Assembly Regular Meeting of February 6, 2025

I'd like to go ahead and call to order the Kodiak Island Borough Regular Assembly meeting of Thursday, February 6th, 2025 at 6:30 PM, and we are in the Assembly Chambers. I'd like to have you all rise for the invocation by Anthony Furio of the Salvation Army, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dear Lord, the Father, we come to you and we thank you for having the ability of, as a community, to come here and trade off our thoughts and our things that we'd like to do. And the people we have here, the borough assembly members that listen, that take the time to be able to contribute and want to help and take their time on Thursday to be here, we thank you for their support. Support for the mayor, for the mayor to take and support the— the other members. And we thank you for the staff that helps the mayor do the things that he needs to know to push these programs forward. And Lord, we have lots of things that are happening here this year, and we just need your help, whether it's in the homeless people here, with our schools, our fisheries, or home programs, that we just ask you to be with us and watch over us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

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

We are gathered on the traditional homeland of the Supiaq Alutiiq people, and we acknowledge the 10 tribes of the Kodiak Alutiiq region. We recognize the Alutiiq culture that enriches our community to this day. Roll call, please.

Mr. Ames. Here. Mr. Griffin. Here. Mr. Johnson.

Here. Mr. LeDoux. Here. Mr. Sharrett. Here.

Mr. Smiley. Here. Mr. Whiteside. Here. Mayor Arndt.

Here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Next item is approval of the agenda and consent agenda. Jared.

Move to approve the agenda and consent agenda. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Opposed, same sign. Motion carries unanimously.

Uh, the consent agenda for the public's information is approval of the minutes for the regular meeting of January 16th, 2025. Next item is citizens' comments. These are agenda items not scheduled for public hearing and general comments. The local phone number is 907-486-3231.

The toll-free number is 855-492-9202. Ask you to sign in and state your name for the record. Turn on the microphone before speaking. Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof. If calling in, please turn off any listening devices to prevent feedback.

Green light is on. Green light is on, Bill. Okay. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and assembly members. My name is Bill Oliver, and I'm president of the Senior Citizens of Kodiak, Inc.

I'm here once again to report to you concerning our activities during the past 6 months for the fiscal year beginning ending June 30th, 2025.

During this period, we provided 11,122 meals, some in, in-house, some home delivered, and some by curbside pickup. Home delivered meals are offered 7 days a week. 17 Seniors took advantage of our adult daycares program. 4,202 Hours of care had been provided. This is the only adult daycare center in the state that operates 7 days a week.

9,320 Rides were provided to the public through KATS, Kodiak Area Transportation System. We provided Lifeline services to 68 members, provided caregiver counseling to 28 individuals. 11 Families were given respite relief. 17 Seniors received chore care service, and we're trying to hire more chore care providers.

And we provided non-Medicaid case management to 24 seniors. In addition to the support I've just mentioned, Our February calendar of events as published in our monthly newsletter includes a free Valentine's Day lunch for the over-80 crowd, a mini seminar on the Safeway Savings App, a watercolor class, lunchtime trivia, a movie afternoon, a book club meeting, a birthday luncheon, bingo day, entertainment by the Whippersnappers, And occurring on a weekly basis are chair yoga, tai chi, board and card games, and a weekly foot clinic. I want to thank you guys for your continued financial support. We know you have to make choices and can't do everything you might want to do, but we assure you that we'll make the best use we can of every dollar we get to enhance the lives of older members on Kodiak Island. Thank you.

Thank you, Bill.

My name is Chris Burns. I just want to follow up on the discussion at the joint work session a couple days ago. What I heard there, there isn't a benchmark plan with the final goal to solve Kodiak's housing issues, whatever you think they are. The short-term rental restriction proposals are an attempt at social engineering that will not contribute to alleviate the housing shortage in any great degree. It might help a little bit.

It's not really— it's not going to fix things. To scapegoat short-term rentals as a boogeyman is really misguided. And it's just, you know, people said it's data-driven. Well, the data came from Southern California. So this deal has been going on since I was a kid.

I know it inside and out. You know, my folks bought the first borough land that ever got sold here. We bought a lot there. We built it after school and on weekends and in the summer. And we built a house finally and moved out there because, you know, there just wasn't a lot of houses around.

Short-term rentals provide house cleaning businesses. There's a lot of women that clean these houses up, you know, after— I'm not in town at my house, so I have to have someone manage that stuff, and I pay them. The city and the borough collect 12% of every dollar that gets made on these short-term rentals, so 7% to the city and 5% to the borough.

It's— I understand, you young people's concerns about getting into housing. I have two adult children that have navigated it. I had to navigate it myself here in this town, and it's possible.

To ask the short-term rental people to subsidize other people's children to get into housing is pretty far out. It's just not my— it's not my idea of how things work.

My suggestion is to have financial literacy classes in high school. There's plenty of financial instruments like 30-year fixed mortgages, VA loans, Alaska Housing Finance commercial loans, sweat equity. That's what my parents did. We bought the lot with cash and then we just, you know, they just took their money they saved and then we built the place. We literally built it from the foundation up.

So, uh, this— anyhow, that's all I got. Thank you, Chris. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Dan Rohrer. Mayor and Assembly, thanks for hearing our comments tonight. I'm going to speak in regards to housing as well. As I spoke at the joint session, I'm not excited about the idea of dealing with short-term housing thing, but I do have 4 suggestions. I'm going to try to get through them all.

