5/02/26 Budget Work Session

Okay, we're on the record. I'd like to call the May 2nd City Council budget work session to order, and I want to turn it on— turn it over to Terry Eubank, our City Manager. Terry.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. I just want to take a couple minutes, probably state some of the obvious things, but I think things that need to be said. One, I just want to recognize the efforts of all of our department heads you're going to hear from here today. Finance Department for compiling this document, it really is a lot of work. I think staff do an amazing job and they are the city's greatest asset.

With that, I'll just kick off with a little brief introduction, and then I'm going to turn this over to our finance director, Mr. Swarner, and we'll walk through the rest of the budget. But for me, the FY27 budget that's being presented to you today, I think it continues the city's tradition of sustainability. Some key factors I think you'll— you should note in this, um, that I think we are, again, continuing to invest in what's the city's most valuable resource, that's its people. It's got a 2% COLA in here for wages for all staff. We're sustaining the quality of our health and life insurance program.

You will notice throughout this document significant decrease in the health insurance cost in departments. And what's happening there is, You know, what Finance has noted over the last few years is we have a separate fund, the Employee Healthcare Reserve Fund, that we use to account for the health insurance, life insurance, you know, our benefits there. Well, that fund has been amassing, you know, it has a significant reserve. It's a reserve that we think is more than adequate, probably over-adequate at this point, and we're looking to curb its growth and to reduce it a little bit over the next few years. Um, that doesn't mean our health insurance costs that we're paying for premium and things like that are necessarily going down.

What is going down is what we're billing, what that fund bills to the other funds for providing it to the employees. So we've been overcharging ourselves because we haven't seen either utilization in that fund has been below what we expected, or premium costs from the carriers has come in less than what we projected, or we had We may estimate that we'll have 90 people on our insurance plan and we only end up with 85. So we experience significant savings there. That fund has several million dollars in reserves in it right now. And like I said, we're looking to bring that back down.

The result of that is a reduction of costs in every department that has health insurance or employees that have health insurance in it.

We've done, there's a couple of pro, I believe proactive adjustments in here to some key positions. One, been working with our fire chief in the fire department looking at some of our incentive pays, looking at how we compare to other departments. And the one significant gap we noticed was in our paramedic certification pay. We pay 5% of salary bonus or incentive pay for somebody who has a paramedic license. We don't require paramedic license.

We benefit greatly, our people benefit greatly for us having them. You know, neighboring departments pay a 15% premium on salary. And when you compare a firefighter at City of Kenai with a firefighter in neighboring departments who have them, straight up, we're very competitive. When you throw a paramedic incentive in there, their paramedics are making, you know, significant amount more than ours. So this budget includes increasing that paramedic pay incentive from 5% to 15%.

We also looked at the same thing with our police department and on their certification pay. And the one key difference is all departments pay a certification pay for certification with the Alaska Police Standards Council. Ours was based on a fixed dollar amount All other ones are based on a percentage of the individual's pay. So we've transitioned from ours being on a fixed, I'm recommending transitioning ours from a fixed amount to being based on their level, their pay like other departments are doing to make us comparable. Again, just trying to avoid those discrepancies.

I think that employees are looking at when they're deciding where they want to go to work and where they want to stay. Um, also in this budget you're going to see a funding request for a temporary police position, and I use that— that connotation may not be correct. So what this is, is this is looking at our police department. This is looking at, um, you know, some pending attrition that we're going to have due to retirement and things. This is going to give the department the opportunity to be proactive when they know these retirements are coming, hire an officer We're giving them 6 months worth of funding so they can bring an officer on early when they know a gap is coming.

We have 2 chances every year to send individuals to the police academy in Sitka, January and July. So this is going to give them hopefully the tool to get people in here early, get people down to the academy that need to go to the academy if they're not laterals, and try to keep us fully staffed reduce some of that overtime, reduce that, you know, extra wear and tear on the officers that are still here when we have those shortages and things. So that's in here. I think that's also a proactive step. We're continuing proactive maintenance of city assets.

Some of this is using some of the tools that council has helped us develop over the last couple years. You know, this budget has $1.55 million in it for street maintenance projects. You know, that's design, and that's also some construction funds in there. There's $300,000 in this for design, continued work on the design for the public safety, our public safety solution for a public safety building. You know, our goal at this point is to continue through that process to try to, you know, determine best sites, best location, actual need, and then start to refine our costs.

And I think in a goal of of moving forward with trying to fund this thing, probably not this fall, but the fall of 2027. I think it's likely it would take a bond issuance in order to do this, and I think that would be our target to have something on the ballot in, I guess, November now of 2027. That's— you also see that, you know, what also came out of our street assessment was Uh, they recommended an increase in our crack sealing and seal coating, um, regular annual maintenance. Um, we had $50,000— correct me— $50,000 in the FY26 budget. We've increased that by $75,000 in this budget to bring that to an annual amount of $125,000.

Um, you know, all of this maintenance on streets, all these capital projects on streets, um You know, I think what's key to understand, this is just so we can maintain the current level of roads that we have overall, like a combined overall rating. I think we were 76 somewhere, 78. Um, that's— this is what it's going to take for us to maintain. We're not, we're not trying to, to pave with gold bricks here. We're just trying to not deteriorate overall as a city.

So it— but it takes that investment. Um, I think it also continues our forward-looking approach. Um, you know, one of my, uh, projects I have in here is to work with council and develop a strategic plan for the city. And, um, we'll talk about that when we get to the city manager's budget. Um, again, we're using some of those tools that council, um, provided us funding for, you know, the street Street assessment report I think is invaluable to the work that Lee's doing and informed them on the, the roads that we need to, to be working on.

Um, we've got that streetlight assessment that they'll be putting to work this year. Um, also I'd highlight that there are no decrease in service levels in this budget, and, uh, we have continued the tradition here of no change in the general fund mill rate or projected sales tax rate. So we stayed within our current revenue streams. You know, we have seen, and I think the finance director will speak to this, amazing growth in our sales tax. We continue to see some appreciation of property values.

So while we haven't increased the mill rate, people are paying a little bit higher taxes because their houses are worth more, their property is worth more, but we haven't There's no projected mill rate or sales tax rate increase in this. So with that, I would turn it over to our finance director and just looking forward to the conversation today. Thank you. And thank you everyone for showing up today.

You're taking a day out of your weekend like we are. It is appreciated. It's a really valuable day for us because this gives us kind of our guidance and direction for how we move forward in the upcoming year. Here. And just kind of to go over kind of how the process of all this, you know, we've got this big book in front of us today, but, you know, this really started back in November.

The HR director sends out her request for any position changes that staff wants to make. It goes out to all the directors. Everyone puts those submissions in. Then in early January, or the end of December, early January, we have our budget goals meeting. With council work session, and then the city manager sends out his directive to the department heads as to what we're aiming to do with the current year budget.

And so once that goes out, finance staff also at that time prepares and gives them what are off of our audited financials where we ended in the prior year. So, you know, in this case for fiscal year '25, we gave them their final numbers for '25. We give them a 5-year average, gave them the current year budget so they have some, some data to work off of as they look through and prepare their budget for the year. They get those submissions in. We then compile all that.

We put it all together to where then the city manager can review and see those numbers, and we can see where we're at in total. We look at our revenues and our projected revenues and see that we, we have a balanced budget, you know, that as he referenced earlier, that we have a sustainable budget. Then we sit down and meet with each department head and we go through their budgets. And during that time also, we discuss any special projects. And you'll see that's part of what you'll see in here too, is we list what we— what City Manager's approved.

But we also threw in this year as a slide what he didn't approve that was requested. And so you can see it's, it's about 50% But during that process, we take a look at, you know, what are the needs versus wants? What are priorities? And so those are the discussions, you know, hey, you have 10 items in front of us here today. All right, give us your top 3.

Why are they your top 3? You know, hey, there's this other one. Why would that not be in the top 3? And we have those discussions and help kind of flesh that out to where what we're putting before council is the needs of the city.

And so from there, we compile everything, put it in this book, and here we are as a group today to go over this. And I think, you know, the kind of the— well, I guess I can get started with the clicker here. I think you have to aim it.

So what we're going to cover here today, kind of, and not necessarily in this order, we'll, you'll see that we'll bounce around a little bit. We try to keep departments together. There's a couple of department heads that have multiple departments, so we try to not have them be here and then leave and come back. We try to nail them all at once. But we'll go over our budget goals.

We'll talk about some of the key budget factors that are impacting this budget, which City Manager has already spoken to a number of those. We'll cover the special revenue funds, the airport, senior citizen, personal use fishery, water and sewer utility, congregate housing. Then we'll get into the general fund. We'll talk about debt service fund, our permanent funds, and then our internal service revenue fund or internal service funds. The employee healthcare, the fleet and equipment replacement funds.

So in regards to the goals, just kind of the overall, um, goal of this budget was for it to be fiscally responsible, making sure that we're meeting the needs and priorities of the community, and, um, but to also be mindful of some of our non-essential services that we have, such as our Parks and Rec, Arts, Library, and and senior services. And, you know, we believe this, that we've achieved it. Well, not believe, we did achieve this. We do, you know, it is fiscally responsible, it is sustainable, and so we consider this to be an achieved goal. Now getting into the specific goals, we want to make sure that we can meet the long-term financial obligations and that our mill rate and sales tax rate meet that.

And the city manager said previously, we believe we have a budget that does not make any changes to either one of those, and that, um, that it is a sustainable budget. We're not kicking the can down the road on anything that is going to pop up later on and be costly to the city. As you mentioned, you know what, we're actually increasing some of our street maintenance in this budget. And so that goal has been achieved.

Well, and I guess maybe just to touch base, like, as we talk about sustainability for the general fund, for instance, you'll see in here we're showing that we're going to operate at a deficit of $317,000 as projected, but of that, $2.18 million is capital, $167,000 is special projects. So it's that one-time spending. You'll hear that kind of a little bit throughout this too, is our capital projects and our special projects are one-time spends. They're this year only. They're not something that's ongoing year after year.

And so that's where, you know, we could easily adjust that and make it that we're not operating at a deficit, but we've been at the top end of our fund balance requirements. And so we're seeing that this is an opportunity for us to spend at a deficit and not, you know, not put ourselves behind the 8-ball on that in the future.

Um, so the next one is, um, talking about the salary schedule and making sure that we're competitive. And City Manager referenced that earlier, looking at some of our public safety, um, positions that we have, is how do we, you know, stay competitive with our other neighboring neighbors, um, that have the potential to pull people away from our organization. How do we maintain and retain that? But also like with the paramedic pay, when you look at the work that they do, it's not a requirement, but yet here's how we provide even better care and better service to our community. And so that's one of those things that kind of enables us to do that.

And so in looking at this and, Looking at the using the CPI and having that 2% increase in, excuse me, in staff is another thing that helps us just citywide kind of keep our staffing levels where they are and not have people coming and going on a regular basis and ensure that we do that. So that goal was achieved as well.

Reviewing our health plan, Touched on that a bit too. We did make a change this year. In the past, we've operated at employee share has been 13%. We modified that to where they can clearly see what that percentage is, because sometimes it's not just their premium. It includes broker fees, things like that.

We've adjusted that to where it is 15% of the premium. They saw a slight decrease in their amount that they're paying this year. Again, that helps us bring that fund balance down, but it also makes it affordable, puts us at that 15% for the employee share on just on the premium alone, and they can easily see that number a little better when they look at their pay stubs and that too. So it just kind of clears that up. So we feel that we've achieved that.

We're still providing good, excellent healthcare to our employees. So that goal is achieved as well.

Identifying opportunities for cost savings and operational efficiencies. This is something that we covered as we met with each of the department heads and discussed, um, their budgets with, with the city manager and myself. We're always looking at reviewing previous spending, their future needs or priorities that we can establish in the, in the budget and How do we do things more efficiently? I know, I think the fire department just added a software this year that kind of brings a bunch of programs together. I think Public Works is looking at one, or that we just recently did an appropriation for them to, to do one that's going to help bring some of the building permitting processes and that and stuff and make them more efficient for, for both our consumers, our, our public that interact with those things, but also for the staff here.

That helps us better track things and do that. So we're always looking at ways there, and that's always part of those discussions. And so that was achieved as well.

Compiling a list of capital projects. What you see here is actually our depreciation for fiscal year '25 and kind of the different areas that that occurred in. And so as we look at capital, we want to look and say, make sure that we're reinvesting in our capital. And when we see our depreciation's about $5 million a year, we wanna be looking at investing that each year. And our recent capital plan, we had $152 million in that, $9 million in general fund, almost $10 million in general fund dollars, $5.5 million in airport fund, $5 million in water/sewer, and $500,000 in the concrete housing.

Of that, we're looking at $131 million in grant funding. So sometimes these projects don't happen in the timeline we'd like them to happen. Sometimes it's based on the grant funding available. But certainly, and you'll see, you know, the airport's one where we really, really benefit from the grant funding and get a lot of good work done for the community through obtaining those grants. And so that, that again is a goal that has been achieved.

Number 6 here is looking at the rates, charges, and fees across all funds, seeing that they're in line with inflation. We do have some, some rates that will be changing, and we'll, we'll get into that as we get into each department. But we did review all of that, and so that goal is achieved, and we believe that the, the rate increases that are proposed are reasonable and and justified and that we can support those increases.

Number 7 was to utilize the 2025 Community Survey to inform budget development by identifying areas that were of high interest to the citizens and prioritize. And I think, you know, that's been achieved. We discussed this with each department, but the area you're going to see this the biggest is is going to be in our roads. And like City Manager mentioned, we've already— the crack sealing, the maintenance on our roads, we're bumping that up. But you'll all see in the capital project that we've actually pushed forward the timeline on a couple of projects in there also.

And I'll get into more detail in that later on. But we are, you know, we're utilizing that along with utilizing the road assessment presentation that we had not too long ago. That information, that was kind of our— one of the things we used as a guide there is How much should we be investing? That was a really good thing to have come out of that. And that's where the increase in the crack sealing came from.

That's where looking at how much we're investing in the roads and the capital project, that we were utilizing that information. So while we have these studies and we're getting this information, it's not something that we just put on the shelf once it's done and say, great, great presentation. We're actually putting that into effect and putting it into the budget and making it, making use of those.

And finally, number 8 was looking at project ending fund balance of retained earnings of at least 50% in our other funds. So that was partially achieved. We nailed it on the airport, the water and sewer, and congregate housing fund, personal use fishery, We fell, we fell short by a little over $7,000 there. Um, we go back to that one-time spending in the budget for personal use fishery. We've got 2 utility vehicles we're looking at replacing to the tune of $43,000.

So if we were to not purchase one of those, we would have hit that target. But looking at the needs for that fund And for those operations, we felt it was important not to game the system and make this look like we achieved our goal, but to actually look at what are the needs for the city and prioritize those. And so we're comfortable with that and not meeting that goal on this one.

So for key budget factors, kind of the two big groups here are going to be our personnel changes and then our capital and special projects. Um, for personnel changes, City Manager, um, well, the first one there is looking at a staffing increase for the IT department, um, for with wages and benefits, and then, um, some equipment. Looking at an increased cost there of $140,000 for the finance department. Um, that position will give us some redundancy. Currently we kind of have We have 1.5 people, essentially.

We have a part-time desktop technician primarily, and then we have our IT manager who handles all of the server-related stuff. And so this will give him some redundancy there, some backup there. Every time he takes vacation, we kind of cross our fingers and just hope nothing goes wrong. But this will also provide us an opportunity to look at other departments, and in some departments there's some IT functions maybe that could— we could bring in-house back to the finance department. I know for the police department that they have one of their officers spends a lot of time on one of their things.

So that'll be— those will be things we have further discussions about. And I think, you know, when we talk about being comparable to other departments or other organizations our size, they often have 3 to 5 employees, so This is a, this is a good step for us. Looking at our cybersecurity, we did our cybersecurity assessment. We've been making some changes there, but we realize we need, we need some additional staffing to really move forward on some of that stuff as well. And so that's part of what this position will be bringing to the table and, and providing the city with is just greater security.

The firefighter paramedic increase that City Manager talked about, moving that from 5% up to 15%, it's about a $73,000, $74,000 increase. Increase, having a, how we said, kind of a temporary or looking at 6 months' worth of a police officer so that we can kind of get a jump start on some of the attrition that we're going to be facing here. And again, primarily due to the timing of academies also, that there's only 2 opportunities twice a year for us to hit those. And so that'll be a $75,000 increase there. The police officer certification pay, um, moving it from being on, on step A of, of their position to their current— based on their current wage.

And now we're looking at about $16,000 there. We've also got a part-time janitor position. This position will be kind of the float, so they'll, um, anytime there's a vacancy, they'll cover for vacancies. Anytime someone's out on vacation, they'll be covering for that. That'll enable them to do special projects, to go do kind of some deep cleaning and things like that, provide some assistance to the, to the other areas where we have janitors.

And that's a $14,000, almost $15,000 increase there.

And again, I, uh, we talk about the CPI, um, increase of 2%, um, and so that, um, across the entirety of the city, it's a $215,000 increase to salaries and wages for that. Um, the other thing we have in here is the PERS on behalf. That amount increased from 7.84% or up to 7.84%, up from 6.3% last year. So that's a $220,000 increase At the same time, our revenues increase that amount, so that those are funds that come in, but we still show the expenditure that as we're paying that out, we have that expense, but we also have the revenues coming in, so it really kind of washes out. But that's where you'll see the, you know, in the departments, you'll see their expenses for salaries going up, and that's one of the things that impacts that.

Sure. And I just wanted to let Council know, if you haven't heard in the news, but one of the things the legislature has passed is a return to a defined benefit retirement system. That bill's been transmitted to the governor, so we'll see what Governor Dunleavy does with it. But one key thing that it will do is it does increase— right now our employer share, cost share for a PERS employee is 22%. So we pay 22% on covered payroll.

That will increase to 22.5% if this, um, if that law goes into effect. I don't know that Dave's ran those calculations yet, but it's definitely something we're monitoring. And, um, you know, it will have an effect on every fund in the city that does have an employee. So we'll let you know as, as the governor decides. I don't Just looking at how the votes went in the legislature, certainly not.

I don't think it's a veto-proof package. So if he ends up vetoing it, I don't think the legislature will muster the votes to overturn it. But we'll just have to wait and see here. I think he's got a couple of weeks while they're still in session to decide what he wants to do. Sorry.

Yeah, I think with that, just kind of looking at the numbers we have in front of us here, we're seeing about a 1.5% increase. So that would probably be about a third of that $220,000. So it'd probably be about a $70,000 increase that would be the impact of that. Just high-level rough numbers looking at that.

Capital and special projects. Under the 5-year capital plan, we've got $3.3 million in capital projects and another $300,000 in special one-time projects. So $3.6 million in that, kind of that, again, that one-time spending that we're looking at.

Go back a couple.

So this is just kind of a little more on personnel changes, kind of just highlighting them. Kind of on here, what I didn't have listed before is we're also looking at in Planning and Zoning bumping their admin up from 20 hours a week to 24 hours a week. One of the changes that— and I won't steal Kevin's thunder too much— but one of the changes we identified with Planning and Zoning is that his other admin is spending a considerable amount of time on lands. And certainly, as we see kind of some of the things that's going on when we talk about the gas supply and those lands, he's, he's spending an incredible amount of time researching and looking into that stuff. So we've actually moved him to 75% lands, 25% planning and zoning.

So these additional 4 hours, basically that's 10 hours a week that we're taking away from planning and zoning and dedicating to land. So this additional 4 hours a week will help kind of fill some of the gap that's going to be created by that.

The other thing is library assistant position upgrade. A couple years ago we did that employee assessment. This is kind of one of the positions that we're like, did we really get it right? Maybe there's some movement here. So looking at moving that one from a library assistant up to an Admin III, there will be some additional responsibilities added with that position.

But looking at kind of what they were doing, it wasn't really on par. And so through some lengthy discussions with the library director and HR, the determination was made that that position really should be an Admin III. And, and so we're looking at making that adjustment. There as well.

Again, that PERS on behalf increase, it's about a 1.5% increase, the $220,000. And then the CPI on the right-hand side there, you're going to see that's kind of the breakdown of where the different funds that are impacted with the projected pay increase based on CPI, that $215,000 that we talked about earlier.

On to capital projects.

So here we've got the general fund. A couple of things— these are, these are really right out of the capital improvement plan. However, there are some changes that have been made here. One of the things that you don't see in here is the comprehensive plan. We had that in the capital budget for $250,000.

We were looking at $50,000 of that being grant funded through the borough. We didn't receive that grant. $200,000 From— for the city, so we will be putting in for that next year from the borough again. But at this point, so we decided to pull that off of the capital plan for the current year.

But in, in looking at taking that road assessment into consideration, we decided to put the Lawton Tinker-Squires repaving design, um, for $250,000. That was slotted in for 2028 in the capital plan. We bumped that up into 2027. Also, by doing that, the $1.9 million construction for that, we moved from 2029 into 2028 also. And so, um, you'll, you'll see there's kind of some movement there, um, with that capital plan.

So that the construction can follow in 2028. The other, um, thing we added in there was the public safety building replacement renovations, the plan for that. And, and we put $300,000 in there recognizing that there's more work that needs to be done on that and, and that it's something we probably need to do sooner than later. Like City Manager said, that it's— we given the scope of that project, it's probably going to— it's going to be something we're going to put before bond more than likely. Um, and so we need to better prepare for that so that we can have that, um, in time for the election.

Um, the other thing was that on the capital plan is, um, for 2029, with that $1.9 million moving to 2028, we did add an additional $1.3 million for roads. Again, kind of going back to you know, that recommendation on how much we should be investing in roads each year. So we did, did make that change.

Then special projects, we've got those all listed out. A total of $300,300. $167,300 For general fund, looking at, you know, some chairs at the library, Cameras, you'll see cameras in a number of different places here that we were doing a renewal of one of some at the library and then also adding some, some office furniture for the police department. Fire hazmat response, I believe that's for trailer. I'm sure Chief Teagle will have more about that, but with that we have, I think some of that equipment was kind of outdated and so we're looking at refreshing or expired equipment that we need to replace.

Um, website redesign. City Manager touched on this too, also the strategic plan development. He's got that in his, in his budget, and he'll speak more to that when he gets to that. Rec Center, we're looking at some, some additional cameras there. Bridge over at the golf course, some latches for kennels at animal control, for the clerk's office, some mail-in election envelopes.

And these are not— it's $6,200, but it is not a one-year thing. It's like a 10-year supply or something. So it's, it's just, it's something she has to order in bulk, so she ends up getting a number of them. And so it's a pretty, pretty, pretty big cost because she does it in— because of the quantity she needs to order to get good pricing in that. Some tires for dump truck, radios for street operations.

And then for personal use fishery, uh, we're looking at a sign laminator, a ranger replacement for Parks and Rec, and then a ranger replacement for Public Safety. I believe the one for Public Safety— I think we did one for police this year, uh, the one for this Public Safety would be for the fire department. So the difference in cost there, it's, um they're going to have to have that to where they can put a stretcher on the back, and so they'll have to do some modifications to that. So that's why you see a difference in the pricing between those two, um, vehicles.

Airport fund, um, uh, air terminal RTU, and I'm drawing a blank. I'm sure Mary will speak to this. I want to say remote Roof top unit. Roof top unit. Roof top unit, okay, so not even remote.

So, okay. So again, I'll defer to Mary on that one. Over at Congregate Housing, we're looking at doing some blinds replacements, and they've got the dry sprinkler heads over there. It's due for replacement. They're kind of like your smoke detector.

Detectors, they have a shelf life, and we're to that point where they need to be replaced. Except for when they fail. It's like a parking meter, just for a little bit more than something beeping at you every 5 minutes. And then over at the Senior Citizen Center, a condenser repair for $20,000 there. And so the next slide here is, is Items that were not included, and again, this is where we have those discussions.

You know, City Manager might want to touch on this a bit, but we look at priorities, we look at needs. Does it— do we really need to replace this? You know, I guess, and also just taking into consideration I think one of the things I expressed to one of the department heads was like, let's take a look at all these kind of little things that you have. You have a pretty good list here. Maybe we look at spreading it out over a number of years and we do a few each year and we prioritize which ones are, you know, at the top of your list and hit those this year.

So those, those are some of the discussions we had. I'm going to let City Manager chime in here. Well, thank you. I, I think what I would say here is I, I don't think any of the items on this list are frivolous. I think they all have merit.

I think they all have a reasonable basis. You know, I'm just, you know, I think we're trying to, you know, still be a little bit conservative. No, we can't get everything we want all the time right when we want it. But if council has any questions, I really encourage you to talk with— and the department directors are here today— talk with them about some of these projects that didn't get funded. And if it's your prerogative to want to put those in, I would support that.

I just, again, when I'm looking at everything, trying to balance, you know, some departments had 10 requests, other departments had no requests, and just trying to, you know, balance the whole model, not everything gets put in. But I think, you know, again, I would encourage you to have those conversations, and if you think something in here warrants that, then we can absolutely include that in the document before it gets ready for approval for you guys.

That list of not included is not in this document, is that correct? Correct. Is there some way that we could get a a copy of that for our understanding, please. Thank you.

And I probably should have stated earlier, this is very much an interactive type of thing. So at any point, if you have questions, feel free to interrupt and ask. We expect to have questions throughout the day and to pause at, you know, I'm not— we're not going to just grind through this, but to take a moment and clarify anything or, or answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you. I had a question. Oh, excuse me. Under the general fund is the kitchen work table, and then under the senior fund is also—. Is there two tables involved or just one?

Just one at the senior center. The working with the clerk's office on the ones for council chambers here. Um, we looked at, at pushing that till maybe some modifications get made back in some of these closets so she has a place to store. And so she was comfortable with pushing those when we talked about them, but they originally came in as a request, um, for like here in council chambers and things like that. But it is something, you know, these are heavy and difficult to move around and, and get into tight spaces back here.

But it says under general fund, Senior Center kitchen work table, $4,500, and then under the senior citizen fund it says kitchen work table, $4,500. Is that just a duplication, or is it— Yes. Okay. Yeah, sorry, misunderstood.

It is, um, I guess I didn't catch that. Well, I caught it and moved up because the one thing we did is, is the senior center is really general fund dollars. And so what we've done is you'll see that in some of the capital, you know, in the capital numbers and that we don't call out the senior citizen fund separately because it's really general fund dollars that pay for that. And I had made that change up above, but I must have gotten interrupted somewhere in between making that change and I forgot to delete it off the bottom.

I have a question. The previous slide, can you go back one? Hold on, let me put my glasses on. The numbers are really little. The website redesign for 10,000, it looks like.

I mean, it's hard for me to connect the number to the words because there's a space in between this far away. Is that right, the $10,000 for website? Okay, so what does that entail? I'm asking because you're adding an IT position and including $10,000 for website redesign. Is that not something that IT, which would be potentially fully staffed with 2.5 positions, would be capable of doing?

Yeah, thank you. I think that's a great question. Then I want to be clear what that $10,000 gets you is I think I think the complete redesign of our website is a $50,000 to $100,000 project. So what that $10,000 is getting you is for us to get with a consultant that does website work to define what we want in a website. There's a lot of interest by, I believe, Council and the administration to develop, um, You know, I think what traditionally has been an app, an app to that can link to a lot of city services, an app that you can interact with the city and report potholes, report needles, report, you know, other problems.

What I'm hearing from staff is that, you know, those are now called progressive web apps, or they— it's basically your website that functions mostly like an app. That is a new trend, and apps are going away. We do not have staff, we don't have the expertise on staff to, in web design, in the newest and greatest features of web design. So we're looking at getting some help to help educate us on and teach us what is out there and we can decide then what we need. And then we'll likely be back before council to request funding.

The IT department I think is capable of managing a project, but I don't think they have the skillset and the position we're hiring is a network administrator position. Position is not to do web design and things like that. So I think we're capable of, of managing a project and managing, um, you know, consultants to help us with that work and then maintaining into the future. But we, we do not have web experts on staff, and that's not in our wheelhouse. So the $10,000 there is not to redo our entire website.

It really is just to help us define exactly what we want, what we estimate that's going to cost. Then we'll bring that back to council, ask for the funding, go forward with the solicitation to find a service provider, and then do the work. Thank you.

Two questions for you. One about the, the system admin position. I noticed that it's, uh, currently sits at a total of about a $127K, do you feel like that's going to be enough to hire a system admin for this role? I just know that those are pretty high-paid roles outside of, you know, just even in the area. And so to try to find a good person, it might be worth adding more to that fund.

Yeah, I think— thank you for the question. Um, so I'll just kind of let Council know what our process is. So, um, when the conversation comes up about either a reclassification of an existing position or adding a new position, the process is the— it starts with HR and the department director, and they work together to define what the job roles, responsibilities, um, you know, all the qualifications— basically we're writing a job description. So the job description is prepared, then HR takes that job description and they go through our classification model here at the city, which provides some level of insight into, you know, how that stacks up to other positions here in the city with, with, within that algorithm and, you know, what that dictates the pay should be. Then HR takes it one step further and they go out and they look in the market and they're comparing, you know, trying to compare best they can position to position with competing organizations or organization— like organizations.

And so I trust the process. I'm not telling you that, you know, it's full-proof every time, but I do trust the process. So based upon that work, I think this is a place we're comfortable starting. And, you know, if we end up unable to recruit for it, or, you know, then we'll— we're not above coming back and admitting a little bit of shortcoming and asking for additional funds. But I think we're comfortable where this starts.

And like I said, I think we work that process every single time and and it, it seems to work 80-90% of the time.

Thanks for that. And, uh, yeah, makes sense. Uh, my other question was the, the AV upgrades for this, this space. Um, I know it says $120,000, which does seem like a lot, but I'm curious if there's any room for discussion on somewhere between having challenges with the system that we currently have and $120K, so something in between there. I had the same question.

Thank you for saying that. Yeah, and I think it's a great question. Actually, Shelley emailed me and asked me if I'd be able to speak to this. So, um, I, you know, her and I discussed. My concern with, with that is, is that I don't know the, you know, I've never seen, um, like a layout of what that $120,000 gets you.

It didn't get vetted through our capital project process. I think it came in relatively late. I think that over the next year we need to decide exactly what we want in these chambers, what council's looking for, what staff's looking for, and take time to put a real project together, better define it, and then be back with a funding request. I think this is basically, help me, this is based upon similar work that Lee, I think, did over in council chambers at the borough. Um, but I don't know that that's the level that council's looking for in these chambers.

And so I, I just, I just don't think the, the project's been vetted enough to throw $120,000. It's—. That's a fair chunk of change to throw at something if we haven't vetted it. But yes, so the, the dollar figure I put together for that was for, um, AV upgrades It's similar to what we did at the borough assembly chambers when I was over there. And that was around a cost just for doing all the audio equipment and cameras.

And they've got some fairly fancy cameras over there that are swiveling and pivoting to pick on individual people and put their faces up on the camera. That doesn't include all the reconstruction they did of the chambers inside, you know, redoing walls and the dais and all that type of stuff. So there is a level of— uncertainty there as far as what council is willing to move forward with as far as how depth or minimal depth you want to go. But I know Shelley was concerned about audio issues with our existing equipment.

Thank you. And thank you. So the AV is not air and ventilation, it's audio and visual. I appreciate the opportunity to have acronyms spelled out so that I have greater clarity in understanding what we're speaking about, just for your understanding, for my understanding. Thank you so much.

And I wasn't just petty too. I thought it was air and ventilation because we have an issue with that here. And so, okay. Thank you.

We are working on the air and ventilation here as a side project.

That was not a criticism, that was just my shortcomings on not knowing acronyms. And I appreciate this document, it's a huge document and it's very well done. Thank you.

Any other questions related to capital or special projects at this point?

All right, we'll go ahead and, uh We'll start diving into the airport special revenue fund. So we'll be covering the revenues, proposed fee schedule amendments, capital and special projects, and then just kind of historical financial performance.

Do we need to take a short break?

Okay, and if you would, don't forget to, as you move forward on each one of these, if you tell us what page we're on because it's not sequential. We do, I, I have that mapped out. A lot of fumbling around. So page 206 is kind of where the airport starts.

Okay, so for the revenues for the airport fund, um, you can see that The interest on investments is, you know, 37% of that budget.

And then we have our terminal revenues at 28%, rents and leases at 19%, usage fees at 12%, some of the state and federal— that's primarily apparently the PERS matching that we talked about, the revenue that comes in on that— and then the other is 1.8%.

And just kind of a note there that when we talk about increases, the increases that we're going to see in revenue here are in the airport operations agreements, or the, or the AOAs, is for acronyms that you might hear. And we just renewed those recently for, and they're good for a 5-year period.

And I'd just like to highlight for council is I think it's really critical to understand that 37% figure there, that, um, of investment earnings to fund the airport. You know, um, those investment earnings are coming largely from the permanent fund of the airport. So each time we sell a piece of property, um, deeded to us by the FAA, um, we put those funds into the permanent fund, uh, to honor the mandate that we utilize those lands for the betterment of the airport. Um, I know sometimes users at the airport look at these rates and they feel like they're too much, but in all reality, you know, 37% of the operations out there are being paid for by— from those investment earnings and not from the users. And, um, I think, you know, I'm not suggesting that that should change.

I'm just wanting to point out that we significantly subsidize the operations out there with those investment earnings, and that's a luxury I think we should really, really, really appreciate. To have, what, $30 million in a permanent fund right now that spins off a little over $1 million a year for us is, is an asset that would be very difficult to manage that airport without. So yes, the Airline Operating Agreement called for annual 5% increases. That was discussed with all the operators before they signed it. And, you know, this is year 2, Mary, I think this will be year 2 of that agreement.

So you do see a 5% increase in the AOA Airline Operating Agreement fees.

And so then that's what you're seeing here on this next slide is looking at the land changes in the landing fees, the terminal building rent for exclusive space, and then also terminal building rent for joint-use space.

And so when you talk about joint-use spaces, that's, that's space in the airport that's shared by, you know, like multiple carriers that they share the same space.

So for capital, um, projects at the airport, we have a, a, a taxiway rehabilitation, um, and then we have a perimeter and security fence line improvements. One thing I want to talk about here about the airport is Oftentimes we pay up front, or we, we allocate money. In this case, um, we've already allocated $247,000 in prior years for the security fence and $650,000 previously for the taxiway rehabilitation. We often have to do the design phase first, and we often pay for that out of pocket before we start seeing the any of the matching in that from the FAA. So oftentimes You'll see some of our expenditures kind of lead ahead of our revenues as we get reimbursed for, you know, for things that we've paid for out of pocket that later on we recapture a portion of that back.

And so you'll see this when we look at how the fund performs. You'll see that that's kind of what drives some of that year to year. And then the airport terminal RTU that Mary's going to tell us more about.

It's just a rooftop unit.

And so here, here's a reflection of the kind of the red— what red one there is our revenues, the blue being the expenses. And you can see how we have years where our expenses far exceed our revenues, but later on our revenues exceed expenses. And, and the yellow line there is where our fund balance sits. And so this is kind of a real healthy look of how things should go. We should see that fund balance going up and down, certainly as we have bigger projects.

You know, this year we've got, um, I want to say it's about a $23 million project for the, the runway rehab. You know, our portion of that's going to be almost a couple million dollars on that, I think. And so, um, when you see this moving up and down and some of those big, big peaks and valleys are caused because we have a major project happening over there, where, you know, something for a couple hundred thousand dollars for a snowblower or something might not impact that as much, but a taxi runway certainly will. And so I think this, this is a good example of how this fund should, should function and operate, and that, and that we're doing a really good job with it. And at this point, I will turn the airport over to Mary.

Thank you. Have patience. 5 Years, here I am again. So I'll go through, uh, it's nice to be back. I'll go through, um, the 5 different departments of the airport starting with the terminal, and that's on page 208.

So the mission: provide high-quality, safe air service travel services to the citizens of the Kenai Peninsula and visitors through facilities and services. There's no change, no change in staffing. The performance measures, you can see for employments, we just went up about 2.5%. Again, we're pretty conservative. We're still not back to pre-COVID levels.

