectively a portion of this is a land swap.

So if you look on page 42 of your packet, there is a map there that you can see and you can see where Irwin Circle that right away comes down through that area. Irwin Circle was, if you look on page 45, currently is not a complete right away. We only have half of the cul de sac on the end as dedicated right away. That half that's not dedicated is property that is owned by Raybuff llc. So the proposal is, is that they will provide the city with that property to complete the right of way and give us a.

The opportunity to do a cul de sac there and turnaround. It provides actually better access to a couple other parcels down there as well. In exchange, we would be vacating a portion of what is a pretty expansive right of way for Irwin Circle and selling to Raybuff a small portion there that gets them access to the right of way to tie into our utilities where they can keep the service line they're requesting on their property and not in the city's right of way. We believe it's in the city's best interest to do this because we are able then to complete the right of way for Irwin Circle. We have a complete cul de sac there at the end that could be constructed with this right of way.

The property that we are selling is relatively de minimis and does have. You know, it's. There's a wetlands just to the probably north of it and we would be sharing in the cost to do the subdivision. And they will be compensating us for the additional acreage that they. So the difference between the right of way that we're receiving from them and what is being sold to them, they will be compensating the city for the difference in the value for that little bit of land.

But I believe, you know, like I said, I think it's in our best interest because it does complete the right of way for Irwin Circle. It gets them access to tie into our utilities, which they will be a good utility customer and that that's how this came about. And if I missed anything, I'm happy to try to answer any more questions.

I just wanted to add, we are still having discussions with them about the water and sewer. There's potential that they could be extending water and sewer main down that right of way to a point as part of the project. We're still evaluating it and working on it with the owner and the contractor. So that might be an additional benefit for the city as far as extension of water and sewer may do that right away.

Thank you for the information on that. Any further discussion? Council member Daniel. I appreciate that this sounds like a solid plan and a great win. A benefit for both parties involved.

I appreciate this bringing us forward. Thank you. Agreed. It looks like a win win all the way around. No further.

Council member Grimmie. I'm sorry, I would just add. I agree and I would. I would add that it's another way that we're supporting business development within our community.

Any further discussion? Clerk, please call the roll. Council member Daniel? Yes. Councilmember Grimmie?

Yes. Vice Mayor Askin? Yes. Council member Sonart? Yes.

Mayor Nachstad? Yes. Student Representative Bowling? Yes. You have five yes votes.

Ordinance number 3527, 2026 is enacted.

Now we are on item E8, resolution 2026-37, fixing the rate of levy, first property tax for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2026 and ending July or June 30, 2027, brought to us by administration. Pleasure of counsel. Vice Mayor Askin. I move we adopt resolution number 2026-37 and request unanimous consent. I'll second that.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Resolution 2026-37, seeing no one bring it back to council? Council discussion and as consent was requested, is there any objection saying none. Resolution 202637 is adopted. Now we have item E9, resolution 2026-38, amending the comprehensive schedule of rates, charges, fees to incorporate fiscal year 27 budget changes to include adjusting airport fees, library fees, fire department fees, land management fees, parks and recreation fees, planning and zoning fee, public works fee, water and sewer fees, and adjusting the monthly rental rates for Vintage Point brought to us by administration. Pleasure of council Vice Mayor Askin, I.

Move we adopt resolution number 202638 and request unanimous consent. I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Resolution 202638 saying no one brings back counsel Discussion commencement consent was requested. Are there any objections? See no objections.

Resolution 2026-38 is adopted. That brings us to Item E10, Resolution 2026-39 authorizing a contract award for the 2026 TIPNET dumpster and portalettes brought to us by administration. Pleasure of counsel. I move we adopt Resolution 202639 and request unanimous consent. I'll second.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-39 seeing no one bring it back to council. Council discussion manager's consent was requested. Are there any objections saying none. Resolution 2026-39 is adopted. Now we are on resolution or on resolution.

Item E11, Resolution 2026-40 authorizing a contract award for the 2026 congregate housing caretaker brought to us by administration. Pleasure of counsel. Vice Miraskin. I move we adopt resolution number 2026-40 and request unanimous consent. I'll second.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-40 saying no. But that brings it back to council. Vice Mayor Askin. Okay.

The city managers Eubank, the individual that's cut is going to get the contract here. Is that the one we've had previously and perhaps the Kathy might want to speak to that too. Thank you Mr. Mayor, members of council. So this is the existing contractor. We did receive one bid and it is from Sadler Property Management.