First, I think it would be great for you guys to reach out to Kodiak Island Housing Authority, the management team of the Sheraton Apartments, Fur Terrace, and Pacific Terrace, I think you would be shocked by the number of vacancies we have in our community for low-income— for low-income people who can't get their low income low enough to afford it. A lot of our housing problem in our community is due to vacancies in those organizations. Anyways, it'd be interesting for you to get that on the record, what those numbers really are, and it's ongoing over multiple years. There are 3 things that you guys could do that would significantly improve the housing scenario in Kodiak. One of them is specifically related to planning and zoning, and two of them are related to building code.

I would love to work with one of you or multiple ones of you on that to bring those forward as changes. Three examples: out at Bell's Flats, friend of mine wants to build a house, has commercial property, business zoned, has business on that. Every single bit— every single property around her, bar one, has houses on them. They're all zoned business. Guess what?

She can't build a house. She has the money, she has the financing, she has the builder. The only way she can build out there is if she attaches the house. That's craziness. There needs to be an exception process where you can go through some kind of exception process through planning and zoning, notify the neighbors, 'cause the neighbors are fine with her building a house, but we as a community are not letting her.

Two, my brother Sam just bought 3 lots on Island Lake. They're all 3 zoned business. He'd love to build shops with 2-bedroom apartments above them. That'd be perfect. They're all over our community.

Guess what? You can't do it anymore unless you sprinkle the whole building. And guess what? There's nobody in our community that installs sprinkler systems, And sprinklers cause long-term expenses because you have to monitor them and you have to maintain them and you have to test them annually and every 5 years do significant maintenance on them. Third is also sprinkler system related.

We used to have exemptions for these in our building code. We can have an exemption on fourplexes. When was the last time anybody built a fourplex in this community? It was Dane Larson. He moved from the community when we took away the exemption.

So it used to be triplexes and fourplexes, you did not have to sprinkle them. You could adequately deal with it with multi-hour firewalls, which you can do with sheetrock. So I own a zoned R-3 lot in front of the Christian school. I would like to build 4 or 5 fourplexes on it. It is not affordable to do so if I have to sprinkle all of them, maintain them over time.

And the reality is, is that it's not making them any safer. The one fire that I am aware of in a fourplex in our community in the last 15 years was in my sister Debbie's fourplex, and it was in non-sprinkled, entirely stuck to one unit of the building. Guess why? It had double-thick sheetrock through it, so it stopped the fire from going anywhere. So again, there's three very, very specific things that right now could make a positive impact for our community, but it does entail changing borough code and creating two exemptions into our building code.

Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Are there any phone calls?

No phone calls. Anyone else wishing to come forward, please do so at this time. I mean, I don't want to come forward, but here I am. Um, I have letters. I don't know what the protocol is.

I should. Apologies.

Hey everybody. Uh, first and foremost, thank you guys for your service to our community. Really appreciate that you guys are willing to step up to the plate and, um, serve here. My name is Julianne Curry. I live at 4043 Woodland Drive in Service District 1.

Many of you may know my other half, Raymond May. He has the good fortune of being married to me, but he cannot attend tonight. Normally he would be here, but he is heading down to the Board of Fisheries meeting in Ketchikan to be able to testify on behalf of our commercial fishing business. So our house resides on Woodland Drive, and for those of you who aren't familiar with Woodland Drive, it's in the borough, but at the end of Woodland Drive is Spruce Cape Trail, the most popular— like, one of the most popular walking trails on the island. Uh, and I'm here today to talk about drainage issues on Woodland Drive.

And I know that the typical protocol is to go to a, um, service district meeting, but as I see, there hasn't been a service district meeting notice since March of 2024. So I'm here in front of you guys today to be able to talk about these issues. Um, the letter details out, uh, what's been going on and the actions that have been taken and action requested of the borough. But long story short, the second half of Woodland Drive, the closer that you get to Spruce Cape Trail, the more significant the drainage issues get on that road. We have water that's constantly draining into our driveway, creating an unsafe and hazardous driving condition in the wintertime as our entire driveway ices up.

This is due in part to, um, road runoff, because our road kind of comes to a little upside-down steeple collapse. So water pours into our driveway and also into our property. That's starting to cause some damage around our property and starting to causing settling issues with our house. But also, there's two driveways that are across from our house where significant amounts of water are draining into the roadway and then draining into our driveway and onto our property. So we would really appreciate it if the borough would take some action to address the drainage issues, including an analysis of the ditches and the lack of culverts, especially at the second half of Woodland Drive, and driveway code adherence.

So thank you, guys. For your time. I really appreciate it. Raymond's number is on the letter that was addressed to the Borough Assembly in 2022. So if you have any questions, please follow up.

Thank you, Julianne. Anyone else wishing to come forward, please do. Well, as they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Rob Lindsay. Appreciate the chance to speak before you.

Somewhat off topic, at the other meeting night before last. I'm here again as representative of Ocean Pasture Restoration Incorporated and on behalf of the new, we hope to be announced, American Ocean Restoration Project, which we have been invited to the table in a very significant way to draft completely or in part. And while We're not the only parties involved, which is one thing. What we have before us is a chance to become— I mean, in Kodiak, I have been— Scott knows, Ryan knows, I think I've talked to Scott as well about our plans to begin with an ocean plankton restoration project in the Gulf of Alaska, Kodiak being our home port and our home base of operations. Now that this other sweeping thing has been put on the table, it brings a lot of issues to the front.