You know, we were around 100,000 $1.2 million at one time. The good thing about even though we're down to like $80,000, the FAA still gives us our entitlement money, which is around $1.3 million every year. And our percentage of tenant areas leased is down with 78%. That's due to Kenai Aviation leaving that space, and we still have one car rental space that's empty.

The goals that were brought, put in the budget last year, you know, the leasing 100% of terminal, of course not achieved due to the vacancies. There was not a survey of tenants and travelers, but one will be done over the next fiscal year. And then, uh, 3, Terri, you might— I This is one you told me we're going to turn over to a new director, the policies and procedures document department, policies and procedures. So the goals we are implementing for this are getting 100% of the terminal spaces leased, do the survey, and also proceed with our security camera project in and outside of the terminal building. That project's been around since about 2017, and I'm very happy to say that we are moving forward.

We are going to put— we had a meeting last week and we're going to move forward with cameras outside the terminal building and in the baggage areas. Unfortunately, we've experienced damage both from snow removal and our tenants damaging the outside of the terminal building. So yeah. And— The same with the overhead doors. So this way, if we have cameras in there, you know, we come in Monday morning and door 3 is busted, we might be able to go look and see who did it and what happened.

In the past, if we did know, we did bill the tenant for it and they graciously paid it. So we're excited about that. Future considerations: the terminal parking lot is reaching its end of its useful life. It is in the capital improvement program for fiscal year '28. Terminal expansion to accommodate a jet service, that'll entail a lot.

There needs to be TSA service or TSA area, passenger security area. You have to get into bagging, security badging. And this is also being looked in the master plan as an alternative to be considered then.

I just, I think, Mary, one thing I would point out on your amount of lease space in the terminal, I don't know if council, I think it just came out yesterday, the packet for next Wednesday. So don't blame me if you hadn't had a chance to read it yet. But what you'll also see in there is there is a new carrier that's liking to come into Kenai, Fox Air. It's a They currently operate, I believe, out of Bethel. Bethel.

But they're also looking to start service here in June. June 1st. They also will be flying the Caravan. So same 9 passengers that Grant's operating, but we will again have 3 carriers at the Kenai Airport. So that 78's gonna go back up a little bit.

So, but that will be before you guys on Wednesday.

Question, Mary, on the damage to the building. I noticed by the exterior wall, and I think that's what you're talking about where the baggage door is on the south side of the building. It's like a 3-part question. How did they do that? Because they had to go between bollards and hit the wall.

How do we repair it? And probably a third part to that. So yeah, when I came, when I came back last August, I noticed a lot of things on the outside of the building and contacted Blasey and talked to the crew. And that specific damage at the south end, the crew thinks was one of our tenants that had a tote there of de-icing fluid and probably went in between them and to pick that up and smash into the wall. Set of forks.

Set of forks. Like a forklift. Yeah, yeah, with their loader, with their forks, and crunched it. So what's the repair cost? Well, I asked you for about $28,000 for everything, and I think I got half of that.

But that exterior siding is special and unique. Each tile is numbered. It is, it is. So Blasey was able to give me a quote, and they will be fixing that and a couple other areas down by my office that unfortunately, you know, were damaged during snow removal. So yeah, but now we're going to see.

I'm surprised that there isn't already some sort of camera system there. I mean, I guess I just always assumed there was because there seems to be in most public spaces that you, you are being monitored. That's, that's correct. I think that in your airport there is cameras. We did get a small amount of money after 9/11 and we had security cameras in place, but They, um, what they were used for is not what they are intended to be, and, um, it's not, uh, our security program at the airport is a CAT IV, which does not require that.

Um, now, one of the reasons we split the project up between the inside of the terminal and the outside is that should we be successful in getting our grant, and having jet service, then everything's going to change there. We're going to be writing a 100-page security program. And we're going to get cameras and hopefully FAA funding for the cameras that are going to be inside the terminal. And then, you know, it's— and this happens so many times. People get to Anchorage and go, "Mary, I left my iPad on the chair.

Can you go see if it's there?" And it's gone. I mean, that happens a lot. They had somebody left something on the chair or their, you know, their duffel bag or whatever, and I go down and look. I mean, probably 45 minutes has gone by and it's gone. So it'll be nice to— and it's a start.

I mean, um, it'll be good to have, you know, sometimes bags disappear. We've had complaints about baggage, so, um, yeah. Yeah. And I think the most critical thing Mary just said too is that, you know, because of the security classification of our airport, the FAA will not pay for these cameras. They will pay for them in the sterile areas, those secure areas, maybe some of the baggage and things like that.

They will not pay for it out in the terminal. All of that changes depending on the security clearance or security requirements of the airport. So I think that's why we're taking a little bit of a conservative approach in how much we're going to spend because We, we could be spending money now that we could, um, get 93.75% paid for in the future. Mhm. I, I think cameras also have the potential of reducing liability over time, not just property— I mean, property liability.

I mean, if somebody's poking holes in the building with a forklift and now we're paying for it, um, you know, that's coming out of our pocket. But also parts of the airport that, you know, maybe aren't things are being stolen or people aren't behaving properly, whatever the case may be, it's an investment in reducing liability in the future.

If you were to prognosticate, how close are we to securing an airline that would need those sorts of security opportunities?

I'm very, very hopeful. I mean, the application is going to be submitted today or tomorrow for the Small Community Air Service Development Grant. I was lucky enough to go to California a couple weeks ago and meet with different airlines and promote their service into Kenai, and I got some very good positive feedback. Of course, fuel was the number one consideration. I mean, and I'm sure you saw Spirit Airlines went down this morning.

Yeah, so there's a— I mean, we're in this environment again where aviation is really tough. I know airlines are adding surcharges for fuel. So yeah, it's just one of those times again that we've gone through in the past where here we are because of the war, we're in a fuel And again, Aleutian Airlines did not fly for April and they're not flying for May, stating that their fuel allocation was reduced from 120,000 gallons to 90,000 gallons. So they did not come to Kenai and they're not coming to Cold Bay.

And the only thing I'd add to that is I think we're one gas pipeline away from it happening for sure too. So I think when that decision gets made, I think you're gonna see a lot of movement because when you bring thousands of individuals here labor-wise to the community to build the liquefaction plant in Nikiski, they're coming through the Kenai Airport. And that's always been the plan. I don't think that plan's changed. I think, you know, so I think between this grant and those facts, and I think just demand.

I think our leakage study says that this is economical, says that there is a demand. I think we're close. I mean, nothing's for sure, but I think we're close.

Well, and Terry had brought up a really good point when we were working with Volée Air about President Trump's executive order to unleash Alaska's, you know, natural resources. So that was also included in the grant, so we hope somebody pays attention to that. I think our grant package with the support letters from around the community, I thought was really impressive.

We may know something by September.

Okay, I'm going to move on to Airfield on page 212. Our mission to ensure the safety and security of aircraft, the traveling public, and to operate the airport in compliance with rules, regulations, and standards prescribed, but not limited to, 139. We have— we propose no change in staffing. Our performance measures as far as hazing activity is— has gone down, went down last year, but we are seeing an increase. We're hoping that all the construction this summer keeps the sandhill cranes away and all the geese.

We've had no bird strikes. Our work orders, we're maintaining a good presence with those. And we just had an FAA annual cert inspection last week. We don't have the final letter back. We're probably going to be— get a letter of discrepancy on their certification manual, the training of the fire department and the ops staff, an obstruction light that's not on the wind cone at the flowplain basin, and there was some issues with a couple of the, uh, ARFF trucks on the proportioning system that we need to work out.

But a lot of paperwork stuff, but nothing that can't be corrected in the next 30 days, 45 days.

The goals that were carried forward were receive no FAA findings during the annual airport certification inspection. We'll probably have 3 or 4. And then the reduction of the wildlife interactions and our hazing events. The goal again is to get no FAA findings during the airport certification inspection, continue reducing our wildlife interactions and hazing events, and then successful completion of the runway rehabilitation project with the opening of the runway in September of 2026. And that's consuming most of our time at the present moment.

Um, and the future considerations for the airfield will be the completion of the master plan and the new capital improvement program, uh, looking for grants for the perimeter and security fence line improvements, taxiway Sierra with access control, lease lot developments, of course, um, snow removal equipment, the markings, airfield markings, apron and Willow Street extension. One thing I want to mention about the airfield markings, that is now going to be FAA eligible. So I programmed it in our last capital improvement program. That can be a really costly item if the airport was to have to pick that up. It could be a million dollars.

It could be. It depends— it would depend on the wear and tear on your markings. But before I retired, we were fortunate to have projects going that picked up that airfield marking and crack sealing project. In the last couple of years I was here, that wasn't happening. And so we had to kind of pick up some of the markings ourselves.

Of course, your centerline gets the most— your lead-in lines, your old short lines. So you look at those, we kind of spaced it out like 1, 3, and 5 years to approach it. It would be my recommendation when we put this RF invitation to bid out for the airfield marking that it be like a 5-year contract so the contractor knows that he's— has us in place for 5 years.

Airport Administration on page 216. Mission of the Kenai Municipal Airport is to be the commercial air transportation gateway to the Kenai Peninsula Borough and West Cook Inlet. No change in staffing. Department goals, of course, is the air service development program. Um, It's partially achieved.

You know, the leakage study was completed showing there's a market for additional services. We worked with Volare and reached out to airlines to showcase Kenai. The administration, which I just told you I went to a conference in April with Volare to talk to interested parties. It was interesting how many people there didn't even know where Kenai was. So I took visitor guides the 2025 visitor guides.

When the new one comes out, I'd like to send it to the same parties that I talked to. Hats were a big hit with the airport logo on them, so it was, it was a good experience.

So department goals are to continue for '27, of course, the continued development and work towards an air service development, market for an airline to fill the void left by Kenai Aviation, which is going to be Fox Fox Air coming in June 1st. Their fees will be anywhere to $8,100 to about $8,500 a month. Kenai Aviation was considerably bigger than that because they had more landings. Fox Air is going to have 6 flights currently. Right now, I believe their schedule is going to be like 8, 10, 2, 4, and 6, and 8.

But it'll depend on the demand. But they will be flying a 9-seat Caravan. They've been in business in Bethel for about 6 years.

And of course, all as always, future considerations is the diversity of the airport's revenue sources and pursue additional revenue opportunities.

One thing I wanted to add that just came up in the past couple weeks. We've talked to the finance director about— we had a Gulfstream V in a few weeks ago, and the pilots, we were collecting the parking and landing fees from them, and they're like, "Why don't you have PlanePass do this for you?" And we said, "Who's that?" And they explained to us that there's a company out there that has agreements with Flightradar24 and this 3 different companies that track airplane traffic, and they do all the billing and even parking fees for the airport, for a percentage, of course. They have— we've discovered in our meeting the other day that we probably are losing about 25% on the reports that we got for them.

So we're looking at that. We're going to get a memo for city administration, get some more reports. So they'll—. They track everything. They track your signatory, you track your non-signatory.

And like I said, they'll be able to know when they arrived and when they departed, if there's a parking fee involved. And did I say they have a 99.6% collection? Rate at 1 year. Yes, we would be the first in the state of Alaska to use them. We need— because of that, they are willing to negotiate a lower price for the first year.

So we're excited about that. It'll be— it's interesting to see, um, because we're not there all the time. We're there Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. Planes come and go all the time. We don't see them all, you know, unless we're out there.

Like Alaska Airlines that came in on December 8th, I just realized we hadn't billed them for parking and landing fees. It was almost—. It was $210. So that type of thing, you know, we're missing some revenue that could be coming to the airport. And this company does that.

Oh, geez. What was the company name again? PlanePass, P-L-A-N-E-P-A-S-S. And Mary, since we're talking about costs, the charge that— for you to charge that $220 or whatever you just said, I mean, how much effort does that take your department to go through that? Well, we, you know, we take the time to contact Alaska Airlines, you know, and get the— luckily I had pictures of the plane, so I knew what the tail numbers were.

I knew the date. So then we had to reach out to Alaska Airlines and get the information of where to send the bill to. And it'll save time because right now parking and landing fees, even for signatory and landing non-signatory, is an honor system. So even finance may call me down— well, they did actually when I came last call and said, "We don't have any landing fees for Aleutian Air." And Aleutian Air had forgot that they need to pay landing fees, and so I contacted them and, you know, so it's finance time, it's our time, you know, tracking, you know, trying to make sure we're collecting these landing fees every month. So our signatories are supposed to pay it on the 15th the month following the end of the month.

And we've got a pretty good rapport with Tina and she keeps track, but sometimes, you know, she gets busy too and, you know, it takes time to track.

And I think what you're saying is reducing staff time equals saving money, which would potentially pay for— I don't know how much plane pass costs. But I mean, if we started tracking the amount of staff time involved in tracking these down, and that wouldn't count the people that aren't being truthful and fair in the honor system, that, you know, maybe all those things told would make this more than worth it, more than pay for itself. And that's what we're looking for. Well, that's where you're just looking at, you know, if we're missing 25% and they want to charge a fee a fee of 16%. I told her, let's push back, tell them the finance guy wants 10% and see if we can't get to 12.

We got 12. But did we? We got 12. Okay. For one year.

So looking at that, if we're collecting 25% more and we're only paying 12%, then that's a 13% increase we're gonna see in our fees. More importantly, you know, like she said, it's on the honor system. Well, now we have some form of data to tie back to what people are reporting to us, and then that we can, you know, it's kind of trust but verify, right? And, and so that just gives us a data point that it's, um, you know, that we can trust that what we're being told correct numbers. And so I think that'll be beneficial too.

But yeah, I think just not mention— not, you know, notwithstanding the staff time that we'll now save, that we're looking at about a 13% increase on revenues. 13% Plus that number that we don't account for. Right. Plus these pilots, they, you know, I go driving down there and say, hey, we have parking and landing fees here. You know, a lot of times they don't even know.

Well, can you bill my office? We certainly can. Just give us the information. You know, we'll bill you. So it's a lot.

There's a lot of money out there that I think You know, we've talked about it in the past of maybe having Crowley the fueler do it on weekends or after hours, but they also wanted a fee for doing that. Yeah. And they don't have such a good call-out program anymore for transient aircraft. So yeah, they're really excited about it because we would be the first in Alaska, and they've been in business for 6 years. And we're going to call for references, talk to other airports with our size.

And hopefully it works out and it's cost-effective for us. More questions? Okay, page 220 is other buildings and areas to encourage growth and development airport land by simplifying and streamlining the leasing process to support the airport and city's goal of a thriving business communicate community.

No change in staffing. Our performance measures for airport lands, you can see the airport land sale permanent fund is just under, um, $30 million, and the airport, as Terry said earlier, receives about $1.1 million from that. Our land leases is $687,000. Parcels in the reserve, outside the reserve that are all leased, and our special use permits that are inside the reserve and outside the reserve. And that special use permits are for like parking on the apron, like FedEx's planes are on our apron, and Empire's planes, excuse me, that fly for FedEx.

So those, those are what the special use permits are. The floodplain basin, we have 35 slips available for lease. We normally have about 14 of the same tenants that use that area. We will have 2 commercial operators in there this spring. One is going to start, I believe, around the middle of May and one around the 1st of June.

So the FY26 goals: develop the west side of the airport next to the floatplane basin. That involves subdividing the lease lots in conjunction with the design of Taxiway Sierra, advertising for potential lessees, and exploring funding options. That was not achieved, but it is in the capital improvement program. Or fiscal year '28, and it is also in the program for fiscal year '27. And I might add that it is, it was a number one goal of the airport commission also, that the development on that west side and subdividing.

We plan to start the NEPA process. The way the FAA process works with your grants is you do the NEPA process and then you move the design, which Dave spoke spoke to earlier, those we normally forward fund. The FAA will not even look at a grant until you finish the NEPA process. That has to be done first.

225 Is the Alaska Fire Training Facility. To be the premier aircraft and firefighting training facility for the state of Alaska by encouraging the use and maintenance of the equipment and buildings. We received information from Greatland, who does the fire training over there. He had about the same number of students last year. There is two aircraft rescue and firefighting training facilities in the lower 48 that shut down last year.

So he's hoping that that traffic will come up here.

The facility repairs and maintenance items that are listed here are directly related to the fire training equipment. We just issued a PO to a contractor to come up and work on the props again, and that's just under $25,000. 26 Department goals, rent out the unused office space to another business, partially achieved. One office is leased to the American Red Cross, and we do rent out the area downstairs. We've gotten a lot of use, we have a couple of safety companies and the borough that come over and rent from us those buildings downstairs when they're not being used by Greatland.

Department goals: rent out the unused office space to other businesses and look for additional ways to market the space, generate revenue, and establish long-term relationships. We do have currently a couple of parties that are interested in leasing space, second floor. And then we also have partnership for workforce development with KPED, potentially AB Tech, and to bring that workforce development to this side.

One thing we're going to do, there's going to be a 40-hour— I hope, you know, I mentioned to you before that we did the virtual scan of the airport terminal building and added it to our website. Did anybody go in and take a look at that? Well, we're going to do that to the fire training facility in the next week or two when they have 40-hour fire training. So they'll be over there with their drone and we'll also add that to the website. Yeah, we're excited about that.

That's all I have.

Sorry, just a kind of a quick question on the fire training facility there. I noticed Chief Tighe is here too, but what is—. What—. What— how does your department and the fire department, how do they coordinate some of the activities that go there? I mean, I see the black smoke every other day or so, so lots going on.

So, um, over there, but I was just curious how that—. Well, the admin assisted the airport She has a calendar and she tracks everything. So the fire department wants to use the facility, they have to let Julie know. And, um, and then Greatland, he supplies us his schedule also. He's in there basically from April to September.

But, um, it's worked good. Everybody's been able to work around it. And I think the city's going to be over there a couple days this month on the 12th and 13th or 11th and 12th of May for some safety training. So yeah, we have a calendar and it works out good through the airport office.

So before we move on from airport, I just want to take a special minute and just say, you know, Mary, thank you.

My, my goal, my intent is for you to not be sitting in that chair next year. Um, I can't tell you how thankful that I am. I can't tell you how thankful I am that, you know, we have a lot of employees that are willing to come back after they have left the city and do special projects or act as interims for us. Um, I think that speaks to the organization. But it also speaks to these people.

And, you know, being able to send Mary to California to talk to prospective airlines about coming, there's no better spokesperson for the airport. Nobody knows it better. Nobody's more passionate about it. Nobody's more energetic and excited about it or can talk about the airport better than Mary. So I was very thankful to be able to send her.

And having you here this last year while we were trying to recruit for a new airport manager is just really been a benefit. So thank you. Thank you. I will say, if I'd known I'd been here for this meeting, I would have turned in a whole different budget.

Can I request an at ease before we start this next presentation?

Absolutely. Want to take 5 minutes? You can request it. It's the You want to be on the record? I just want to be on the record to say that, you know, other groups could also bring delicious snacks every year.

And—.

So, get back on track here. So, talking about senior citizen revenues.

You know, the majority of this comes from state grants, about 30%, so about almost a third of our funding comes from state grants. We did see an increase in that this year. That's part of what drove the new sheet. We had some other tweaks too that had to clean up the numbers there, but long story short, the benefit of that is what you'll see in the upcoming budget is that we will see a decrease in what the city comes to the table with for funding for the senior center. We're seeing about an $85,000 decrease because they've bumped that funding up with the state.

So it's a real benefit to the city for them coming to the table with those funds. The other areas we see, USDA grants, that decreased by about $10,000 this year, but Choice Waiver, the Kenai Peninsula Borough grant that we get, rents and leases, donations from others, and we have the Senior Connection. We kind of break them out separately because, you know, that's 10% of this budget comes from them, and so we felt it was important to really call that out because we really, We really appreciate the work that that group does and the funds that they bring into the city. And I'm sure Cathy will talk more about that as she talks about March for Meals and stuff. And then just others, kind of $300,000 miscellaneous stuff, and then the general fund.

And we are seeing that decrease down to about just a little over $200,000, so, in the upcoming year. So that's— really beneficial there for us. Capital projects, we don't have any major capital projects going on over there.

We do have the condenser repair for the $20,000 that we talked about that's on our special project list for the year. And then our revenue, um, the, the kind of financial performance— the goal of this fund is to operate at zero, essentially.

You know, if we find that we're coming in under budget, then the contribution from the city decreases. In the prior year, prior 2 years, we've actually— our revenues— Kathy's done a great job managing the expenses. It's our revenues. We had some decreases there. The state cut back on their revenues that they provided us in the prior year by a little over $40,000.

$72,000. So we saw that that bumped up to about $54,000. We were like $8,000 the year prior, $54,000 in total for 2025. But with this additional funding, we just did an appropriation for about $72,000 here recently. That's going to help us bridge that gap, and we should be back at zero.

And that's— so our target when we budget this is always to hit zero, have a net impact of zero. And so We're back on track with that, and in a large part to the work that Kathy's done to kind of maintain cost and keep them reduced as much as possible so we can do that.

And with that, I will turn it over to Kathy.

Hi.

It may be hard to shut me up. I'm very passionate about the senior center and seniors, as you know. So, but thank you for being here. Thanks for— this is our time to get to talk to you about our department, and it's exciting. We're excited.

I do want to say, I want to give kudos where it's due. If you— on the new Title III summary that you got today, that increase that we got from the state, the $72,000 that we had an ordinance to increase our increase our budget this year, was directly related to AgeNet going to Juneau. And Red Pearcy, who is our admin 3 at the senior center, was on the board for AgeNet at her previous job at Frontier Community. And so when she came over, and we were lucky to get her, fortunate to get her, she came over, she asked if she could be a part of it. And AgeNet times that they meet co— they meet at the same time on a monthly basis.

That our Council on Aging did, so I wasn't able to be a part of it. And so she's taken that on, and they went to Juneau and lobbied for that money, and we got it. So it's a big thing. She's going back to Juneau again in February. So I'm on page 231.

Our mission hasn't changed. We're still a community focal point, and It's just a fun place to be, as you could say. Going to page 232, we don't have any staffing changes. We will be very thrilled with the additional janitor that is going to come over. For instance, when our janitor is off or out, this janitor will be able to fill in at various points and hopefully working— excuse me— to have them do janitorial duties for after rentals for the senior center.

Which is also— that may be worked into that as well. So that's a positive. Moving on to page 233, if you look at our performance measures, things are increasing, seeing a gradual come back up again after COVID, but happen in place for sure. New participants, you know that the Kenai Peninsula is the second largest area in the state outside of Wasilla where seniors are moving to, and seniors are the number one demographic that's moving into the state of Alaska, up by about 18%. And whether kids— whether people are retiring and staying here and their folks are coming up, you know, who knows.

I can't believe it's the winter weather.

But we do have a lot of things. The state is very good to its senior population. And I think that I'm excited about that. 100 New participants for a year, for this year, is a lot. That's exciting.

Looking at our department goals for this last year, marketing and promoting a positive active image. We saw that in the community survey that went out, that folks were— they were pleased with what we're doing. Happy with that. Also, Council on Aging worked on that. And that was some of their goals too, reaching out to college students and in schools and doing some intergenerational.

We got a lot of positive feedback about that too. Number 2, obtaining certification. Kayla Feltman worked through that in the fall. All last summer she took classes and she gained her activity volunteer coordinator certification through. And I think that that is— to say somebody coming in as just an activity volunteer coordinator, You have to understand the demographics of who we're working with, not just folks my age who are retiring and up.

We're in the baby boomer age, but we're also in an age that has a lot of dementia, a lot of Alzheimer's. And how do you create participation and activity levels that can speak to both groups? How do you generate that? And she did for somebody from a a business background, she did learn a whole lot. So, number 3, we're still going to be working on updating policies, and this is significant because the state updates policies.

The state— we're on Medicaid waiver. We just, this week, we submitted our recertification, which is quite a bit. It's a big project, but it— they update their policies all the time. So we have to update our policies. The same for home and congregate meals, transportation, anything along that line.

Number 4, we're still working on the admin group that Christine and Stephanie have started and been working with. They are targeting— Kayla or Red will come back and they will have different things that they've been working on in that admin group for the city website. So Caleb will say, hey, I know how to do this now, let's add that. So that's a real positive. We'll continue to do that this next year.

Increased volunteer engagement, we did that. We have, um, we, we continually have people walk through the doors, um, what can I do, how do we help, and you'll see that in fiscal year '27, some other ideas for that. Creating emergency preparedness and support plan, well, you know We did that as well. Those of you who came, we did the whole presentation for Council on Aging. It's now part of the city's EOP.

Document 20 department policies and procedures within the new format. It's kind of exciting. Something was just launched this week that Christine put out that will be all of our policies will be accessible. So we are— this is a continual gradual process that we'll be going through this next year, and we're continuing to work on that. 234, Department goals for fiscal year '27.

Again, the state updating our policies that coincide with what regulations are, enhancing the senior center website, documenting new policies, and recruiting and training 3 volunteer transportation and meal drivers. Now 3. You say, why not 20? Well, these aren't folks that just grow on trees. They are—.

They're difficult to find. We currently have 2, and who is— they have to be background checked, they have to go through driver certification, they have to be first of all willing. And, um, so— and retired. Most of them are, you know, you want to be retired. Well, one of them likes to take a 5-month cruise which leaves us in a limbo.

And so we're working on— he was a former driver. He was a retired FAA and he started working with us as a driver, Paul. Yes. We get pictures. He's been around the world.

This year he's been around not the Southern Hemisphere, but he's been around more of the Northern Hemisphere. And so— but wonderful that they like to come back and he says, "I just want to be a volunteer." So that's great. Future considerations for the senior center, we're working with Public Works on our long-term maintenance. The condenser issue, that is a special project this year. That was— where the condenser is is a problem, and getting to it to fix it is a problem.

So they not only have to replace it, but they also have to reposition it, and it's in concrete And it's on steel bars and everything. And so Carmel has worked up quite a bit of a study on what's going to happen and how that's going to take place. So thank you for that, for putting that in there. So the senior center, if you look at— a funny thing I wanted to share.

The congregate meals, I noticed over the last month or two that congregate meals were lower. And even pick-up meals. And so, you know, I got to the— okay. So, we knew lettuce, we knew we weren't going to— if you read the newsletter, we didn't have iceberg lettuce because they had freeze-outs in places around the country. So, we weren't supplying the lettuce for meals.

But so, I started looking at our menu and what our beloved cook did was rename some of her good things that she cooks. And so instead of having— so she had, let's see, I can't think of the spice, but lime something pork. And I went to her and I said, "Lime something pork, isn't that sweet and sour pork?" She goes, "Yeah." I said, "Well, 20 people came for your sweet and sour pork and we normally have 50." And so I pointed out another one. She had a blueberry almond something salad or whatever. And I said, "Isn't that your homemade dressing that you put chicken and Thai noodles under?" And I said, "Yeah." I said, "People don't know what it is.

So if you notice on the main menu." So she goes, "Well, I was trying to get more restaurant-like." And I said, "We are not Charlotte's. We serve baby boomers and up." And I said, "And they want meat and potatoes. They want meatloaf. They want fried chicken. They want liver and Onions.

So if you notice on this month's menu, she has gone to strictly what she's known for. And so— oh yeah, oh yeah, we had liver and onions already last week. You missed it. So that was April. Yeah, yeah, we are in May.

We are in May.

But she is amazing. But, you know, one of these days we're not going to have Missy. So, we're getting the cookies. Yeah, we don't. So, we learned rebranding does not work with that set of consumers.

It is a— our team at the senior center is amazing. It is— when one person is down, David was ill this week. He's our kitchen maintenance— he's our kitchen assistant cook. And he lives in Anilchik. He's in every day.

His wife works at— she is the food certification manager for Kenaisi Head Start and for the food programs at Kenaisi. And their daughter goes to the junior high here in Kenai Middle School. And so he called in and goes, "We are all down." And so teams fill in. If a meal driver is out, teams fill in. And we may be They— everybody's willing to pitch in wherever they need to, and I really— it makes a great team.

We have a lot of good folks and we do a lot there. So anybody have questions?

I was just curious about the shades or the replacement. There was something about that. Vintage Point. Vintage Point. Yes, oh, Advantage Point.

Okay, no worries. I thought it was over at that. Okay, we haven't— I've got the cart before the horse. I beg your pardon.

I was thinking about the Senior Connections. Yes. And a picture popped up on my Facebook, you know, feed, like a few years ago with the check for $55,000. Well, that's changed quite a bit, and now they're a major— a 10% of the budget. And if you want to elaborate a little, I would be happy to speak to that.

So March for Meals this year brought in almost $75,000, and we're still— funds are still trickling in, but we're ready to say it's just under $75,000 $75,000. A couple years ago, it was a little higher than that, closer to $80,000 because of one significant donation that happened in the fall. So we start collecting March for Meals funds in September because folks contribute out of their IRAs and they have to do it by a certain timeline. And so we will get some of those as they come in. Senior Connection voted last week again to fund fiscal year '27.

I asked for $120,000. They were happy to do it, knowing that the state contributed as much as, as they have this year to our budget. And so they will have $75,000 or around— there's about $5,000 in expenses, so $70,000 will come from March for Meals, and then they take the other from one of their investment funds. And very much appreciate that. They're very supportive of our program.

The hardworking group. Matter of fact, they're over at the flea market today. We have a quilt over there, and we were given some clothing a couple of years ago from an oil company who wanted to get rid of clothing, and it's fireproof work clothes. And Howard's over there selling clothing at the flea market with, with, with raffle tickets for a quilt that was donated. So very energetic, very energizing, very appreciative of what they do.

That's, um, It's a significant part of our budget. We'll be back again to council. Okay, so we'll move on to the congregate housing, uh, Vintage Point. Um, so again, we'll review the revenues.

Um, really, the revenues here, um, come from the rents and leases and interest on investments. And then the small other portion is the PERS-related portion that covers employees.

Speaking of the rents, last year we had that study that was completed. We had it completed in time for budget, so in FY26. In prior years, we had been trying to bring rents up to market rate. In Budget '26, we did do that. So this year, we're just seeing a CPI increase of the 2.11% that is the annual, based on the annual CPI for Alaska.

And so all rents will remain at market rate moving forward over there at Vintage Point. Oh, I'm sorry. We are now $265. Thank you for the reminder.

Capital projects, as we mentioned earlier, we've got $50,000 for hallway refinishing and $50,000 for apartment kitchen and bathroom remodels. And even in the long term, we're typically trying to invest about $100,000 a year in kind of replacing, refreshing, and keeping things up to date over there. For special projects, we have the blinds, we're looking at doing 12 units this year, and then the dry sprinkler heads. So that gives us a total of $137,000 that we'll be investing in capital projects and special projects over there.

For the financial fund performance, you know, generally we're kind of tucking away money. Where you see that big drop there is back when we had had the generator and boiler replacement. And so that's— so that, you know, we're doing some of these little projects every year, but occasionally we have these, these more higher dollar projects over there. And so that's where you see those spikes or see those drastic drops. And I'll let Kathy make sure she speaks to the details of it, but we're on the cusp of, you know, the next big remodels we've got going on.

We have 40 units that the kitchens and bathrooms are 30-plus years old now and in need of refinishing. And the architect's in there doing the design on that stuff now. So that'll be the next big capital thing that you see start to come out of this.

I'm on page 265, and speaking to that, the remodels— I'll just jump right in since Terry brought that up. They—. The—. Chris Parker is working on the architectural design study for what would go out to bid for construction for these. Some things we definitely wanted to work on in increasing the size of the shower, decreasing a jump a footstep into a shower.

The kitchen, making them more accessible, but not completely ADA accessible, but making them more usable for somebody who may not be 5'10". So they were in need. The laminate cabinetry is from 1992 when the building was built. It is— Bill has replaced it many, many times. We also were in the middle of an RFP.

Out for the contractor. That ends in a couple of days and we're anxious to see how that develops. But when that goes, we already have funding in the capital project that was put in over several years. So with that will be when the RFP goes out for the contractor to start that, we'll take an empty apartment, we'll move, we'll take the one, actually we'd have to start with say an empty apartment was now, we would move the first apartment that needs it the most. And Bill has a list, our current contractor has a list of which apartments need the most work the most.

And so we'd move the tenant into that building, into that apartment, work on the apartment that needs it, and then move them back out, move the next one in. So it's possible we would have one apartment that wouldn't be rented for a period of time until the funding. Now, finding a contractor who's willing to do that on that level, you know, that will be a little bit of a fun time. But anyway, we're very optimistic about it. So our rent starts— if you look on page 265, our rents start at $1,051 going up to $1,262, a 2-bedroom Oceanside.

$1,262 Seems pretty good. So Looking to page 266, we currently, we have no staffing changes for this year. You can see we have had recently, we've had a lot of folks moving out, whether it's due to a multitude of physical, mental, sometimes even just passing. So a lot of folks from here, they'll go into long-term care, and we've seen that also recently. We currently have 117 on our waitlist, so we have gone through quite a few folks this year.

Some have moved off the waitlist, but every week we're gaining about 2. So we encourage— but we may lose 2 or 3 that week as well. So— Can I ask you a quick question? What's the average length of time on your waitlist? It is right now, it's over 2 years.

It is, um, at one point I could— when I was calling folks for the waitlist for years, I would say it's 6 months to a year and a half. We now tell them it's going to be 2 or 3 years.

Uh, fiscal year '26 goals. We are working on the finalizing design plans. That's still in the works for that. I'm hoping that this will be done before fiscal year starts. Number 2, implementing a schedule for antiquated lighting and heating system.

We had some leak issues this year, and so we're pausing on the lighting and, um, until those are properly addressed and we can get those finalized. Number 3, the RFP award for construction phase, that will be moved over into fiscal year '27. The hallway and commons areas lighting, that will be moved over into fiscal year '27 as well, as that came up on the capital project. Number 10, back to department policies as well, and working through that next year and initiating the comprehensive long-term maintenance, the same thing that we do for the senior center. We have a building— the senior center is older than Finish Point, um, and, uh, so what we're seeing, the dry sprinkler system is air, it's It's a— it doesn't have water in it.

It's air pressure. And so there is a compressor unit on the second floor that does that. It goes through the attic because we know now that if you have a wet sprinkler system in the attic, it will freeze, as we found out several years ago. And so some of the heads on those are embedded into— sheetrock and ceiling. So the cost of replacing those, it's not just the dry sprinkler points, it is, um, it is the sheetrock around it that's got to be fixed and repaired, and that added a cost to it.

So, um, on page 267, uh, while we did the emergency op plan for the senior center and the continuity of operations, we're going to do the same thing for Vintage Point. We're going to start on that. What does that look like? And already started, matter of fact, to work on that. And so letting our tenants know, okay, here's what happens in the event of an emergency.

Here's what we're going to do. They know there's vans out there that will be taking them away from the building if that— if something happens. But what does this look like? Again, number 2, the modernization, first floor east hallway and commons areas contingent on the funding. Finalize an implementation of the comprehensive long-term maintenance and renovation plan.

So brings me to the blinds. Glenice, your question on the blinds. So we have the drapery, the drapes that were initially put in the building in 1992 had specifically designed railways for this. They're very specific, and they were all ordered. Everything was, was perfect for each one of them until we had to go replace them.

And then trying to find a company that would fit this railway system that doesn't cost $5,000 an apartment. Until about 2 years ago, I'm in a budget meeting and our city manager says, why don't you try blinds? And I thought, well, that was an easy one. So we are replacing all of them with those that need it. Some people still have nice curtains, they want to keep those, but those that have— we know the curtains need to come down and need to be replaced.

We're taking out the railway system, finishing up so it does—. It looks—. And we're putting in a wide panel vinyl blind into the apartments, and they love them. They really love them. That's what we're continuing on this next year with the blinds.

That is all I have unless you have questions for me. What is the current occupancy of Vantage Point? 40. 40. Yep.

And you have almost triple the waiting list for that. We do. We do. So, you know, I was speaking with a former mayor And if we had a mirror image of Vantage Point, we could completely fill that. And, you know, I'm just putting it out there that our community could actually utilize more space for market— current market price for those.