Same contractor we currently have in place. You want to add anything, Kathy?

Sorry, I lost the date 2009, so 17 years. Bill Sadler has been the contractor for Vantage Point. We're very fortunate. And he was the only one again this year.

Thank you for that. I didn't realize he'd been out there that long and I know that he is well loved. He does a very good job. So glad to have him. Management consent was requested.

Are there any objections saying none. Resolution 2026-40 is adopted. Now we are on item E12, resolution 2026-41 declaring our right of way for a 60 foot by 155.68 foot portion of the 60 foot unnamed right of way located along the southeastern boundary of Lot 11A Block 8, Black Gold Estates 2025 Replat plat number KN 202570 and as set forth on the attached exhibit A is not needed for a public purpose and consenting to its vacation brought to us by administration. Pleasure of counsel. Vice Mayor Askin.

I move we adopt Resolution 2026-41 and request unanimous consent. I second that. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Resolution 2026-41? Mr. Dothit.

Hi, Alex Dothit, resident of Kenai, Alaska. I'd just like to say thank you for considering this. I believe that all the issues that were brought up the last time have now been resolved with Wildwood Drive. And I would really appreciate this to be able to move forward with some land development in this area. Every year it gets worse, it seems like with the drainage issues.

And this year, with the way we had drainage issues with everything frozen, it was brought to some serious attention that the way Wildwood Drive drains and the way the city or the state has drained all of Weaver Brothers Yard and everything drains to my facility. So I really would like to be able to utilize this section to help with some drainage issues, to get off my property, to help my business be able to not flood out every spring and so address that and to be able to access the current lot that we have that goes across that. I also think this helps set precedent for all the other property owners along Wildwood Drive now that they can start to move forward hopefully to pay to vacate this. It's. It's fairly expensive to vacate it, but it allows them to access their properties.

And I know several of them have their properties for sale. And one of the things that have come up when I've talked to them is that they've had previous buyers realize that they would have to extend their driveways also to access that extra 60ft for utilities and all that. Just to get to those lots is a big expense for them. So hopefully they'll continue to redevelop this and kind of clean up this older subdivision and maybe make those lots big enough to see some new development along Wildwood Drive. And rumor has it they might be actually going to do some work on Wildwood Drive here pretty soon, too.

So glad to see that. So thank you for consideration. Would you care to stand for any questions anyone has? I might say. Thank you, Alex.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak to Resolution 2026-41, Signal 1, bring it back to council. Council discussion. Council member Grim. I just want to point out that this resolution is similar in the spirit of ordinance number 3527, 2026, in that it gives us the opportunity to help local and small businesses continue to do business in a cost effective way within our community.

Any further discussion? I'd like to say that when this came before us before, the right of way was not owned by the City of Kenai. It's adjacent to that, where that Wildwood Drive is in. And we had some questions on how that was going to work out. And since that's been resolved, this issue has also, and I am in support of this resolution, but I also want to put it in the thinking of administration, the Other sections of 60 foot right of way that are down there, that perhaps there's a place in our land inventory mapping and whatnot that will address those lots as.

Or that right away as something that the city would be willing to dispose of if the landowner were to do a subdivision.

Any further discussion? Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections? Saying none. Resolution 2026-41 is adopted.

That brings us down to item E13, resolution 2026-42 approving a memorandum of agreement between the city of Kenai and the Kenai Peninsula Borough for intergovernment toll administration of borough and city municipals elections brought to us by the City Clerk. Pleasure of Council. Vice Mayor Askin. I move we adopt resolution number 2026-42 and request unanimous consent. I'll second.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Resolution 2026-42, seeing no one bring it back to council? Madam Clerk, would you like to discuss this at all for us? Sure. Historically, the city and the borough, as we all know, have conducted their elections together. And in 2021 we formalized it with a memorandum of agreement.

When the borough's election moved last fall to November, they terminated those agreements. Except for they let ours stay in place through our special election. And after our special election, they terminated it. And this new this would bring us back. Since our voters approved moving our election, this memorandum of agreement would reestablish that relationship which we have seen by the reports I provided last December.

Conducting our elections concurrently and in joint with the borough is a substantial savings of funds for the city. So this just reestablishes that relationship. Thank you for that, Councilmember Daniel. Thank you, Mayor Nachshead. I really appreciate you putting this together.

Ms. Sahner. This is a great win for both parties. Just a quick question. Was there any changes to the agreement from prior or is it the same as before? Yes, there have been price increases in our agreement.