What we're hoping to do is strike while the iron is hot. We still have this significant place at the table as RUSP in the 2012 project is the only large-scale project that has ever been conducted in this manner. It's iron seeding fertilization of the phytoplankton who just need the iron to photosynthesize. And I don't mean to grossly oversimplify, nor is this going to be an uncontrolled project. Uh, quite the opposite.

We have great expectations, but we also have great standards to adhere to. It's going to be a strictly scientific project. Our original plan was working with the state of Alaska, 3 projects a year over 10 years. And we've been working with the legislature, and it's really hard to get them to commit. We believe, we really felt that the C-4 Task Force legislation should have really considered us.

We've given testimony before resources to this most current series of task force. And part of it is just, it's kind of, it's almost too big to get a hold of. Our website is www.oprworld.com. I think if you would look at that, the background, the links are there. It's pretty amazing stuff.

I met— the great honor of meeting Russ George myself personally in 2016. I picked up the phone call after my first major salmon disaster and I said, "Hey, you're the only guy that's brought back the salmon." And to kind of bring this back together, you know, Kodiak's housing condition, it's nothing new. It is a problem. Kodiak also has many, many other things including the aging infrastructure and we're maxed out on a lot of our stuff. I'm sure you've heard—.

Many of you have heard from Sterling. About where we're at on many, many things. And so we've got a lot of money that's got to go back into the ground. We're getting hit with the port. And while the housing is a problem, I think it's a greater symptom of the condition.

And I think bringing back the fish, and especially if we can make Kodiak, the genesis, the hub of the United States Ocean Restoration Project, which is gonna go global, I think that would be a great start to go in a new direction. So we're asking for your support. We hope that when the day comes and the proclamation is made and they reach out or he reaches out to Scott, that Scott can say, "Yes, we're aware of OPR. We support them. We'd like them to go forward with the project." We're trying to do the same with the UFA, United Fishermen of Alaska, as well as the legislature.

And again, I want to give great thanks to Louise Stutes. She's been a a very staunch supporter, as well as former Senator—. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] We have got citizens' comments at the end too, Rob, if you could stay. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else wishing to come forward?

Hello, my name is Sandra West. Hello, friends and neighbors. It was pretty exciting. I know I just a couple days ago talked to you about the economy of outdoor recreation. Then I ran into someone who wants to start a business with outdoor— spacing out for recreation.

Yes! Do it! Let's go! Anyway, I That's all I got to say about that. But I was very interested in the housing that we were talking about and the Kodiak Economic Development Corporation had an ad in Friday's flyer about nonprofits and they are doing workshops.

I had no idea who these people were. People are, what goes on. I mean, I know a little bit, but anyway, I just thought it was interesting that it's funded by HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That's some of the funds. So money is coming, and people are going to be talking, maybe about housing, maybe about business.

I don't know. I just thought it was exciting, and I thought I would share it. You guys all know about it, but I don't know, just This sounds like potentially this could be an opportunity for all the great minds in our community to get together and share ideas. I mean, I thought Chris and Dan had some really great ideas. And I'm sure you all have your own.

Anyway, thanks a bunch. Thank you, Sandra. Is there any calls? Is there anyone else that would like to come Forward. We'll move on then on the agenda.

Next one is committee meetings. Are there any committee reports from the assembly? Beau? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

The Kodiak Island Borough and City of Kodiak Joint Fisheries Workgroup, we met again recently and we received a presentation from Danny Evans from ADF&G. And this is about the potential ESA listing for king salmon in Alaska. And she walked us through the process of what that entails and what the state is doing to push back against that listing. And because the repercussions would be widespread, every fishery in the state could potentially be affected by that listing. So if king salmon were to be listed, Essentially any fishery that interacts with king salmon or in that, whether it's a migration path or habitat that salmon interact with or their natal streams, they would all be shut down.

Every single one of them potentially could be shut down. So pretty disastrous consequences if that were to happen. So Ms. Evenson walked us through what that looks like and made it abundantly clear that the Department of Fish and Game is a opposing this potential listing.

We also received an update from our very own harbormaster, Mr. Dave Johnson. Fantastic presentation on timelines for updates for the harbor and support— the ramp facility is going to be updated and hopefully, we can look at next phases coming through, but if I understood Mr. Johnson correctly and he can fill us in if I misunderstood it, is that it's going to be iterative and the first wave is going to come include a drive-down dock, if I remember correctly, and an update the ramp so folks can actually launch their boats at low tide. So that's a really exciting development. I know I'm certainly excited about it. We had another update from the U.S. Coast Guard, which isn't breaking news anymore for the community.

The first cutter will be here or is here now. So they, they met with us to give us the timeline for each cutter's arrival, and we asked just basic questions, what that means for the fishing community. And really, it's just another asset on the grounds. Potentially, if there were— response was needed, we would have a different type of asset available for folks through the Coast Guard, of course. And then Miss Peterson gave us another update for the climate impacts.

This is an ongoing project through the National Marine Fisheries Service, and there's a lot of stakeholders involved in this, and basically just trying to get a grasp on not only why— how the ecosystem is changing, but why it's changing and how that's affecting fishing communities. So they're looking to identify opportunities to increase resilience for fishing communities. There's plenty of topics that folks are discussing, so we appreciate Miss Miss Peterson coming by, and I anticipate more information coming from, from all of these folks. But I encourage anyone who's curious about what we're talking about to give us a call. We're always open for suggestions.