And I would like to see a long-term goal maybe shorter term to do that for our community. And I would have to speak with the city manager, but, um, if we have the space available, and with the, um, Bluff Erosion Project having been completed, um, I think it would be a great addition. I'm just throwing it out there, saying that it looks like a need for our community, and, uh, it would be a great asset asset for that space and an asset for the city. Thank you.

If I could address that, I believe in our long-range capital plan is a feasibility study for additional senior housing. And the issue— feasibility studies have a life expectancy. They, they do. They only are good for a period of time, and they're going to be over $300,000. For a feasibility study.

We have the one from 1988. It goes into everything from— it goes to demographics to where it's going to be, what it's going to be for city utilities, what it's going to be for— where it's going to be. And I have no doubt that a feasibility study would show that there's a need for it. Ours are unique. In the fact that what happens if somebody applies for an apartment, say, in one of the apartments that accepts low-income housing in this area, that folks who are homeless and are on low income get prioritized.

So we just— I've seen that this week where a couple came in and they say, we can't get it, we're on a wait list, but we keep moving up because people who are homeless or lower income they get first priority if they accept low-income housing, whereas Vintage Point does not. But I think, you know, I think it would be interesting to see. The biggest issue would be funding. And from what we— I have talked with Senator Sullivan's staff, and there is not funding right now for a building like ours. There may be funding for feasibility, and we hope to find that.

But the biggest issue would be funding. And I know right now in our current low interest rate, putting out a bond for that might be advantageous. And I have some questions for the finance director in regards to that. Thank you.

Well, not to carry it on too much, and I, I tended to agree with that whole idea, but there's a lot of private activity going on with senior housing in the area right now, some that hasn't been built that's going to be and whatnot. I'm not sure how that's going to impact the need. Do you have a feel for that? Is it going to make a whole lot of difference? Is that KNAIC?

Yeah, in particular. KPHI. KPHI. KPHI also is they do have low-income units and they are prioritized. They have Chuda House, Woodridge Apartments, anybody on a government program.

One of the issues with Kanitzi, we're getting folks from the housing that is owned by Kanitzi in the building that folks are losing their leases for these. And so we're seeing a lot of that. They may come to the senior center to get help on senior housing, not just for Vintage Point, but it is a huge issue. It's a huge issue. And I don't know that it will fulfill all the needs.

I know it will be very beneficial to a group of, of low-income and, uh, and members of Kanaitse Group. I know that. So, and I would hope KPHI, we do have folks who live in those apartments who come to the senior center and are active.

Okay, up next we're going to have personal use fishery. It would be page 188 is where you'll find that in the book. And so this is just a graph of their revenues. Um, showing kind of the different, different areas, um, that, that we've got budgeted for, um, the revenues showing the beach parking investment earnings, beach camping participant drop-off, dock launch and park, dock parking, and then, and then PERS grants. Um, so we're looking at about $536,000 there, um, for projected revenues.

Um, we did in FY25, we did hit over $500,000 mark there for the first time. So, so it continues to grow and is healthy.

So for capital projects, we didn't have any for the PU fishery, but we did have a few of the special projects. One is a sign laminator, and then the two ranger replacements that I spoke to earlier, one for Parks and Rec and the other for Public Safety.

And then again, here's the— showing the performance of the fund, that yellow line again being the fund balance. And again, real healthy seeing how it kind of bounces up and down as we make additional investments in, you know, and like just seeing the drop, drop down a little bit last year. We did replace, like I said, we replaced one of the side-by-sides for police last year, so or we are in the current year. So again, that's looking real healthy and functioning the way we expect it to. So again, turn it over to Tyler.

Hi, so over the years we've done a number of changes at the PU fishery, nothing too crazy this year. I think one of the most significant ones we did several years ago was on Spruce Street, we added a bypass lane so you could drive around the shacks. That has been— a lot of people have really enjoyed that. The public has enjoyed that. It doesn't seem like we had many issues with Boys and Girls Club moving in there.

The church has enjoyed that. And then our, our return customers have enjoyed that, where Pu Fishery members can now leave and if they have a valid permit, don't have to wait in line. And I think our locals have enjoyed that because we haven't had any major traffic backup on the highway. Which, if you, uh, kind of look at our views down here, we have our total transactions are, you know, $18,400, and then we're projected that to keep the same. Last year we had good weather and lots of fish, so the fact that, you know, I think our 5 AM is when we open up and our fees change, you can buy a day use pass.

I got it reported twice we were back on the highway, but never going towards town on the which is huge. My first year with the fishery, there was one Saturday where traffic was backed up to the visitor center, and I came in and the PD came in, we worked for about an hour to get that line brought down. But we haven't had that issue since we've expanded that bypass lane, so that's been really cool to see. We've had— we had a consistent vendor all year last year. They also brought in a coffee cart.

I think we're expecting— we've had interest come out again, so we're reviewing our current, like, kind of vendor policy so we can share that with the public to see if we can generate interest down there for local vendors and everything. But we had a person go down there and sell ice for the whole fishery last year, so the members seem like— the fishery members seem like they really enjoyed that. We also had a couple days of a coffee cart and a couple days of empanadas, I think. So, uh, going down to our department goal, uh, we've, we've done signage replacements. My first year at the fishery, uh, We had contradictory signs that were left down there.

We always have faded signs. We always kind of battle that. One thing we haven't had is a sign inventory. We started that process kind of during the fishery last year, and it was a big bite to chew off. Hence, it is partially achieved.

But one thing we've succeeded in doing, I will say, at our dock, we've set up a really good, like, map where it can kind of be easy for our team, like, logistically to set up where we have you know, there's a number 1 on the map and that's the sign. And that kind of started building our inventory in itself. So you'll see in our next year goals is to create and complete detailed setup maps because that will double as an inventory and just help our park staff and our PU staff and even our, I think, our temporary enforcement officers and everyone to see a snapshot of what it's going to look like when it is set up.

And then we have move and repair one of the walkways on North Beach. So we have a lot of pathways that go over the dunes on North Beach, and that protects them, and they're building up. Sometimes some of them wash away. In November, we— the last two Novembers, we had some very big tides and moved the bollards. They're still there.

We go back in and repair those, but the dunes are building up, and those pathways are getting covered, and it's more and more becoming what I call— I call it trail maintenance. So one of the best ways to do it is to probably dig out and destroy part of the dune, not really destroy it, but so you can excavate the sand off to the side. It's common when you do pathway maintenance in like national parks and everything to protect the woods. You have to kill some of the woods to make the pathway so people stay on the pathway. One technique we found is we have our backup snowblower that, that is a good way to move sand on a beach.

Turns out that is a life hack that one of our maintenance staff find. So They were walking with a snowblower after we used our backhoe to dig sand going up over the walkways and blowing it off to the side, and that worked really, really well, and it's still functional. We spray it off and clean it really, really well. So that's been really cool to see as we battle maintenance with those every year, and it can also depend on the tides. They can push sand up on the pathways, they can tear it off and make it more increased.

So it was really cool to see our staff be really successful with that. Uh, our FY27 department goals: create and complete detailed setup maps. Uh, we have a lot of maps, a lot of setups. We kind of want to standardize those. And again, I'll give an example.

You know, we put up a bunch of signs on the beach, uh, that say, you know, please bring your fish down to the tide line and dispose of your fish properly, do not throw it away. Uh, we just have a lot of those. Uh, you know, sometimes they break, sometimes we replace them, but to do a detailed map and have an inventory I think would be helpful for park staff. So it's not someone going off in-house knowledge of where and why they go there. I think we always have that question every year, like, oh, where are we going to put this Jersey barrier?

Where are we going to put this sign? So I think these are really good— this is a really good goal to see there. And then restructure the website. You know, one thing we're kind of looking at is our DIPNet app. If you look at the DIPNet report that comes out to the council in the fall after the fishery is our DIPNet app numbers have been going down consistently.

And the city manager mentioned it earlier, progressive web apps are kind of taking over. So as we look at new websites to see what it would be like to restructure that and have all of our information in one area. So right now you can go to the Kenai DIPNet app, you can go to the— and go to the city website for information. But if we can funnel that all to one congruent site, that'll be really nice, I think, for staff and patrons, as that apps are kind of progressing out as well too. I think you hear more and more, I don't want to download an app.

Yep.

And then future considerations, this one has been on here. Participants in the fishery have repeatedly mentioned that the City of Kenai should have a permanent campground available available during the fishery and other summer months. So just one of those things, as you'll hear me talk about probably a little bit when I talk about the Parks and Rec budget going forward. But I'm happy to answer any questions. We don't have any fee increase suggestions or any big major operational changes besides— I know we're doing some dock work, but that is all in Public Works managing the dock, not directly related with the fishery.

Did I just hear you say that there were no fee increases? Yes. Um, so with the cost of everything going up and the cost of running this PU fishery, why would we not increase those fees to compensate for our increase for running this? Please. Let's say, uh, we increased our fees, I want to say, 3 years ago, and then in the discussion it was also to be mindful of that is a resource for Alaskans.

So if we're covering our cost and we don't see the direct need for an increase, just to always be mindful of that so we're not making that resource hard for Alaskans. But it's something I think we'll keep our eye on as, you know, as we get bids for like our toilets and everything and we do see increased costs so we can cover those. Great. I just want to make sure that we do not go as a city in the hole to provide this opportunity since we don't have any compensation for the state who mandates that we do this opportunity for our fellow citizens of Alaska, and that the bulk of it falls upon the citizens of Kenai. So I want to make sure that that cost is spread out so that our citizens are not unduly— unduly— yes, subsidizing this.

Fun thing for our whole state. Thank you, and I appreciate all the hard work because I know that this is a huge endeavor. Thank you. No, from all departments, you know, I think it's really an all hands on deck for the whole city. It's been—.

Parks, I think, took it over— not took it over, but took on to be the one point of contact as it goes forward several years ago. So it's been really cool to see how the city comes together and puts this on. Well, and I wanted to sort of, I guess, piggyback on that a little bit. I live— the fishery is between where I live and where I work. So when in the month of July, it's in my face every time I come or go from my house.

And over the last, I would say, 15, 20 years, There's a marked difference in how much better it is being managed. I, as a resident, don't feel as inconvenienced or annoyed, I guess, by all the things, by the traffic backed up because of my work before you had that lane, the bypass lanes in. Before Boys and Girls Club was Boys and Girls Club, when it was the Care Center, and I was going to the Care Center regularly, that was a problem. Or when I was going to Our Lady of the Angels regularly, that was a problem. So little things like that have just— there's been a little bit more every year, and they've continued to build on themselves, which I think has reduced the negatives as far as quality of life stuff goes for residents over the years.

I mean, I guess what I'm trying to say is I can see a marked improvement and I appreciate it.

Thank you. And I'm in love with the snowblower idea and am going to take that home to my husband the next time that we're trying to sweep it all out of the driveway or the grass or whatever. So I'm going to give it a shot.

The only thing I'd like to add is, you know, I think I agree. I think over time we've really matured in our management of what I will still characterize as organized chaos. It really is. I mean, it's something new every year and a new challenge. And I think that, you know, our staff do an amazing job of meeting that stuff head on and dealing with it.

The thing I think we, we still, as a city, as a community, need to improve on with the fishery is learning how to capitalize on it still better, learning how to enhance our revenue streams from it. We still— we did have some vendors, I agree with Tyler, that were able to locate down at the fishery, but that's been really— I mean, in the 20, almost 20 years I've been doing this, we haven't had consistent vendors down there. I mean, some figuring out a way to, you know, generate revenue for the community in a way that also provides, you know, something that the visitors want when they're coming here. I think we still have a long way to go. And it's one of the biggest events in the state of Alaska for Alaskans for a 3-week period.

And I I think there's opportunity here for both them and us, and Kenai can benefit from that. But it's going to take new ideas. I think working with Chamber, working with businesses, just trying to capitalize on it a little bit better. Which I would sum up in one word: campground.

Since we have you here, Tyler, and the city manager, do y'all have any suggestions on where this City of Kenai campground would go? Because once upon a time when I lived here, there was a city campground which was on forest, and that has since been stopped. So I was just wondering if y'all have some ideas about where y'all might want to replace that opportunity for our visitors in the city.

I can try to echo that a little bit. Actually, we had multiple campgrounds in the city. There used to be one right where Walmart's located. And so, you know, I think if when you get to see and take a look at your master plan for the Parks and Rec Department, there's some thoughts on that. You know, as the city is able to grow and things— the sports complex heading out of town to the north side, maybe moving some of the Little League fields and things like that out there and consolidate, that plan's looking at.

I think that area right there on South Spruce, right heading to the beach. I will remind council there was a proposal by the city at one point in time, and it's now land that's that's been donated to the Boys and Girls Club, but there was a proposal to put a campground there, you know, and it met a fair amount of opposition. So, you know, I think this is something we need to work with the community. I don't have specific sites. I will say that there is information in the Parks and Rec Master Plan that does talk about it, but— You know, it's going to take conversation with the community about what they want and where they would like to see that.

But I don't disagree with you. I think a campground is— it's hard to be a tourist town and tell people you want them to come stay in Kenai. And, you know, for a long time, the only place to camp was in Walmart. You know, we do have two working campgrounds in town now. One at the old Port of Kenai privately, and then one out towards Beaver Loop that a gentleman is trying to work too.

So, you know, I think private enterprise is trying to move in and create some of this, but I think there's still opportunity.

We're up to general fund now. We're going to move on to the general fund, and Tyler will be the first one up when it comes to that. So we'll kind of do them back to back here, but at this point we're going to page 66.

So with general fund, we'll cover the revenue, sales tax and property tax, talk about our capital and special projects, fund balance compliance, and our historical performance here.

So for the general fund, sales tax makes up, you know, 50%, and if you look at page 47, kind of shows you a breakout of the different types of businesses in that, that, um, in the different percentages. So, you know, 75% of that's retail trade.

So, but it does amount to 50% of our budget, you know, followed by property taxes. And then the other is— that's all of the fees and charges that we have in the city. So ambulance fees inspection fees, traffic fines, plan reviews, permit fees, rec center, multipurpose facility rentals. So any, any type of fee that we charge, that's where those all go into that line item. Our central admin fee, our interest on investments, and then our transfers in.

So that, that is one thing that with the PU fishery, we do transfer in $75,000 a year is what we've been able to transfer into the general fund to cover some of our, our overhead cost related to more of our central admin type of stuff, where those that are directly doing work, like the streets department, the parks and rec, we actually charge directly to the PU fishery. $75,000.

So in regards to Tax revenue, you know, that's been increasing. I think when you did the state of the city, I think I want to say you said 34 quarters consecutively it's been increasing, and we're seeing that continue. When we budget for this, we're— current year budget, we did 2.25%. This year we're doing 2.75% in 2025, we saw that number for the year was at 3.3%. What we're seeing currently, just in the fourth quarter of this year, the most recent quarter, we were up 7%, 7.28%.

The quarter prior to that was up 2.2%. So that continues to be doing really well. And, you know, that's one thing that certainly as we see gas prices go up, so does our sales tax on, you know, time you pump gas at the pump, right? So we're seeing that that is continuing to stay healthy and stay strong and enable us to support what we do here at the city. Dave, do we have any way to track which sales tax is which?

What— he said fuel, which I was thinking about, but then there's retail and other things. Do we have that data? I don't know that we do. I could probably reach out to the borough and see what they might have. You know, again, this— the information on that page 47 does kind of break it out by the types of businesses.

But yeah, I imagine that under retail that, um, you know, probably, you know, things like we're paying for gas is probably under that. So I probably— I'll try to reach out and see if they can qualify that better. But when you're talking a store like Three Bears that has a convenience store and gas I don't know how well they get that broken out other than it's just retail sales. We can certainly inquire though and see, because it would be interesting to see the impact that that has. Aren't they taxed just slightly different?

Because food versus— when you're talking about the— if you're Three Bears, whatever, the gas would be I mean, that's all taxed. But if you're at Three Bears Store buying things, food's going to be taxed differently than—. Right, that's done not by the city. Not by the city. It's only the borough that's taxed.

So the borough has a non-prepared food tax exemption that goes into effect for half of the year. Um, we did not as a city, um, adopt that. It's also the primary— that was the primary driving reason why our sister city decided to go to be a home rule city, um, because they didn't want to adopt that, um, non-prepared food tax exemption. But I think what, what I really want to emphasize is, you know, like, I think sometimes people question how the economy in Kenai is doing. When you see our sales tax, you know, for 34 consecutive quarters have year-over-year growth, our 12— our quarter ended December of 2025 was up over 7% year over year.

Okay, and it's not— that wasn't fuel, folks. I mean, I'll, I'll give you probably some utilities because I know what my gas bills were at my house during, um, this last cold winter. But this first quarter, um, of first calendar quarter of 2026, we should be getting that data here in the next week or so. I expect our sales tax to be up significantly because of gas prices. I mean, gas is a, um, one of our larger contributors on sales tax because it's high volume and it's virtually all taxable, right?

And so our sales tax, I think, is going to be well exceed our 2— and you say 2.25 is what we were for fiscal '26 year. So our retail sales continue to be incredibly strong. And, you know, I think, you know, we've just— this graph shows the, you know, this is, this is all related to sales growth. There's not one rate change in here. There's not one exemption change in here.

We didn't, we didn't start taxing something we didn't before. Some of that may be online sales too, as we've implemented online sales, you know, tax there. So some of that may be a little bit new, but this really speaks speaks to how well I think our local economy is doing and our retailers are doing. Doesn't mean there's still not room for improvement and help there, but I think our sales tax, it's over 50% of your general fund revenue now.

I think Terry just covered this slide.

So this is our property tax revenue. And so what you see here is the green is personal property, kind of the red there is the gas and oil property, and then the blue is the real property. So like your home values that we see. And I think Terry spoke to this previously. You know, we've not changed our mill rate, but what is happening is the value of homes have been increasing.

And so that's where we're seeing that, along with some of the development that we're seeing within the city as well. But keep in mind that as your values increase, so does the taxes that we pay and that we collect on those.

And this is a great, great slide. This is one where, hey, I'm a homeowner, what am I getting for the money that I pay? And so, so we've broken this out to show You know, we take into consideration like the exemption, the $75,000 exemption that the borough has that they put in, where this is based on a $350,000 home.

And so you're looking at $207,000, of which $100,000 $5,522 is, is, um, goes directly to the city. And then we've broken it out into the kind of different categories here as to, um, where that money spent between departments, between general fund, between public safety, public works, and, and parks and recs. And so, um, I think this is a really good tool to be able to show citizens here's, here's where we're spending our money, here's how we're responsibly spending the funds that we receive from you for your taxes.

Yeah, the thing I'd like to throw in here too is, you know, I mean, Lee and I got an email this week from, you know, a citizen, and, you know, they live on a dirt road here in the city, and, um, you know, it's, it's a tough time of year to live on a dirt road, I gotta tell you, right? I mean, it's breakup, and until we can get the water to dissipate in the ground to start taking it, it's it's difficult to, to keep things smooth without actually causing more damage to the road than, than just leaving it alone for a little bit. But, you know, this individual wants to quote to us how much they pay in property tax, and it's a slide like this that helps us remind them that, hey, we get it, you know, we, we totally understand where you're coming from. But what you have to remember too is that, you know, out of the $1,500 that this 350 $1,000 house pays to the city, you know, $650 of that just goes to the— for you to have the opportunity to pick up the phone and call 911 when somebody at your house gets hurt, somebody gets sick, or your house catches on fire, you know, or somebody's stealing something from your house. I mean, this is— there, there's a whole bunch of these other costs that people don't think people take into account.

And I think this— we want this to be here for council to provide you a tool to talk to citizens about, you know, these are the services that the city pays for, and here's a dollar-for-dollar representation of what, you know, your tax dollars go to when you pay a bill.

I don't know, I don't know if, um, in— if this could be a forefront on our, uh website so that our citizens have a greater understanding, because I know it greatly opens my eyes to recognize that for my property tax, this is what I'm getting for my property tax. And I think this goes unsaid, and it's unknown, and it's not because I'm not appreciative, it's unawareness. And so if there was some way that we could incorporate this in some of the city literature to educate our fellow citizens, I think it would be— give a greater appreciation. So thank you.

I think it's a selling point for Kenai overall though. I mean, I think that the things that the city provides in many ways are more than other communities, and that makes Kenai a more attractive place to live, to work, to raise a family. I mean, I'm thinking about the, the master plan for parks when the man was explaining it to us and he was talking about, I guess there's a ratio for those things and we're ahead of the curve. I mean, things like that, that Kenai has to offer, they cost money, but the payoff is you can take your kids, your family, whatever to do these things. So I agree it would be really great to have it on the website, But I think this is something that we should consider when we're talking about come live in Kenai.

These are the things that I think people would be interested in knowing.

I must say that when it snows here, I frequently send pictures to my friends in Anchorage.

And let them know that it snowed last night and it's 8:00, you know, 7:30 in the morning, I'm driving to work and my street's already plowed. And not into the middle. I think there is a lot of value to what you said there, that we do provide some great services, and I think that's just one example. But I do frequently remind my friends about it. I have a lot of fun with it.

So capital projects. Um, we kind of showed these earlier, the different street projects that we have going between Willow and Airport Way, repaving the construction that is happening this summer, Public Safety Building design for Lottman and Tinker, design for an Old Town playground. I'm looking at rec center locker room refurbishment, gravel road improvements. Maybe that guy will be on the list for this, Terry.

Street light decorations replacement and senior door center door project. Over at the special projects, I went through all these previously, so I don't think I'll repeat those again, but those are all kind of the general fund projects that we had there.

Next slide is our general fund. Balance, looking at our policy compliance here.

Just, you know, real quick, the minimum fund balance is what that red line at the bottom is. The blue line at the top is our maximum fund balance. That blue block that you're seeing, that, that's kind of the sweet spot in between the two of those. And for a number of years, the yellow line represents where our actual fund balance is at. We've been riding along the top side of that for a number of years, primarily due to of the funding we received during the COVID period.

Um, and Council was real good at putting those additional funds, extra, extra money we had during those periods, putting those into capital project, um, projected for future capital projects as opposed to spending it on operating cost. Um, and now, now we're starting to see where we've got some major road projects, um, and so that's going to kind of bring us down off the top end of that. Um, and we've had other projects that we've done over the years that have, um, we've been able to do because of those funds being available. And so that's where you see that yellow line dipping down. And certainly in '28, you know, I think that, you know, moving that $1.9 million road project there, I think, is, is one of the things that's really impacting that.

Um, and so you'll see that as we continue to build our, out our capital projects that we, we still are able to do those but stay within our fund balance parameters.

And then general fund financial performance, um, again, you're seeing how that's kind of moving up and down as it should, the yellow line being the fund balance. You'll see there in '25, it's kind of the, the third one from The right, we had, um, we came in about $2 million to the good that year. Reasons for that is on a $22 million budget, we had projected a $1 million lapse. We typically look to have 5% come in under budget is kind of the challenge that we put before the directors. But also that year, we, um, we— our sales tax was almost $500,000 higher than projected.

The other thing that we saw happen that year was our SEMT our supplemental emergency medical transport funds. We typically get one payment a year.

We've been submitting that reimbursement in March. We usually get it in October. Last year we submitted in, in March, we got the— we received it in October, we submitted in March for '25, and we actually got it in June, right, literally right the last week of June. So it came in a year ahead of, you know, in a budget year ahead of time. We're hoping to maybe repeat that this year.

We'll see how it goes. We got that turned in earlier than March this year, so it seems that maybe the state's kind of finally getting up to speed on that process. They typically, once we submit it, they have 6 months to get that out to us, and they usually wait the full 6 months. They didn't last year, so we'll see how that impacts us this year. And then our investment portfolio was up $93,000 higher than projected.

So with those things, we saw that we had our revenues came in above expenses pretty significantly that year. But again, we're looking at, you know, that fund balance and seeing that decline a little bit. Again, it's moving up and down, and that's just what we want that to be doing.

And the only thing I would add there, again, I think Dave mentioned it earlier, is is I think there needs to be a real understanding and emphasis on recurring expenses and one-time expenditures. And while you see a projection for fund balance to be decreasing in the next few years, it's decreasing as a result of one-time expenditures. Okay, if that was because of recurring operational every, you know, recurring type expenses, I would be very concerned, and you should be very concerned as well. Okay, in my opinion, that's what the state's graph looks like, but it's worse, and it's heading in the wrong direction because of operations. Not— they've virtually cut all capital at the state.

There's very little capital except for what they have to invest to get federal match now. Um, so I think that's a primary difference I think that we focused on here at the city And yes, fund balance is projected to go down. That was planned, you know, for the last few years. Council has taken action to set aside or to allow for our fund balance to exceed what the policy calls for, specifically to hold those funds for future capital projects. Now we're starting to roll those projects out.

We've got staff in place. I think that we can get these projects on the street and get them done. And so fund balance is going to start coming down, but it's not because of recurring expenses, it's these one-times. Well, what I mean, what you're saying is we, we were effectively planning for the future for whatever rainy day fund, and now it's raining. So I mean, yeah, it looks— if you just take it at glance, it looks like we're spending more than we should be, but we were, we were bulking up our savings so that we could spend when we needed to.

Well, and that bulk up of savings I think is critical for taxpayers to understand. Um, the, the majority of that came from, like Dave said, from the tranches of money we got during COVID This is money the city never expected. If you go back and look at our budgets before COVID happened, we were rejecting, um, seasonal sales tax, um, increases and some other things because we didn't we didn't have the money coming in for capital. We got a significant amount of money that came into the community during COVID We pumped a bunch of that out to local businesses. We did a lot of things we— that we could to try to mitigate the effects of COVID here in the community, but we didn't take the rest of it and just spend it.

We held on to it. We knew we were going to need it for these— to get our capital plan kicked off, as state funding has almost been completely eliminated for local capital projects. And, um, that's where that money came from. It wasn't like we taxed people, um, to generate that, and I think people really should understand that. No, I agree.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Okay, and with that, um, we'll, we'll go back to Tyler, page 171. We'll get into Parks and Recs, or do we need to—. Before Before Tyler starts, you've been here all morning, so I think we ought to complete that portion for Parks. There is some food that has arrived, and right after Tyler's done, we can actually bring some of that out. But anyway, just wanted to mention it.

I got a note here before, you know. Yeah, I can smell it too. I don't want to have a riot going here.

All right, Parks and Rec.

So I'll start off with going over just some of our performance measures. Our total recs— oh, sorry, 172. The budget starts on 171 with the introduction of the budget, or the introduction of the department, and kind of overall what we manage.

So if you turn to 172, we have our kind of year-over-year performance measures we go over. And I had talked about those. Our total records center visits are just slightly down. I don't know if that's due to a new building that went up or if anything in those lines. But one thing you'll see in the mid-month reports I provide Council, a number I've started tracking over— these numbers reflect our total sign-ins.

You know, so if you're there for an activity, if you're there to work out, play basketball, take a sauna, play volleyball, we have you sign in. But one thing it's not capturing is, you know, mom and dad bringing their kid and watching them practice, or, you know, a family coming in and watching someone play City League. So I think that number actually underrepresents the department and who we're serving in the total number. So if you look in my mid-months, I think you'll see, like, you know, I'm going to throw this off the cuff, like, oh, 3,000 sign-ins. But then if you start looking at our tracking data that we've started picking up, it's like 5,000 visits.

So I think, you know, that number could change in the future. If you look at previous narratives, you also notice there's not this huge paragraph underneath there, which, uh, uh, when I inherited this list, I didn't have really an operational definition for all these. So I don't think our total program-based activities really increased. I think we just accurately captured it at 16 for some events we do and stuff we do at the rec center. Our total pedestrian trails, as we were getting ready for our master plan, we kind of mapped those.

We did add about 100 feet of trail at Dobbin Speck Pond because, uh, if you walk around that trail, it's a gravel trail, but it went down onto an open beach and it was super sandy. And just accessibility, it wasn't the most accessible way to walk in there. It was a sharp drop-off. So we added a bypass around there when the library installed a story walk. We partnered with the library and got a story walk installed around that loop, but accessibility was a big concern.

So we actually added a little pathway along there We haven't added that much path, but we've re— we've recaptured what we're actually taking care of. And then total shelter reservations did increase. Ice reservation hours were down. That was probably most likely due to our super cold winter. We get a lot of cancellations when it's below zero.

Something you'll see in our goals is to develop policies, and one of those is to probably try to help mitigate that, because we've had teams cancel, then one team says we'll tough it out, and then they leave, and then we're paying our contractor to be there. So it's one of those things we're trying to look at, how can we kind of mitigate those costs in there that we see with that? If our contractor's scheduled and there's a team that cancels, what's an act of God, what's our balance? So you'll see in our narrative goals of, uh, policy creation, so we can kind of follow up on those volunteer hours. Um, you know, I think in the last few years we've tracked these better and we've pushed, you know, to get more volunteers whether it's, you know, we do get called for a community service or court-mandated volunteers, but we also have a lot of great people that show up.

Uh, you know, we had pickup day last week and we had 25 volunteers there who probably did 2 to 3 hours each. We have a log of it and we try to keep those people that show up at our events and help out in our plant days, and we have some really great people that do that. Uh, we just had a senior service project. A senior came in from City of Kenai Central High School, and he did a new coat of paint on our hockey nets. So they're going to look super nice and fresh.

And that was—. It's always cool to get calls from the local high school for kids looking to do some service projects. So big shout out to that program. We talked about— I got a suggestion from a council member about— what would you like to ask? I got that suggestion about reach— make sure we're reaching out to our commission and informing them of opportunities opportunities to volunteer, reaching out, you know, even the council.

And I mean, I mean, I know you guys are going to make a concerted effort in a year to make sure you can reach out even more to get more participation. You guys are going to see a lot more signage that includes a term that our Assistant Director Jenna started using that we've gotten calls on when she posts these: volunteers needed in a big yellow with a red lettering. With just that line, like, you know, we've, we've said it in smaller font and everything, but just that graphic gets us phone calls within 24 hours. So yeah, we are going to do a more concentrated effort to get those community volunteers, and I think also work with our community volunteers. And you'll see that in my goals with some of our local nonprofits and everything as well.

Uh, one, uh, tree, uh, removal permits. You know, this came about right before I started with the city as people We have beetle-killed trees falling and getting cut down. People can apply for a permit and remove trees for their personal use if they clean it up. I've only issued 6 of those so far this year. Another way we're trying to benefit community members with this, we do have a general pickup area right next to our cemetery off of First where we have a sign that says harvest at your own risk, but if we cut down a tree, we'll go put it there and clean off some of the slash and We'll put some— every time we put a tree there, it's usually gone within like a couple days.

So that's been kind of a cool benefit to the community as we've had some of these beetle kill trees come down.

Oh, and one thing that's not in my report, and I know I mentioned last year, but as trees keep on coming down— last year we did successfully get a grant from the state and we planted over 700 700 saplings and like seedling trees throughout some of these areas that have been mitigated. So there we are, always looking for those grants and those opportunities. The city manager just forwarded one to me about putting forest back out there because I know there have been calls and concerns. So last year we got, yeah, just over 700 seedlings that we went through and planted.

All right, going on to our department goals, uh, the most exciting one that meets all of the strategic City of Kenai Comprehensive Plan goals, goals 1 through 8, uh, is our master plan. This is a project that went out to bid last year, and we started it, we kicked it off with a meeting at the Kenai Chamber Center where we invited the public. We served them hot dogs, we did a community survey, we got a lot of community feedback, and then our contractors started developing the plan. Myself, the city manager, our city planner, and Christine were all in a working group that worked with the contractor throughout the winter to develop this plan to really fit Kenai. Again, I think with that public input really focused in there, uh, the plan was presented to the Parks Commission at their last meeting, and then it had a discussion item to discuss if there's any changes needed.

Um, planning on bringing that forward to the commission for recommendation of approval to council, and then in the next council meeting you'll also see I'm requesting a work session to get that plan presented to council to review it as well. This is huge though. You know, I think when I, you know, I started with the department and I've read old meeting minutes, I've heard conversations, I've heard, hey, you know, there was once talks of a sports complex by the Oiler Field. There was a drawing. I saw one drawing once.

I don't know how they fit that many fields in a small space. I questioned some of those drawings. But there's been so many conversations and great ideas that I've also seen on repeat. I'm like, oh, here's an idea to do this from 2003 that came up again. So to have a full plan that the public has seen, the council has seen, I think it really supports the public process and will support me in development of our capital projects.

Like, this is what the community wants from Parks and Recreation. And it also identifies funding opportunities and also helps with funding. If you find a grant, you can be like, we have a plan for that. We want to do that to benefit our community. So this is something I think that's going to guide our department for the next 20 years, and it's going to be a really cool tool for me and awesome for the city of Kenai.

Again, it's marked as achieved because it's planned to be achieved in the next month in this fiscal year as we're closing up the budget.

Any questions on the master plan? That's kind of, I think, the most exciting one we have right here. So I loved it. I just want to say, sitting through his presentation in Parks and Recs Commission, I loved it and I learned a lot about the whole process. It was very, very informative, and I think it's going to give you some really great directions to drive.

Let's see, I know what I was formerly on the council, we allocated resources for a bridge that went from the playground on Forest that goes across over to the ball fields back behind the Boys and Girls Club, and there was supposed to be trails that go down back behind Boys and Girls Club all the way down to the beach access there. Do you know anything about that, and how's it moving forward? I know a little bit about that, that Project was identified, I believe, through some funding that was available during COVID There was a handful of projects that were identified, and that one was identified for between $80,000 and $100,000. And then— oh, did you shake your head? I was like, okay.

And myself and the current director at the time, who had a lot of experience with bridges, I think identified that that was nowhere near enough money. So through council action, that was actually changed to replace the playground Green Strip playground. Um, that land is also heavily protected. There's a lot of, uh, historical sites on it, like fish catches and old cabins and stuff. So we saw issues with developing that as well.

So that, that money was reallocated to replace the playground that's now at the Green Strip because that was identified as a possible funding source through the grant. There was multiple projects there, but that was done through, I believe, council action in like '22. Okay, thank you so very much for clarifying that. I graciously appreciate that. But I still think that it's a great, uh, project, uh, that should be, uh, continued to be looked at.

And, um, I think it would be greatly beneficial for our whole community moving forward. So that's my two cents. And that path could be moved from back behind where you're saying that there's issues with, um, sacred grounds, that perhaps it would be more advantageous for a trail that goes along the road there to make access for our community, uh, a great path opportunity down there. Thank you. All right, and then going on to, uh, goal number 2, which was not achieved.

Uh, last year I attended a lot of Kenai Community Garden, uh, club meetings, and I was trying to promote our community gardens that we have over on our green strip ground. We, we have 8 raised beds and I think over 20 on-ground plots, and we've only ever rented a handful. And we really went through a marketing spree to promote it, and we ended up only reserving one bed. I think there are several issues with that location and with even the approach I took was I think a lot of people in the Kenyan Community Garden Club have gardens in their own houses. I think our site also lacks some some accessibility, and I think it's something our master plan does address.

But it's not something we're stopping. I want to be very clear, I'm not stopping trying to promote a community garden. Um, as, uh, Council Member Grimy said, there is a national standard, and our community at its size, a community garden is a standard. So that's something we do want to keep promoting. We added flyers to the Agro Expo that happened a few weeks ago, and we rented from two people 4 beds.

So we're stopping, we're not stopping. So we're going to keep promoting and keep pushing in the community and maybe one day have better access or a new location for it.

Any questions on community gardens? Access? It's behind the green— it's on the side of the green strip. Yes, but we don't have a park, we don't have a parking lot. We don't have a pathway that goes up to it.

Carry all your stuff. And then even if you look at location, I think if you look at standards of like are we going to put a community garden in a neighborhood that has, you know, acre-sized lots where everyone could have that, or where there's more multifamily homes and duplexes and it's walking and bikeable? Thank you. Mm-hmm.

Oh, here we go. I almost skipped to number 4. Establish and support a volunteer group dedicated to help grooming and maintain the ski trails in the city of Kenosha. Uh, one of the first things the Parks and Recreation team does when it snows is we start removing snow from city buildings, and then we go out and, you know, one of our guys does a walking trail at Municipal Park. We do the pond at Dobbins Beck, and we also do the ski trails.