The cost for the borough clerk's time for Administering our portion. That's a new cost and some of them were raised and it reflects the actual time that the borough clerk spends doing work for our elections. Any further discussion? Council Member Crammey I think even with these increases, this is still a substantial savings to this to the city. And I appreciate that we're able to enjoy the benefits of this collaborative agreement with the borough that benefits us financially.

Any further discussion of consent was requested. Are there any objections? Seeing none. Resolution 2026-42 is adopted.

Now we're on item E14, resolution 2026-43 authorizing contract award for the 2026 street lights repair and maintenance with utility locates contract purchased by administration. But pleasure of counsel, Vice Mayor asking,. I move we adopt Resolution 2026-43 and request unanimous consent. I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Resolution 2026-43?

Signal 1. Bring it back to council. Council discussion. Council Member Daniel Just a quick question. Thank you.

Marinac said. I see the price was 110 was their bid. We budgeted looks like 95. So I'm guessing the we'll just use it until we're out or what? What's the difference of the discrepancy there?

Excuse me, Manager eubank. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilmember Daniels. Generally when we get into bids like this, the city estimates a quantity of work. That estimation of quantity of work allows us to make every bid comparable when we're comparing bids.

So you are correct. We will authorize work up to the budgeted amount. We're not bound by the bid amount because again, it was just based on an estimated quantity of work.

In addition, we did have the $30,000. In there because we do have streetlight construction money in our capital budget already. That exceeds is far above the 30,000. But that gives us we budgeted 30,000 in the bid for miscellaneous capital improvements and repairs. So that additional 35 above the 65 is to do some other work like adding street lights here and there and.

Things like that that come up.

Any further discussion? Unanimous consent was requested. Are there any objections saying none. Resolution 2026-44 is adopted.

That brings us to item E16, resolution 2026-45 authorizing a Cont 45.

Did I joke one? Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Next we have item E15, resolution 202644 authorizing a contract award for the 2026 ALAC storm water and paving Repair construction brought to us my administration placement. You're Asking. I move we adopt Resolution 202644 and request unanimous consent.

I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 202644 saying nobody that can. Council. Council discussion.

And its consent was requested. Are there any objections saying none. Resolution 2026-44 is adopted. Now we're on item E16, resolution 2026-45 authorizing a contract award for the 2026 street crack ceiling contract. Buttress by administration.

Pleasure of counsel. Mayor Askin. I move we adopt Resolution 2026-45 and request unanimous consent. I'll second. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026-45?

Seeing no one brings it back to council. Council discussion. Council member Daniel Sorry. All good. Thank you.

Mayor Nexon. I appreciate the city's commitment to our road maintenance and that we've increased our budget in this. I know it's a lot of money and we may even need more, but it's a significant step in the right direction to continue to maintain the roads for our citizens. I really appreciate staff putting this together and getting this out in time for us to get some bids. I appreciate that.

Any further discussion. I concur with that too. Cracked ceiling will make roads. The paved roads last much longer. It's proper maintenance and it's a necessary thing to do.

There's no further discussion. Consent was requested there. Any Objection? Sign. Resolution 2026-45 is adopted.

Now we're on item E17, resolution number 2026-46 accepting and adopting the Kenai Parks and Recreation master plan brought to us by administration. Vice Mayor Askin. And then there was one. I move we adopt Resolution 2026-46 and request unanimous consent. I'll second.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to resolution 2026, seeing no one bring it back to council? Council discussion.

Council member Daniel thank you, Mirnaksett. Really appreciate this plan, what we've got out of it. I'm looking forward to some of these recommendations come forth from Parks and Rec. Looking forward to what you can get out of this thing. It's a very exciting time for you guys.

Really looking forward to it. Any further discussion? Council member Grimmy? I would second. Council member Daniels statement.

I actually learned quite a bit from the master plan. I mean, I didn't know that there were metrics that for the number of parks or size of parks that we should have based on the number of citizens. And I think it's great to see that. It's another way where we're above the bar. I mean, we're a little further than where we need to be, which I think is indicative of Kenai in general.

And I know you guys work really hard to keep all of those spaces looking great in the summer and the winter.

Any further discussion have the same sentiments, too. Appreciate all the work that went into it. And I think you got a really great, great, great document there. It's concise, and I wish I remembered everything Councilmember Casena said two weeks ago. So that.

That too, so. But thank you very much. So any further discussion of consent was requested. Are there any Objections? Sign Resolution 2026-46 is adopted.