It's nice to see a lot of participation at these meetings now, and their attendance, I should say, and, and folks coming out and letting us know what their concerns are and ideas on, on how we can improve resiliency for our fishing community. Thank you, Bo. Anyone else? Dave. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I had the fortune of attending the Solid Waste Advisory Board on January 28th, and a few things I wanted to pass along for that. I thought my compliments to staff for a really outstanding presentation on the operation of the facility, some of the challenges, and some of the mitigations they've taken to making the the— drawing a blank on the term of the water, the bad water that's made, but—. Oh, leachate. The leachate, making the leachate good again. So it was good.

I learned a lot. One thing I kind of wanted to bring back to the body here as a whole that I found a little surprising and I'm hoping to get some nods of agreement was we reviewed the strategic plan and I found it to be a little lacking in that really the only topics in the Solid Waste Advisory Board strategic plan were various education and outreach ideas, which, of course, I'm not trying to minimize in any way. But I went back and read the borough code as it pertains to the Solid Waste Advisory Board. And their charge is to, I quote, "Serve in an advisory capacity to the mayor and assembly on matters affecting solid waste handling in the borough, establishing a waste management plan which meets the needs, desires, and goals of the community. For the purpose of this chapter, waste handling means the management, storage, collection, transportation, treatment, utilization, Processing and final disposition of solid waste, da da da.

And so for the board to kind of be singularly focused on this education and outreach aspect, I found to be a little— they're being underutilized. And so I had kind of said to them, like, you know, I'm only one board member, I can't— only one assembly member, I can't speak on behalf of the assembly, but my expectation would be that the Solid Waste Advisory Board is looking at the regulations, They're making recommendations for service changes if needed. They're, you know, looking at rates when rate increases come. And, you know, they might endorse things that the staff doesn't, and then the borough has to, you know, the assembly has to make a decision. But that's what I'm used to seeing with advisory boards.

And so to see them be narrowing their scope so much, I thought was unnecessary. And I'd hope that the rest of the assembly would agree that they have the responsibility and authority to take on a much larger role in the management of our facility. Thanks. Thank you, Dave.

Ryan— oh, I'm sorry, I understand what you're saying. Okay, I was going to make a report on the Lands Committee. We spoke about it on Tuesday night at the joint work session, but a couple of you weren't here, so I'd like to go ahead and get that on the record again. The Lands Committee met on Monday of this week, and we approved the minutes from the January meeting, which had the recommendation of a 4-lot subdivision off of Island Lake Road and Scout Circle. And that will be coming forward to you kind of as a— whether you agree with proceeding with the disposal.

On there because it involves going to public hearing as to determining that the land is surplus to borough need. And then there's a rezone process and all that. They'll go through Planning and Zoning, come back to us. So that was the first thing. Then the other thing that we acted on was basically it's 3 parcels of land that would be let out as tracts.

The smallest one would have the potential of about 4 or 5 lots. The second one would have a potential— these are 7,200 square foot lots. Second one would have the potential of 8, um, 7,200 square foot or larger lots. And the third parcel would be one that has potential for 8 to 10, uh, 7,200-square-foot lots, or potentially, um, 16 to 20, uh, what we would call small lot subdivision in that range of 3,600 to 4,000 square feet. So that part will have to be finalized on there, and that'll be coming forward to you too.

The other thing that the board decided was to look at next, um, two projects. One is the Chiniak land, kind of the where the salvage timber harvest took place behind the school, and the second one is the the Koharney Hills subdivision, also known as the Cannonball Fields area. So those will be— and there will be a multiple discussion on it. There's nothing that's going to move really quick on that. So anyway, that's the report on the Lands Committee.

Anybody else have any other committee things? Okay. We will move on then to public hearings. First is ordinance number FY2025-12, an ordinance of the Assembly of the Kodiak Island Borough accepting and appropriating grant funds for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 Bristol Bay King Crab and Bering Sea Snow Crab Fisheries Disaster Declaration. Jared.

Move to adopt ordinance number FY2025-12. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Borough Manager Amy Williams. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Good evening and good evening, assembly members. A fisheries disaster determination was made for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 Bristol Bay king crab and Bering Sea snow crab fisheries, resulting from an unprecedented crab die-off. Disaster funds were subsequently determined and made available for distribution to eligible communities based on each community's proportion of the estimated gross revenue value. Kodiak Island Borough is eligible for these funds due to the history of Bristol Bay and Bering Sea crab landings made in Kodiak and the associated severance taxes collected on those landings. I received notification that the K— that KIB was eligible to receive $53,182.40 of the disaster funds to help mitigate losses in severance tax revenue.

Kodiak Island Borough Code 3.25 authorizes the assembly to accept grant funds and requires those grant funds not designated for a specific purpose be appropriated via ordinance. Our impact will be $53,180.40 increase to the Fisheries Economic Development Project budget.

Thank you. Any questions of staff at this time? Seeing none, I'll go ahead and recess the regular meeting and open the public hearing. Is there anybody that wishes to come forward on this? I'll also read the phone numbers.

Local number is 907-486-3231, toll-free number 855-492-9202.

Give it a minute, or give it half a minute.

Hearing and seeing none, we'll close the public hearing, reconvene the regular meeting assembly discussion.

Roll call vote, please. Mr. Aynes. Yes. Mr. Griffin. Yes.

Mr. Johnson. Yes. Mr. Liedtke. Do. Yes.