And another one of our laborers goes and removes snow from fire hydrants. Sometimes we fall behind, or it's incredibly windy, and then we don't have our main staff on there on the weekends to go groom the trails. There has been an ask to say if we could start a volunteer program where we could get some volunteers out there that could help and start grooming. Uh, we did an online feedback. We got 3 people who showed interest.

Other coaches called us too. I worked with the city attorney to work on a proper volunteer form to where we could have someone go out there and drive a piece of equipment to help groom the trail so they can be readily available for the communities. Our local high schools use those. I don't know if we'll have our volunteer. We shoot down the road from the oiler— oilers parking lot, and we drive around on the school fields to give the middle school one training ground.

It's a lot of work for them to, like, just go out and ski on ski trails with big hills. So we'll do a couple circles on the middle school field and the high school field so kids can just learn how to ski. And it's really fun when you're grooming And this year, when a couple staff were sick and on vacation, I got to go groom the trails. It was really fun. As I was pulling into the oiler parking lot, there was a mom skiing from somewhere with her kid in a wagon, like a ski wagon, and she was using it as an access point to skiing down the road.

So it's always fun to see the community out there. And I had one guy who chased me down and asked if they could go sledding, and I asked not to on the ski trails, but He lived right off the golf course. Councilmember Snider? Was that my husband? No, we know where to sled and not to sled.

I'm not sure if this would fall under your purview or not, but the, um, on one of the capital project lists that was up there earlier, there was $15,000 allocated for Kenai Golf Course Bridge. Does that fall under your purview? Yes, it falls under my purview. Last year, the contractor, uh, who leases the golf course was able to get some funding to replace one of the bridges, and they were able to work that out really quickly. And they may be able to do that with some match funding.

Now, that bridge benefits us and our skiers because some of the bridges out there are, uh, falling apart. They're wooden. So he worked with state funding, I believe, and got funding for it. So he he asked like, hey, if there's another opportunity, I'd love to work with the city. So that's why I put some of that money out there, so to work with our contractor, right?

I was just curious as to which bridge it was, because I was thinking, and maybe it's just my memory, I thought that bridge was just recently done, like 4 or 5 years ago. So there's the one pretty bridge that's like the big arch that we don't ski on, and then last summer they did a new bridge, like they installed one last summer. And then there's a wooden bridge that hasn't been redone since I've been around, so about 5 years, but it needs to be redone. And this—. I know there's bridges that go over 198 and 2, like that, 1982, across where that stream goes through, and I was just wondering which bridge.

I think it's one closer to 98. They did do the bridge at, um, hole 1. That's the one they did last summer. So it's just moving down the— moving down the creek. Gotcha.

Okay. I'm—. As a former skier, and I get out there, I don't golf, so I know the trails, not the, the golf course numbers perfectly. So sometimes I get a little on behind on that. But, but that was, uh, our, our contractor down— or not our contractor, the leasee down there, uh, was just looking at getting those replaced and safely, safely replaced since it is a— it's like a watershed.

Yeah, because I did notice that at least the one far down towards the swamp, which would be hole number 2, but the one way down, lots of new lumber down there. Looks like they're already getting started on replacing some of those rotten bridges, which is definitely needed because those cross bridges there are rotten, but it looks like they've gotten started. That's good. I was just—. When I saw the $15,000, I was just like, wait a minute, didn't they just do the pretty bridge?

And they just— and I don't know when they did the pretty bridge, but it hasn't been in the last 5 years. But the last year they did replace one with a metal bridge too. They took an old ConEx container and modified it to go across there. That shouldn't rot anytime soon.

All right. Goal 4 was to develop and implement 5 key procedures, policy, and task outlines for Parks and Recreation Department to improve efficiency, accountability, and consistency. These procedures include employee scheduling, covering PTO requests, scheduling, posting, and advanced tracking, an improvement action plan, department task management, a reservation policy, and a contract management procedure. This is something we're also, I think Director Romaine touched on, we're working on citywide. There's an admin working group where we're developing standards for our policies and procedures.

But I'll give you an example. We had an ICE reservation form that had 2 or 3 rules on it. That was kind of our policy and procedure. We've developed a much more comprehensive one now that says, you know, that's for me and my staff to say, "When you reserve ICE, we're going to do X, Y, and Z, and then these are also our rules and our expectations." systems along there that has, you know, has an updated on there. Christine Cunningham has led that.

I think that working group has provided us with a really good book that I think we're trying to go uniform across the city where you can have updated dates on it. And it can just kind of clean up our task and procedures and make that stuff a lot easier. For even shelter reservations, you know, we have an online form. We didn't really have a calendar when I started for me and the assistant director to share to look at way. So sometimes we were feeling a little Wild West, and I think this is focusing us in a really good direction.

And I think that's going to help with, you know, with community garden rentals, shelter reservations. If we can clean up that process, it's just going to be better and better. Well, and it's critical as we have staff turnover that we have continuity of how we do things because we have those things now documented in written. So I think That's the driving force behind why we're doing all those.

And then going into our 27 goals, we have, going back to the master plan, prioritize and execute projects outlined in this. Again, this is, this is a huge document. This is going to be involved in my narrative goals for a long time. And, and in the goal plan itself, it does, you know, bring up You need to do an audit of the plan every 5 years. It's a living document.

So again, just to really refocus on that master plan, especially since we have done sought out community input, it's gone through the public process. That's a very strong document for us to follow up on.

And then develop 5 key procedures, policy, task, and outlines. You know, I think me and the assistant director worked really hard on our 5, and we have identified another 5 we could work on. For those consistency things we want inside our department. And I think that just helps us internally. It helps anyone else who may come in if there is any turnover, and it cleans up the whole transition process and gets us away from the Wild West sometimes.

And then this goal 3 is where I mentioned earlier about working with volunteer groups. Attend 3 to 5 board meetings of frequent users of Parks and Recreation. I've already started this. I recently attended a Kenai Little League board meeting, and it generated possible volunteer hours. They want to try to coordinate 2 field days with us where we can show up and help direct some traffic and everything.

So that's something I just want to do because I have a lot of these people on my contact list. I've talked to a lot of people. Someone on the Kenai Little League board was like, it's so nice to see your face, because they always meet after hours. And it was— it's really good to connect with everyone, um, and just tell them what our goals are, what do they need. And they're like, we got a bunch of dirt donated, we just need help spreading it out and someone to direct the project.

So I would— I said, this is something I want to do regularly. I'd love to come to at least one board meeting before the season and maybe after the season and just connect with the community members. So I think that's a really strong one. I also met with our adult softball league KPHA would be another example. And any group that wanted to meet with me, they called and reached out.

It's something I would plan on attending their board meeting or their group meeting. But I think it's great to get that face-to-face time. It's easy to send an email, but I think having that relationship built out helps us a lot. And can increase volunteers. Like I said, they were like, hey, we wanna do field day, but we're kinda like, what do we need to do?

I'll give an example of working with a group that did Eric Hansen Park last year. You know, a group reached out, they wanted to fund a renovation of Eric Hanson Park. They bought a bunch of gravel. They had 20 volunteers for 4 hours. And they're like, we want to do this.

And I was like, I think we have to do less. Not to say they had to do less. But you know, those little things can take a lot of time. And so just to set them up logistically, where it's like, we're gonna get X, Y, and Z done. And they're like, okay, we'll do that.

And they were so excited. So I think even helping these groups, they're like, you know, we could paint a dugout, we could fix the field. I'm like, okay, I will create a task sheet and we can start assigning those roles for volunteers. So again, that's been super fun to start and I look forward to doing that throughout the year.

Oh, and those are my, those are my goals. Future consideration. Again, establish a structured process to regularly review, assess, and update the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. You know, in the plan itself, it calls for an audit every 5 years. So, and I think that's something that's going to come up regularly in Parks and Rec Commission meetings and then in my budget narratives.

I just want to say thank you. I said it earlier, I'm going to say it again and then we can eat lunch. But I think it's important, so I want to say it again. I think that parks— I think that a lot of the things that your department provides for our community are the things that make Kenai different and special and make people want to be here. I think it attracts young families, it keeps families as their kids are getting older, and it connects kids to their community to want to stay or come back.

I mean, and for the kid painting the goalposts, for example. That takes time and effort on your part to facilitate that and make it happen, but that's something that is going to be there, that kid's going to remember forever, other people are going to remember, they're going to be connected to their community in a way that can't be duplicated in another way. And I think that is a huge asset that we have as a community that we're fortunate to have. And I think that all of these things that you talked about really emphasize that and reiterate it and make it possible.

Sorry to hold us back from lunch even more, but just having sat on Parks and Rec Commission for a long time and talking about a lot of the things that are in your master plan or the accomplishments you had this year. I think, uh, just have nothing but kudos to say to you and the efforts that you've put in since you've been in this role. To see the things you accomplished this year that I think have been talked about for years is, is awesome. So to you and your staff, I just say thank you for that effort. Thank you for your plan that you have for this year, and excited to see what you guys do.

And then the last thing, uh, I did want to bring up too was, uh, we do have— we had a couple fee changes proposed, uh, where we added $10 to our ice reservation fee. Uh, we had a year-long locker rental policy. We had a request to change that to 6 months, so we added that in there. And we changed our shelter reservation hours. We had them available to book at 8 8:00 AM, that is when our staff shows up.

So if you did rent a shelter at 8:00 AM, we wouldn't be there to go check on it right away. So we just changed that to 9:00. And then we've struggled with high school verification at the rec center. Students don't always get IDs, and we've had people, you know, I've called someone out with a tattoo and then they showed me a student ID that was valid, threw me off. So we used to be high school students and then Now we're changing that to just 18 and younger can access the building.

I don't think we'll see any big changes or losses in theirs, but those were our changes on our fee schedule that I wanted to make you aware of.

Tyler, thank you for going the extra mile and meeting face to face with those community groups. Um, it definitely— for in the future down the road, it it will set the stage for ironing out wrinkles and just facilitating an ease of relationship of dealing—. Of those groups dealing with the city. So thank you very much. Of course.

And a big shout out to my staff, I want to say. I think they, as we were hiring for the summer, I think they've facilitated a really good environment. Uh, I think we have a— almost a record number of returners for the PU fishery and for our temporary and staff, which is a great value for the city as well. So, well, thank you very much for the very complete report, and I do appreciate the comments from council members here, and I absolutely agree with that. And I'm excited and looking forward to your master plan work session so I can learn more about what's in it.

Thank you.

So at this point, how about we take— it's, uh, got 20 or 8 15 after we take about a— how about 12:30, take a break, refresh, and we can bring food back in here too for the next presentation. Okay. Thank you.

There's everywhere you turn, and so I think if you're not able to—. Okay, we're back on the order, on the record. It's, uh, 12:30, and next we have Planning and Zoning.

Good timing. Thank you. Uh, transitioning from other duties as assigned. To, to Planning and Zoning. Thanks for everyone for being here.

This past year has been, I'll say, a year of transition for the Planning and Zoning Department. Last year I was pretty green when I got here. I had only been about 6 months on staff. Full year now under me, and I think we have a good direction that the Planning and Zoning Department's moving. A couple highlights that—.

Oh, sorry, 113. So one of our big things that we've seen this past year is starting to work with other departments and either writing, or we may also— well, now we do have one to administer grants uh, to help move some of these projects forward, knowing that our city dollars are limited, but everyone here pays taxes, and we want to take whatever we can get from the state or the federal government whenever those opportunities are available. Uh, we're also looking to pivot a little bit more, um, looking— we've historically always looked at economic development, but really, um, using that information that we got from that survey to really take it to the next level And in that stead, I'm currently on the board with KPED, so learning what a lot of things are going around the peninsula, but also how can we tailor some of that to the city of Kenai. Housing has, uh, bubbled up quickly over the past year as something that is decidedly needed here in the city, but we also want to focus on how do we, the Planning and Zoning Department, get out of our own way to ensure that we're, you know, doing all the safeguards we need to do, but also making sure that the regulations are easy to navigate for developers, for landowners. So that has brought on a lot of code changes.

I've given you guys a lot of legislation over the past year, year and a half. That probably will not slow down, so you get to see me at a lot of council meetings in the future. One big push that we did have that will tie into another department here shortly is Lands Administration has grown, so that has actually pulled, um, my colleague Brandon. Most of you know him. He has been focusing a lot more of his time in Lands as we have a lot of land leases coming up for consideration.

So for the Planning and Zoning Department, we've actually Um, he was last year half and half, half lands, half planning. He's now— we've transitioned him 75%, 25%, which still might be undercounting how much he's doing with lands. Um, that is why we did request a slight bump in the Admin 2 position from 20 hours to 24 hours to kind of fill some of that gap, because we desperately need— we had to keep up on everything else, including code enforcement, planning and zoning meetings. With all those applications, but we also know that lands is very needed. So that's why the staff request was, was asked for.

The conditional use permits, some performance measures, um, pretty status quo, not a lot of change there. I'd say our biggest change that we had over the past year is a concerted effort to develop policies and implement the policies for code enforcement. So standardizing, you know, when we get a complaint, what are all the steps. And if it's a serious emergency, that's going to be abbreviated, it's going to be very quick, could be within 72 hours. If it's not critical, could be somewhere between 7 to 14 days.

And then if it's kind of your run-of-the-mill, um, you know, someone might have trash in their yard, like they get the notice but then they have up to a month to rectify, and then we'll go check and make sure that it's going. So over the past year, we have received a significant number of violations, but we've also been able to usher that through the process and actually get a number of them cleaned up and cleared out. So having that policy, which, you know, thankful for the city manager's office, for legal, um, but working together to help us, um, hold people accountable but also get our city cleaned up when needed.

Last year, uh, we— one of the goals for the department was to look at Kenai Municipal Code, specifically Title 14, which is planning and zoning, but also where it touches other parts of code with other departments and addressing inconsistencies, or if there's ambiguity The sign code is one piece that's historically been brought up. Um, that is partially achieved. We did initiate a review of the conditional use permit process. Um, we being the Planning Zone Commission along with myself and my staff. Um, that is ongoing.

We've had some other, uh, council directives to handle, and those are navigating through. So we'll return back to the conditional use permit process. We also worked extensively with the Public Works Department due to the Harbor Commission sunset, and that did kind of take a little oxygen out of the room when it comes to making some of those updates.

We looked at conditional use permits overall. Again, I mean, it's— we did a holistic look, but we also wanted to see where it might be appropriate. To rezone where the development has been there, has been there historically, or has possibly changed maybe in the past decade. So because of that, we actually did rezone, um, a couple of properties on North Forest Drive where the greenhouse is. That has been there for quite some time, has been functioning as a commercial property, but has always had a CUP.

We were able to, um, work with the property owner. They got that rezoned and now it's, uh, an extension of the commercial corridor that goes along the spur. Now it goes up for slightly. We also looked at Readout Avenue where KPHI— the city has donated quite a bit of land there, and those larger developments were in a rural residential zone as it was historically, which required a conditional use permit. But the housing— those buildings aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and we realized that the development pattern there along that corridor was more urban residential in nature just because the number of units.

So we were able to work with not only KPHI, the city owns some land there, the borough owns some land, and Kenisey as well owns some land around Readout, and we're able to make the zoning up there more appropriate. So some was urban residential, some's now suburban residential, but when a developer looks at the map, they can, uh, it might be able to pencil out that because they now with those new zones, they can have slightly smaller lots. They don't have to have half-acre lots, and a development might, like I said, pencil out better with that allowance. Um, we did intend to work on the hazard mitigation plan. However, last— this past fiscal year at the federal level, they eliminated the grant that the state used to fund those updates.

So we still have a hazard mitigation plan. It is is technically expired, but we are looking for other types of funding that would help us get that.

We were prepared, uh, preparing staff for a comprehensive plan update. We did push that out one year, but we have gone through— so last summer we actually went through with the split zones to get rid of those and really start cleaning up, getting everything in order so that when we do kick off a new process, its, um, honest, sturdy foundation. We did want to look at an economic development framework to guide our efforts. We deferred this into 2027. Again, things just got a little, a little squirrely towards the end of the calendar year, and then with the ramp up on the Lands Administration side, this kind of got pushed a little bit.

But I think with pushing the comprehensive plan another year, this actually gives us ample time to get something put together. And to continue to progress, progress the waterfront redevelopment project by seeking grants, we also deferred that to this coming year. Again, just with the number of, number of things and with some staff turnover last, last summer, it was a little challenging, but we're back on track. This year we want to take a full review of the code enforcement program. Um, now that we've had the policy in for about a year, we've been given quarterly updates to city leadership, but, um, and we continue to tweak the process and, and, uh, make changes where needed.

But we also want to, um, document everything so that this does not get lost in the weeds in the future. Um, we want to continue to review and update that conditional use permitting process. That'll be a project for the Planning and Zoning Commission. Um, excuse me, one second. Is your code enforcement program— is that driven by complaint only?

Is that a complaint-driven code enforcement? Yes, code enforcement is complaint-driven. Complaints can be anonymous because we don't want to have, you know, if neighbor— we want neighbors to feel safe if they have a complaint that they're not going to have retaliation. So we have developed a form. They've not— they can put their name, but they're not required to.

But also gives them a way to submit photos. They can call the office directly. They can stop by. We try to make it as easy as possible, but also have, have everyone feel safe to report.

So yes, the conditional use permits process. There's gonna be a lot of work sessions coming up for planning and zoning, and it's probably gonna be a lot of food for them. But hey, We welcome their input.

We're excited to hopefully get to implement a new records retention policy and kind of get our paper and digital life, if you will, in order. Right now, Planning has to keep everything forever. That's our records retention policy. So I have a couple file cabinets I would love to see in the auction this coming year. Um, we also— we were— we acknowledge that there will always be a need for some sort of paper, but we're also trying to be as digital as we can working with people.

That helps us streamline, automate procedures, and keep things moving quickly. Um, we're going to review our public notification processes, which is going to lead to an ask that I have We want to ensure that we have the widest possible distribution to the residents of Kenai for our meetings, for any other information we're trying to push out. We're going to continue looking at Title 14, and we are going to— I will ask that the FY27 Goal 6 be stricken only because we pushed out the conference plan to next year. So That was a later decision that we have, but in the final draft budget, we'll take out Goal 6 on this one. Looking ahead into the future, I have to bust out my crystal ball.

Comprehensive Plan is 10 years old now, so it is about time for the new one. So we're kind of setting ourselves up for next year to be kind of spot on, and then we can take in all the stuff that we've learned with the Parks and Rec Master Plan, the Airport Master Plan, and make it a much more robust document.

And then we're also looking at Titles 14, which is Planning and Zoning, and 21 and 22 are city-owned lands. So it's a joint effort between those two departments, um, and then also working with other departments to ensure that we're not changing something here that then muddles up a process later on. Um, so to jump back to page 314, which is in the fee schedule, um, for the planning and zoning fees, there's, uh, only one change— or no, there are two changes that we were going to ask for. One was for the Board of Adjustment appeal filing and records preparation fee, um, and this is going to be common with Lands Administration. Uh, the fee was $100 Um, the, uh, request is to go up to $150, and that is driven largely with posting it in the newspaper.

Um, our standard legal notice just for our normal meetings went from— when I started in November or October of '24, it was about $75. Now they're $130 per meeting. So their, uh, fees have gone up, and, um, in an effort to, uh, keep up with that, we're also buying the not necessarily for the Board of Adjustments, but those get bound and prepared. But for other instances, we also have to go get the yellow signs that we put up. They kind of look like, almost like election signs.

They're about that same size. It's another way for people to know that the public process is happening because they may not read the paper. I was gonna— can I ask you a question about that? Because I mean, As we know, the Clarion— I mean, our local paper, the Clarion— subscription numbers have been way down. It's been sold.

You know, all these different things.

And just across the board, people are using print resources less and less. Is there another option to be doing this that would, one, be more cost-effective, two, reach more people? We are actively researching that. Um, I just want to ensure whatever we do, because of the quasi-judicial nature of the Planning and Zoning Commission, I want to make sure that anything we do to replace it meets all the requirements for any state statute that we have. Um, so that's going to be part of our review.

If we were to find a reasonable alternative that, you know, passes legal muster, everything looks good, um, we would then probably come back to Council and to reduce these fees back. But right now we're not prepared to make that transition. Okay, because I, I do just, I mean, I want, I guess, to put out there that increasing an appeal fee might reduce accessibility of appeals to people. And I mean, and it's increasing by 50%, which is dramatic. So I just want to put out there that the appeal process should be accessible.

And if it's cost prohibitive, it is no longer accessible.

I would definitely, definitely agree. This is—. And on this one in particular, I honestly could go either way. I was just—. The big thing was to highlight that the cost to the city has grown substantially.

I mean, it has nearly doubled in just over a year and a half, so So, um, kind of balancing that, but ultimately I'll defer to council's discretion on this, on the— especially on this particular fee. And then we did want to remove the maps and copies. We provide everything digitally. Most of the other stuff that is given to some of our people, they— it's already wrapped into their application process, so we didn't want to double, double charge them.

The only thing I wanted to add for council on planning and zoning is, um, this is something I tussled with, um, worked with Kevin, worked with Stephanie in HR, actually developed a job description, um, got pretty far along in pricing a new position. I really think I really think I could have justified a request for an expansion in planning and zoning to bring in an economic development director for the city, um, position. Um, I backed off and I didn't bring that, but I think that's something we should really— council should be thinking about potentially considering for the future. I think you see a number of projects on Kevin's list there that got deferred or pushed because there's so much other activity going on, or things come up that, that we'd never really envisioned, like, you know, gas storage in the city and leasing a port space. And, you know, there's been significant amount of, uh, proposed development.

We're working, you know, with developers right now on some big projects and trying to coordinate those and help facilitate them and bring them to fruition. And I'm just afraid we're potentially missing out. But I also want to be very measured in what we do. I don't want to, you know, go too far too fast. So something Kevin and I talked about a lot and something I just want to put on council's radar, put in the back of your mind, think about it.

I do think it's a direction the city could potentially go in the future and, and could pay dividends.

I'd like to say thank you for thinking and heading forward thought process in regards to that economic development, uh, position process. And is that something that we could bring on temporarily? Because I know that we do have that opportunity for a temp, and if it works its way feasibly that it is advantageous and profitable to the city that we could transfer that over to a permanent situation. Yeah, thank you for that question. I think it's a good one.

I think in the case of like an economic development director, it's— that's a difficult one I see to be temporary because I see that as a position that's, you know, realistically takes a person you know, 1, 2 years to spin up into and really learn the city, learn our economy, learn what's working, learn all those growth things. So I don't know how conducive it would be to temporary, but I think that's— those are all the steps we always go through when we look at new positions, or, you know, how else can we do this besides bringing personnel on? Frankly, personnel are one of our business one of our biggest expenses. So, you know, are there consulting services out there that are available? Are, you know, temporaries available?

All of these things, but that one might be a little bit difficult to do as a temporary. And that's also part of the consideration is that, you know, are we creating a one-off position for PERS that requires us to keep it around forever because of their rules? And, you know, those are big hurdles for us to get over before we finally bite off that piece of the apple. But I think it— we put a lot of time and effort into the conversation because I think it has merit. And it could be something you're hearing again in the next couple of years.

Sorry to switch gears a little bit, but back to the little yellow signs, it just reminded me of a question I've had. Is there a GIS layer or something that we have publicly available for folks to go see where those little yellow signs might be, um, short of having to like slam on the brakes on the Kenai Spur to look at a little yellow sign. And, and I was just curious if that's either something that exists currently or planned for maybe this year to help with visibility. Yes, we did have one. However, due to some changes on the backend software, uh, our GIS went to more of a browser-based.

Some of the older maps, our utilities map actually went down, we had to recreate it, which that is back up. But the conditional one is one of the ones that needs to be rebuilt due to older technology, but it will be back online. Thank you.

A suggestion, if, uh, that question also, the strategic plan that we might be funding It probably ought to be included in your departmental goals if we do, just kind of footnote, because that'll be— that'll fall upon you. But I thought maybe it would be a good time, uh, just briefly anyway, to talk about— we're not going to do the comprehensive plan. The strategic plan is different. If you're comfortable about discussing, you know, the differences and how they would be implemented— I mean, the plan would be created That could be a city manager question if you want to defer. Yeah, actually the strategic plan won't be under the Planning and Zoning Department.

Um, the strategic plan will be under my office. It, um, and a strategic plan is really looking and focusing more on the operational side and operational priorities for the city. Um, your comprehensive plan is more focused on long-term growth and land use and, and the planning side of life, where, um, again, the, the strategic plan looks at operations, and it could encompass, you know, public safety, could encompass the airport. I mean, all the different operational priorities. So it won't be— I mean, planning will be a big component, like every single city department will be a component of that strategic plan, but it won't be the focus of of planning necessarily.

It's more of a conversation with, frankly, Council and the administration and the community about what are the community's priorities, priority projects for us operational that we should be working on, um, for the next 1, 3, 5 years. Um, so pretty, pretty condensed, or, you know, narrow timeline, not out 10, 20, 30 years like a lot of these comprehensive plans, but very short, you know, short-term, narrow-focused, what we should be doing immediately, um, what the community priorities are. So that will be managed through the city manager's office and, and won't, um, be under the planning purview. Okay, thank you, thank you for that clarification, because I, I heard what you said earlier, but it just sounds like it's something that would be under your hat over here, planning. But the other question, just for clarification on the, uh, the planning has been growing, but the, uh, but the salaries and benefits and steps dropped about— it's expected to come down 16%.

And I'm not— I was wondering what the— if you'd give a clarification on that. Yes, um, thank you. I should mention that a little more in detail. Uh, part of that is, as our finance director said, some of that is driven just by the overall costs, especially with healthcare. But a lot of that is just a transfer from 419, which is Planning, to Lands.

Um, our Admin 3 was 50/50 split evenly between the two departments last year, and now we're asking for 75 under Lands. So it's not a— it's a decrease from Planning and Zoning, but it's an increase in Lands Administration. So in the general fund itself, it's pretty much a wash on the— so it's not really a decrease in the general fund overall, just from my balance sheet and, um, planning over to the Lands Administration. Reallocation. Okay, very good.

And I presume that the airport has a percentage of that too, since they have lands and you'd be working with the airport? Correct. We didn't, uh, we didn't change the airport. So under the airport, um, the planning director is the only one. We didn't change that allocation.

Um, that still is at 30%. Um, and my personal, uh, for the planning director, that's— that one is staying the same. The only thing that's changing is, um, the admin 3 position between 419 and 416.

And we're gonna skip ahead a little bit here.

Being that land administration is under Kevin, we're going to take that away from the city manager. We did—. We didn't do that here on this. Good idea. So we're going to go ahead and skip to page 105 to cover land administration, and we'll— since we got Kevin up here, we'll go ahead and just keep him in the hot seat here for a little bit longer.

It's all the pressure. No, um, so, uh, thank you, uh, Director Swarner. So Land Administration is probably our biggest growth area, um, in terms of staff time, staff resources, uh, brain power for sure, for sure. Um, this is a better reflection of of where our administrative assistant 3 position is spending a lot of their time. It's probably not 100% accurate because over the past, possibly 6 months, it has really just went into overdrive.

So again, we're just trying to show the city where the effort is being taken place. I will say the underperformance measures, um, 2025 is our new baseline. We have scrubbed, re-scrubbed, and then scrubbed again the lease database. To make sure that everything we're doing, um, you know, measures up. So you'll see that there are some numbers and, um, some changes with the number of existing leases, land sales, acquisitions, that sort of thing.

So the— for the first one, these are just general fund leases, and then on the next table, which is page 106, has airport fund leases. And again, all these numbers as of 2025, those numbers are solid. And so moving forward, that's our new base baseline. Um, that way, because both myself and my colleague Brandon have triple-checked all of these numbers, and we're— we are very comfortable with those. And that way we don't have to speak for previous planning directors or anyone else.

Our goals were to create an interactive GIS map and a printed companion map so we'd have something static for all city-owned properties. We do have it mapped. It is not published yet, but we're— this really came up when we're looking for subsurface mineral rights and various things like that to see what do we have with the FAA. Well, is there any other land that needs to be released, or we want to request to be released? So we're expecting a final draft later this spring.

Like I said, it's about 98% the way there. We're just trying to make it coherent on the other, you know, on the public-facing side. Um, we wanted to recreate the airport reserve lease app, which was basically just a GIS map of available lease parcels. We deferred this one mainly because the final airport layout plan from the consultant is yet to be delivered. That's a project that's happening, it's going to go over the summer.

I believe they're wrapping up in the fall, so our map that will accompany that will be right after that. So I'm going to defer that one to this year, this current— or this upcoming year. We wanted to update a comprehensive GIS map of all city lands, but also resources, so utilities, various things like that. Um, again, that is achieved. We kind of had to fast-track that one because it went down unexpectedly on a— I believe on a Thursday night, and by Friday afternoon Brandon had another one up, so shout out to him.

Uh, we wanted to review and update the Comprehensive Plan, Official Zoning Map to ensure the compatibility and consistency. Um, we are doing a number, or we have done a number of rezoning efforts in 2025, and there's at least a couple more in 2026 that are kind of better aligning both the land use plan and what we're seeing development-wise over the past decade.

We wanted to consider incentives for infill and redevelopment of vacant properties. So these are not going to be your large subdivisions, but sometimes there's a lot where there was a house that got torn down. We want to incentivize, uh, are looking where, where there are ways to possibly incentivize, or at least bring attention to, hey, there may be some available land here, even if it's privately held. When developers call, we would have some sort of knowledge of it. We did not get to that.

We've been tracking, you know, kind of a track, a parcel here, a parcel there, but we don't have a comprehensive list yet. But that is a goal for this upcoming year.

We want to strategize actions for undeveloped subdivisions, looking at some. One got built last year. We have 7 new homes off of 4th at Koa Circle. It was subdivided in the '80s. Got built in 2020, so, you know, 40 years, uh, lead time, but it got done.

Uh, we want to make sure that there's other places in town where that could happen, you know, are there ways to bring that to the forefront?

Uh, we do want to market the available— availability of parcels for lease and then communicate those development incentives that the city does have on city-owned land, which may include an option to purchase. We wanted to update the city lease lands brochure. We need some new drone aerial imagery for the updated brochure because some of the lands changed a little bit, especially with some of the trees out. But we do have— we've identified every city-owned parcel. We're just needing to update the actual document itself, which means I have to go fly a drone, which I think might be a hardship, but it will definitely I anticipate it getting done hopefully by the end of this fiscal year.

May take the end of summer, but it's going to get done. Um, and looking at software subscription to manage leases and implement solution to, uh, streamline city's process for lease management, um, it hasn't been fully achieved. We have rebuilt the lease database, um, it's been reconfigured and completely updated. Uh, once we have that, then it's just a matter of putting it into software that will make it easier to administer, which we already have. It's just a matter of making the two talk to each other.

Our department goals for '27 is to complete and implement a brand new lease database that will have all kinds of hyperlinks with fully digitized lease files. We want to be able to— when someone calls, we want to be able to get them the information as soon as possible. We don't want to have to go track down a folder somewhere, rifle through 300 pages to find the one thing that they're asking for. We want to make sure it's easy and readable PDFs so we can search them and get questions answered much more quickly. We do want to create the interactive map for available lands within City of Kenai.

Like I said, we're about 98% of the way there, but got to function check everything on the backend. And then look and review and suggest updates to Title 21 and 22, which deal with city-owned lands inside and outside of the airport. Reserve and general fund. So ambitious, if nothing else. And, uh, we just want to make sure that our land management plan, which was done I believe 2018-2019, is up to date.

We have had a number of sales over time, so we just want to make sure that everything's up to date and then make it easier to navigate. It's— the one we have is good, but we think we can make it great, so we're just trying to take it to the next level. I'm available for any questions.

Just kidding, sorry.

Back to page 311, back in the fee schedule. I'm sorry, make you flip all the way back.

Um, again, uh, like we— there was a prelude to this with planning, um, the land lease application fee and the amendments. All these require this public noticing, and we again right now are compelled to put it into the newspaper of general circulation. So that's why a lot of these increases went from $100 to $150. I know it's a steep jump. On these, I feel it's—.

I've—. This is more of a personal feeling, but if someone is coming to the city with a proposal for development in the city, um, generally those proposals for that is they're going to be in the several hundred thousand to possibly million dollar plus range. So jumping from $100,000 to $150,000, that's, you know, pennies, um, to them, just pocket change, um, for the— on the scale of that project. So we feel more comfortable with these. Again, if we find a way to get public noticing that's— that we think is effective for everyone, and it may require some code changes, those fees could possibly go back down.

But right now, this would help us recoup our costs for publishing in the newspaper. We've also eliminated the tideland filing fee and lease filing fee. They've been baked into the fees above. They were separate. We brought them over from Title 11, where they were when we sunset the Harbor Commission, and then we realized that we could just get rid of the word "land" out of the lease, and then all of them kind of fit better.

So just making it more simple. And then we do have a recording fee. We do utilize a service that They'll come, they'll grab all the documents, get them recorded with the state, and bring it back. And just documenting those so that it's easy to show everyone when we do say, "Here's your recording cost," where we're pointing to. So we just want to make sure that was documented here in the fee schedule.

So it's not a new fee, it's just abundantly clear where it is and what statutes drive it, or what— sorry, what code drives it.

Thank you for the report. Back to the drone thing, and I know you've been— you flew it a lot last summer, and I appreciate that. And I appreciate you going out last October during that 30-knot wind during a 25-foot tide and flying along our new bluff project, which took some pilotage and some risk, but you did it. And I think that was very good data. And I was curious, and I realize it's a side note, but have you flown it again since all the ice has receded from the rock and all of that?

Yes, we— I will say during October, I was like, if I crash this drone, Terry's going to fire me, so I better not crash it. We did fly it in was it January when it was like 20 below, we pretty much threw it over the bluff and said, here, look at it. Just when there was ice, we did fly it again the beginning of April. I believe it was April 3rd, which is actually where we realized that we were having that issue along the road right there on the bluff, which unfortunately within the next week then went. We did fly a couple of normal our— what we used to do last year where we'd start at Pack Star and make a loop down the river taking pictures and then video.

And that started when the sea ice had broken up, but the river ice had not. I have not flown in the past couple weeks just due to weather and winds, but our plan is as the sun comes back to continually fly it. And part of that is monitoring for the grant, but also just So we have the information and watching how the bluff, now that the toe is stabilized, we've seen some additional sloughage around and just keeping track of that. I appreciate that. And I did walk around down there, part of it anyway, this spring.

And it— we know that the bluff is receding a couple of feet or a foot a year, whatever it is, or 3. And— but it always went— kind of went away. It's not just going away. It's behind that rock wall and it's surprising how much material is building up in various places. So it's good to document the whole system.

Thank you.

Invite Paul Aviation, so I just had to.

Yeah, so, um, next on the agenda is legal, and, uh, Mr. Bloom's unable to be with us today, so I'm doing my best impression, but I have no comments, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Well, in all seriousness, there's virtually no change when you look at his budget. But I know he would be more than happy to discuss or answer any specific questions if you want to email him. All right. Police dispatch and animal control.

Page 122. And a lot of these budget meetings, this is the one I'm most excited about today.

You said that, not me. I'm just excited about the meeting. Uh, so for page 122, the police, you know, our goal is for people to live safely and without fear. That's the mission statement. And I was excited to see the survey results this year for the city, the 88% of— over 88% were very satisfied with the public safety services in the city.

So, so when we get into the other goals and stuff, they're important, but, but that's more important to me really, that, that the people here feel safe and in the community. So, uh, if we go to the next page, page 123, there's not really anything changing about staffing except the thing that Terry brought up earlier. You know, a lot of agencies across the state struggle with staffing. We've been pretty lucky at Kenai PD for a number of years. We've had a relatively normal rate of attrition.