So that brings us to item G. Unfinished item, unfinished business. Item 1, Ordinance Number 3510, 2026 substitute amending the official zoning map by rezoning a portion of a property at 10060 Kenai Spur highway from conservation to suburban residential zoning district brought to us by administration and clerk. Note here. The motion to enact is on the floor from the March 18, 2026 city council meeting. So for that, I'll take it back to the.

To the public here. Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Ordinance 3510, 2026, as amended, saying no one. Bring it back to council for discussion. Vice Mayor Askin, I have a motion. To add a 14th whereas statement.

The new whereas will read whereas at their regularly scheduled meeting held on May 27, 2026, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the City Council rezone the portion of the property at 10060 Kenai Spur highway from conservation to rural residential and request unanimous consent. I also want to add, though, that this doesn't change the the ordinance. It just simply documents what planning and zoning recommended to the City Council.

Looking for a second. I'll second that. Okay. Any discussion on the amendment that was just read saying none. Enam's consent was requested.

Are there any objections saying none? That ordinance 3510, 2026 substitute as amended. It's back on the floor. And City Manager Eubank, at this point, perhaps this ball's been going back and forth between council and Planning and Zoning. Is there anything that you want to add?

I think there's some question about the urban residential and rural residential difference. If you want to discuss that at all.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, what I can discuss is the administration's position on why we're recommending suburban residential as the Zoning for this parcel or so the difference, the primary difference, when we looked at this piece of property and the administration has had discussions with a developer looking to develop some multifamily units here in Kenai, and we're looking for a location. This location was identified for a couple of reasons. One, its proximity to city utilities, water and sewer utilities, which can be important for larger developments, and then also its proximity to services. And that proximity being both for motor vehicles and for people walking.

This partial or this property is, you know, very close to a lot of services, whether those are groceries type stores, whether those are restaurants and other things. And it's one of the better locations that we believe we identified for some multifamily development. The primary differences that we see between a zone of suburban residential and rural residential is that a suburban residential zone allows for minimum lot sizes of 7,200 square feet, where the minimum lot size for in the rural residential zone is 20,000 square feet. By increasing the density or by allowing smaller lots, you will help when you have times like we have right now where the cost of development is very high for the installation of roads, water and sewer, utilities and other utilities. By having more lots, you likely make those the opportunities to develop greater by having being able to share that cost amongst more lots.

The other difference, primary difference that we see between the rural residential and suburban residential zone is the rural residential zone permits up to four dwelling units, a four plex, on a parcel. With conditional use, you can get to up to a 6 plex. A suburban residential zoning district, you're permitted to have up to a six plex, and you can conditionally get approved for seven or more dwelling units on a parcel. So it not only allows greater density with smaller lot sizes, but it also provides the opportunity for more dwelling units per parcel.

Thank you for that. Maybe some additional information that you might be able to provide through Mr. Buettner is any findings that the planning and zoning have. They didn't concur with what administration was proposing. And I was wondering if there's any information that's substantial that we could hear.

Kevin, were there any findings as part of the last meeting? They referred to the ones from the April 26th meeting, which I'm currently looking through.

If I recall correctly, one of their concerns of one of the findings that they had would be increased traffic on the existing infrastructure as it is today. They also felt that a fourplex, when they recommended rural residential, that fourplex would. Be. Dense enough in the context of the neighborhood. So those are their major findings for why they Recommended rural residential.

Thank you Council member Daniel thank you. Mary. Nexted a question for Mr. Buettner. What is that neighborhood primarily zoned now and what, what is the makeup of that area?

To, to the east of the subject property is rural residential one Historically there are, there are currently some non conforming lots. Historically, before it was rezoned, there was a mix of suburban residential and rural residential in that neighborhood going all the way back to the 80s. But currently it is rural residential one.

Council member Sonar. Thank you Mayor Nexted. So at the last meeting when this was on the table and we were discussing it, I, I was really divided in my thoughts because I really respect and lean on what the Planning and Zoning Commission does and brings to us as their recommendation. But knowing this was coming before us, I decided to do my own research. I don't know if I should have, but I did.

I drove out there, I parked, I walked most of that 11 acres, not all of it, but most of it. And I walked from, I think it's Princess Street. I walked through the woods and I found the path that went over to Walmart. I also realized it's directly behind most of this property here. Some of it is behind.

Is it Beacon the fire training? Yeah, I mean it's right there. And even when I was on Princess on the east side of the property, I could hear there was a semi unloading at Walmart. I could hear it idling for 20 minutes. I wasn't sure if it was a fan blow or a semi.