Mr. Sharrett. Yes. Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Whiteside.

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes with 7 yes, 0 no. Thank you. Next item, public hearing, is ordinance number FY 2025-13, writing off the personal property delinquent taxes, penalties, interest, and fees of those non-collectible accounts.

Jared, move to adopt ordinance number FY 2025-13. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Uh, staff report.

Amy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Staff has compiled 9 personal tax accounts that have been determined uncollectible for various reasons. All legal resources have been exhausted by staff in pursuing collections. It is staff desire for borough accounts to to be current and properly reflect the financial status of receivables in accordance with the generally accepted accounting principles.

KIB code does not identify a specific method of writing off delinquent accounts. Therefore, this ordinance requests the approval to write off these uncollectible accounts. There is a $10,630.17 base tax total, a $3,959.67 penalties and interest total, and a $601.14 miscellaneous fees total for a total write-off of $15,190.98.

At the work session last week, an assembly member asked if KAB ever used or considered using debt buyers. In an email that was sent to the assembly on January 31st, I updated the assembly about why KAB does not use a service like this. Those reasons are: 1, our current policy mandates that all legal avenues of collection are attempted. 2, Current policy also requires the KIB attorney to review and concur that all legal avenues of collection have been pursued. And finally, debt buyers must follow the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and other relevant regulations.

If they do this, they will not make it any further than our current policy allows. Um, our finance director is available tonight if you have any specific questions. Are there any questions of staff? Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Um, I want to restate your opening comment where it says all legal resources have been exhausted, and then as we go in to talk about debt factoring, debt buying, it says that the attorney must concur that all legal resources have been exhausted. So I am not in support of this ordinance because although Staff, no offense, you may feel that a debt buyer might get nowhere further than what you guys do. Uh, there are people that have this as a career. So unless we actually get denials from debt buyers, I do not support just writing off the debt. This is $15,000.

Uh, the factor in this could be as much as $5,000 or $6,000. So I will not be supporting this until we actually get denials from debt buyers. And I appreciate your guys' feelings on the matter. Any other questions of staff at this time? We'll go ahead and recess the regular meeting and open the public hearing.

Once again, the local phone number is 907-486-3231, toll-free number 855-492- 9202. Ask you to come forward at this time, or please call in.

We'll wait half a minute.

Can you actually wait half a minute, or do you have to go a little early? Well, you've helped me get to the half a minute, Scott. Thank you. Hearing and seeing none, we will go ahead and close the public hearing, reconvene the regular meeting, and assembly discussion. Is there any further discussion?

Roll call vote on the motion. Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Griffin. Yes. Mr. Johnson.

Yes. Mr. LeDoux. Yes. Mr. Sharrett. No.

Mr. Smiley? Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames?

Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes with 6 yes, 1 no. Thank you. Moving on to the next public hearing is Ordinance Number FY 2025- 14, amending and redirecting funds from the previous authorized American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA, state and local fiscal recovery funds, SLFRF, for the benefit of the residents of the borough.

Jarrett, move to adopt ordinance number FY2025-14. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Amy, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Um, this is going to be a little bit long, so I provided you a copy, um, right before the meeting started that looks like this. It says for 10C in red on top, and I'm going to explain what the ordinance is and try to answer some questions that came up in the work session last week at the same time. The Kodiak Island Borough received $2,524,709 of ARPA funds through the State and Local Fiscal Recovery funds. The first half of the funds were distributed in October 2021, and the second half was delivered in October 2022. Funds were allocated with resolutions fiscal year 2022-16, fiscal year 2023-09, and fiscal year 2023-09A.

These allocations obligated $778,157 of the total funds. As we approach the deadline to obligate these funds, $1,746,553 of the funds remained. To ensure the funds were obligated before the deadline, staff compiled a list of projects that would be eligible. Those projects were presented to the assembly for approval and prioritization. After the assembly discussion, staff was asked to put these items into a recommended priority order.

The finance department prioritized the projects with 3 things in mind: 1, funding a variety of projects, 2, benefiting a variety of funds, and 3, being mindful of ensuring Kodiak residents see the benefit of all the allotted funds. As you re— review the order in the ordinance, you will see that the PFOS-free turnouts for Bayside and Women's Bay Volunteer Fire Departments are placed at priority number 1 and 2. These are both expenses that did not have a funding source dedicated to them before this list was created. By being listed number 1 and number 2, they will be the first expense items that are covered by these ARPA funds. These two items use $171,338 and benefit Fund 250, Fire Protection Area 1, and Fund— I must have one of those fund numbers wrong, I think it's 252, uh, for Women's Bay Fire Department.

The next item on the list is East Elementary roof design. This item is approved via contract fiscal year 2019-10V, which is the contract that we have with with Jency Urban Wall for design services. This is a preexisting project, project number 22004. This use of ARPA money in the amount of $33,377 will benefit the general fund. Number 4 on the list is where there was some discussion at the work session last week.

The recommended order in the ordinance has 6 months of health insurance premiums listed in this position, which will cover the expense of $493,492. $1.2 Million and will benefit the general fund, landfill enterprise fund, Bayside Volunteer Fire Department, and KFRC enterprise fund. There is a suggestion that number 9 on the list and number 4 on the list be switched to bring the abatement of the buildings previously used as the mental health buildings closer to the top of the list. Staff is still recommending that the list remains as presented in the ordinance. Due to the use of priority order, each project can only be funded when the product listed above it is complete.