But when agencies really struggle is when the retirements mix in to the normal attrition. And that's gonna come in FY27, not just my retirement, but there'll be a couple others likely in 2027. So that with normal attrition could really set us back a couple, 2 or 3 years by the time you catch up in hiring. So what we talked about with Stephanie and Terry was adding the ability to pre-hire a little bit to maybe meet these academy deadlines ahead of time. So he did add a half a position into the budget so we can kind of strategically try to hire somebody in advance and maybe use up that time to get people on board to help with that so we're not super short-staffed.

So that's the only change in the staffing there, other than certification pay we looked at. He also explained that earlier, that basically it really comes in line with what most police agencies are doing, keeping us a little bit more competitive in that most certifications pay are tied to the pay of the officer rather than tied to some specific pay numbers. So those were the two changes related to staffing. If you go down to performance measures, I'm not going to walk through all those. They're pretty, pretty, uh, pretty consistent with prior years.

I will say this year we saw this, this bottoming out, I think, of our call volume in 2024. We had a couple years, or 2025 calendar year, uh, of 8 or 10% drop. This last year we're seeing about a 10% rise. So hopefully that levels off and isn't spiking back up. But But I think we saw the bottom of that here last year.

So if you look at our call volume, it's trending back upward a little bit. Down at the goal evaluation below, I would— I'll talk a moment about accreditation. We're one of the very few police agencies in the state that is accredited. We were accredited in 2022 by the Northwest Accreditation Alliance, and we became reaccredited in 2025. So that'll last till 2027.

'28. They're 3-year accreditation things. I think there's 4 agencies in the state, and I recently saw a survey among police chiefs, and there's a lot more interested in it that haven't gotten there. And I'll give a lot of credit to Lieutenant Lang. He's been our accreditation manager.

So I think it's one of the things that sets us apart, shows that we're operating within best practices in the industry, and I think we've done a good job of keeping that current.

Last year we added a 14-hour administrative assistant, so that was our other goal evaluation there. The state changed how they accept evidence at the Department of Law, and it became very burdensome in that office, our evidence office, to get stuff to them. So we added this position, and it's been phenomenal help to our evidence custodian, so I really appreciate that we were able to do that. And in that year, Department of Law has changed again what software they, they'll accept their evidence in. So, so it's been great help to our evidence custodian to have this position to help navigate that.

And we did have turnover in that position, but we have another good person filling that now. Excuse me, does the state provide any type of grant assistance to update our software when they— it seems from my point of view frivolously change their software, and we have to frivolously change ours to meet theirs so that we are in compliance with evidence. Yeah, so, so, so it's fairly complicated in that what's happened over the last, uh, I won't be too long on this, over many years is all these police agencies have got all these body cameras and all these car cameras and all this digital stuff, and we all want to give it to the district attorney's office, all in our format. And so they're getting it in 50 different formats and they can't handle it either. So they're going to a, you have to give it to us in our format, basically.

So there's a good argument on their side too, that they need to not get it in 50 different ways, discs from some people, hard drives from some people, and anyway. That's the gist of the rub, so no, we're not getting money from the state to comply with their, their needs in that particular topic. The other goal evaluation there is we wanted to focus on shoplifting and property crime, so we did a good operation with Home Depot this last year. They brought down their security people. We had other agencies there.

We spent the day there focusing on retail theft, and I'm hoping we can continue that with retailers here this coming year. As far as future goals, our drone program, I think the city now, we have 3 drones. The, the, there's the one for the bluff erosion project, so the city has 4 drones that I know of. We have some indoor drones. We've used ours effectively for finding lost persons in the woods.

We've used them for helping evaluate dangerous situations before officers went into them. So, so far we've had pretty good success. Not, not a ton to report, but it doesn't take very many successes to make them worth the cost. So I'm pretty excited about the future of that. I think technology will continue to make that better.

The next goal is really our percentage of available time. This is kind of the crux of law enforcement, is you got to keep pushing back against all the extra stuff and stay on the core mission of being out there protecting the community. So we try to strive keep our time out there on patrol and protecting businesses and the community as high as we can.

The other goal is to prepare for the upcoming transition in department leadership. You know, the 3 people that can retire this year have about 75 years of experience in police work, all at the Kenai Police Department. So, so it'll be a transition, and I think we've worked hard the last year to prepare, and, and we'll continue to do that in the coming months to ensure there's a smooth transition.

Future considerations, just adapting to changes in technology. I'll just bring this up because it kind of goes along with what we talked about. The Department of Law accepts it in Evidence.com. We have 3 different softwares. We have something that we put all our digital photos in, we have a car camera, and then we have a body camera that all go into separate softwares.

And we've used online services our servers for that and saved a lot of money over cloud-based services. However, all of those vendors don't want to do that anymore. You know, they all want to push you to the cloud. So this is going to get expensive in the future, a lot more than it is now, and we probably need to go to what the Department of Law is using. Otherwise, we have to download it all to our server and then re-upload it to the Department of Law, which takes a lot of time with big videos.

So I think that's something we'll be seriously looking at in this coming year and maybe back next year to discuss what that looks like to consolidate it all to the same software solution. I was just gonna mention that the increase in liability too, when you're talking about all this criminal justice information which is covered under CJIS, and which cloud operators you're working with and how they're storing your information how you're getting it there, how you're getting it back, creates a— can create a significant place for liability when you're talking about release of protected information. And I would, just as a side note, would say since DPS moved back to Axion, I don't think that they're going to move to a secondary. I'm just— I'm fighting the same battle professionally, so I understand, and I have been reassured that this system is designed specifically to be compatible with the increased amount of data that is created by law enforcement agencies based on, you know, it— you're not getting photos anymore, it's all digital video, phone calls and interactions. It's not recordings and pictures, but I've been promised that they're gonna stay.

They signed like a 3-year contract, so at least at least it's 3 years. I agree with all that. I firmly believe they've probably moved to the best solution and they're probably not going to move away from it. Both the AST, the department, and the Department of Law have switched to the same software solution. And if we're in the same one, then we can send links instead of the entire video, and then they can just get the video that way.

So, yeah. And then future considerations, the public safety building. We talked about that multiple times, so I won't rehash that. Really, in line— in the budget line items on page 125, nothing really changed. There was a small project on the list for some furniture, and another item, a small project, the negative $7,000 item on software was a small project from last year that we finished.

So nothing really changed of any significance in that. So That's all I have for the police. If you guys have any questions about the police?

I know Stephanie's timing me, so I don't want to go over. Well, most everybody else has, but it's all good stuff, so it's fine. Quick question, maybe. I'm going to go back to the drones again, which kind of intrigues me. It's something new for here.

I was wondering, can you fly those at night? And can you see heat from an individual? Can you utilize it? 'Cause thinking about your person in the woods, it's dark over half, about half the time. So yes, we are in a, Kevin can probably speak to drone stuff better than I can.

We have 3 drone pilots at the police department, and we're trying to get a couple more, and we're trying to get the fire department to get a few, so there's always a drone pilot. They can fly them at night. We are an exclusion zone because of the airport, most of the city, so they have some special exceptions and for emergencies, and they have to coordinate to fly it. But yes, we can fly it at night. Two of the drones, the big one and, uh, for the Buck-Rosin and the other one, have heat-seeking technology.

So that's how they found the person in the woods, is the heat. Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I just want to throw in there too because I have to. Um, you know, when I look at a drone program, uh, It really is, it really is a tool to help our police department be more effective. But I think the biggest benefit that I see, it's near and dear to me, is the officer safety and personnel safety that comes with the use of drone technology now, where we're able now to, you know, insert a drone into a building rather than having to send an officer in there to see see if somebody is hiding out or has a gun. I mean, we are able to, you know, use technology where we are not putting officers in harm.

And, you know, I don't think we are far off from the day when you get pulled over on the side of the road that, you know, a drone pops out of the roof of the police car and just watches the whole situation. I mean, it is— they are coming— that is coming that fast. But officer safety is absolutely critical, and I think it I think if nothing else, it warrants our investment in the drone technology that we're doing. And I think Chief and the department have done a good job of a measured approach as we've moved into drones. But I'm super happy that they're working to put those in place.

Page 133, we'll talk about the dispatch.

You know, the time to put you on the spot is kind of limited here, Dave, so I'm going to jump in and, um, and take my opportunity since it's here. This doesn't count as part of my time. I was just kind of curious, you talked about the reaccreditation, um, and but you also talked about having some, some senior staff, um, hitting the end of their terms. What, what will that look like for the city, um, in the future come 2028? Is this something you expect to continue, or is there any kind of succession planning for that to continue?

Well, if you're specifically talking about the accreditation, I think the timing is going to be good, because we're accredited for 3 years before it has to come up again. So the next chief and the next administration will have time to get on board to figure that out. But we've already been walking through that, So I think there will be a good transition of that information, a good transition. What keeps it going is the policies and the annual reports and the reporting on use of force and the reporting on complaints and the things we're doing regularly that are all part of processes over there now. So I don't see any issue with continuing to be accredited in the future, unless there's something that changes that I'm not aware of.

Page 133, dispatch. Uh, so our dispatch center, uh, the mission is to protect the lives and property of citizens of Kenai and its visitors through prompt, courteous, and efficient call processing and dispatching of emergency services. Our dispatch center just dispatches for Kenai Fire and Kenai Police. They do a good job for the staffing they have. There's no new staffing anticipated for them right now.

We had 2 recent vacancies, so there's 1 dispatcher in training and there's 1 we're still trying to hire for, which is a lot for there. That's, that's 25% of the staff, so we're working through that right now. Uh, switch too many pages there.

If we go to page 134, you know, their performance measures are really based on the police and fire. You know, that's the calls they handle is the police calls, the medical calls, the fire calls. Police calls are trending back up, so there's not too much to report in regards to the rest of those numbers. The goal evaluation.

So there's 3 dispatch positions in there, and as time goes on, you know, there's technical issues. We're really trying to make sure all 3 are interchangeable completely. So we're trying to get a— we only have 2 EMD licenses. That's emergency medical dispatching. So if you're having a heart attack or somebody is and the dispatcher is giving you instructions, they're doing it with the emergency medical dispatching.

The computer's telling them what to say and how to answer your questions. Of what to ask.

That we have a floating license that bounces back and forth anyway, so this was a goal to update that, trying to get that position 100% the same. Then if the radio breaks in the other position, we still have two fully functional stations. So still working through that. We want to get away from the floating license to three full licenses. Again, probably a little down in the weeds.

So probably this was the huge one for dispatch this year. The state switched from APSIN, which probably doesn't mean much to you guys. It's their primary software system for criminal justice information. And all of our dispatchers use it every day, all the time, as fast as they can to get information out to officers. And the state completely changed it this year, came up with new software.

It has different features, different problems, different benefits. They did change it. I mean, I wasn't part of that project, but it is impacted my professional work as well. But in fairness to the state with that one, the APSIN, the Alaska Public Safety Information Network, was still DOS-based. So I mean, they were entering command prompts to get information, and it has literally moved it, I mean, I would say at least into the 1990s now.

So it was a huge change, but there hasn't been, that I have, we have experienced dramatic like fallouts, probably. Yeah, I think in the long term it'll be better. I think you just take old experienced dispatchers on the old system. We got this transition time that, that has been a little— was a little painful. I think we're actually working through it.

I, I was mostly speaking how big of a project it was with our dispatch supervisor and them to figure it out, to get trained, and to immediately do it. You know, officers still want their answers just like that, and dispatchers are slowed down trying to figure out a new system. And there wasn't much state support for that, in fairness. Yeah. So this was big, and that goal's been accomplished.

We've gotten there, and I think in the long term, obviously, yeah, getting away from the old system was what needed to happen. So the other thing we've worked on with dispatch is evaluating whether they could join Northwest Accreditation Alliance with us. They do accredit communication centers. There aren't any accredited in the state of Alaska, it's not as common as police. But we did learn that they could.

We had talked to the Northwest Accreditation Alliance about it, and we've also talked to another agency where we got their policy manual. So we want to move in that direction, but probably over the next 2 years, and maybe they could become accredited at the same time the police reaccredit. There's a fair amount of work to do. Their policy manual would need to be significantly updated, just, just like the police was.

You know, in future considerations, I guess I'll just kind of speak to the, to the second one there. Is that dispatch center is very small, it's dated, the furniture is getting very old, it's hard to get parts for the furniture that raises up and down, the floor is a, is kind of a disaster, needs to be replaced. We're kind of in a holding pattern to see what what happens here, because all that stuff will be a very expensive transition, to see what happens with potential new public safety building. But whatever we decide, yeah, it's only so long that some of that stuff's going to hold up, and it's expensive to replace. But I think for now, it's worth holding out a little bit to see what is decided with the public safety building.

Chief, before you move on from that, last I don't remember what it was now. A couple months have passed, but I went over. The police department had all officers in for some training and also had your dispatchers there too. And so I went over and met with them that night, just talked for 15 minutes, any issues they were having in the department. You know, we were starting budget.

One of your dispatchers made it abundantly clear to me, and rightfully so, talking about the staffing in the dispatch center. And I think it's worth— would you just take a minute, talk about what, what that dispatcher communicated? Because I, I do think it's really valid. I know it's on the forefront of your mind too, and command's mind over there, but I think it— we owe it to them to express those concerns and things too. You know, one of the, one of the weaknesses of our dispatch center is is it's not always staffed by at least 2 dispatchers.

And only having 1 in there is problematic. You know, if there's something bad that happens, it's slowed down because there's only 1. And that is a frustration for dispatchers, always has been, as long as I've been there for 25 years, that them working alone can be challenging. You know, if something bad happens, they can call somebody in, and we end up with another one there in, you know, maybe 10 minutes. But 10 minutes is a lot in an emergency.

So it would be nice, you know, to be to a 2-person all the time staffing, but that takes significant resources. It's not just adding a person. It's probably not just adding 2 people, because, you know, they go on leave, and then all of a sudden you're back to the same boat. So it's a significant investment. But best case scenario is dispatch center doesn't operate with 1 person.

You know, that's not best case scenario. You take emergency medical dispatching and they have to walk through this questionnaire with somebody that's giving CPR or somebody that's choking or whatever, and they have other calls ringing, you know. It is, if they ring too long, they're answered, it's all about the dispatch. So people aren't getting their 911 call not answered. But best case scenario, someday we would have 2 in there at all the times is I think the gist of it.

Well, and you have to keep in mind that, you know, 30 years ago they would get one 911 call. Like one person would call in about an event. Now I bet there are very few events besides something maybe that happens personally inside your house that dispatch isn't getting 10, 15, 20 calls. If there's a car wreck, if there's a fire, if— I mean, they're getting dozens of calls that that that's one dispatcher sometimes is having to deal with while dispatching crews, you know, helping with, you know, frankly, with officer safety. They're the officer's lifeline in a lot of cases.

So it's a valid point, and I just wanted to make sure you got to hear it and know that I want those dispatchers to know that we hear and communicate their concerns. So, Chief, I feel like that that is an exceptionally high priority for our whole community because any one of our citizens or any one of our guests who were the second one in line having a major event and it caused a tragedy in their life, I think that the cost that it would involve to add the necessary dispatching, um, is actually priceless. And, uh, and would it be from your point of view, um, so that there would be 2 dispatchers there at all times, bringing in the thought process of, uh, of time away, adding 2 new positions in that space and just spitballing it, what do you suppose that that cost would be for that?

So in advance of this, we didn't spend much time analyzing what structure that would look like. Uh, when we debated taking on Soldotna Police Department several years ago, we did a bunch of work on that because I said if we took on Soldotna Police to dispatch for them, we would have to have 2 on all the time. We can't add more work to them. And then when that didn't happen, so I'm trying to think back to what we said for staffing. I think it was adding 2 people, but it might have been more than 2 people, and I'm not sure.

Dave could probably tell you what each dispatcher costs. I'm not sure what that is, but it was probably 2 people or a little bit more than 2 people.

You know, I agree with your concerns. You should also know that, you know, there's a period of time during the night there's almost no calls. You know, there's a period that, you know, when we staff 2 dispatchers during a certain time, they could have no calls. So some sort of balance there has been reached over the years, and we don't have 2 all the time. But that's not a great scenario when the emergency comes in.

Could—. And maybe this is something you've already explored. I mean, like, I don't want to say creatively staffing, but, you know, you don't know when an emergency is going to happen. You don't know if it's 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon, or if it's a Saturday night or a Tuesday night. But if you've got 2 dispatchers staffed 20— running 24-hour shifts, um, is there other duties that they could help with, like the evidence transfer, or you know, filing, clerk-type things maybe that you're hiring additional admin staff to do that maybe dispatchers, when they don't have calls and they don't have dispatcher work that they have to be focused on, that they could help pick up slack for.

I mean, just as a way to negate the expense.

So I would say, you know, that's how we've operated for years. You know, most Most agencies, AST probably has 5 or 6 admin over there at their building. We have 1 and a 14-hour one. So we've managed to shift as much admin work as we can to dispatch. It's really hard to shift more because, one, they have a high turnover rate.

Two, they do shift work and they rotate what they're on. So if you need stuff done during the week, then all of a sudden they switch to weekend nights, you know, and they're not helpful, so you gotta try to train somebody else. So, so we do that as much as we can. It's just hard to do it perfectly, you know.

Anything else on dispatch? No, no, no. I told Stephanie I would stay under 20 minutes and you guys have already—.

Your last time. You won't be here. Got to make it count. Yeah. Page 138, let's talk about animal control.

Uh, so I won't read the first page, but the animal control— does animal control services for the city of Kenai. You know, they go out and find stray animals and respond to bites and stuff. For the city of Soldotna, under contract, they provide shelter services. So they provide shelter services for Kenai and Soldotna. When we have capacity, we also provide shelter services for borough residents, but we don't do any animal control services outside the city of Kenai.

We don't go respond to bites or anything outside the city.

If you go to page 139 and talk about performance measures, but the real issue we've had at animal control that kind of drove these performance measures, some of them down, is staffing the last couple years. We had a two-thirds turnover this last year. We had two-thirds being two out of the three people that work there. For a long period, we had one staff member working there. So I think survival was the mode there for a while rather than building on these performance measures and conducting outreaches and stuff.

They did a phenomenal job. The one staff member we had there for a couple months did a phenomenal job. When she went on vacation, the police covered for a little bit. We did— we survived it well, I think. And now we have our staff of 3 back.

They're doing a good job. At the same time, 2 of them have less than a year here. One of them has about about 2 years here, so there's a learning curve going on. The animal control chief had experience out of state, so he's, he's got a little more experience in animal control. But we're excited to see them shift into some new gears and, and work toward the goals for this next year, which are kind of revisiting last year's that we didn't get to, which is community outreach, some of these events that help people know they can come get animals at the shelter and that to get them spayed and neutered and all the things that animal control wants you to do to not have more unwanted animals out there.

Uh, what else did I have on animal control? They are also working on, uh, the— this policy, policy shift for the city to get all their policies in. They've been doing that this year. Uh, in future considerations, they, uh really want to look at the municipal code in that section and, and probably make some updates to that. In fact, I think you'll see one coming in the next few months with working with Kevin and planning on some changes where kennel licensing overlaps with conditional use permits.

So they're working together to maybe streamline that part of code. You know, the only other thing I would say about animal control that we've seen is like a year and a half ago, a year ago, that place was bursting at the seams with animals. Every kennel was full and they were finding places to put new kennels. And, and we came up with some policies and procedures to, to only accept animals when we had capacity and to slow that down and to only accept burro animals when we had enough space for them. And I think that was part of the solution because today we can't even keep cats in the shelter, and we're probably about half full of dogs.

And I think part of it's a community transition of people wanting to adopt more animals, because it was amazing transition in one year's time from being way over capacity to, to being really something our staff can handle and the facility can handle well. So we're excited to see that for our staff. There— it's pretty stressful when this— when the place is over capacity and you have to try to work out which animals which ones can come and which don't for them. So that's really all I have on animal control. You guys have questions about animal control?

Nothing. All right. Well, thank you all. It's been fun. Thank you, Chief.

I just wanted to say, Chief, thank you for your final reports on budget. And I know how difficult it is for an organization to handle transitioning from especially long-time employees to new employees or newer employees in a role. And so I really appreciate your, your plans for transitioning employees into this role and what kind of success you're setting them up for in this budget. So thanks for everything, and look forward to not having to have you here next year.

Thanks, I guess.

Okay, next we have fire, but since Chief Ross went over so much, can you do your 20 minutes in 2? I would love to. Okay, well, we'll give you the whole 20 minutes, whatever you take. How's that?

All right, we're going to be on page 127. That's the, uh, introduction page there for the fire budget. Um, looking at the organization chart and staffing, uh, no changes from the staffing model we adopted last year with the 3 more firefighter positions. Um, just talking on that note, the one big change, uh, personnel-wise in the budget would be the bump in the cert pay that we're looking at for the paramedics. I believe you discussed already.

A couple of reasons for that, that gets us back up into an area where we're healthy pay-wise to compete with our neighboring agencies. The borough has been pretty aggressive lately at increasing pay, and one of the key attractants we had as a city of Kenai was our schedule, the 48/96, which they also adopted in January. So a little bit of a leg up that we had, we kind of lost, but So the crews work 48 on, 96 off. It's one of the better schedules in the fire service, most desirable. It works at a fire agency that's not too terribly busy.

If you're terribly busy call volume-wise, the 48 can become dangerous having crews on that long. We're at a healthy place here as Kenanu Fire Department. Our call volume and our staffing model that we had before we added the positions last year had gotten into a breaking point. Great support from the City Manager recognizing some of the trends and risk factors that we were starting to see. We had firefighters working several hundred hours of overtime every year, some of that mandatory overtime, meaning they're getting off of their 48 and we don't have the staffing, so guess what, you don't get to go home today.

And they get to call the wife and kids and say, hey, I'm working a 96 now or a 72. And so it was tremendously unhealthy. My first month on the job, I had 3 firefighters approach me and said, "Hey, Chief, no offense. It's nothing against you being the new guy, but we just want you to know that we're looking for jobs and we're going to get out of here as quick as we can. We're just burned out." And all 3 of those same individuals have approached me in the last few months and said, "Chief, we love the changes.

We love what the City of Kenai is doing for us." and we're no longer looking for jobs elsewhere. So it's, uh, it's been a tremendous boon. I've had spouses call me or come by the station and say, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, City of Kenai. Uh, I get to see my husband, uh, or my wife again. You know, they're part of the family again.

So, uh, just want to relay to you, thank you so much for supporting that, uh, uh, new adoption for those positions last year. I know it's a tremendous expense to the city. But it was greatly overdue and has made miraculous changes in the health and welfare for the crews here at, at Kenai.

Any questions about the SERP pay for the paramedics? I do want to throw a little plug in there about that. I pulled some numbers for you this morning just so you could have some kind of, some indicators as to the importance for those positions. If you go back a year from today, we had 950 EMS calls. Out of the 950, 755 of those were transports.

If you do the math, that's about 10% of our population in the last year that we've transported to CPH.

Probably be closer to 8 or 9% if we do look at repeat transports for the same patient over the course of a week or so, but 1 out of 10 people in our community that we've touched and provided life-saving services for and transported to the hospital. If you look nationwide at survivability rates, especially for cardiac and severe trauma, the nationwide average for survivability and walking out of the hospital for a patient who's coded full heart attack, not breathing, no heart rate, is less than 10%. City of Chicago was 1 to 3%. They are now celebrating that they've gotten up to that 10% national average. Working with CPH to do an investigation of, to the turnout and survivability rates for patients that Kenai Fire Department has transported, we're hovering around 50%.

5 Times higher survivability rate You're better off if you have a massive emergency, you're better off in Kenai, the city of Kenai, than you are in downtown Chicago, downtown Denver, downtown Dallas, downtown New York. You're getting better, better services, better life-saving interventions in the city of Kenai than any of those departments. 4 Of the 5 highest survivability rates for fire agencies are all on the West Coast. Couple in California, one in Oregon, and two in Washington State, Seattle being the highest. We're only a percent or two off of Seattle for survivability rate.

If that tells you how great the EMS service here is in Kenai. And part of that, big part of that is we're able to get a paramedic on scene for every one of those major calls. The fact that we have not capped how many paramedics we can have in the department, And the fact that we're aggressively trying to recruit, retain, and maintain paramedics in this department is huge. So I just wanted you to be aware of how important that service is and the capabilities that they have over a basic EMT or even an advanced EMT, what they can do intervention-wise, the drugs that they can push, and the things they can do in the field that normally most people would have to wait for until they got actually arrived at the hospital. So thank you for the support.

And Chief, Kenai is not a small area. No, it's not. So that really factors into it and would improve that. I mean, you got to go across the bridge, go like VIP all the way, northeast, west. Yes, sir.

Any questions about the staffing? Any more questions? I know you might have some about how the 3 positions added last year might have affected. Operations, anything like that? I was more interested in the morale of everybody, and it sounds like you covered that.

And that was, that was really a selling point for me because I didn't know if these young men and women wanted a lot of overtime to begin with. Maybe they want some for them, but you know. Yep. So we rely very heavily on recall, on a recall model. So if we have a an ALS call that kicks off that requires a minimum of 3 personnel.

We typically have 5 or 6 on duty at any given time. So that puts us out of service for another ALS call or a fire response. But we activate a recall and we have firefighters come in off duty to staff the station, staff the rigs, and be on standby for another call to come in. Our recall participation from staff was almost nonexistent when I got here because of that burnout. We've seen a tremendous improvement in the numbers of recalled personnel that are showing up now because they're not avoiding work and avoiding coming in and doing more work because of all the extra overtime that's been required of them.

And so if you look at all the markers of health for a fire department, we have tremendous— tremendously in less than a year back into a, what I would say is a very healthy zone for staff staffing and participation and involvement for calls and recalls. So it's been tremendous. Thank you.

Looking at performance measures, if you look at— we changed the way we were reporting things like our fire inspections. While we have over 400 commercial entities or buildings within the city limits of Kenai, not all of those are required for an annual or even a biannual inspection by the fire marshal. So we reduced that down to that 237. In previous reports, you probably saw that 400 number. We wanted it to be more of an accurate description of the percentage that we were touching every year.

We try— we meet Alaska requirements with the State Fire Marshal's Office, and every commercial facility in the city is inspected every 2 years or sooner. So that's where we're at. Yes. Is—. You've got 28% and 12%.

Is that actual so far this year or projected? Um, so when this was drafted, that was actual for just this calendar year. So if we were to update that to today, that would be up significantly. So you should be seeing 50% or higher every single year if we're doing them on a 2-year basis. And you'll usually see higher than 50%.

And when you do the math for 2 years, you're like, hey, that adds up to 120%. That doesn't make sense. Well, some of those facilities require a second inspection. If we have deficiencies and things, we have to go back and, and reinspect that facility to make sure they've come into compliance. So that's why that number sometimes looks off.

It's actually not, but it's, uh, sometimes just reinspections on the same facility.

Um, any other questions on that? So looking at our goals from last year, FY26, That first one there was update accreditation with the State of Alaska. And that's for teaching and certifying in-house. That has been fulfilled. We've looked at getting a couple of our instructors recertified and reaccredited to do training in-house.

A couple of our captains and deputy chief have been certified and accredited to teach and do certain in-house certifications. It saves us the, the money and time of having to send and pay to send someone else outside that department. And we've also found other avenues and partnerships with neighboring departments where if they're hosting a class or putting one on, they're now allowing our firefighters to participate in their certification classes, which again saves us time and money for those certifications that our folks are required to have. Number 2 there, work with Public Works. For that Phase 3 of that forest mitigation grant, we had to apply for extensions, and we're successful in doing that so that we could continue that work through into this year and this summer to spend out that money.

I think if you looked around town, you've probably seen how many acres have been cleared of that beetle kill. I think the contractors, in my personal opinion, have done a tremendous job. And Lee Frey and Public Works at managing some of those projects and making sure that they're accomplished and paid out have done a great job with that. It's made the city safer fire-wise. Also, I think beautification-wise, it's gotten a lot of that deadfall and some of those hazards.

You probably remember in some of the most recent major windstorms over the last year, we've had a lot of power outages with dead standing trees falling on power lines. I think we ran close to 40 calls last year for downed trees on power lines and several fires started by those trees on power lines. So getting those cleared out have been a tremendous benefit for the city.

Number 3 there, improve and implement new personnel testing procedures to enhance candidate pool and acquisition. The first hiring I did when I got here, we think we had 6 or 7 applicants to fill a firefighter position. We're averaging anywhere from 30 to 45 now. One of the things we did is the city fire department Previously required folks to come here in person and do their written and physical agility test. And what we did is we adopted the national standard, the written exam and the CPAT, Candidate Physical Assessment Test, which allows us to reach a pool of candidates in all 50 states.

They can do a CPAT in their, in their home of record, and we can accept that now as a physical standard test for them to be eligible to hire on with the City of Kenai. It's also allowed us to hire paramedics and more advanced personnel. Not to— I know I talked with a couple of council members, but we are still also working really hard to craft our local pool of candidates. We're partnering with the high school with job shadow programs, interview programs, and things like that to encourage our youth in the local area to attend KPC and then come do Firefighter 1 programs with us, Nakiski, or Soldotna to stay in the local area.

Goal 4 there, consolidate fire department database services. Mr. Schwerner alluded to that earlier. We had 7 different software programs for management of various aspects of the fire department. We were able to go and consolidate all of those with one software agency called First Due. Could you imagine every day doing reports and having to log into 7 different platforms and then the due duplicity of information, having to re-enter the same data in multiple platforms.

Now they enter it into one module and it populates across all of our modules in one, one software. So it's way more efficient, less time, better data reporting. One of the problems that the fire department's had over the years is the ability to data mine some of the key data that's required for ISO ratings and interviews and grants and so forth. So we're now 1 year into the adoption of First Due, and we're already starting to reap those benefits of being able to provide better data to our partners, to our leadership. So it's been a tremendous improvement.

Goal 5 there, improve paramedic and advanced EMT accuracy when administering meds and interventions. We adopted and implemented a new software called Hand Heavy. Every one of my firefighters has an app on their phone, as well as the iPads in the ambulances and the fire engines. And what HandTevy is, is basically when you have a patient, they have to do a lot of algebra in the field when they calculate med doses. And you can imagine 2 o'clock in the morning, you've run several calls, and you're half awake, and now you've got to push a drug for an individual that could be life or death.

HandTevy takes the, the chance of error out. They input the data for the patient, right into the app. And according to our medical operations manual and national standard, it'll tell them, you've got to give this med in this rate, and so forth. So we've eliminated that human component for a mistake or inaccuracy. That obviously would be a huge liability, potential lawsuit for the city.

And so that was a great improvement this year for the fire department. Is that just a calculator then? Because it's not making a decision. Intervention per se. So, yes, depending on what the intervention is that they're looking at.

So our entire medical operations manual is customized into the ANTEVI. It's customized specifically for Kenai Fire and State of Alaska and what our medical director requires. And so whenever they look up an intervention or a medication guideline or whatnot, it's tailored specifically for what we're required to adhere to with our medical direction in the state of Alaska. Did I answer your question? I think so.

Okay. But yes, it does a lot of the math. Yes, it's kind of a fancy calculator. It does a lot of the math just to eliminate that potential for a miscalculation or inaccuracy. It's not like talking to a doctor that's in a box, if you will.

Correct. That's kind of I wasn't sure what its limitations were. FY '27 department goals. Number 1, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our department response to emergencies, especially in limited access areas such as beaches and forested areas. Working with the fisheries budget and that side-by-side ranger that we have asked for to be funded this year is gonna be outfitted for us to get into some of these back areas for wildland response, and then it'll also be used during net season for better access on the beach.

It's hard to get our— we can't get our ambulances and rigs out onto the beach. So typically we throw everybody in the back of a truck with all their equipment to get them down to a patient on the beach. And half the time we get the pickup truck stuck. And so it's difficult getting patient access. We have had fatalities on the beach in the last 2 years.

We had a cardiac emergency fatality summer before last. We've had a lot of trauma calls, a lot of fishhooks to eyes and hands and things like that. So getting out there and having that kind of access is huge. And so this goal really is pertaining to that particular piece of equipment, and then also some go bags and things that are able to be better easily transported into remote areas. So—.

Is the cost of that side-by-side figured into the expense and fees for the personal use fishery so that this cost to our community is passed on to the user group? Is that—. I would say yes. I think Dave could probably give you more detail. Yes, that is, that is going to be paid through the PU fishery fund.

Goal number 2, develop a multi-year training plan and leadership development framework to develop our company officers and chief officers. We don't have, we haven't had at KFD a formalized mentoring and training program for our officers. Our officers are tremendously squared away operationally, but as far as large-scale emergencies and even executive-level management of programs and whatnot, they've never been afforded that. So we're kind of behind the curve there. I've already implemented several programs for our officers.

They do a quarterly project every quarter. This quarter they're doing a budget project. They're learning how to navigate and manage an agency budget, and they compare and contrast our agency with other similar-sized fire departments to see kind of the nuances and changes regionally for managing a budget. They have done communication mentorship. We've We've got a partnership with KPC.

One of their communications doctors that runs out there at the campus has come out and done communication and skills testing and training with our crews, how to de-escalate a hostile patient, stuff like that. Things that they have not already been afforded in the past, we've brought online for the department. So we're still playing catch-up a little bit, but the Officer Development Program is looking good. There was a little bit of money added to the training budget compared to last year for $2027, $5,000. You'll see over there if you look at the side of the budget, that is for A, sending officers out for some of that advanced training, and B, bringing instructors in to Kenai in order to host some of these classes and training that the officers need for their professional development.

Number 3, continue targeted improvements in data reporting, reporting and training documentation. Water supply coordination, and response reliability to position the department for a stronger score with ISO. That piggybacks off of adopting First Due, improving our data tracking capabilities. You recently had legislation before you to adopt our new auto aid agreement, that basically getting 2, bumped up to 3 personnel brought into Kenai, and then what we also offer is that auto aid agreement. So with the addition of the 3 staff positions last year, and then now with our adoption of the auto aid agreement, effectively according to the ISO matrix, we're getting 2 more personnel on scene, which basically gives us credit for a whole other apparatus as well, which bumps us into a much better category ISO-wise.

So when we do, um, uh, put in an application for reevaluation for ISO, it puts us in a lot better state. I know the city manager shares some of my heartache with ISO. And most people are like, well, what difference does it really make? It can be huge, especially on like commercial entity side and whatnot, trying to attract businesses into Kenai. When they start running the numbers, ISO rating can be a pretty significant figure for commercial insurance rates.

A little bit less on the private insurance rate for like private citizens, private residences, but there is an effect depending on the company. All the companies vary. A lot of the companies in this area have gone to a rate of occurrence or rate of risk model. They don't particularly lean so heavily on ISO, which our rate of occurrence for the City of Kenai is pretty low, which is great for our residents insurance-wise.

Number 4, build on recent recruiting success by implementing retention-focused strategies such as mentorship programs, structured onboarding, career development pathways, and evaluation of compensation competitiveness. Um, several things we've already talked about: the formal mentoring program, training opportunities that we've added to the department, the evaluation, um, that the city manager has really, um, led and, and pioneered for us with the CERT pay, um, increases. Evaluating our competitiveness to other, other local agencies is huge. Um, I was trying to paint this picture for my crews recently because if you think about, you know, small increases in pay, sometimes minuscule amounts don't seem like much and you're like, oh, well, I'm only getting a couple hundred more dollars a paycheck or something like that. It may seem pretty minuscule, but when you translate that into life quality terms, a couple hundred dollars, that's a $2 to $4 million life insurance policy every month for your family.

Money that you could add to your portfolio. You know, that's a new camper payment to take your kids camping and enjoy the Alaskan wilderness. You know, that's a hotel room for your anniversary. You know, when you start painting the picture of these small increases, and particularly this one that we've put forward this year is not a small increase, it's a very massive life-changing increase for these paramedics. The, again, the morale, the desire to work for the City of Kenai, the, the view of support from our leadership, from our city manager, our city council, is huge.