But when I walked over there I realized it was a semi. Of course there was fans. And then of course there was the noise from the fire training that was coming through. It just really struck me as a noisy piece of property. And I'm actually on administration side on this because as I walked that property I realized, okay, our constituents have communicated to us that we need more housing in Kenai and it needs to be affordable housing.

And I came away convinced that they this is a really good place to put multifamily units. There is, as far as traffic goes, there is a very large church at the end of the road. So there's lots of traffic coming and going on the weekends and then during the weeks when there's youth programs. And I think would it increase traffic? Yes, but it's going to increase traffic no matter what where you develop.

I think that road could actually handle it with the church that I saw down there at the end because that road is already set up for traffic.

I just don't know if we put a Rural residential label on it, requiring 20,000 square feet for a lot and expect people to walk in with blueprints of a custom home to build on these half acre lots. Realistically, I don't see that happening for where it's located.

And Admin is right, it's very walkable. I mean, I walked it, I walked from there, I walked over to Walmart and I walked back.

I guess the trick is dividing it from the other and realizing that we have to be sensitive to the conservative zoning of the rest of the 81 acre parcel. But having been there and walked it and saw it for myself up and down the road, I realized, okay, this would make a good parcel for this usage. And so I will be supporting this.

Any further discussion. Councilmember Grammy I agree with Councilmember Stonart's points and I would add that the size of the units, if this were zoned as suburban residential would not be out of the normal for some multifamily units that we're seeing in a number of other subdivisions within the city. I mean, I can think of several currently and also being constructed in Inlet Woods. There's multifamily units in vip, so it's not, it's not unusual to have multifamily units of that size in suburban areas within our city. And I want to I guess put an exclamation point on one of council members Sonart's points.

Our resident survey multiple times said housing is a priority and is important to them. And I think that zoning this as rural residential instead of suburban residential is a missed opportunity for us to give the ability for some affordable, accessible housing to be provided to current residents and future residents that we might want to encourage to move to our community.

I agree wholeheartedly. We rely on our commissions to provide us with, with suggestions and informed suggestions, but we also rely on our department heads and staff to provide us with, with their recommendations based on being highly qualified in their fields. So with those things in mind, in addition to the points that Councilmember Sonar mentioned, I am in favor of that section being suburban residential, not rural residential.

Councilmember Daniel thank you, Mayor Nachset. I'm mixed on this. I mean those are, those are very valid points and that it makes sense to me. I just. But our planning and zoning time and time commission time and time multiple times.

They started with rural residential one they came back with, now he's doing rr.

And it's just there's something to be said there that they've gone through this multiple times and keep Coming back with the same recommendation that I think we should go with our commission that has done this, the due diligence for us on this parcel. I mean, I'm torn on it. So I'd make a motion here, I guess, third amendment, to amend this. I mean, I'm going to do this on the fly. It's going to be terrible.

Under Section 1 containing the 18.63 acres from Conservative to rural residential zoning.

Anybody wants to do that? Okay, Mr. Bloom, or do I need more?

Oh, it's under the warehouse, too. Thank you.

You guys are all prepared. I think we can just take. I think if. Amend the rest of the ordinance to be consistent with that amendment. We'll amend the title and the whereas.

Okay, so I will make this motion now and we'll see what happens. So here we go. I would like to make a motion to amend the ordinance title in the last sentence of Section 1 to change suburban residential to rural residential. The amended title after amendment will read in orange, amending the official zoning map by rezoning a portion of the property at 10 at 160 Kenaisboro highway from conservation to suburban rural zoning district. In the last sentence of section one will end reading containing 18.636 acres from conservation to rural residential.

RR zoning district.

I'll second that.

So just a friendly point of clarification. It's not suburban residential, it's rural residential, but.

Rural residential. I apologize. I can read this again if we need to. I will read this again because I misspoke. I apologize, everybody.

I'm going to make a motion to amend the ordinance title and the site and the last sentence of Section 1 to change suburban residential to rural residential. The minute title after amendment will read an ordinance amending the official zoning map by rezoning a portion of the property at 10060 Kenai Spur highway from conservation to suburban residential zoning district. And it's rural residential one. Oh, I'm just reading. I see.

I'm just reading off the. The thing and it's wrong. I apologize. So rural residential zoning district. That's the confusion.

I apologize, everybody. And the last sentence of section will end reading, containing 18.636 acres from conservation to rural residential zoning district. Did that clarify? Clear as mud. I'll second it.