For example, if the abatement project is moved to number 4 on the list, then no expenses could be covered on numbers 5 through 12 until all $1,310,000 on the project is spent. Staff is recommending the list— the items listed from 4 through 8 are prioritized before the abatement project because they are items that all have expenses that would need to be reported by April 30th. If we do not list those project expenses we will not be able to use any ARPA funds on any of those projects. Listing the projects as recommended is a guaranteed way to spend an additional $839,092 before the abatement project is reached at number 9. When we arrive at number 9 on the list, we will have $907,461 remaining to be assigned to the abatement project, and the expenses for number 1 through number 8 would already be covered.

The suggested order acts as an insurance policy that protects the borough if something caused the abatement contract to stall or not be finished by the ARFA spend deadline of December 31, 2026. In summary, staff recommends that we do not change the list. We do, however, request the word FUD on line 29 of the ordinance be amended to the word fund. Our finance director is here tonight to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you for the explanation on in regards to my question. So, um, any further questions of staff at this time? Ryan.

Um, my question, Madam Manager, is do you think that there's an anticipation that the abatement will not be completed before December 31st, 2026? Is that why you're asking for this reprioritization? No, I have no reason that it will— that is known right now to believe that it will not be completed by 2026.

May I continue, Mr. Mayor? Go ahead. So I have to say that I'm a little probably taken aback, I guess, that we went through— we went through a discussion, we went through prioritization We talked about the way that we wanted to spend funds, and now what we are asking or what I am receiving out of this letter is, hey, we really want to move your number 4 to number 9. We appreciate that, or whatever the number is for the buildings across the way.

I just see that as kind of a— Maybe this was an important discussion we should have had at the time we were allocating these funds, and maybe I just wasn't privy to that conversation at that time. I understand where you're coming from. Um, when we had the prioritization discussion with the assembly, we talked about which projects had money set aside for them in the current budgets and which did not. So that's why those turnouts are number 1 and 2. And then after that discussion, we talked about the idea of an insurance policy, and the direction to staff was to prioritize them in the order that we thought was best.

This is the order that we thought was best. Last week at the work session, Mayor Arndt asked if we could change— he had this recommendation that we change 9 and 4, and I was unable to articulate why I did not think that was a good idea. That's why I took the time to write out all the information on why staff believes that it's best to keep it as recommended that first time we brought the list out. It's just a backup in case, um, any variety of things happened on that project. If we don't list the projects that are currently on there between 5 and 8, then we can't use any of those projects because expenses have to be listed by April 30th of this year.

If we don't include those projects on that list then we are— we can only use the ones that have expenses. So that third page that you have with the really tiny font, the column that says— I should have wore different glasses— spent as of 12/31. I highlighted it. It's right there. That column is the only item that has expenses that are— if we do not report report those expenses by April 30th of this year, we cannot use those projects if there is not a contract.

So the rules of the money were by December 31st we already had to spend the money or it had to be under a contract and the money had to be obligated. I was hoping that the letter helped with some of that, but I think it helps some people. Okay. Our finance director is here to clear up anything that I am not articulating correctly. I'm going to interject a little bit here too.

Part of my concern was that we were putting projects before that and then we're having to shuffle money. What I've been told is that we can shuffle the money back from items number 3 and 4 at a later date. To pay for this project, but it wasn't quite the way I envisioned it either. So, I prefer that when we have the, you know, as you go down through the sewer lift station, the Baylor floor, the Baylor rebuild, the skid steer, before you get to the mental health We're going to be taking potentially money out of all of those funds in order to help cover this project, and we'll still be looking for funds for it. So, Ryan, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll just recall my vote, uh, during the ratification of the abatement on the mental health buildings. When the assembly approved that contract, we approved it with the understanding that 100% of those funds were being used from ARPA. The way that I received this letter is that if we reallocate these funds, we have a potential $400,000 unfunded liability. Am I reading this incorrectly?

So just with the one item, outline item alone for the health insurance, by spending that $493 $493,492 with ARPA money that's already been paid for. So if we get down and we only have $907,000 left, we just take that $493,000 or whatever amount is appropriate for that— it's like $403,000— and put that from the general fund into the mental health abatement project. So there's not— we don't have to do a lot of shuffling. We can just pick one thing that covers it. And then if for some reason that project does not go as planned, or I think Dora first told me, what if lightning strikes half of it and it burns down and we can't spend that money?

We will have a way to have spent that money. That's the idea of the insurance backup plan. I like that creative statement. Lightning strikes half of it.

Ryan, any further questions on there, or anyone else have any discussion?

Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Johnson. Yes. Mr. LeDoux. Yes.

Mr. Sharrett. No. Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Whiteside.

Yes. Mr. Ames.

Yes. Mr. Griffin? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? And I made a mistake.

No. So I apologize. We went and did all this discussion I went through, so I'm going to back it up. After the staff report, we have recessing the regular meeting, opening the public hearing. On this.

And the local phone number is 907-486-3231. Toll-free number is 855-492-9202. I ask you to sign in and state your name for the record. Turn on the microphone before speaking. If you're calling in, please turn off any listening devices to prevent feedback.

Is there anyone that would like to come forward and speak on this issue?

Any phone calls?

Hearing and seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Whole 5 seconds that time. Nope. If you go through, you'll find it was at least 30 seconds total.

Further— so close public hearing, reconvene the regular meeting. Is there any further assembly discussion? Hearing and seeing none, roll call vote on the motion. Mr. Johnson? Yes.