The transition I've seen in the last, in the 2 years that I've been here, of how these folks feel appreciated and, and the willingness to go above and beyond and do extra work above the bare minimum has completely changed. So thank you for that. Number 5, develop a formal CRR, which is a community risk reduction framework aligned with national best practices to proactively address leading causes of fires, injuries, and medical emergencies with Kenai. So the fire marshal and I have really done a deep dive this year into how we can improve our public education programming. And then I've also worked with some of our paramedics on how we can minimize and even reduce reduce call volume by providing better services with partners to some of our residents in Keena.

I'll give you a couple of examples. We have had over the last year and a half, we've had several, I would say probably a dozen to almost two dozen patients with medical issues that are repeat callouts. We've had a particular patient recently that we've run on 3 to times in a week, per week, for the same patient. And part of that problem is, is a lack of regional resources to get them what they really need. A lot of times they just don't feel good and they're lonely, and they're happy to see the firefighters come in and spend 30, 45 minutes with them.

And you find out when you get there they don't really have a medical emergency, they just want to talk to somebody. So we've really partnered with CPH. I have worked very hard to advocate for better services. CPH just brought a mental crisis team online this year. Um, our, our department as well as PD has used them quite extensively in the last 6 months where we can call them out and then they have other avenues and streams of revenue that they can tap into to get services for these individuals, um, that have not been afforded to them before, whereas their only really lifeline was 911.

So you've probably seen, and you will see, I hope, over the next year, some incremental reductions in our call volume. Another thing that has reduced our call volume and increased our availability time for emergencies has been doing away with reverse transports. Because there were no organizations or entities that could get people that were being released from the hospital, a lot of our senior citizens that don't really have a support network were reliant on us taking an ambulance out of service to go all the way to hospital to pick them up and basically be an Uber service to bring them back to Kenai. And so we've really kind of held CPH, we've held some of these senior homes that are within our jurisdiction, we've kind of been holding their feet to the fire to increase availability of those services. We've even worked with Aly Cab, Alaska Cab, to bring on another handicap accessible van.

And we're working with a company called Moe on the Go, who's another private entity, to increase her capabilities and ability to go and grab people and give them rides back home and also submit claims with Medicare and Medicaid. So we're partnering with all these agencies to increase capabilities and services for the residents of Kenai while also reducing our call volume so that we do have our ambulances available for that next call. Whereas when I first got here, it was quite often both of our ambulances were out on calls. Sometimes one ambulance was doing a reverse transport for a Kenai resident, and then we'd get a call in, hey, my husband's in the floor having a heart attack, and I don't have an ambulance available for you. And then now you're waiting on Nakiski or Soldotna CES if they're available.

If they're on a call, they might not even be available. So now you're waiting on one of those outside agencies to bring you an ambulance within the city limits I'm trying to avoid that at all costs. I serve on the board of CARTS, and they have opportunity to do transport, and they have for handicapped individuals, so that could be one of your other resources, and they're 24/7. Okay. Just to let you know.

On top of that, I don't think you mentioned the new bus service 'cause I know it goes to the hospital. I don't know its route, but I know where it comes back into Kenai at least. And I don't know what kind of an impact that's making yet. I'm sure it is. And I have not looked into what kind of an impact the bus has had as far as reducing those reverse transport fees.

I know LifeMed and Guardian have also met with us too. Private entities, private for-profit ambulance services typically try not to step on the toes of the municipal municipality. And municipalities typically don't want them coming into the area because it does maybe cost some revenue for ambulance transports and whatnot. But when you have a small entity like KFD, and if you looked at our call volume and what we had, we need some of those entities in the area to provide services for our residents and keeping our ALS response ambulances in service and available.

Any question on fire department goals?

Okay. Just also to put on your radar, we were the first agency, I believe, on the whole peninsula and one of the first in the state. Deputy Chief Kootz has been getting his feet wet with some pretty major grant projects. And the Rural Health Transformation Grant has come to Alaska to the tune of $272 million per year for 5 years. They've got hundreds of applications.

We were one of the first in the whole state to get an application in. We've applied for the category they have— they have funding categories. We've applied to be in the $250,000 to $1 million fund category for this year. We have submitted requests for quite a few pieces of equipment and training supplementation with this grant. All indications is it's very, very likely we're going to get it funded.

And just so you know, certain pieces of equipment like our LifePaks, our cardio monitors that we carry in the ambulances, we have LifePak 15s right now. The LifePak 15 debuted back in 2008. It's basically a 20-year-old piece of equipment. Technology-wise, the industry is moving away and moving into cardiac monitors that go from 12-lead to 15-leads. And so the LifePak 35 is the newest model, which means we're going to have to convert because eventually they're going to time out the LifePak 15s.

They're not even going to service them anymore. So for us to go to the LifePak 35, that's about $60,000 per unit. So we got 2 ambulances and we try to have one in reserve in case one goes out of service. So $60,000 times 3. And I would rather not bring a special project before you saying, hey, I need $180,000 to buy new LifePak monitors for my ambulances.

And so we've applied for those through this grant to go ahead and get ahead of that and get LifePak 35s. Also some other mobility equipment in order to better assist some of these residents that we have. We have quite a few bariatric patients in the area. I'll give you an example. We've got a, you know, one 400-pound patient here within the city that we run on frequently.

And, I mean, you can imagine if I have two small individuals that are on the ambulance that day, and they get there, and they've got to move a 400-pound patient to try to get them into the ambulance, we don't really have the appropriate equipment for that. So we put in four electric modified stair chairs that would allow— they're basically a track system. We currently have the manual ones that are great. They control bringing a patient downstairs, but if you've got to get them out of a basement and up to the front door, they don't do anything for us. And so they have motorized versions of those now that we could throw a 400-pound patient on, and it's got little tracks on it, and we can take them right up the stairs and out the front door.

And my smallest firefighter can do it almost single-handedly. You did a little video online of that, didn't you? Not those. We did the— The power lifts, the gurney lifts— Power lifts, yeah. —That you all approved the reallocation of funding for, which was tremendous.

I mean, you can imagine the gurney by itself weighs about 100 pounds. And then you throw a 300-pound patient on it. And you've got 2 firefighters to try to lift 400 pounds up into the back of the ambulance. And they were doing it all the time. And now they don't have to.

Now they just get to push a button and one hand load that patient. So thank you for that. So that was another huge morale booster for the department.

Absolutely, we did have two pretty significant injuries this year. We had a firefighter that had to have his shoulder rebuilt, and we had another firefighter that had to have a pretty invasive back surgery to repair some damage. And so, yeah, absolutely, preventing injuries like that is tremendous.

Yes, sir. Quick question for you. Could you just restate what that grant was and the bracket of funding? Rural Health Transformation Grant. It's a federal grant that's been divvied out to the states.

Alaska was awarded $272 million per year for 5 years. I think it comes out to a little over like $1.2 billion, something like that. Um, right, there's huge sections. And what was the—. And then we, we've applied, uh, in a funding category that's from $250,000 upwards to $1 million for funding.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, you bet. And if funded, that's a huge, huge financial burden off of the city in the next 5 years, as we would need to look at how we're going to fund certain replacement for, for those— that equipment that we've applied for. I just want to point out, I like that your goals are equal part, um, staff development and retention. I especially like number 2.

I mean, you're, you're saying we're training our replacements now, which I appreciate, that it's, it's future-facing and it's, and it's focused on what I think is our, our greatest resource, and that's our staff. Um, but it's equal parts that and meeting the needs of the community now and thinking forward, you know, community risk reduction programs, et cetera. So I just want to point out I'm struck by how, I guess, even keel these are, and I feel like they're really good at focusing on the two most important things, you know, the residents of Kenai and the staff at Kenai Fire. Appreciate it. I was my own critic on these goals because typically we try to do SMART goals, you know, strategic, measurable, you know, and whatnot.

And you can give timelines and actual figures and things like that. I know Terry probably prefers to see a little bit more strategic goals that can be measured and put into numbers. Being new here and not knowing the numbers very well and being able to have accurate data trends over the course of years, it's hard to develop SMART goals, especially ones that are accurate and make sense. I do hope to have a few more of those SMART goals in my, in my goals for next year. But, but yeah, I appreciate that a lot because I put a lot of time and thought into, hey, what do we need now?

What are the huge priorities we can't afford to neglect? But then also, how can we prevent problems in the future by addressing being proactive now. So thank you for pointing that out, appreciate that.

Um, we had a project, a special project. I, I, I would have liked to have submitted 10 this year, but I was trying to, trying to take it easy on, on, on our city manager and, and the council because you blessed us tremendously last year with a huge addition in our personnel budget. Um, we've got some operational shortfalls, um, as a department that the city relies on us for. One of those largest areas being hazmat. So you probably saw a special project for a trailer and some initial equipment.

So we are, if we have a hazardous materials release in the city, we're the initial line of defense. Most of our crew is certified to the hazmat ops level, which gives us a very minimal capability. Really, we're only going into a hazmat area if we have to effect a rescue. We currently don't have the equipment or PPE in order to do that safely. And my worst fear was almost realized this year.

We had a pretty severe ammonia leak over here at PacStar with some of the refrigerant units. You know, that's a pretty nasty chemical and you're not supposed to go into it with any exposed skin and whatnot. And fortunately for us, all of their personnel were able to self-egress and get out of the dangerous area. Had they not been able to and we would have had to send firefighters in, in just regular structural firefighting gear, we would have had burns and injuries and things like that to our firefighters as they went to try to affect the rescue. And so in that special project, you'll see a trailer to house that initial equipment as well as some initial suits, Level A and Level B PPE suits, that will allow us to safely enter a hot zone in order to rescue individuals within Kenai.

And then also you'll see some small amounts of mitigation and dam, dike, and diverting berms and things like that. We had a pretty significant fuel spill over at Three Bears this last year, and when we got there, we were pretty much relegated to digging soil and throwing soil out there to be absorbent and also create berms around storm drains and things like that. So you'll see in that request, and this is just a bare minimum request to get us to at least some level of functionality. I could have asked you for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but we're just trying to be realistic, be fiscally responsible, and I'm trying to get the bare minimum amount of equipment to protect our crews and still affect a positive response to that type of an emergency. Any questions about the hazmat project?

Yeah, thanks, Chief. Does that also include any additional training resources that you might need for that type of response? So we would be looking at— we're fortunate right now because some of our employees have worked out at Marathon before. And we also have a few that are part-time employees out at Marathon. And they receive, funded through Marathon, that hazmat tech training.

Myself and I think 4 or 5 other individuals right now are currently hazmat techs, which is a huge boost to our capabilities if we have the appropriate equipment and PPE. But we would have to look at developing some type of a partnership either with Marathon or with the state to send folks to go get that hazmat technician certification if that's the level of intervention that we want to maintain. Thank you. You bet. Cooking with Phil Prevention and Response is another good one.

Yes, we do. Yep, and we do train with them every year.

The thing about relying on some of those outside entities is when they respond, there's a bill attached to it. And I'd rather if we can mitigate it here locally and not make too big of a fuss about it and not incur a huge bill, I think it's best for us in the city.

Let's see. I also wanted to just bring it back up to that we are hosting the 2026 Firefighter Conference this year, which will be a huge, it'll be a huge time-consuming project. It already has been for myself, but I think it's also going to be a boost to the economy towards the end of September and that first week of October if we bring 300 to 500 firefighters to Kenai. For the fire conference. We're hoping to host the majority of the conference at the Regional Fire Training Center.

We're also hoping to have use of the Challenger for a training space. And then we've reached out to the high school for their use of their auditorium for opening and closing ceremonies and so on. So see a whole bunch of firefighters walking around for a week here in Kenai. Any questions on fire conference? Sounds like it'll be a very safe place around that time.

Thank you for hosting this for our community. Oh, you're good. I think it'll be a very wonderful boost economically for our community. Yep, I think so.

If you don't have any other questions for me, just looking at the budget and let me see if there was anything else there.

Uh, just there was a note there under future considerations, um, on page 130. With the recent expansion of the staffing, we've seen a significant drop in the reliance of overtime. Our overtime rate's been cut in half, and we haven't even realized the full benefit of those 3 positions because we, we did have some vacancies this year. We had some injuries and firefighters out on FMLA or, or light duty status. And then we've had a probationary firefighter that didn't make it through probation, so we've had to re-advertise for that position.

And so we haven't even realized the full true benefit of those 3 new firefighter positions, and we've already seen a 50% reduction in those reliance on overtime for just minimum staffing.

And then Chief Ross mentioned it, but we also helped and participated in the Public Safety facility feasibility study. We're excited to see what council decides for direction on that. I know my crews would, would absolutely love a, a newer, better, bigger facility. I know my, my female staff would like to not have to sleep in a room with a couple of snoring guys in a, in a, in a shared bunk room. Um, uh, so yeah, we're excited to see what direction the city takes there.

Don't ever say that. And then, and then I also wanted to talk about, I know in our capital budget we have programming for fleet replacement. One of the big elephants in the room has been our tower replacement of our tower unit. Those, those rigs now fully outfitted and equipped, you're looking close to $3 million to replace that one apparatus. And so I've purposely drug my feet on replacing that apparatus and presenting an RFP or proposal forward for replacement because I wanted to see, get to know what we actually need for the City of Kenai, what's realistic and what's fiscally responsible for a particular fleet and maintaining a fleet.

And we've been looking at some pretty creative solutions so we maintain the same capacities we currently have, but we reduce the amount of cost to the city and then also maintenance and upkeep Chief Kootz and I, while we were in Juneau, we were able to look at Capital City Fire has the only, right now, they're the first to purchase a single axle Quint that has a ladder and bucket capability. It's a truck that is about $1 million less than a traditional tower, but has the same capabilities that we currently have with reach, safety for doing roof operations and things like that. It would be a significant, rate reduction for the total cost of the apparatus. So we're looking at that as an option for replacing the tower. We're also, instead of replacing full engines that we currently only use as tankers, we're looking at replacing those not with more engines, but with tankers because that's actually what we typically use them for.

And, you know, you're looking at a $500,000 to $750,000 apparatus instead of a million and a half. And so I've been really trying to take my time be realistic about what our needs are, what we can effectively staff even in the city of Kenai, and then also what our rate of occurrence and what our actual response needs are.

We have utilized that tower a few times in the last year and a half on some pretty significant fires. So I would, I wouldn't say we don't have a need for a full tower. But if there's a cheaper option, like a quint apparatus, that does the exact same thing, smaller, you know, probably doesn't have the lifting and crane capabilities of a full tower unit with dual rear axles and the weight ratings that we currently have on our tower, but provides what we actually need for a fire service. That saves the city $1 million to $1.2 million on cost of replacement. I think that would be the way to go.

So would you just Help me understand, is a tower the same thing as what I know as a ladder truck? Yes. And when was that current tower? It seems like it was just yesterday that we got that. It's a '93 model.

It was just yesterday. So the industry service life for a tower is 15 years, your industry standard is recommends highly you should move it into a reserve service status at the 15-year mark. We have— we were finally successful at getting a company up here last year to do non-destructive testing on the tower beds and actually recertify our tower. So liability and safety-wise, we're okay. Problem is I can't get parts for it.

So when something breaks, we're— there's a lot of MacGyvered systems on that truck that You know, we've got bubblegum wrappers and stuff, you know, holding stuff together. So that's an exaggeration, but—. If it didn't look brand new, it'd be easier to—. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a beautiful truck and it's got low miles on it.

But, you know, metal and systems and electronics and things degrade over the years. The sea air is not kind to fire equipment. When you get rusting and corrosion, pitting in massive structural members, it significantly reduces their safety and integrity. And I don't know if you've ever seen a video of a fire department tower when the bed collapses due to stress and fatigue on the ladder bed, but it kills firefighters. Well, now I'm going to have to look that up on YouTube.

So, yep. Yeah, I'm right there with you, Mayor. It sure is hard to replace a truck that looks that great and is in that great a shape. But serviceability-wise and whatnot, it is a bit of a liability for us. A few years ago it was up on a rack because we had the company appreciation or party over there.

Looking under it too, and I mean, the tires are new, looking everything, you know. Yes, sir. But at any rate, the numbers don't lie. And the new rigs, particularly the one that we are considering and looking at, they maximize staffing on the fire ground because right now that current model that we have in service, I have to put a firefighter in that bucket to operate that ladder and that tower and our elevated master stream. To me, the elevated master stream is almost more important than even the ladder and the bucket itself because when we have a commercial fire or multi-story fire, that's our main access for getting stream lots of amount of water up high on fires or into the center of a structure that's on fire.

And so the newer ones now are remote operated. So my firefighter that's down on the ground operating the pump and everything can also operate the elevated master stream in the bucket without me having to pull a set of boots off of the fire ground and put them in that bucket where they're just up there operating some joysticks. So I effectively gain a whole nother person for interior search and rescue and firefighting operations just by replacing that tower with one of these newer quints that are fully operated down by the operator at the pump panel. Yes, sir.

Chief, unless you have something more, I mean, we're kind of over a little bit, got a whole hour. But it was— every minute was worthwhile. I mean, if you have something else you need to anything that you need to add? No, sir. You know, I want to say that I do appreciate everything that you've done for the department since you've been there.

Everything I've heard, everything you just talked about, actually. And great leadership and your forward thinking and all of that. And I appreciate having you. I appreciate you all very much, more than you know. I was telling Miss Askin earlier, I I have zero complaints.

The only complaints I have are the same that every fire chief has, but locally with our leadership here, I have zero complaints. I appreciate the support. Thank you. Thank you. Mr.

Mayor, before we move on, I do want to just point out a couple things. When you're looking at the fire department's budget, you know, salaries, basic salaries up $136,000. That's really— the majority of that is driven by two things. One is the COLA. You got a 2% COLA in there, but you got to look, you know, original budget last year was $2 million in wages, so, you know, 2% increase on that's, you know, $40,000 of that.

The remainder of that is related to that paramedic incentive that we've already talked about. When we look at overtime, I know Chief touched on it, I still think we're going to see some benefit from those 3 new positions here in the future too. We did have a bit of a miscalculation last year. There's actually an ordinance you guys will be hearing on Wednesday night to address that in this year's budget, and it dealt with some of the mandatory overtime.

Simply the shift that the firefighters work. So our firefighters— correct me on this, Chief— I think we work 192 hours in a 24-day workweek. Work cycle, that's how we determine overtime. So it's totally different than 40 hours a week or 8 hours a day or any of that. So with fire, with the shift that we're working is 192 hours in a 24-day work cycle.

On a 48/96 schedule, those crews will work, just working that straight 48/96, they'll work 160 hours overtime each a year. Just as a result of the shift they're scheduled to work. So there was a miscalculation last year when we put the budget together on some of that overtime. That's going to be fixed by this ordinance that we've got before you, um, Wednesday night. Um, and you see a $66,000 increase here.

That's what is driving that increase in overtime. So I just want to call your attention if you're looking at this and looking back. And then the other increases mostly are associated with the benefits associated with those increases in pay, whether that's PERS or workers' comp or, or the other things too. So you're seeing a lot in this department, is why I wanted to bring it up.

Okay, thank you for that additional information. Now we have— there was library, there's a request for a 5, a 5er, and then we're going to take a 5-minute break, so we'll be back here at 12:35.

You're— if you're kind of ready, I can get started. We're back, we're back on the record. It starts on one page 116. 165. Yep, 165.

I think it always starts on page 165, so it's pretty standard.

I like that. I like that a lot. So, so the budget starts with our own mission, which is to provide a welcoming space for people to connect Learn, Discover, and Grow. This is a mission that we actually as a staff worked on a couple of years ago. We added to this mission a vision statement and a core value statement and also our customer philosophy.

If you're at all interested in that, please check out our website. And I'm totally segueing right now.

Moving to our functions and responsibilities. We function as both a community resource and also a community hub. We provide access to a statewide collection that's more than 3 million items at this point in a variety of formats through the Alaska Library Catalog along with technology, internet access, and public spaces. Some of our community members come in every day, and for them, we are the primary access point for things like computer access, job, filling out job applications, filling out government forms, and printing and copying and scanning and emailing and faxing and all of the things. And all of those things actually also mean that we as staff help them with their basic technology needs.

Looking at our staffing, we are— I am requesting this year a reclassification of of our Youth Services position. This is to better reflect the level of work that position is doing, and that includes things like program development, collection development, partnerships, nurturing those partnerships, and then also administrative responsibilities. Moving on to page 166, those are our measures and our goals. As we wrap up this fiscal year, we're anticipating about 62,000 to 63,000 visitors, over 100,000 checkouts, both physical and digital. We are looking at over 760 programs serving between 8,000 and 9,000 attendees.

And, and this was amazing to me because it keeps growing— over 2,000 meeting room reservations and more than 4,200 hours of our room use.

Some of our numbers in FY 2026 did go down— our circulation and our attendance— but 2025 was really, really, um, successful. And so I would say this year, FY 2026, we are overall still pretty solid in our engagement. One thing that I wanted to mention too is our digital circulation Since 2020, our digital circulation has gone up by 48%, which really shows you where the, where the community needs are or moving toward. This fiscal year, we had 3 main goals. First was to be a community hub, and we met that goal with our strong visit numbers, visitor numbers, our library card applications.

We added I think over 600, uh, over 650 applications or new accounts this year, and also our facility use. Second was promoting literacy and access. This was partially met. Circulation did go down, it dipped a little bit. We also added fewer materials than we had anticipated this year, and this is mainly because of the rise in costs.

Also because we keep shifting to digital materials because those are the ones that are more and more popular.

In terms of access to technology, we remain pretty strong and steady. The third goal that we had was offering programs and learning opportunities, and I would say we met that goal too. We had a ton of programs this year, strong participation, a little bit lower than last year, but still pretty significant and across all age groups.

And then looking ahead to 2027, our goals are pretty similar. This is on page 1 67. Um, they continue to align with the city's comprehensive plan. We accept— we expect to serve between, um, 60,000 and 62,000 visitors. We want to maintain a strong, um, circulation, offer tons of programs again between 650 and 700, expand our outreach and our partnerships, something that we've been doing for years now, and then also continue to improve our access to technology and to digital resources.

We've— I have to mention our community survey. We did see a very positive response with over 80% of the respondents saying that they're satisfied with library services. We did do our own research— sorry, our own survey last year, and we actually had over 90% of folks being either satisfied or very satisfied with library services. Um, looking at some future needs and future priorities, definitely wanting to look into improving our space layout and our wayfinding. This is something that we've also been working on for a couple of years now.

We've been looking at shifting collections, looking at adding shelf dividers so folks know where different collections are located, things like that. We are also now Like, was it 14 or 15 years since the last renovation? I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure of the number, but our furniture is getting to be pretty worn and ratty, and so we'd like to look into updating that furniture in the main library and then also adding more shelving in the kids area because that's our major driver for circulation. And then lastly, the budget— there's actually a decrease. So decrease, decrease in salaries and benefits, but then we did have a modest increase in maintenance and operations, and you'll see there's one account in particular that's repair and maintenance supplies.

I'm sorry, operating and repair supplies, 2022, which has gone up pretty significantly, and this is because the special projects that Dave talked about earlier, it's part of that account. So purchasing new office chairs for staff, adding a couple of cameras, and then also renewing our current contract for the cameras that we already have, the maintenance. And that is all I have, so if there's any questions, I'd be happy to take them. I know, fast.

I should get some extra points for that, actually. Maybe, maybe a special project next year.

I think the library is one of our star features of our community. Thank you. And, um, and it is a beautiful representation of our city to our community visitors. And y'all host many guests, and I want to thank you for the Excellent job, and I always— it makes my heart sing every time you come before council and we have a city ordinance to appropriate funds from grants that the library has achieved. So I want to thank you for that.

I was going to say the same thing. I'm consistently struck by how much money you're able to bring in through grants, donations, and other things, and I appreciate the fiscal responsibility there for sure. I, um, my favorite thing about the library for our community is that there's something for everybody, and it grows with— it can grow with every member of our community. You've got the children's section, you know, that promotes literacy from a young age and moving all the way through all the age groups, providing opportunities for parents to come with kids or with somebody, with a friend, or somebody on their own to the different activities that you offer, you know, all the way to assisting people with technology who are— maybe struggle with it but need access to do certain things. You're touching every, every little age bracket on that demographic continuum, and I think that's a hard job to do, to figure out how to meet those needs of everybody.

And I It seems that, that you're doing it, that you're doing it and you're doing it well. And I love, I love going, I loved going when my kids were little, and I, my kids are adults now, and I talked my daughter into going to one of your activities recently, and, and I, I loved it. And I appreciate that there's something for everybody. Thank you. And just because you're talking about programming, our summer reading program is starting actually this this month.

Signups start on the 18th, so let everyone know, and also feel free to come and participate yourselves. We have tons of programs lined up for the summer, a lot of new stuff as well, so, and a lot of really amazing prizes that were donated by local community or organizations. So yes, and it's for, and it's for adults too. I participated last year, and it's easy to do with 48% more digital Very true. Digital materials.

Yeah. I just also wanted to thank you. I mean, my, my family loves it. My wife and daughter particularly love it and spend a lot of time there, especially in the summer.

Just, I think the resources you have there have made it really accessible for my wife as a full-grown adult to get really into reading in a way that she wasn't before. Not to say she didn't great, but just significantly more. And then to have them be excited to bring me to the library this year to actually show me all the cool things that they enjoy there, I think was a special moment too, just to share in their excitement of what you and your team, uh, provide to the, to the city. That is awesome to hear. Thank you.

Oh, I also—. Sorry, we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the Book of Things. Is that what it's called? The Library of Things. Library of Things.

Like, that goes way beyond reading and literacy and access, the things that you're able to provide through that. We borrowed a metal detector. My husband was looking for a property marker. And I mean, where else can you go borrow a metal detector or a VCR? I mean, there's— or there's fishing stuff on there.

Fishing rods. Yeah, there's everything you could possibly possibly think of. Yes.

I also, I really, really want a ghost hunting kit, so stay tuned for October. Yeah, let me know. My daughter and I will be into that one for sure.

Yeah. I got to say that, you know, I only get the clarion once a week like everybody else, but I go there to keep score a little bit and pride too of what our library does. You know, there's whatever the Salata does and that's usually the— you know, well, you used to be over there, so. But at any rate, but that really beside, you know, but I see all of that and I do read that every week. That's something I go to.

That's something I don't get too much online. You have a great Facebook thing about things you've done or one thing that's going to happen. I'm not sure how it would go, you know, to have all these things, you know, for young people with families to be planning. But maybe you do it, maybe that's the question. We do submit events to all the local— to the radio, also to the newspaper, paper, and Facebook.

We are working with the Clarion to maybe do a couple of summer reading events. Articles. So we did just one a couple of weeks ago. This was about our Lego club. So there was an article about that, yeah.

But yes, I would like to add more to that too. Was it a criticism or just something that, you know, I appreciate seeing because it's what's going on in Kenai?

I do appreciate you coming over from the dark side, by the way.

Thank you very much. Thank you. It's always fun. Next we have Human Resources, Stephanie Crandall.

Well, good afternoon, and thank you for letting me come and share a little bit about what's happening in human resources. I am on page 96 of the book that you have in front of you. I really did enjoy hearing from, from everybody. I think our staff is great, and it's exciting to hear when department heads are planning for succession, and those sort of things are near to my heart. So if you look at the mission of Human Resources, it continues to be supporting the city's goals and its employees in a fair and equitable manner, and all the things that I do through the department there.

Um, our— my responsibilities are really what you would find anywhere. You can read through those. I'm not going to bore you with that section. As far as staffing, the city has had one person in the Human Resources Department that continues into the next fiscal year. And then if you look at our performance measures, um One of the goals that we have that's not formally written in here, but is to be an employer of choice.

And I think you can see if you look at our numbers, we're, we're getting a lot of applicants for our positions. We're not having a huge turnover. We did have a slight increase of our total recruitments, and these are based on calendar year. We had 27 this year. If you remember, we added 3 firefighters, so 3 of those were our new firefighter positions.

These are just our full and part-time position. We also had, I think, 40 temporary positions over the last year. So, um, and then the very bottom one is the average number of days to fill vacant positions. What this What this means is it's the time between when a job posts and when someone, a new employee, begins. Just to give you an idea, it's not a fast process to get someone in place.

Sometimes it's quick and sometimes if we're bringing someone from out of state, it can take a little bit longer. But we have seen a little bit of decrease in that time. That's moving in the right direction. Um, that number is going to slow us. That number is not going to help, but we'll hopefully have some other speedy ones.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. So if you look at our goals, um, uh, been working like the other departments on getting our policies and procedures in place clearly explained to employees. These would be personnel policies for the most part. Still continuing to do this. We've got— I have a list of about 60 that I'm trying to get through and update.

So that continues even though it's not listed on my sheet here. Develop and distribute a supervisor guidebook. This one I'm still Completing, but planning to have this distributed by the end of the fiscal year, um, and then archiving the files and cataloging them. Um, I think I mentioned last year we have 50 years worth of employee personnel files. That's our retention, um, 50 years is the retention schedule.

Um, it, it— when I got here, they were not in any sort of order but I do have them organized by termination date, which is what retention is based on. I've got about 30 banker boxes full of files plus a couple of file cabinets, so there's a lot of them and I'm getting, getting there, but I'm substantially getting through those. With the Simple Records Manager, you input the box and where it's located, and then you can go on to input all the files that are in the box so that it's really easily searchable to be able to locate the box. So that's what that project is, preparing for digitization. Does the 2 years make sense to you?

I mean, there must be a risk management thing. I mean, it is— the State of Alaska has the same, and I believe I believe the biggest reason for it is PERS having— being able to go back and prove when someone worked and have a record of it. So it's a long time, yeah. Medical records also. It's a long time, and any risk— I think lifetime.

It's a very long retention schedule for many of the medical records. Yeah, to go back. So, mm-hmm. So, yeah, so that's that. If you look forward into FY27, I've got some goals.

As you know, it's a one-person department, and one of the goals that I have is to create a comprehensive desk manual. This would be something that if I'm out out, or if I'm on vacation and someone's filling in for me, or if somebody were to follow me, I want to have in place just a list of all the things that the office does, the per— the how you do them, where you find things. I just think it'll be really helpful. I, I was out for a few weeks and the assistant to city manager covered HR. She was the acting HR director.

Which I hugely appreciate. Shout out to her. But we— I try to leave lists of where to find things, and this would just be a complete, complete manual for anyone doing that. So, and my second goal, we're a member of the Alaska Public Risk Alliance, APRA. They provide our workers' comp insurance, among other things, and they also offer free training to any of their members organizations.

And so one of my goals is to partner with them to bring them, and I've actually got it scheduled already for October, to do some supervisor training with them. And then I've got a goal to have another one as well. So, and then the third one is to take all those records that are now in some order and begin digitizing them so that a little step closer to being able to access them easily. Um, and so that's coming up. And then you can see my future considerations, um, just ensuring continuity of operations is a priority for the city, but for human resources.

Um, and then I've got a note there that it's possible that at some point a part-time support could could be added to the HR department. And that's what I have. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

Somebody's got to have an answer. I have a compliment more than anything. I just wanted to say that I had the opportunity to work with Stephanie this year in her role is what she provides to the city. And I would say in that very short experience, I would put you up against every other HR director on the peninsula and at the same time, and I think you would stand up. So, um, I think we're lucky to have you, and I appreciate the work you do.

Thank you.

I have two questions. Is it possible to look at, um, potentially outsourcing that goal number 3 of digitizing, um, all those old employee documents? I mean, I just— I'm asking because if— I mean, $50,000 to $75,000 per quarter, that means you're going to spend— you're going to do 20 to 30 a month. I don't know how long each one takes you, but— and I don't— I mean, that is a good chunk of your time that we are paying you for. Would it be financially feasible to outsource that to something, to another group that does that?

I think it would be possible. We've talked about having a temporary person do it. We've talked about having another employee that maybe has light duty or something. So there's potential for that. Or even if there's an— well, you can send your pictures away and have them digitized.

I mean, I'm sure there's got to be a record records digitizing company someplace. I guess that's kind of what I was thinking, if that's an option. I just wanted to say I really like the idea of using it to cover light duty opportunities. Yes. It keeps that cost down a ton.

If we have it, yeah, for sure. And then, yeah, as a department that's used third-party records retention, I would caution anyone to do it, or to pay someone else to do your own records retention. There's something to be said for having someone who knows the documentation really well to do that.

Does it lend itself to, for somebody to just digitize it? You put it in the machine, hit the button like I do at home, and I can do 50 pages front and back, and then that's a document?

It's probably not quite that simple. That's why I didn't get that simple. I mean, especially the older files have a lot of different size papers and some— a lot of staples. And so there's kind of just a process, but I'm— it's kind of something that I've started and I can kind of do in between meetings or something if I have just a short amount of time.

Yeah, the only thing I'd add to that too is that the real critical thing about when you're archiving records is, you know, the digitizing really is the simple part, right? That's just taking a picture. It's the metadata. And the metadata is what makes the information searchable, findable, and frankly usable. I mean, and that's what takes the time is to input the metadata that makes that so you can go find that, you know, based on somebody's Social Security number, based on their last name, I mean, all of that.

All that type of information has to be linked. And that's what's critical about our records management system is to link everything so that, you know, it's usable. And then I think you would have to be concerned about the confidentiality of the sources of the information that's in there. And the liability of outsourcing it. So I know that— you will work around this issue and figure out a, a feasible, efficient manner with which to do that.

But it is concern that your valuable time could be better used in a higher opportunity, and I agree with what you said. Thank you. My— I had a second question, um, and I don't know if it would be in your budget or someplace else, so it might not be a question for you, it might be a question for Terry, so whoever wants to answer, please. We talked a few weeks ago about the HR process evaluation, and you got an estimate for that. Is that something that would be in the human resources budget or someplace else?

Because I don't see it here, so that's why I was asking.

Yeah, great question. I would— if That's pleasure, Council. I would include it in the HR budget, and that'd be a process I'd ask Stephanie to supervise and manage that process. So it needs to be done through, we need to approve it and discuss it, and then add it to the, and then that would be something that moves forward, or what would be the step for doing that? Sure.

So this process here today, I think just, I don't think Council needs a reminder, but we are in works session. It allows us to discuss and have good conversation. We can't make decisions— we being you— can't make decisions here. Now, having said that, I think what traditionally this forum has been used for is during that conversation that takes place, you know, we're smart enough, we pick up the hints, and we, you know, as that discussion goes on, if there seems to be consensus or interest in something, um, before the budget is brought and the ordinance is introduced, we will include things that it looks like the majority of council wants. And, um, the other option is, is if we don't do that, um, council can make specific amendments to the budget before adoption at the public hearing.

So, um, I think it would be appropriate— this would be a great time to bring the bring that up and have that discussion. And if there's some consensus, Dave can include it before we introduce the ordinance. And again, or you can choose to bring it back at the meeting where we go to adopt the budget, and you can propose the amendment there. However you'd like to handle that. I'm fine with putting it out there now, and I, and Um, after the last evaluation and contract process with city manager, city clerk, and city attorney, and we had amongst us conversations about the process, and I guess looking for some definitions and some understanding and had questions about a number of things, I asked about the potential of having an, I guess, an HR consultant review the process, perhaps survey staff, discuss it with council members, and put forth a suggestion for an improved process for us to consider moving forward.

The cost of that was less than $5,000, like $4,700, $4,800. It's like $4,800, which was about a third of what I was expecting to hear. Honestly, it was pretty low. Um, so that's what I'm talking about when I was asking about, um, the HR study or evaluation being included in the budget for this year. Was that, that request or that process?

Since this is only my second time going through this, since this is only my second time going through this process, I had a very similar revelation in how this process works, but just way later. Uh, and so I think we would— when we go to approve this at council, we would then propose this as an amendment to the budget at that time, if that was the case.

You could, or like I said, if the The conversation here today is that, you know, I'm looking and I'm getting 5, 6 nods of the head. Finance Director will likely take that, incorporate it into the document prior to introduction, so it wouldn't require specific amendment at that point. If that doesn't happen here today, then absolutely the next step would be you can bring an amendment forward at that for adoption. Before adoption, and we can go about it that way. So I just— this, I think, is, like I said, a great time to have conversation and see what the consensus, or, you know, is in the room.