Council discussion.

Customer. Grimmy, do you have a question down there? Can you clear. I mean, how's that different? How's that different?

I guess that's what I want to. Understand when I was reading this. It's conservation to rural residential instead of suburban suburban's in here and I just read it and it was incorrectly written. So from suburban to rural residential. That's the amendment I'm making.

Because currently it's set aside suburban residential. And to, to clarify, as I understand it, Council member Sonard and I believe that are in favor of it being zoned as suburban residential, not rural residential. One.

This is RR, not RR1. Okay. RR. Sorry. There's a lot.

Any further discussion on the motions?

I seconded it. I do have a question and I don't know if it's for Mr. Buettner or Mr. Eubank. You talked about the 20,000 square foot. You could have up to a six plex. Can you also have two, four plexes on that, on that lot?

A lot of 20,000 square feet.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, through the mayor. So if it is zoned, rezoned to rural residential, you could have a maximum of four dwelling units per lot. Permitted conditionally. You could permit up to six lot or up to six dwelling units. You can only add two more to that one then.

Correct. You could not have two fourplexes on a rural residential zoning. You could have a four plex and a duplex. With conditional use, you could have a four plex permitted. You would not need conditional use.

Council member Grammy. And conversely, suburban residential permitted for six dwelling units, but you could do a conditional permit for up to seven.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The only correction is the conditional use permit for suburban residential. You could have seven or more. There is no limit on the number of units you could have in suburban residential under conditional use. It's just required for seven or more dwelling units.

Any further discussion on the amendment? I want to say that I do not support the amendment. And I don't support it because. For. A couple of reasons, planning and zoning.

The only finding that I heard had to do with traffic. I requested that question and last time we discussed this, Mr. Fry said the road is very well sized for the traffic. That that's not an issue. So that being not an issue, I take it back that you know that suburban residential is. And it kind of is consistent with the study that we, we did.

And it's not only close to the stores and whatnot, it's also very close to schools. It's a perfect location for this. So I will not be supporting the amendment any further.

My only comment to that is I understand both sides of it. My. I will be supporting the rural residential. But the main reason for me is we're. I realize this is considered airport conservation, but it's also it's also wetlands and I'm concerned if we concentrate population that much in there, if it's going to infringe on maintaining the integrity of the wet of the wetlands.

And that's the main reason I'll be voting for the rural residential amendment.

Vice Mayor Askin, that maybe is a good point. Perhaps we could go through administration here that has looked at the property and actually one council member walked it and it didn't sound like it was wetlands. But no, the area designated isn't wetlands, but that's all wetlands. All the rest of the property beside it. Oh, it's off.

Off the property? Yes. So it's just the nearby stuff? Yes. Okay, So any further discussion?

Council Member Grimmie I would just note. That, that I don't, I don't disagree with your point about it being wetlands, but that's not unique to that area from other areas of the city. I know Inlet woods experiences a lot of that as well. And I mean that's something that would be responsible that the developer or the owner of that property, whether it's a multi family unit that's being built or a single family home, that would be responsible for keeping that in mind and building responsibly.

Any further discussion on the amendment? Madam Clerk, if you'd please call the roll. Vice Mayor Askin. Okay, I need clarification on exactly what we are voting on because we have an ordinance and we have an amendment. This is the amendment.

The amendment on the floor would change it from suburban residential to rural residential. So a yes vote would be to make it rural residential. Correct. Thank you. Thanks for asking for the clarification.

Vice Mayor Askin? Yes. Council Member Sonart? No. Mayor Naxted?

No. Councilmember Daniel? Yes. Council Member Grimmie? No.

You have three no votes, two yes votes. The motion to amend has failed. That brings us Back to Ordinance 3510, 2026 substitute as amended. Vice Mayor Askin. Sorry.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none. Clerk, please call the roll. Councilmember Sonart? Yes. Mayor Nachstad?

Yes. Councilmember Daniel? No. Councilmember Grimmie? Yes.

Vice Mayor Askin? No. Student representative Bowling. Yes. You have three yes votes, two no votes.

Ordinance number 3510, 2026 substitute as amended is enacted.

That brings us to commissioned reports, Council on Aging. Vice Mayor Askin. Thank you, Mayor. Nexted. No meeting.

Our next meeting is June 11. Airport Commission. Council Member Sonart. No meeting since our last council meeting. The next airport commission meeting is next Thursday, June 11th.