Mr. LeDoux? Yes. Mr. Sharrett? No. Mr. Smiley?

Yes. Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames? No.

Mr. Griffin? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Okay, motion passes with 5 yes, 2 no. All right, thank you.

Next item is the Borough Manager's Report. Amy, you have the floor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. On Tuesday morning, February 4th, Mayor Art James Dixon and Chris French from the Community Development Department and I met with representatives from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and other local organizations to evaluate the Russian River and how the change of the river is affecting residents in the Bells Flats area. The possible solutions that NRCS can offer are more of a long-term solution, but staff is continuing to work on short-term solutions to help, including researching the necessary steps to grant easement of KAB property to the area.

As requested at the work session last week, the KAB SD financial statements were sent to the assembly on January 31st, 2025. Please let me know if you didn't get those. I wanted to let you know that our assessor, Sima Group, will be the acting administrative official for February 28th and March 6th regular meetings. Um, I'm here for the work sessions before both of those meetings, so we'll work with her and make sure that she's ready for the regular meetings. I added in your, um, information tonight an article from Intrafish, uh, is to keep you up to date with concerns concerns that are widespread in our community about, um, fish policy and changes that are being made in NOAA.

I did attend the board of directors meeting for the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council in January. The highlights from that meeting are in your packet tonight. And at the joint work session that we had on Tuesday night, there was an inquiry about the wastewater treatment plant capacity in relationship to how it affected our expansion of housing. I included that tonight, um, as well about capacity, and it's from the acting manager. She also encloses some interesting information about the inflow and infiltration into that system.

We made job offers today to our associate planner that will be a long-range planner and our associate planner that will be a code enforcement. Um, I'm expecting them both to accept. Accept those offers. In finance, the 2024 foreclosure process has been sent to the printer. The list will be distributed in the local newspaper once a week for 4 weeks beginning this month.

Please contact the finance department to get an updated payoff amount if you see your name on that list. For the property assessment and taxation implementation project, staff is back to regularly scheduled meetings with the Tyler implementation team. The main focus is still with assessing, and the project is 21% complete. Our go-live date is still expected to be June 25th. Staff is working with the vendor to set up our electronic timesheet project.

Go-live date is expected to be mid-April, depending on IT's workload and if staff's training availability is there. In Community Development, the multi-jurisdictional multi-hazard mitigation plan update is ready for its final review by the Borough Assembly at the work session on February 27th and approved at the meeting on March 6th. I also sent that link to you on January 31st. It is a 364-page document, so I want to make sure that you had it in plenty of time to get a chance to look at it. The Community Development Director has presented or made a slideshow for that night which will summarize some of the key points and teach you about the process that that's a report will go through once it leaves the assembly.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will meet February 12th, 2025 for a work session which will focus on a review of the agenda for the regular meeting that will be held on February 19th. The regular meeting agenda will focus on welcoming new members, voting for the chairperson and vice chairperson, and recommending to the mayor those members that would like to participate in the Borough Land Committee and the Borough Parks and Recreation Committee. In assessing, we had a total of 33 seniors and 4 disabled veterans that did not file for 2025 exemptions. Of those, 6 senior citizens and 1 disabled veteran who was a new file have provided us with late applications. The village travel dates for seniors and disabled veterans, uh, that whole trip that we did with Canna— you're going to be getting a presentation on February 27th to tell you about how well that went.

Assessing has not seen a leveling or decrease in values for properties. Sales continue to increase compared to assessed values. Notice of values will be mailed on February 26th. Appeal period begins February 27th and runs through March 28th. The Alaska Taxable for 2024 has reported that Kodiak Island Borough's assessed rates are 79% of the market value.

The regulation is to stay above the 80% market value, so we're going to have to raise the assessed values enough to get above that 80% level. Um, the Tyler Conversion for Assessing Department, they've been working on the APEX sketch test, which, um, they have over 3,600 of the sketches put into the new software. Um, they have 5,000 total, so they're making really good progress with that. In Engineering Facilities, Dave Conrad and Jenna Hassinger presented at the Anchorage Alaska Forum for the Environment about the history and operation of the Kodiak Island Borough Landfill this week. From other people who went to that and traveled back last night, I've already heard good things about their presentation.

The multi-facility elevator modernization RFP has been advertised for That project, which includes two elevators at the hospital and an elevator at the Kodiak Middle School— the proposals were due February 4th, and the EF staff received one proposal from TK Elevator Corporation. The proposal has been sent to the Architectural Review Board for evaluation and will be presented to the assembly for consideration of approval at the, uh, packet review for February 27th for approval on March 6th. At the Borough Building, we have an abatement project associated with the roof drain piping. It is scheduled for the 15th and 16th of this month. The roof drain will be repaired by plumbers and staff after we are cleared.

For the mental health buildings, the contractor has begun hazardous material sampling and anticipates mobilizing the last week of February and to begin demolition the first week of March. The contractor plans to perform abatement and demolition in both facilities in a single mobilization effort. All non-hazardous material will be removed for disposal at the KIB landfill, and KIB staff has removed all the small vegetation on the exterior of the facilities. At the KFRC, a quote has been obtained for the replacement of the failed seawater pump. Once approved, there will be an 18 to 20 week lead time on getting that here.