Um, I'm a bit cloudy on what's being requested.

It would be, uh, for about $4,800 for an HR consultant to evaluate the process that is currently used for the evaluation and contract for city manager, city clerk, and city attorney, and put forth a suggestion for a, a process to be used and followed moving forward that would address some of the concerns that were discussed during our last go-around. Something different than what's already in play. Is that correct? Potentially, yeah. I mean, they would evaluate the process and determine if there are suggestions for, for changes or improvements.

Thank you.

You keep circling it, so I'm going to press on it. The process we do have, you know, is— it is a little clunky, but then How many people have 5 or 7 bosses? And I know I keep saying that, but it's true. And that just, that kind of adds on to it. It's not an employer that has an employee and you're evaluating them and doing that.

It complicates it. You don't just have 2, you don't have 3, it goes on. And I don't think that really would change too much, but there's often a better way to do things. So if, you know, council wanted to spend the money to see if there's a better way, and it may or may not be, so I don't know, because this is how we've been doing it since I've been here, frankly. So I guess that's kind of a quasi-nod.

How's that? So would that come under the purview of the human resources, or would it come under the budget of the legislative portion since that's under the city council?

Yeah, great question. I, you know, my suggestion would be that we put it under the HR department and allow our HR professional to help work that process and guide that process with council. I feel— correct me if I'm wrong, Steph— I think Stephanie feels independent from me enough, and you know that I'm not gonna, um, any of our staff are gonna try to influence the situation, or, um, but I think Stephanie would be in the best position to help assist council work through that process, coordinate everything with the consultant, and, you know, set it all up and, and make it function as best we could. So that's where I would recommend it to be, um, just, um, and have somebody there to help you guys work through that process.

One more head nod in favor of looking into this. And it was something that I— I mean, I did speak to you about it before, um, I— and it was kind of you that suggested this would be an option too, like this would be something we could consider. And, um, I asked, um, the city manager, the city clerk and the city attorney if they were comfortable with it or felt like there was room for at least an outside entity to look at the process. And maybe you're right, maybe there isn't anything to change. I don't know.

Um, but that's— we don't know. And I think that having a third party come in and, and review it and tell us whether we're doing amazing, whether we're doing mediocre, or whether we're really blowing it, um could be useful. And for a low— I think for what I said, I mean, I'm still struck by how low the price is for, I think, expanded understanding and comfort with this— the process.

Stephanie, help my memory out here. What year did you come on board with the city? Uh, 2023.

Yes. Yes, as HR person. Okay, so I And Henry, obviously you've been here longer than me, and I know Victoria has experience and Glenice has experience. I'm not saying I'm not in favor of this because there's always—. We always need to look at ways that we can improve any process we have.

But I just want to give Stephanie kudos right now because I was sitting here thinking, okay, I was elected in 2021, so my first time through this was '22. So '22, '23, '23, '24, '25, '26. So this was my 5th time through this process now. It was way slicker, way more efficient, and way more productive than the 1st or 2nd time. Now granted, I have to concede that I was on a learning curve the 1st 2 times.

But I remember sitting in the executive room, and I remember Mayor Gabriel asking me to write down and take notes, and we were trying to consolidate all of our verbal comments grammatically and agree on them, and we spent hours doing it. And even back then, I don't think the PDF documents that were emailed to us, they weren't accessible to fill out online. It was like you had to print them off and come get them, fill them out, and we had to bring them back here here and now. Whereas now, these PDF documents, they come to us, the link, we can fill them in, we can save them, we can email them right back to you. We don't have to get in our vehicle and spend that $5 gas to get here.

Just saying. Strike the editorial.

And then now Stephanie collates all of our responses and puts them into the categories. So that when we get those papers back, they're there and we're not spending hours now going through and trying to figure out what we're gonna say and grammatically correct each other. And Stephanie, I just want to say all that to say thank you, because even though the process probably does need to look at to be improved, you have improved our at least my experience, significantly since 2021, because you came in in '23 and I noticed a marked change at that point and then going forward. So is it an awkward process? Yes, because again, like Mayor says, where do you—.

What scenarios do you have 7 bosses to have to deal with to doing this type of thing? So is it awkward? Yes. But thank you for what you have done. So maybe, maybe what you have done to make it more efficient and to make it slicker will maybe help the future process of making it more efficient by some consultant.

And to clarify, when we talked about it, it was something that you thought would be helpful and be useful moving forward. Yes, yes, I was total—. I was in agreement with, with you on that. Thank you. It was the process we were using I didn't create.

I came in and was told, help, help this council with this. Um, so I think, and I think because it's different, it's unique, that a consultant could potentially have ideas that, you know, I wouldn't know to bring up.

I think, and I don't mean to be talking out of turn here too much, I mean a lot of executive session things, but we do have somebody from the borough. I worked for the borough too, and then somebody from the state, and they do things in a different way than a council like we do, what our rules are in evaluating our employees. And I think what I was kind of picking up on was still a bit of a learning curve on both of those. And that might be something, if we move forward, that might help clarify for future council members, you know, on how that works. Yes.

I was on mic. Yeah, I think some— I mean, some guidance documents would have been helpful, but I mean, I don't, I don't think the learning curve was necessarily the problem. I think clear explanation of the process and the expectation of the process was the problem. For example, you're given an evaluation, you're supposed to check boxes, no definition of what each box means. No, I'm, I'm expected to check a box on how somebody relates to staff with no information about their staff relationships.

And I'm— this is— I'm making this up, but for all I know, Terry walks into the office every Monday and screams and yells at people. I would have no idea, but I'm asked to rate him on how he works with staff. There is no mechanism for that information to be brought to our attention. There's no mechanism for staff to communicate that information. In a way that's, I guess, safe.

And all of those things combined create, in my opinion, a process that's not defensible. If there was an argument about an evaluation or a decision about an evaluation or a contract, we do not have a solid foundation to say, well, I chose box C because box C is defined as this and box D is defined as this and this person meets this many things in box C. We have no way to objectively back up what we are saying or doing. We're simply going with what we feel at the time, and I don't think that's— that's not fair to us, that's not fair to the employees, and that's not fair to the rest of the city staff either. Well, I understand, and I've heard that every year and something along those lines, and it's not— I'm not just diminished dismissing you in that respect because it's, it's, it's true that you don't know, and I don't work here. I work out there.

I'm not here at 8 o'clock in the morning. I'm not here and have lunch with anybody. I'm not I might not be here for 5 days. Some of us aren't here for 2 weeks, and we're only here a little bit in the evening. So as an employer, you know, it will lend itself to that.

And so how much you involve yourself in what's going on with the city and individuals and whatnot, but nonetheless, it's not like you're evaluating an employee under you in an office that you work in every day. That just— that will not happen. Change. And so it is, it is what you feel and what you think and what you hear. I mean, it will be.

But I think that's part of— I mean, one of the things that was discussed that could be included in that is a staff survey. So that would give objective data with which part of that decision could be based. How do staff feel when one of them walks in the room or they have to deal with them on something? That's information that we could be using to make an informed decision about evaluating them on staff interaction, because right now we're doing it in a vacuum. I'll just chime in here.

Are we going too far beyond talking about budget? That was— I think we know that there's there's— we all share different opinions about the process. And so maybe that highlights the need for a reassessment of this. And then it can help remove the differing opinions about the thing and hopefully end up with a better result overall. So I think we can all acknowledge there's always things that we can make improvements on, and, and doing this certainly wouldn't hurt the process.

So I'll also just add one more thing. I do sit on one other committee where there are 6 bosses for one employee, and we do have incredibly well-defined checkboxes, but that's for the school district. So shall we move on to— or do you have anything more for us? Okay, so that brings us to the city clerk.

And, uh, okay, thanks, Stephanie. Bye. Thank you. 5 Seconds.

I thought we were going to have to punt. I didn't realize you were behind me. Hi everybody, uh, my director is out, but I have some high-level notes that I'd like to discuss. Um, the city clerk's budget is on page 74 of the draft document. There have been no changes to the mission statement, no changes to functions and responsibilities No changes to staffing structure except I'm new here.

Hi. And no changes to performance measures tracked within the budget other than the updated data related to the year's activities. As far as fiscal year goals, our first goal was explore and implement an online business application platform for business owners to apply and submit materials. This goal had not been fully achieved, but it is being worked on, and with the recent funding licensing software. This should be in, uh, in completion for this coming year.

Our second goal was to review and audit the City of Kenai records retention schedule. This is still in process. And then our third goal was to update the board and commission application process and forms. This goal has been achieved, and this new form is available online along with new informational booklet that lets applicants know what the role of a commissioner is. Um, the fiscal year '27 goals.

And then a high-level future consideration is that the audio and video system in the council chambers is aging, with some components no longer eligible for updates. So items to, um, for replacement, it was— we have to figure out if we want to just do it piece by piece or kind of do a whole overhaul of what that process could look like. Those are my very high-level notes. If you have any questions, I will attempt to answer questions for you, everybody, for the, for the clerk schools.

Seeing no questions, uh, I will go to the legislative part of the budget, which is on 83 of the draft budget document. Um, no changes to the mission statement no changes to the functions and responsibilities, and performance measures were updated to include the current data. And as far as fiscal year '26 department goals, goal number 1 of continued support and collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and federal delegation for the bluff stabilization, stabilization project was achieved. Goal number 2 was maintaining business-friendly regulations, taxation, and incentives to create to create a stable, positive climate for private investment in support of the Imagine Kenai 2030 City of Kenai Comprehensive Plan. Uh, the city continues to work on this and continues, um, to try to develop that goal.

Number 3 was to support continued community outreach and collaboration for the Waterfront Redevelopment Plan. This has been supported, and future development by private business is next. And for future considerations, provides sufficient levels of funding for the replacement of significant city assets as they near the end of their useful life.

Thank you, Logan. Uh, and also thank you for, uh, both you and, uh, City Clerk, uh, Sainer, for adding some of the, the items related to technology in this room. I know that's a thing that I had emailed you both specifically on after watching a couple meetings where we were not able to go live as we were spooling up the meeting. So thanks for looking at that and putting this— including that in this budget and looking forward. So, and then thank you for stepping up and giving the presentation so Shelly could be on vacation.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for the presentation, and that was 4 minutes out of your 15. So if there's points to be had, there you go. Thank you. The library and the council— and you covered everything, I think. Bonus.

Yes. Thank you.

I'm going to check online really quick.

Okay, City Manager, UBank, looks like you have the visitor center next. Uh, visitor center. I was going to do— I was going to do City Manager real quick, if that's fine. Sorry. That's all right.

Um, So City Manager's on page 91. Um, you know, we, we start here with, uh, our mission, our functions and responsibilities. We have no change in, in staffing in my office. Um, when you look at my performance measures, um, the one here is percentage of department goals met, and I really want to highlight that for council because I really think I think that's a way we try to evaluate ourselves. I think my primary role here is to help all of the experts you're hearing from today do their jobs better and remove barriers for them to get those jobs done.

So we're hoping that we'll get to about 85% of those goals being achieved here before the end of this fiscal year. But, you know, I just want you to understand, like, what the primary focus in my office is, and, um, it's, it's, it's helping these folks do their jobs better. Um, you know, as far as specific goals, you know, goal 1 was budget preparation. So the FY26 annual budget was prepared, presented to council and compliance. Um, you know, and we, we achieve most goals that council set for us.

Well, that one was achieved. Employee engagement and development, we've got a strong focus here in Kenai on our people, and I hope you're getting that vibe from the people that are talking with you here today. And, um, and so I think that's definitely an achieved goal. Um, support community development, this is an evolving one for us. You know, we're constantly looking at ways that we can remove barriers to development here in town, potential ways we can incentivize that development.

Is this— is incentivization— is incentivizing really needed? And, you know, I don't, I don't think as government we need to step in all the time. You know, I think there are definitely appropriate times, but You know, we're also on the cusp of some massive projects for the state of Alaska that I think will create tremendous demand on some city resources and land and things like that. So, but, you know, along with that, we did meet with, you know, we adopted those MOUs with both tribes. We've met with them in session.

We continue to meet with them and talk with their leadership, ways of collaborate and make this community better. The Bronze Bear Project is something that we supported, and that was a community-led effort to bring, I think, a tremendous resource to our airport and something that'll be there forever for visitors to take pictures with and remember. First thing they see about Kenai and the last thing they may remember when they're getting on an airplane to leave.

We're always looking to strengthen our community and public engagement. Engagement. We believe strongly in the public process, even though sometimes I think it can be frustrating just because we don't see the level of involvement that I think we would desire or envision. And I think sometimes that's why we're looking for new ways to meet people where they're at and engage with people, because traditional models aren't necessarily working. But public engagement and strengthening that is, is always a continued goal.

Um, looking forward to '27, you know, again, working hard on this document. It's probably one of the biggest tasks we do all year, um, is, is giving you the city manager's budget for then you to take and make a council budget out of. And, um, it gives us our marching orders for the year, gives us not only, you know, the policy and the direction that we need, but it also gives us the money to make it happen. So So look forward to working on that. Always going to be working on our people, supporting our people, and making sure that we have the ability to attract and retain the best people.

Continue working on community development. What should be in here that's not is that strategic plan. And I think that, you know, is a critical step But I think it'll be a very valuable step, and it, you know, it will start— likely start with, you know, discussions on what the city's mission is and a true mission statement for the city. And we have them. They haven't updated in probably decades.

So I think it— I look forward to that process. I look forward to working with you to— I think I have a generally a good sense of what council's directions are, but this will formalize that process. It'll force some tough conversations. I mean, it's not going to be an easy process, but I don't think anything that's worthwhile necessarily is always easy. So really look forward to working on that with you and, you know, implementing the— using these studies and these reports and everything else.

You know, here's our community survey and taking the results of that and putting it to work and interpreting that and changing policies as we get that type of information. And lastly, I think like the future consideration, this LNG project, and as it starts to get closer and closer and closer to some key decision points, I testified at the legislature, what, a week and a half, two weeks ago. City of Kenai is going to be ground zero for this thing. I don't think there's going to be another community in the state of Alaska that's going to be as impacted as this one. And it was like a light bulb went off for some legislators when they're like— they don't know where Kenai is in relation to where the liquefaction plant's going to be and the fact that It's just outside our municipal boundaries, so no tax revenue will come.

Well, that tax revenue will come through your borough. I'm like, well, yeah, that's great to think, but that's not how it works. You know, funding doesn't— tax revenue doesn't flow into the borough and then to us. Our tax revenue flows through the borough to us, but the borough doesn't share their tax revenue necessarily with the city. And, you know, it shocked me a little bit that state legislators honestly didn't understand those, these relationships, and they're making assumptions when they're looking at this legislation.

And I'm not here advocating— I mean, I can't tell you if a throughput tax is the appropriate one. That's not my, my wheelhouse. I could try to get polished up on it and have an opinion, but that's really for somebody else. What I thought was critical about the legislation is the fact that that, you know, one piece of legislation had— didn't take into account, I think, any funding for the city, like a city like Kenai that's going to have massive effect. The other, the committee substitute that was being pushed at least acknowledged these— the community impact and gave tools and mechanisms for communities like Kenai to request funding.

Um, and I think I resonated with some folks because I've had more conversations with AGDC folks and Glenfarm folks in the last couple of weeks than I've had in the last year. And, um, so I think that's positive. And, um, I did get word today, um, actually last night, um, the 18th, the gas line folks are going to be bringing I don't know their number. They're bringing 4 aircraft in. They originally wanted to bring in 8 aircraft, and I had to inform them that on the 18th, on the 18th of May, for a site visit, and they're going to have a meeting at our visitor center.

They were chartering a 737 and going to bring it in. And I said, wow, that's great, except for our main runway closes on the 15th. And can you land a 737 on a 75-foot by 6,200-foot taxiway? Probably not.

We have a problem. But, you know, we worked through it with them. I think we threw every resource we had trying to— we talked to QAP. Can you delay the project? Absolutely, we can.

It costs you $72,000 a day. Well, that's not a very good option. Um, certainly not one that Glenfarn jumped on. But, uh, anyways, I got texts last night that they're still coming. They've chartered 4 aircraft, looks like 3 King Air and something I don't even recognize.

Uh, we land them back to back to back that morning here in Kenai. Um, mayor and I have been invited to it, um, to this at the visitor center. So, um, excited about that. I think, um, this is bringing bringing a lot of, you know, the partners that are trying to put this thing together, bringing them to— so they can go actually see, I think, McKeeskey and what that liquefaction plant where it's supposed to be. So I'm looking forward to that.

But this all takes a lot of time and coordination and, you know, Kenai will be forever changed if we get a gas pipeline, when we get a gas pipeline. And we want to make that— most of that change, as much of that change as we can, a positive thing.

Page 79 is the Visitor Center. Not a lot here at the Visitor Center. I mean, the primary, the primary function there at the Visitor Center is that we have a contract with our local chamber to run that facility on behalf of the city. You can see the number of visitors that they're tracking over there on page 79, number of events. Recent board meeting, which was just this week, you know, they said they've had more event requests this year than they've seen in the past.

So that facility is getting more and more and more use, and I think I think as the chamber, especially Sam, who's been there now for a few years as a chamber director, she's nothing but a ball of energy and she's always trying to bring more programs and things like that over there.

So some of those 26 evaluation goals, you know, had to deal with the cultural engagement and the exhibits. And I would say they're doing a phenomenal job over there of actually displaying the city's collection and bringing experts in to talk and have creative ideas with children in there for story times. And very, very knowledgeable speakers come in and talk about history in Kenai in different time frames and different eras. And so if folks don't know what's going on over there, you really need to pay attention because I think it's a great opportunity to learn a lot about the community that, that we live in. Um, tourism and event promotion— again, these are a lot of things, um, you have to give a lot of credit to the chamber for doing.

Um, I think they'd turn right around and give our staff a lot of credit for the support that we're providing for them, like, you know, Fourth of July, and, you know, they do the heavy lift, but we're the people out there setting up tents, you know, putting garbage cans where they need to be and making sure trash is picked up and things like that. So, um, you know, uh, the Derby, uh, the Kenai River Marathon, Christmas Comes to Kenai— these are all just traditional events and things that, uh, our citizens really, I think, enjoy. Make life— like Council Member Groomy said a number of times here tonight— today is things that make this community the place to live. So, and grant funding, I think, um, they're still working on their 501 status, and I think they're getting closer. I know they partnered up with Bridges, um, that's usually the bridge for a lot of organizations here in the community to get that nonprofit status, and I know that's something they're still working on.

Um, 27 goals. Again, collaborate with the facility manager and local Native organizations, again, to work on the collection and identify those items in there of cultural importance. And again, collaborate with the facility manager, again, the chamber on partnering on marketing Kenai as a destination. Uh, and Center for Cultural and other things. And, uh, we want to work with them to help pursue grants over there, um, once they're able to achieve that 501 status.

Um, budget's pretty much status quo. Um, you know, the professional services, that's our contract directly with the chamber. Communications is, um, our data link over there that, you know, has our building automation system into it, but But also we are able to provide phones to them at a significantly reduced rate using our already— our equipment utilities. And then just a little bit for repair and maintenance. We didn't have any requests directly from the chamber for anything over there this year.

And— but we had— did have those discussions with them. So I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Terri. That brings us over to Dave with Finance.

Okay, for Finance, we do have the addition of the IT systems administrator— or, sorry, page 100.

We do have the addition of an IT systems administrator position. I think I've pretty well spoken to that in detail enough. Unless anyone has any further questions, I won't go down that rabbit hole again.

Just looking at, you know, number of purchase orders, vendors checks, things like that, just kind of some updated information. You can see we run pretty steady there.

To some extent, kind of status quo for what we're seeing on the level of things we're doing there in that realm.

You know, with the finance department, we're, you know, I oversee all the accounts payable, all the payroll, all the purchase orders, and all those things that come through along with the IT department there. So I'll go ahead and just jump right into the department goal evaluations.

Evaluate the cybersecurity assessment, recommend and implement cybersecurity improvements. That plan is achieved, or that was achieved. The cybersecurity plan is on track. We selected a vendor to develop and document a disaster recovery plan. In the process of developing policies.

And that's going to be a continual ongoing project. Again, with that IT systems administrator, that's going to be one of the things we look at, at is expanding what we do for cybersecurity and, and implementing more, more safeguards for the city.

Completion of the automation of the P-card process, that is not achieved. We've kind of put that on hold with Wells Fargo moving out of the community. We're going to We're going to be looking at changing our banking services. We're not sure. We currently have that process with them.

We're not sure if we would have to transition that or not. It's not part of our RFP, but we're going to have to see how it integrates and whether it plays well or not. And if it doesn't, then— because right now it's kind of the premier, as far as P-Card processes and that, they're kind of the leader with some of the banking, so we don't really want to change that process if we don't have to, but we're going to just make sure that when we select a bank that we can continue to have that function the way it has.

Complete documentation of 10 department policies. I have this marked as achieved. We've got probably 7 IT ones, and now that we're kind of done with the heavy lift of budget here, We're going to— that's what our focus is through the end of the year, is to get the other, the other 3 done and get the— get all those turned in for review with the city manager.

So for FY27, we're looking at implementing changes of cybersecurity improvements, completing the FY26 goals that are outlined in that remediation plan, complete the automation of the PCARD process and update the PCARD policy to support that process and then continue to document another 10 department policies and procedures in FY '27. For future consideration, you know, for years we had additional IT staff in this section. We've addressed that with this year's budget, so now I'm looking at, you know, what do we need, and just in looking at What I'm coming up to is in the next couple of years, I'm probably going to back to back, hopefully not in the same year, lose a couple of our senior employees that are long-term staff that are very well dialed in is the best way to describe them. And I think Terry might be able to speak to this, that when you take someone that's been here for 15, 20, well, I think One of them's a 30-year employee, I believe. Over the years, you gain more experience, you get more efficient, and you just kind of know what needs to be done and how to do it.

And when you take someone new and put them in that spot, it's a big learning curve, and it takes time for that transition to happen and kind of get back up on step. But also just looking at some of the changes that have been made with the controller position, We really have a big gap between our accounts payable or our payroll person and our controller, and it'd be nice if we had an accountant-level position. And so that's what I think the need for the department is. Controller position's pretty heavily loaded with workload. There's a lot of daily stuff that I think could be done at accountant level.

And we talk about levels that people are operating at, Currently there's no backup for her, there's no backup for me. Having an accountant that maybe she could push some of her duties down to, I could cross-train on some, vice versa, she could cross-train on mine, that that would enable us to do some of that. So that's something that— and we're going to evaluate as these retirements happen. We think there might be some room there to maybe adjust a position up to an accountant level, but I don't know if that'll be enough, because there's still that workload that has to be done. So that's one thing that I need to get with my controller, we're going to sit and have discussions about, okay, what does this look like if— and I always say, you know, there's kind of the way we've always done it, and to say we're going to do it the way we always have, Sometimes we got to take a step back and go, if we had to start from scratch, what would it look like?

Sometimes you make decisions based on the people that you have and where they're at, and, you know, and where we're at, that's worked really well, but times are changing and our staff is going to change. I don't know that we can continue to do that. And so we'll probably look at, to do it over, what would it look like? What do those positions look like. But I think that what I'd like to see is a path of progression for a career, for someone to come in at an accounting tech, move into an accountant level, move into the controller position, move into the finance director position, because that's kind of somewhat my long-term goal is to prepare my controller to be able to step into my shoes, because then you maintain that continuity with operations.

You pass on that historical knowledge knowledge, you're replacing someone, because that's, that's been one of my biggest challenges, is not having the historical knowledge of the city, you know, behind me, to where I understand why we did things, or I could look at something and go, oh yeah, that happened because of this back 10 years ago, right? I don't have that. Where here, staff, that they, they've probably processed the purchase order, they've been, or, or they've been a part of the budget discussions or things like that, to where they understand why things are what they are. And so that for me is something I want to kind of dive deeper into this next year and look at and come up with some sort of recommendation. I'm going to have to look at succession planning and how, when I have these retirements that are not far off in the future, I think I probably will have one in the next fiscal year and one probably the year following that.

I keep telling them they can't leave before I do, but I, I don't think that's a reality. So anyhow, that's, that's for, for the finance department. That's, that's one thing for future considerations, is for us to take a look at that and see how we might kind of change things up a little bit. Hey, good question for you, Dave. What, if any, security framework are we shooting for for the cybersecurity?

Are we shooting for like NIST compliance or something of that nature for our overall cybersecurity plan?

To be honest, I don't know enough about that. I probably should have done a little boning up on that before being here today. You know, it's somewhere we did do— have a third party come in and do and provided them a whole lot of information, and we got this assessment. So we've kind of got a checklist of things that we're working through, and we've got a plan that we're working on.

So we can have Dan respond to you, though. Yeah, we can certainly. Yeah.

So I'm gonna have to apologize because when Logan did his legislative presentation, um, either he or either you or the city manager. I had a question, um, and I think this would be a good time to address what I forgot when that was happening. Um, I know that we're responsible for the audit and the professional services, and, um, this next year it's gone up $14,000, 20%. And so I was wondering what it was that caused that great increase, and did we go out for a bid for that? We did put that out for an RFP process.

They were the lower bidder, but like this year, it depends. It's kind of a "it depends" answer here. We have our standard audit for our financials, then we have our single audits, state and federal. And this year I think we only did the state one. We didn't— no, we only did the federal one.

We didn't have a state one, so we don't have those every year. So I want to say the audit itself was $56,000.

And then, um, trying to do math in my head here. So what's that?

Quick numbers. $84,560. So another $18,000. So it was like, uh, $9,000 for the, for the single audits to be done. So, so if we did what we did this year, it was $70,000 is what we paid the this year, we might be looking at $73,000 next year if we don't have to do a state audit.

But so it depends, and there's times where we might have to do 2 state audits or 2 federal audits, or, you know, so depending on the makeup of that will drive that. The— what we've booked here is, is that we might have to do a state— one state and one single— I mean, one state and one federal along with our annual financial audit. Okay, so there is a possibility that that number actually could come in less, but that encompasses the whole ball of wax if we get— right— all of those. Okay, thank you for that clarity. I was just a bit—.

And this is a contract that we put out every 5 years, so it's been 5 years since we've had a contract renewal for this, and their costs have gone up. And that was— I mean, that was something we increased last year because because we were seeing that. Thank you for helping me understand that. Sure.

It's a secret.

So the other thing on here that I would say that I, um, that in reviewing this since we've done this document is I probably need to do an increase, um, for our professional services because we pay a 13%, um, fee to— for the tax collection. So that we get charged a fee for that. And our online sales tax— so this is where we pay for our online sales tax. And originally we had it at $880, but looking at the trend that's it's been happening, we've actually boosted that up to $1 million. We're expecting that we're liable to hit over $1 million in online sales this upcoming year.

Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. It might be my fault. Yeah, it's pretty amazing how much that's grown over the years, significantly each year.

When Amazon was here and presented their Amazon Hub where they pay businesses to deliver packages for them at $2.50. I volunteered to do the ones to my house because I figured, you know, I could save a lot of money if they paid me $2.50 for everything my wife orders. So she didn't think that was that great, but— It's good to hear.

She knows me by first name now and comes almost every day. I know.

So any further questions on finance at all?

Just a comment, and it's only because I'm not sure where this would fit best. It has to do with the council and making amendments to the budget, and it's actually for both of you guys, and it's something you're probably going to bring up, but I want to bring it up now, is it's kind of a train wreck if you come to council when we actually approve these, the budget, and you want to make a change somewhere, and it works, but it's not one change, it's multiple changes into different places. So it's, uh, And maybe I'm speaking for you and I shouldn't be, but if council can give Terry or Dave an amendment that you want to make after this meeting or whenever, I want to do this, and if you're going to present it, at least administration has that amendment so they can be prepared for all the changes that may need to be made. And of course, council may make an amendment to your amendment. But, you know, but at any rate, it will be considered.

Well, the other thing too is you might also get some factual information from them that may negate it, or maybe you want to make it more, something like that. So Terry, if you want to, you want to elaborate on that at least once? Sure. No, I think I appreciate that, Mr. Mayor. Um, yeah, absolutely.

I think, you know, anytime, you know, council can give the administration a heads up on something, the better we can be prepared to help you do what you want to do. Um, so especially once the document, um, once this document gets introduced, um, and the budget will be introduced at the second meeting in May, so not this next coming— next council meeting, but this, the one following. Um, once that's introduced, if you'd like to propose an amendment, we'd be happy to write that amendment up and, and be able to come calculate all the changes that need to be made to the budget ordinance and have that prepared for you. And then, like I said, it just— I think it makes the process go smoother. Certainly not a requirement, but we would appreciate that and happy to work with you.

We can deal with things on the fly the night of as well. It's not our preferred method if we can help avoid it.

It is also easier to not have your idea shut down 6 to 1 live in the meeting. So not that I've done that last year, but—.

Okay, Terry and Dave, are you complete? Yes. Okay, so Lee? What? Psych.

I take that back. I've got non-departmental also. Oh, you do? Which is— Yeah. I'm so excited.

You know, I wasn't sure if we were gonna need to—. How much time up here? You're gonna like, 5 minutes? This is a quick one.

Page 111. So this is where we're going to be adding the janitor position, the part-time janitor position.

That's the kind of the biggest change in here. Well, not the biggest change. The other change is the PERS, which I talked to you previously, is that's where we're seeing that this gets— this is where the account or the Department of Property processes through. So that's where you're seeing that $189,000 there. That's the PERS on behalf.

For the PERS on behalf.

And then what you're seeing for the decreases are really some one-time expenses that we had in last year for special projects.

And then down below under transfers, we're going to see a decrease of about $50,000 in there from the senior funds from some of the changes that sheet that I handed out earlier today, we'll see, uh, an impact there on that also.

That's all I had for that one. Um, yeah, I have a question. Has the city ever considered, um, contracting their janitorial opportunity out?

Yeah, thank you. I think that's a great question. We used to. Yeah, we used to. And it became problematic for us.

One of the problems that we have, and this problem hasn't been eliminated either, but is we have a public safety building that we do janitorially. And anybody that's going to be unaccompanied in the public safety building has to clear APSIN, has to have a background check and clear— have APSIN clearance. And it may be called something else now. But— So it's that security side of it. But we did look at it.

And what we found was these 14-hour positions They come with a little bit of effort, you know, but what we're finding is people that frankly have other jobs that are able to squeeze this one in, and it's been working well. We are proposing to add that 14-hour, an additional 14-hour to give a little bit more coverage and give a little bit more time to do some of the, you know, when it comes time to maybe do a major floor cleaning project or something like that where you need a little extra horsepower. But again, this takes into account, um, janitorial here, public safety here at City Hall, at the library, and over at the senior center. So, um, yeah, we did look at it and we think this was the most cost-effective way we had back then.

Well, before we give Lee the next 2 hours, do we want to take a 5-minute break? Yeah. How about we do that? That gets us back here at 4:05.

We're back on the record. So we have Public Works, right? All right, so we will start off with safety. Um, budget's pretty much exactly— oh, sorry, $118,000. Yep.

Um, so I'm just going to hit some of the highlights here. Um, with safety, um, as Stephanie already talked about, we do have APRA coming to do training with us on the 12th and the 13th. Part of that is about establishing and setting up safety committees. So we do already have one established with the city, but we're looking at some ways to improve that. So that's one of the things on my to-do list for safeties is kind of reestablishing how our safety committee is done and shifting some of those role responsibilities.

Right now, the, the safety manager position primarily lies within the building official, which can work if that person has a good, you know, safety background sort of thing. But that is not Chandra's, you know, strong point. She's primarily just a building official, and that's where, where her career has been. So So, looking at taking that back up primarily with me and Eric and just kind of reworking how we do that and getting some other— shifting some responsibilities among multiple users so that we're getting different touchpoints as far as, you know, people that are operating heavy equipment and building safety. So, she would be involved, but just getting other points of views to make sure we're hitting all sorts of different things as far as safety goes.

Throughout the city. So with that, we are working on— going to be working on different things like redoing accident report forms and all sorts of stuff just so we can get some better tracking and data going and better follow-up processes to make sure we're actually learning from mistakes and doing things better in the future. So hopefully we evaluate that and get some things moving, have some different performance measures in the future that are a little more reflective perspective of what we got going on, I mean, and then improved safety culture. So that's about all I have for that. Any questions?

Nice reduction in workers' comp claims.

And if you had specific questions on a lot of that, we'd have to ask Stephanie. She keeps track of all that data and feeds it into this report. Board, so I only have some of that stuff available or could only answer so many questions on it.

Okay, moving on to Public Works Administration. This is page 143.

Yeah. So most of the changes associated with this, are just the regular salaries and benefits changes as far as budget goes. Public Works Administration mainly comprises me, Lisa, our procurement and administrative assistant, and Eric Jean, our assistant director. So we've got a pretty good team going up there. We've just switched over to BidExpress a couple months ago as far as procurement for RFPs and ITBs.

That's been a very successful switch. We've been getting a lot more interest on bids and proposals, and it's easier for contractors to be able to see who else is looking at the project so they can, you know, subcontractors can throw money, throw numbers out to contractors and engage more interest on those types of things. We had 4 bidders on the pump house project, so that was a very successful, very competitive of bid. Um, we have a number going out right now, um, and we also have an ordinance being introduced this next meeting for— or was introduced last meeting for, um, reducing, um, notification requirements now that we're using, um, BidExpress. Um, code says we need to notice in newspapers locally for, um, maximum visibility of our projects, and we're getting way more visibility using BidXpress for the contractors to be able to automatically see those notifications as opposed to what we're seeing in the Clarion right now.

So in addition to that, there's some goals and responsibilities as far as, you know, how many projects and active projects we have going and what we're looking to close out. And it's going to be an extremely busy summer for us. Main projects we've got going on this summer are the airport runway project, the crack sealing of the apron, Aliak Street portion of that is going to get repaved, and the storm drain that's failing— and we just had a huge pothole out there last week because of it— repaved and that storm drain removed. We've got architectural design services going on at multiple buildings, mostly Vintage Point and the Senior Center, a little bit here at City Hall.

So that's going to be the bulk of what we've going on, in addition to smaller things like crack sealing and all those other things that we have out to— going out to bid on Monday, actually, is the crack sealing contract. In addition to that, the road specifications are coming up at the next council meeting. We went through the, the whole draft process with that. The final ones are in your packet after some of the comments that we've incorporated. We have a draft version of water sewer specs currently internal that I'm reviewing.

Eric put all those together. It's like 150 pages of stuff I need to read through, so it's going to take a little longer to get through that one. But that's next on our list as far as getting something out publicly.

And I guess I just wanted to highlight, we've, we've taken on, you know, pretty much all of— with BidXpress All proposals and invitations to bid that the city normally done, anything over $35,000 is now coming through our office to put out and make sure that we're getting all the proper documents in. So, um, in the past, you know, other departments would have done those things on their own and put them out on the website. So we've tried to standardize that process and take it over. So, um, Everything's consistent. When, you know, Scott's reviewing all of our contracts for everything, he knows that, you know, all this stuff is boilerplate language and hasn't been changed by other departments.

So just trying to get it all to be a more efficient process. But we've got a pretty great team there. I'm really happy with Eric and Lisa. And, you know, Lisa keeps me straight pretty much every day up there. Wouldn't know where I'm going if she wasn't there.

So. Yeah, it's been good, and, uh, we'll move on to the next one unless there's any questions.

I just want us to maybe highlight, be aware of— or I'm going to—. I'm skipping ahead. Are you on the fund? Nope, you're good. Um, just the loss of capital funding from the state.

I just— I guess I just want to— I just want to put that out there on our radar for future thinking and planning, that that's something that we need to maybe have in the backs of our minds as we're moving forward. Yep, and I know Terry highlighted that earlier, that, you know, the state is basically only funding, you know, what they need to match for federal grants and stuff like that. We are still seeing a fair amount of money coming through the SRF program. We did get SRF funds for the pump house project, and we had the EPA loan or grants for the blower project. So the SRF program seems to be pretty— I think a lot of that money comes in federally.