Parks and Recreation Commission. Council Member Grimmy. Our next Parks and Recreation Commission meeting is tomorrow. Prior to the meeting there will be a parks tour work session.

Planning and Zoning Commission Council member Daniel thank you. PNZ Met Was it 27 May? Lots of happened during that meeting. They approved a conditional use permit for a cabin rental Airbnb and passed as. Amended which is great.

Kicked another one of those cabin rental deals down to the next meeting to the June 10th as owners were out of town. Also adopted or passed resolution oh sorry, that one. They also postponed indefinitely granting conditional use permit to operate a kennel as that will be done through animal control. It's not a commercial operation. Same with the next one.

PZ2026 13 same deal as it's a private facility, not a commercial operation. And then grant another conditional use permit to operate a guide service at 1125 Angler Drive. Want to note that there were a lot of positive reviews of the owner there and that passed without any issue. And then another postponement of PZ2026 to grant a various permit as it doesn't quite fit there. And the last thing and we just discussed it just now was the recommendation of the reason of that parcel from conservation to suburban residential.

So and they passed as amended to rural residential as we discussed tonight. And that is my report. Okay, thank you. Next we had beautification commission but Councilmember Petty is not here tonight. So that gets us to report of the mayor.

Have a couple of things. I attended a couple of Memorial Day events led by the American legion and the VFW. At 11 o' clock in the morning was the avenue of Flags at the Kenai Cemetery here in town and presented the flags and gun salute and presentations as well. Some of the comments from some of the bystanders around there were we must have gotten new flags and I think we have the same flags but they were. They were standing very very straight along the avenue.

But they were very impressed with the flags that Parks and Rec had erected there and the looks of it. Thank you for the credit. But I will say those are the. Legion's flags that they use. Their flags but your stands are different.

Yes, we partnered with the Legion and. They came in and did some volunteer. Work and they added several more flag. Holders in the park and then they. Came in and did most of the work.

So I really do have to give. Credit to the Legion. They come in there, we help uncover them every year. But they had a big work party. And straightened them out and added several more.

I thought it was all parks but the flags did look much keener, very nice. And then at 1:00 clock at the Hanson Memorial park, there was a service there and presentation and again with the American Legion at vfw and there was various dignitaries there as well and a few speeches and it was well attended. The morning was sunny and almost calm and kind of warm. By 1 o', clock, the temperature dropped about 4 degrees, 5 degrees and the wind was blowing. It was not as pleasant, but I was glad to be there.

On 27 May, Acting City Manager Ross and I and Christine Cunningham met with Jordan Engel from AGDC and Ella Eady from Glenfarn. It was kind of a group meeting here with the city. Unfortunately, Terry was out of town. She could have been there, but it was just first time to come say hi and kind of give us a lowdown on what the project was going to be and how it might impact the city or how it might not. And some of the takeaways on it was, you know, when they, when they do construct the second phase in the Kiski, so when that happens is they will be fencing off the entire area.

They'll have a camp out there, basically a man camp, but women camp too, you know, and so those people can come and go, but they're primarily going to be right there. And most of the goods will be coming by water. And the airport may see some use as time goes on. It might have some 737s coming in. It'll be just primarily people, but there's a lot of details I think to be worked out.

But I think it was a great, you know, first sit down and meet and we'll probably be having more meetings with them or the City manager will be in the future. A couple other things I wanted to thank Dave and the City manager here for the preparing the budget, getting that through tonight. Thank you very much for that. Also Tyler Best for the airport, for the parks master plan. And lastly, I'd like to congratulate the Kasena family.

Zavala is not here tonight. I think I can say so, but because he's doing a family thing, his wife and his daughter are being inducted into the Alaska Sport hall of Fame. And I'm sure we'll hear more about it at the next meeting, but I thought that was worth mentioning. So that is all I have on our administrative report. City Manager eubank.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, try to keep it brief here on the staffing and recruitment front. We are pleased to welcome five new employees to the city. Captain Rocho is a new firefighter with the city. Noah Pinsky is an equipment operator, Hillary Turner a new janitor, Hannah Lowe and Benjamin Castrellon I believe our new parks and Recreation attendants.

We currently are recruiting for several other positions including the Airport Manager position 1, Police Officer, Utility operator and various other seasonal positions. So if you're looking for a good job you can check out the city's website. Mayor Naxta did already mention the meeting that took place between city staff and folks from Alaska Gas Line Development Corporation and Glen Farn appreciated them coming down and initiating that conversation with us. We have been working staff and working mostly Mr. Bouttner been working on a number of grant applications. He did complete the one for Safe Streets for All which would provide lighting and sidewalk improvements on Lawton and Tinker.

Another one that we are now working on is to apply for funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Coastal Resilience Fund provide to provide funding to complete the design for replacement of three culverts along Cemetery Creek to make those Fish Passage culverts. And I have reached out to both the Salamantoff and Kaniatse tribes requesting letters of support from their councils for both of those grant applications. Upcoming events this Saturday, June 6th 11am to 3pm at Millennium Square. The family friendly event features professional kite demonstrations by the Alaska Kiters Group and is made possible through the efforts of the Parks and Rec Department volunteers and community partners. So if you're looking for something to do on Saturday and I sure hope the weather's like today, be a be a great day to get out there and enjoy that.

The last thing I'd like to do Council is I appreciate I feel like I'm repeating Mayor Nad but I I really do want to appreciate some of the efforts, key efforts of staff, Mr. Swerner and the finance department along with every department head and council and the public. Frankly, in putting together that FY27 budget and getting that here tonight and getting adopted, it's always a heavy lift and really appreciate that. I also want to recognize the efforts of Tyler Best and the Parks and Rec crew and Parks and Rec Commission again the public and now Council here tonight for adopting that Parks and Rec master plan. I think that's that is the first Parks and Rec plan that the City of Kenai has ever adopted. I think it's a great look at what our parks are today and look for the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years on what the vision is from the community for those parks.

So really want to appreciate all of those efforts in getting those things done and with that I'm happy to answer any other questions. Any questions for the city manager, Attorney Bloom thank you. Mary Nachstad. Members of Council I don't have anything to report but I'm happy to answer any questions.

We'll just move on. City Clerk Saner thank you. Mayor Knoxted. I have no comments tonight but available for questions. Any questions the clerk that brings us to additional public comments.

Are there any members from the public who would like to to address the council at this time?

None. That gets us to council comments. Student Rep. Bowling Good evening, Mayor Naxton. Council members keeping it short like everybody else.

I'd just like to congratulate the KCHS girls soccer team for I believe their. Second place win at state. That's it. Thank you Council member Sonar. Thank you Mayor.

Next. And I'm out of words. I talk too much tonight. Good night everybody. Councilmember Daniel I agree with Council member Sonner statement.

Let's get out there, enjoy some nice weather and really appreciate everybody's effort tonight and getting this stuff, you know, on the finish line. So it was good discussion. Really appreciate it. Council Member Grammy Sorry, I'm never out of words.

I have a bulleted list, so buckle up.

Echoing Mayor Nexted Congratulations to Councilmember Kasena's wife and daughter, but also to the team as a whole. The KPHA 12U girls icehawks were recognized by the Alaska Sports hall of Fame with the Trajan Langdon Award today for their accomplishment as the first all girls team to capture an Alaska state championship in a co ed hockey tournament. So another example of Kenai kids doing pretty great things. I also attended the American Legion Memorial Day ceremony at the cemetery as I do every year. And as every year get a little choked up when they play taps and I'm grateful that the American Legion is there to do that for us every year.

And I appreciate the efforts of the Parks and Rec department for supporting those ceremonies there. And Leif Hansen erect the tents and get it squared away for folks. Another thank you to the Parks and Rec and all the volunteers that came out on Saturday to get everything planted around the city. A special thank you though to the to the Dothit family for the donation of the Fat Albert spruce tree that the Parks and Recs department helped plant in front of the visitor center. Many years ago there was a spruce there that used to get decorated and et cetera for the holidays that had to come down years ago.

This Fat Albert spruce tree is supposed to be spruce bark beetle resistant. Yeah. So hopefully she'll be there for quite a while. Lastly, Oilers are back. First game is a week from today.

First game is on June 10th and they're still looking for host families. So if you feel so compelled, I'm sure that they would love if you would give up a bedroom for an Oiler player for the summer. That's my whole list. Thank you. That wasn't so long, Ms. Mayor Askin.

Thank you, Mayor Nagstead. I regret I was gone for Memorial Day this year, but I did get to attend a ceremony in Wichita with my daughter. It wasn't like home, though. But I want to thank the staff and all of the heads for the budget preparation and Tyler for the master plan at the A phenomenal piece of work and the work you do.

And I think that's it. Let's go get some sun. We still have another couple hours of sun, don't we? We have no executive session, no pending items. Having no other business before the body.

We are adjourned.