But as far as other projects like road projects, we're not seeing a ton. We are getting the— working with the state on Wildwood and expecting that to get paved this summer. So had some conversations with them this week, so that still seems like it's in the works to happen. But other than that, yeah, it seems definitely less and less that we're getting major, major money for funds. And I'll probably hit on a couple specific departments when I get into that.

All right. Moving on to the shop on 147.

So our shop maintains what I think is a pretty significant amount of vehicles. We have 3 staff over there, Scott Morris, Troy, and Mike. Scott's our foreman. They all do a fantastic job over there. I've always been pretty impressed with the work they do on the police vehicles.

They basically outfit all of our police vehicles in-house instead of sending those out to any places. Some of the numbers I've seen from going out to the companies that, you know, like the troopers might use or I'm assuming that's what they do, to get outfitted are extremely expensive as far as a lot of those light kits and stuff that they can order individually and save a lot of money doing quoting processes instead of ordering them in those packages. And as well as whenever there's an issue with it, it gives them a lot of ability to know what's wrong with something, where the wires are, and how to fix it. So, they do a great job with that. In addition to that, this last last year, um, Scott did his first, um, auction for the city.

So he is just gearing up for the next one that we're going to be doing this summer. And I've asked him to put some outline and some, some policy in place, procedure, as far as how he's doing that, so that we can, um, work to firm that process out in the future for it being passed down. He has some ideas as far as the auction of possibly doing it during July when there's more people in town, maybe putting up some QR codes around like Dipneck Shacks and stuff like that so people could see that our auction's going off, get more visibility. He just seemed— he felt like we weren't getting a lot of visibility when we just, you know, posted it on our website sort of thing. The people that really go after those things are monitoring those sites daily, but, you know, getting more people looking at it would be a good thing.

Does BidExpress lend itself to that? It's different. It's a different process, but it does go out. I mean, contractors see it. So— no, it's different.

It goes through the public surplus website. And we get a deal on that as a part of AML, some sort of a discounted rate that it goes through. But it doesn't do the same thing. Yeah. Other projects they're working on over there is inventory, just trying to continue to work through the backlog of various, you know, pieces and parts of vehicles that we don't even have anymore that we might have parts for.

So he's been trying to go through that in his free time, which isn't much, to work on that. The one main thing you will see in the budget is the increase to 5041. There's a $4,500 increase in there, and that is for their— we have a tool replacement allowance for each of the employees there, and that was previously not captured in there. So that was caught by finance this year when we were under budget significantly in there. So I'm just shifting that money in there so that we can handle that in the future.

And the main issue I think that Scott has just with vehicles in the future is warranties and recalls that we're seeing.

We have a fair number of police vehicles, and, you know, every day he seems to He's, every Friday he comes in to check in with me and gets mail and stuff like that. And he's like, "Two more recalls." He's just constantly getting recalls for various vehicles and trying to schedule those to get into the shop is difficult. And, you know, trying to make sure we're keeping vehicles in, how serious is the recall, those types of things. So he's concerned about that just as vehicles have more and more chips in them and things that have to go to a shop to get dealt with.

Any questions on the show? Okay.

Streets Department, 151. So first, I guess I'd like to say I'm really impressed with our streets crew. You know, people thank me for, you know, the great job we do maintaining maintaining the streets, and that's not me at all. I'm just sitting here in an office and taking phone calls, but Curt and his staff over there— Bob Dawson, Curt, and Al— are the ones out there doing the work. And those guys are fantastic.

I, you know, I think the biggest thing is those guys really care about making sure that the streets are clear, and, you know, they take pride in it. And, you know, knowing that they're doing a good job, those guys will work a lot of hours just to make sure, you know, they first pass through town so that everybody's getting hit on the snowstorm and they're not calling it short because, you know, they've hit 10 hours or anything like that. So we do have the retirement— I believe that's been announced— of Kurt Brower. This next week is going to be his last week with us, so we wish him well in retirement, but he's going to be hard shoes to fill. So we do have that open right now and have received several applicants, so we'll start doing interviews for that soon.

Um, we promoted, um, Bob Flake into that lead position. Um, he was one of our existing operators, so I'm looking forward to, to him stepping into that. Um, in addition to that, um, main things we've done is the, the street assessment that I think has been talked about several times, but, um, that helped us a lot with planning, um, for the streets moving forward here. You've already seen, you know, what our, our kind of project list moving forward with for repaving various roads throughout town is, starting with Willow and Airport, moving on to Tinker and Lawton.

But it also helped us a lot with the crack sealing. The main budget increase you see for the streets department is in that 4538 repair and maintenance, where we're adding the $75,000 on top of the 50 that we added last year for crack sealing. So that's going out to bid on Monday for crack sealing, and we're basically putting it out so that if the budget is passed with crack sealing funding in here, we can extend that contract starting July 1st once that contract is— or once those funds are available. The main plan to target right now is for the crack sealing this year is Beaver Loop Road is our priority Property number 1 to get that, get some good crack sealing on that because it's in fairly good condition. So we want to make sure it's not deteriorating as it's getting a lot of cracks.

And then it's going to be the neighborhood just north of Lawton, east of Tinker, is going to be getting all the asphalt over there crack sealed. Yeah. So it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that the state did Beaver Loop. And is there any guarantee on that road? Is it, is it the age now that it needs to be crack sealed, or is this premature?

It's not premature. So basically what we'd like to get on a schedule of doing is basically every road is hit every 5 years as far as crack sealing. So it's just preventative maintenance. The quicker we can get out there and, you know, seal up cracks, it just stops water intrusion, freeze-thaw, and keeps that asphalt in good condition. So that's the goal of the crack sealing and putting in extra money toward it is so that every 5 years we're kind of making a loop through town, touching everything up and getting everything in good condition so that our existing asphalt will last longer.

So in addition to that, our streets department has been building the floats in-house for the boat launch. They're going to have one set of floats replacing the oldest set of floats ready to go. They all look really nice over there. The other ones are going to have to be built throughout this summer and next winter to be ready to go. Planning on doing that, I want to say we're hoping to have the dock open May 18th.

Excuse me. They're waiting for the next low tide, deep low tide, so they can get in there and do the dredging and get all those floats set. We got a little delayed this year. We're usually open around May 1st, but with all the delayed ice and everything, we pushed that off a little bit. So that's the next good tide that they're going to get in and do that.

Heavy snowfall this winter kind of delayed how much free time they had to be working on the floats. So we're just going to get those one really set, really old set of floats replaced. And I don't know if anybody went out there, but you can see one set of floats that was sitting maybe a foot or two higher in the water than the older set of floats that were pretty waterlogged and hanging down there. So those ones will be out of commission. Um, in between all that, they're also going to be working on ditching this summer.

Um, we do have money for, um, improving the dock parking lot. Um, so we got quotes to, um, bring in a bunch of gravel there, and we're going to try and freshen up and redo the, the dock parking lot there, regrade it, um, get everything so it's a little better shape down there is our plan. Um, so that's kind of the main, uh, thing to attack once they get done with sweeping and grading all the roads and probably calcium chloride, is trying to get all that done. And then they'll start working on ditching after that. Other than that, the main things we have is a couple asphalt patches.

We have a web set that we replaced a hydrant on last year we had to get patched. And we also had the water main break off Skyler that we have an open gravel patch in right now. So we're going to be trying to get a couple patches done. There's a real bad spot on Main Street addition. They're just gonna be going through the potholes, and we'll probably be putting minimal effort into Wildwood this year, as we're hoping for that to get repaved and looking way better than it does.

But that's about what I got for streets. Any questions?

It's, uh, it's not a streets question, but since you mentioned the water main break and the water services, are we still having water service is freezing? I have not received any calls. No, I take that back. I got one call this week from a place in Old Town. They were closed all winter, so they went and turned their valve, and they said, we thought it was maybe a hydrant issue.

They said, we're getting low water pressure. And I talked to them, they said it was on a Sunday, and I was like, oh, we weren't flushing hydrants, so your water service is frozen. So they're just gonna do a little water and get on. But it could have been frozen a month ago and they just didn't know about it. So it seems like it's gone down quite a bit.

Yeah, and a lot of those that you were getting notices on were recent services that a contractor— what do you mean? I meant more recent construction, like in the last few years, you know, plastic pipe, that kind of—. And maybe in the drywall? No, I mean, it's quite varied. Some of it just older houses.

We've had a lot of calls this summer that were people, you know, saying, you know, what's wrong with the water? And they say, your service is probably frozen. And they were like, well, it's never happened before. And we're getting a lot of that, you know. It was just a lot of people that with the cold temperatures we had just freezing around town that, you know, weren't used to ever running their water because they never had to before.

So it varied. Some, some people were plastic, and, you know, we're trying to new construction, we're trying to, you know, do our inspections and make sure everything's buried properly and all that. So it's, it's just varied. We have poor records from a lot of older stuff that was installed to say how deep it is in the ground, so we just, we just don't know.

Okay, next is buildings, page 156.

So the buildings budget comprises, um, the building official, and it also is our building maintenance department consisting of Carmel and Terry. Um, we changed this last year during the operating— during the cycle that we moved Carmel into a foreman position, and he's now managing all the janitors. So he's the one that was also bringing up having that floating position that we could move around. So although the janitors are under him, they are— the janitorial positions are all still within the departments that they're actually operating under, not in the building's budget, if that makes sense. So Carmel's done a great job putting all the janitors into one place.

I think it's helped with consistency across the positions. Um, you know, he's coming up with weekly, monthly, yearly checklists of things so that we'll have things for those— that floater position to work on that are kind of the special yearly projects that we want to get done, be it, you know, some window washing or, you know, carpeting, shampooing, other things like that.

Um, Chandra is our new building official. I think she's been here just about 3 months, so she's getting settled in as we're kicking off here on the, the summer construction season. We just approved the contract for the new permit software that we've discussed several times. So we, we've got all the paperwork signed with them, and we are waiting for kind of an implementation kickoff to start with them and hoping to get that rolling. We're seeing lots of good possibilities for that, for, you know, permits for not just Public Works but also, you know, maybe Animal Control and Planning and Zoning.

So we're hoping to really move forward with that project and help with us with a lot of digital record keeping instead of a lot of the paper that I think you've heard discussed about a lot today with various departments that we'd like to get rid of.

Main thing on goals is trying to move forward with some more building assessments. Carmel and Terry both built the with Parks, the dugouts over at the softball fields last summer. Spent a lot of time doing that. So we always find good projects to take up Carmel and Terry's time because they're both, you know, really kind of jack-of-all-trades guys that are really good at getting all sorts of things done. So we do tend to pull away from their time, but we do want him to continue inventorying all of our buildings and kind of creating assessments of tracking, you know, how old of our— a lot of our boilers or HVAC units and all these types of things are so that we're getting good lifecycles in place so that we're not, you know, waiting for something to fail and then saying, oh no, we need to replace it.

Last thing I wanted to discuss with the buildings department was some fee changes. So we did propose a couple fee changes for the building official or building department this year as far as permits. Permits go. We are recommending adding an application fee for the buildings when people are submitting for building permits. So we're recommending a $500 fee there.

Previously, or the way it's occurring right now, is people submit a, submit a building permit package. We essentially take it and do all the plan review, figure out what their fee is going to be, and then ask them to pay the fee after we've spent hours doing plan review and all the work up front. And then some people never pick building permit or just say, I'm not going to do that. So this is similar. I know HEA does a similar thing.

If you're trying to get work, you have to, you know, pay like a $500 fee for them to give you a cost estimate to actually put in time and effort to tell you what something's going to take. So this would be deducted from the actual building permit fee. So if you're, you know, if the building permit is going to be $2,000, you're going to pay this $500 fee up front. We're going to take that off. So when you pay the next part of of it, it's just going to be a $1,500 fee to get the remainder of that.

So it's basically just making them put some skin in the game, yeah, as far as making sure they're committed to the project and moving forward. So we are also adding a— or recommending an $0.80 per square foot for renovations and remodels, because it's hard to put a lot of value on what those are going to be. We use IBC building codes for, you know, a residential building of X square foot is, you know, at this dollars per square foot per the IBC. That's what the assessed cost of the structure is. So we just plug that in for the IBC tables, and then our permit fees that are already in our fee schedules create a dollar figure based off that.

So it keeps up with inflation because as the IBC changes, tables change and say construction is getting more expensive, our fees are just going to increase based on the IBC, so we don't need to go in there and adjust our fees accordingly. But when somebody comes in and says, hey, I'm going to redo my kitchen, we're just kind of making up a number for how much a kitchen is and agreeing on it. So in this case, we can just say your kitchen's 500 square feet, your permit's going to be $0.80 times 500 square feet, it's $400 permit, you know, whatever it is, so that we can do some level of easy effort. It lets people know exactly how much their permit's going to be, so it'll make the calculations a lot simpler on that sort of thing.

Any questions?

Uh, next is street lighting. Um, essentially nothing's really changing in the budget here, but I did want to touch on some streetlight things. Um, We are expecting— I got to work with Shelley and Logan to figure out when we can do a presentation. Um, I'm sorry, 161.

Um, to do a presentation for a streetlight assessment, um, that's either going to be the end of May or probably the first meeting in June, I'm thinking. Um, I'm supposed to get the draft report for that on Monday from them. I've seen a lot of the pieces and parts of it. And this will just be the kind of the draft of the final report to go through. A couple things that we're going to be doing in relation to streetlights this summer: we made a lot of repairs to lines last year and various things, did a lot of repairs in Inlet Woods and Woodland subdivision that I think were good fixes.

So this summer, with some of these funds and some of the capital funds we have, and we have a grant that I've been sitting on and waiting on to replace non-LED streetlights. So we'll— with the assessment completed, we have a big inventory of that, so I can, you know, point to the specific 30 or 40 non-LED lights and put those out to bid to be swapped to LEDs on the summer. And that's what that grant was for. In addition, we're gonna— we got a bunch of lights out that we need to order replacements for, and we have a couple couple issues that we've been waiting for ground to thaw, that we have some damaged lines that we need to fix. And my main plan after that is going to be working on Old Town.

We have some, some old, not great lighting there, and I think we could potentially reduce a lot of that with putting in some more like of our roadway lights that cast a wider net than the, the acorn-style lights that are out there that don't really provide a lot of light. So I think there's some potential to improve the overall lighting that's down there and put in some cheaper fixtures in the future. The Acorn fixtures that we have down there are very expensive to replace. Trivial, but the public works director picked those specific lights out of a magazine. I expect them.

But anyway, it's time to replace them. Yeah, and I'm perfectly happy to have that discussion and get everybody's approval on it before redo it because I, I believe that was selected as a, you know, character of Old Town thing. Um, so it's, it's just something I'd like to look at and see if we can, uh, do something that provides better lighting for the area. So let me ask you this. Um, I think that, um, LEDs, uh, were promoted so as to be cost-saving.

Have you found that this has been cost savings for utilities? And what is the percentage percentage? Do you know offhand? I do not know the percentage offhand. A lot of them were swapped before I started.

Because we— I mean, we have—. What is it?

We have 302 lights, and I think almost— I wouldn't say it's close to 270 of those are already LEDs. So most of our lights are already LEDs. And I know it was kind of a gradual shift that they did it over in the past years. So I'm not sure exactly. Exactly what the switchover is.

I could probably get some data on, you know, what the average energy switch is. A lot of what we save— so there's also a breakpoint here. HEA will put in lights, you know, and if we put in a light versus HEA putting in a light, we're paying a meter charge and base electricity charges on that light. So it's cheaper in a lot of cases for us to have HEA go put a wooden pole up and just have a light up. In certain places, and that's what we have a lot of areas throughout town.

Um, now when we can put a string of 10 lights together all off one, and we're only paying one meter charge and charge pay and all that, um, especially when we don't have lights on in the summer, we're saving a lot of money versus, um, HEA is paying— we're paying the same dollar figure for that light year-round every month. It's just a, a charge that we're paying for that regardless of usage. Um, and they do have a fee based on whether it's an old metal halide or an LED, and it's a little bit cheaper if it's an LED, but it's not a ton cheaper because they're charging you for, you know, the cost of the fixture and all that type of stuff that they're building into that cost. That's all approved through the RCA.

Yeah, did you have something you want to add, Terry? No, no, I got—. Drag this out. Um, and I think the last thing that we're, we're currently looking at with streetlights right now is, um, Kevin and I are— Kevin's kind of taking the lead on it as far as I'm looking at some Safe Routes to School funding. Um, so as part of the, the Lawton and Tinker project that we're looking at in the future here here, we're potentially looking at doing some expansion of lighting over on Lawton or Tinker.

I know Lawton has some lights but is not consistent down that stretch at all. And I've heard of, you know, kids walking down to school there in the dark. So I think that's a potential good avenue there to expand some street lighting.

I know what it was. Does— do all the lights that we put in, do they have light sensor monitors So that they— photo cells. Yep. Okay. Um, not all of them work, but we're— we try it when we get calls that say, hey, it's the middle of the day and there's a light on.

We try to go and take care of that. Um, we have spent a ton of our funding. I think we're almost maxed out right now for our fiscal year going on with street lighting. So we're basically gonna be waiting till July 1st before I get started on making some more fixes to street lights. Is your question does—.

Because a photocell just turns it on when it gets dark, turns it off when it gets light. Or are you talking about— because there are systems out there. There are systems out there that will report when the light is not functioning. And we do not have that technology. No.

Right.

You mentioned Loughton. Are you going to put some lights into the west of the high school too, or does it go that far? I've had some complaints about lighting kind of diminishing as you go that way from, from the neighborhoods.

I think if I was going to do it, we can get it grant funded. I'd probably be looking at Tinker all the way to, uh, is it Walker? Yeah, yeah, that covers it.

Loughton. Oh, from Walker to Tinker. On-lawn. On-lawn. Oh, gotcha, gotcha.

So that whole, that whole stretch? Yeah, because I know there's, there's neighbors, neighborhoods all the way down there to Rogers and, uh, Walker that go down and turn and all that other stuff.

Um, boating facility on page 178, uh, we have really changed. I think the only increase we have is for repairs and maintenance, and that's with doing some cathodic protection on the boating facility on the docks there.

Other than that, there's really nothing else to add other than, you know, we're working on the floats. I'd like to get the concrete ramps potentially bid out to get some work done this fall after fishing season's over with some of the remaining grant funds we have there. But that's not too much going on the dock other than floats and ramps. Any questions?

And then moving on to utilities, water and sewer fund.

Just give you a real quick count there. Came in 10 minutes under. Nice work, Lee.

Actually, I had, I had 5 minutes under.

Okay, so moving on to water and sewer, um, we've got the projected revenues. This is the usage fees, um, interest on investments, um, the PERS portion, and then kind of a miscellaneous other Um, we are recommending a 4% increase for FY27 on the utility rates.

I'll let Lee answer this. So we spent a lot of time reviewing this. Um, you know, we're, we're definitely seeing inflationary costs for chemical purchases, you know, for our staffing, utility costs, everything we're seeing. We did not do any rate adjustment last year to the fees, so we decided to keep it flat last year, just go level. And I think the, the biggest thing that we're seeing is, although our revenues, expenses are, you know, fairly matching, the biggest concern for me is long-term capital expenditures.

Um, I know moving forward in— I think I have it as FY29 off top of my head— um, is a potential, um, extremely large, um, wastewater treatment plant project. Um, we just have our, our wastewater treatment plant is, uh, very old. Uh, we have a lot of, you know, just pieces and components over there like screens and the, the influent, um, tank and the effluent and the contact chamber that are just not in the best shape. There's potential that we, you know, it's, it's going to need to be a major overhaul project. So I'm concerned about long-term capital for infrastructure that we need to spend.

We're spending quite a bit right now with the pump house and the blower projects going on and everything else, and, you know, lift station projects. So I'd like to start building up some capital, but even though I think it's Potentially we're looking at a bond project for that in the future, but just trying to keep up. And I can show you, you know, if you're interested in coming in, Eric put together with the Rural Water Association, kind of did some evaluations of our utility rates versus other utility rates. And Kenai is one of the lower ones in the state as far as water and sewer goes. And, you know, everybody else is doing increases as well.

So we we think we're pretty justified right now in, in doing the 4% increase. Did you say ARWA, the Alaska Rural Water Association?

Okay, okay.

And then the capital projects, um, we kind of covered these earlier, um, water main line improvements Airport reservoir pump, utility truck, affluent monitoring, and water meter equipment and software. And there were no special projects for the Water and Sewer Fund. And then the financial performance— what you're seeing here is, is again kind of— we've seen this throughout the day— looking at the yellow line being the fund balance. Months where you see that significant drop, that's where our expenditures exceeded our revenues. We had some major projects going there.

We had a sludge replacement and digester blower project. That's where we allocated those funds.

The, the peak that you're seeing out there at the top where the revenues are exceeding, that's in part for the leachate that we've been processing, which has been about $340,000 $1 million a year. That is coming to an end. It's been nice for us to get that. It's actually been helpful to our system, but that is coming to an end, and so we're reflecting that in the budget as well. That's where you see a decrease in revenues in the budget too.

Was that coming from the city of Saldana? Yes. No, no, or borough. Borough. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, so I forgot about that. That was a major budget impact having that lead shake go away as far as our revenue side.

So main projects we've got going— or we'll talk about staffing first. So we have 7 staff there. James is our utility foreman. Eric does a lot of work as far as the admin side. Eric Jean, our assistant director, managing utility departments, and that's where he came from.

And Eric and James can talk circles around me as far as water and sewer goes. But we've got a great staff. We're fully staffed right now. That's the first time we've been fully staffed for a little while. Had a lot of turnover in the last year, but I think we're at a good place.

And those guys are all great. I just got a call this week. We had somebody with a broken water main underground that they went into, you know, he's calling trying to figure out, get his water shut off, and had some issues with this curb stop and all sorts of things going on. And, you know, the guy called me the next day and said, you know, I just wanted to reach out and let you know, Eric and Justin Wick that I dealt with on site, those guys were both great, and you just, you know, have some fantastic employees, and they did a great job. And, you know, it's unfortunate I had to deal with it, but, you know, they were doing everything they could to be helpful.

So, um, the rare times we get those, those calls of kudos, we'll take them and pass them on.

Uh, main things we have going on right now are obviously the pump house and the blower projects. Blower project has kicked off. We've got excavation going on over there. They've dug out the, the foundation for the, the new structure, done a ton of submittals going on that. The pump house, we just finished contract paperwork paperwork on.

So we've seen a couple submittals rolling on, and we're starting to get in talks with them for start dates and things like that. We do have the lift station project that we've been— we keep kind of starting and stopping on and figuring out some things internally, but I think we're going to get that going here in the next month or two. That'll be out on the street to replace all of the control panels on our lift stations. We just have a lot of aging network equipment and communications on those. We're having a lot of failing issues with some of them are on radios that we're trying to get fixed now to get those over to cell networks and things.

But hoping to just get better communications. A lot of those are alarms and control panels. And, you know, when our guys are getting calls at night, we want that stuff to be reliable so that we can know if a pump's failed on a lift station. You know, some of them we only have, you know, an hour or two that we have to react react to those before it might cause a backup somewhere. Other ones can go for a day and it won't be an issue, but we just want to make sure we're getting accurate communications from those.

Um, SCADA, that's our supervisory control acquisition and data acquisition software. So we have some old software for our water plant, and we're potentially having some issues with that. We're going to investigate that right now with the contractor for the pump house, is our plan, and see what we can do moving forward to that. But we might be having a large change order, or we might be doing a request for proposal soon to try and come up with a path forward on our SCADA system. We're just slowly getting to a point where we can't really service the existing software that we have, and a lot of our infrastructure and stuff associated with that is just getting aging into a point where we can't really, um, control it very well, and, and that's not great.

So, um, kind of like just with the lift stations, we want to make sure we're getting accurate information on our water system and our pressures and all that type of stuff. So, um, in addition to all that, we are working on, um, as well as with the building department doing their permits, we're working on the water and sewer standards and permits that I also discussed. Um, I'd like to get our water water and sewer permits to where we're capturing a little better data as far as when these water and sewer services get installed. Like, you know, Henry was talking about earlier with people calling about water and sewer services freezing. A lot of these old ones, you know, we'll check the building permit file and see what we can find for them.

We just don't have any information. We don't know. All we have is a date it was installed. We don't know what the material is to tell them if it's copper or plastic, how deep it is, how big it is, any of that stuff. So just trying to build that data so it's better for the future when somebody calls.

You know, a lot of people sell their houses off and somebody buys it in the future and, you know, they just don't have any of this information about the house that they're buying. So we've become that repository for them, and it'd be better if we could have a good way to get that to them in the future. In addition, other projects we've got going on is water hydrant flushing right now. So they're starting on the west side of town, or east side of town right now, working their way west. I think we're gonna spend a little longer doing flushing this year than we have in the past.

We're trying to make sure we hit every hydrant before they, you know, in a kind of a rush we'd skip hydrants, just to try and make sure we're getting a good overall system and not flushing hydrants so long. But I think we're gonna spend a little longer on it with staff this year and making sure we're getting a good flush so that we can have good water quality water quality all throughout town. And I already talked about my concerns with the treatment plant that we've got down there and potential bond project for that in the future. I think that's kind of the biggest hanging out there thing that I've got right now for the utility department is just what's going to happen with that plant in the future.

And as far as hydrant flushing goes, we do have the— we did apply for a grant with to add more hydrants to our system so that we can include or increase our water quality. We did put one in last year where there's— we have a lot of dead-end lines where we can't flush water for certain houses, and they, you know, they might call it the brown water complaint, but there's nothing we can really do to fix it because we have no way to run enough water to actually purge the built-up iron and tannins out of that line. So this is kind of the goal of that project. So hopefully we're successful with that grant application and we can move forward with that. And, you know, fire department will be happy too because we'd be supplying more fire hydrants throughout town.

And we're, you know, we're hoping as part of doing the pump house project that that helps us with our pressures throughout town as well. We're going to get that big 16-inch water main that's been sitting across the road connected into the system. So hopefully with these new pumps and the new connections, and we can increase some, some pressures and quality throughout town moving forward to the next year.

And I think that's all I got for water and sewer. And oh, I should say, if we're— sorry, a big change we made this year, the, the water and sewer budget is now all one budget. This used to be three different departments. We had a water, we had a sewer collections, and we had the wastewater treatment plant budget. Um, so we made the request to put them all into one budget, um, this year.

Um, before we'd have just you know, we're buying boots out of this budget and then, you know, buying it for the next guy out of this budget. And it was— things would get mixed up here and there. So, uh, we think this will make it a lot cleaner and easier for the department as far as, um, pulling all the funds and, and keeping all the costs tracked easier.

Sure. Um, certifications, um, are an interesting thing for, uh, water and sewer in Alaska. It's one thing I hear those guys complain about quite a bit. Our state seems to be harder for guys to get certifications to operate the water and sewer plant. So we don't put people typically on call until they have a Level 1 operator for all certifications in our department.

So you— there's two for what— there's water treatment, there's water distribution, there's sewer collection and sewer treatment. Sometimes, like if you're working in Anchorage, like you might be part of the hydrant crew, so all you're doing is water distribution and that's the only thing you're getting time for. If you work for City of Kenai, you work on all 4 of our systems all the time. So basically your time is split up 25% to each one of those certifications. So it takes our guys a long time to get their certifications because they have to have a year of experience in each of those before they can get their level 1s.

So they get their provisionals and things like that and moves on. So it just takes a lot of effort. Now our treatment plant for water is a Level 2, and our treatment plant for wastewater is a Level 3. So we only have 2 people with Level 3 certs for wastewater treatment right now. So we're trying to get more of those.

That's why we have testing requirements that once people qualify, they can move into those. But we have employees that we just hired and moved up here, and they came from states that have no certification requirements to do certain things. So they're moving up here, and they may have years of experience, but those states may have just gone away from even doing testing requirements. And they might have a wastewater treatment testing requirements for certifications, but they may not do anything for water distribution or sewer collections, and that's just a utility operator job. So certifications vary quite a bit.

Throughout states, and it just seems getting certifications transferred up here when people move up here is extremely difficult. So they don't have the certification, but they have the time and position, so that can transfer, correct? Yes, there— sometimes. It really depends. You know, sometimes they'll give them partial credit, not full credit, and it depends what all their experience is in.

We've had people that have come from wastewater treatment in the oil field fields that they haven't given them time, experience for wastewater treatment, even though it's essentially what they're doing.

I do have a question about the security around our water system. Could you address that? Um, what are your—. Well, you know, uh, there is Sabotage? So, um, I guess the first thing I'll say is we have a system that we took offline, um, in the last month, um, because, um, there was— IT notified us of some potential concerns for a specific component or software that we were using that was supposedly being targeted by Iran.

So, um, we took it offline. We have now developed some workarounds that we are using. Instead, and it was a part to deal with a remote access system that our operators would use. So there was a month there where if they got an alarm notification on their phone, you know, they might be able to check in on their computer and see, oh, it's just this alarm and I can turn it off and I can go back to bed. It's not a big issue, we'll deal with it in the morning.

But now they can't check in to do anything that. So for about a month or so there, when anytime alarm went off, somebody had to get up at 2 in the morning and drive to plant and make sure it wasn't a big issue because our software was essentially cut off because of that. Um, so we take those issues seriously. Um, I mean, other than that, you know, we're, we're a secure facility as far as having things fenced off. We are looking at doing, um, electronic gates, um, at the waste— at the water treatment plant as part of the pump house and potentially to the sewer plant in the future.

Um, we also have some funding set aside for redoing some fencing around those facilities. Is there cameras around the water treatment? There is not. Okay, well, I would like to see that maybe on one of your future goals. Thank you.

Quick clarifying question: was there an actual issue with the software, or this was a preventative effort? Preventative. Thank you. Nobody tried to hack us that I'm aware of.

Um, there you had big reductions— I mean, several reductions, but a couple of big ones were operating and repair services, professional services, and postage. Um, can you share with us what, what contributed to that? I mean, I mean, it's about $100,000.

I would have to check and get back with you. I don't know those off the top of my head. Um, And it's going to be weird the way— because we combine this all into one, so I'm going to have to dig into each of those. I submitted everything for the three and then finance combined them into the one, so I'm going to have to look specifically at each of those. But I can look at that and get back with you.

Thank you. I was just curious, that's a big chunk of money. So a couple of things. The $48,000 reduction you're seeing there was related to the polymer, and then the, uh, the $46,000 $50,000 reduction. Actually, it was a reduction of $50,000 in that line item because we had a permit renewal that we just did in the current year.

Right, right, right, right. Yeah, we allocated $50,000 for the permit renewal, and then we ended up— that was for possible consultant services, but Eric and James did all of the permit renewal in-house, and we didn't have to outsource anything. So we actually didn't use that money, but it was in there as a potential special project for if we needed consultant help. And the polymer, we had that in there as well. We recently switched over to a different polymer at the water treatment plant.

It was about a year ago. We kept the budget high because it was— we had to switch over twice. We switched over one, and it wasn't giving us as good of a water quality as far as— it's the polymer is just for taking the color out at the treatment plant, and it wasn't giving us the quality that we had with the original polymer, but it was like half the cost of the other polymer that we were changing. So we were able to switch over with a different one with the same company, and now we're getting equal, roughly equal treatment level, but about half the cost of the polymer.

So now that that's working, we're taking that out of the budget because we had the lower cost of the budget. We don't, we don't need to switch back to the other one. Do you have— do you have any notes about the postage? I'm just curious because it didn't look like the number of customers changed when we were looking at that earlier today. And I know I still get my little postcard in the mail every month, so I'm assuming others do.

We wouldn't have changed anything for the CCR.

So I can't think what that would have been.

A lot of our postage in the water treatment is for shipping off for testing. So various tests that we have to ship up to Anchorage to get various water tests on the treatment plant or the water plant that we can't do, or annual tests and things like that. So that's what a lot of that cost is, but I don't know why we have that much of a reduction. So I'll have to look at that and get back to you. Well, and for what it's worth, I'm betting maybe there was something big that occurred in the— in this last— because it was pretty— I mean, it was $10,000, $8,900, and then $19,900.

So something big must have happened last year. Yeah, I just can't think of any special project we had for postage. That's why it jumped out. Yeah, our consumer confidence financial statements reports we do every year, so that wouldn't have been any sort of a change that we would have taken or added. So, yeah, but that's what I've got.

How'd I do? I don't know what I was doing. It was good? Okay. You can come back next year.

And I didn't realize Dave— I was giving some time to Dave do stuff there too, so, you know. Yeah, teamwork. I got to say that before, that would have taken a couple of hours.

We've still got time today, Svalla.

All right, so we're on page 252, which I handed out an updated page.

Is we made some changes to this, and then somehow we broke it, and it made its way into the book broken. This is our employee healthcare fund.

And so for this one, um, what we have is the charges for services and then the, the participants premiums and then interest earnings on this fund. And, um, this is where we talked about previously that we're not decreasing the cost to the city, but we are seeing a decrease in what we charge out to the departments from this fund because we've built this up to where we've got, um, you know, we finished last year with just a little over $3 million in this, in this account, and we're, we're looking to kind of get this dialed back more to like $1.5 million is, is kind of what we're targeting at. And in the current year, we're going to look at reducing that by $350,000 roughly. And so we wanted to kind of just slowly do this over a period of time. Certainly as we see rates increase, that, that mean might be opportunities where— how we cover some of those increases that we get to over time.

But then you can see down below, and it's been kind of confusing in the past, we decided— because this is one where it changes at January 1st, it doesn't follow our fiscal budget, it follows a calendar budget or a calendar year, not our fiscal year, which goes from July to June. So that's where we did see that we did have a decrease per employee cost in '26, and then we've anticipated a slight increase that would go into effect January 1st of 2027.

So the only thing I'd like to do, maybe a little bit for Council, and you guys tell me if this is redundant, But I really just want to talk a little bit about how this fund mechanically works. So if you look at page 252 in the new handout that you just got, you've got the revenues in the fund and then you've got the expenses of the fund. The expenses are the costs that we are paying to outside parties for these benefits for our employees. And you can see that, you know, the projection for fiscal '26 is about $3.15 million. We're projecting about $3 million in fiscal '27.

So you're not seeing a huge 25% reduction there. Where we're talking about a reduction is this fund accounts for all of those expenses that we pay, and then we determine a billing rate that we're going to bill other city departments where the employees actually work. Okay, and that's the revenue side of this. That's what's up here in the top side. So the revenue that comes into this fund, the charge for services— so for each department of the city that has a full-time position, we're billing them.

Last year we billed them $26,722 for the benefit for that position. This year, that's dropped down to $20,000, and it's because we've been building too big of reserves in the, the reserves of this fund have been growing. So we're ratcheting that back, and that's why you see the health insurance savings in all the other departments of the city. Also, what's revenue in this area is this is what employees pay for their share of the premium. So when we talk about down below, you know, an employee only on our fully insured plan, low deductible plan, they're paying $168 a month.

If they're on our high deductible plan with an HSA, they're paying $152 a month. All the way up to, you know, if you have family coverage, it's $486 a month. So I know it's confusing and I'm trying to help explain that a little bit, but the cost of providing employee healthcare has not gone down by 25%. The cost we're billing ourselves for providing that, we're reducing by 25%. And the result of that, like Dave said, is this is what we're trying to avoid is that where that yellow line is right now.

That yellow line's gotten too high. And the result of that getting too high is we're billing ourselves too much money and we're putting money that we can put into other services here in the city or into capital or into something else. We're gonna start putting it into that rather than start keep building the reserves of this fund over here. So over time, we're hoping to reduce those reserves and like Dave said, bring this from $3 million back down to $1.5 million. It's gonna be a balancing act.

I think you're gonna see, you know, we reduced it a lot this year. You're gonna see that gradually start to come back up and hopefully we find a happy landing spot about that $1.5 million in reserves. So I know it's a little confusing, but I think this is really important and we're absolutely maintaining the same level of service or benefit for our employees. Our costs really haven't gone down out there. The third party, I think we've done a hell of a job at the city of trying to limit what we pay and been pretty creative with our plans.

But the 25% savings you're seeing in all the other departments doesn't mean we're paying Primera any less.