A proposal was requested from Long Technologies for the verification and possible installation of existing gauges, monitors, and flow meters to to improve remote monitoring, and the replacing of the existing ozone decontamination system will be advertised soon. Staff has discussed this with me, and we're reviewing the package with engineering consultant prior to advertising. We also worked with our GSA contacts on that to make sure that that system would be part of the R&R funding, and I think everyone agrees that it is, so we're happy to have a funding source for that. At the landfill, the Baylor Building tipping floor is going to require require caulk to be applied in the relief cuts. That's scheduled for the 8th and 9th.

During the demolition of the existing floor, it was discovered that at some point an approximately 6-inch overlay of material had been applied throughout the Baylor Building. This material was largely unconsolidated and was not structurally attached to the existing slab. As a result, the overlay thickness for the process increased from the originally designed max of 4 to 8 inches to 10 inches with 2 inches of wear layer. This triggered the need for a structural analysis of the Baylor floor structure, which will result in a restriction of certain vehicles being used simultaneously or in specific location on the floor. Based on the findings, certain operational adjustments will be required to ensure the safety of the Baylor staff, patrons, and the actual physical structure.

For the service areas, we are going to schedule follow-up meetings with the Alaska Department of Labor. To make sure that we're in line and compliant with wage and hour regulations as we get ready for those to go out. We did meet with all of the service area chairs, making sure that we didn't have a quorum for any one service area. So they've had their first look at what those service area contracts are going to look like. In information technology, our asset tag inventory is at 80%.

Uh, in— to increase our network, we're adding new iPads with cellular internet coverage that are going to be available to be used throughout the KFRC building. Uh, they are currently testing and deploying Windows 11. It's going to be a major update to KIB systems. For software changes, they are working with time clock software, uh, with finance. They are working with the clerks on workflow updates and laser— workflow updates and Laserfiche, and IT is a very key component in meeting with Tyler Tech Data staff to assist with our transition to the Tyler software.

Our GIS department of one is created to print out maps for the city of Kodiak's new emergency operations manager, and he also was very helpful finding various versions of the Russian River area to show how the river has shifted over the years. The earliest we have is from May 1976. And when we were out at the site earlier this week, the homeowner told us that when he first bought that house, he could go down Lita Street with a pickup truck and a boat trailer, drive out into the riverbed, turn around, and come back in. And it— as you're standing there, it doesn't seem possible. But sure enough, in that 1976 picture, you can see the road where he would have drove out and turned around.

So it's neat to learn how that river has shifted over the years. And that is all I have for tonight. And I'm happy to answer any questions that that might have brought up. Any questions? Dave.

Thank you. One quick question. When should we expect to see the RFP for the comprehensive pool repair?

I don't have a good answer for that. Cody, has that been started? Cody Allen is our acting engineering facilities director. This week while Dave and Jen are out of town? So we have reached out to our architects and engineering team, JYW.

They have a pool consultant on staff that they've just recently been using, and we're just waiting for a proposal feedback from them. But I do not have a date at this moment. Wonderful, thank you. Scott, what's the take on the Tyler implementation? Is it going smooth.

Every week we hear a little bit about it and it seems like it's a pain in the neck. It is a little bit of a pain in the neck, Mr. Smiley. Right now all the focus is on assessing because as assessing goes into their appeal period for notice of values, we're trying to get all of their stuff done first. So as I just read, that starts on February 27th, so we're hoping to have that section done before we get there, and then we're going to go to the on the finance side. Every week I say 21%, and that's true on what sections are finalized, but there's a lot of work going on getting us closer to the finalization.

The way that they calculate their 21% is only sections that are completely done, so it is moving forward. It just isn't reflected in that 21%. I think you would have to talk to the finance director and assessor and the IT director to really know how it's going. I know they have favorite people they like to work with and then least favorite people they like to have to work with. So, um, as I think the biggest struggle is just because we're in that old Harris software and it's unsupported.

So when we have problems, there isn't someone we can call. We have to put in like a service ticket and then wait for them to call us back. And sometimes it's that day and sometimes it's weeks later. So we're still having a little bit of a frustrating time with the old software. However, we're going to run those parallel, keep them both up and running until we know everything in the Tyler software works before we shut down the Harris.

And that's why we have those overlapping fees for both softwares. Thank you. Any other questions? Jared. Thank you.

For the assessed values notes, So if the Alaska taxable— the regulation says that we need to be above 80% of the market value, or the assessed rate needs to be above 80% of market value, what are the penalties if we're not? The penalties if we are not means the state will send a group of assessors to the island to assess every single property, not just that once every 3 or 4 years, but they come out, they assess every property that includes all of the remote properties, and they don't assess at 80, they assess at 100. And when they assess at 100, you're also paying for the entire team's travel, per diem, lodging, float planes, landing craft, and whatever else it takes to get all of those properties done. So the communities that have to— that have gone through that have told all the tales to make sure that you are where you need to be so that you don't have to do that. Very expensive.

Sounds like it. Is there a, like, are we under some kind of warning? I mean, how do we just have to, whenever the next assessed values come in, we just roll them in, just make sure they're above, is it at or above 80% or? It's supposed to be at or above. Okay, okay.

We don't, we haven't gotten like any ruler slapped across our knuckles or anything like that for 2024. 24. That Alaska Taxable 2024 just came out, and it's real— I'll send you all a link to it. It's really interesting. It shows how we compare to every other borough in the— and then it compares the city's sales tax with other communities' sales tax.

It gives all the information throughout the state. It's, it's actually pretty fascinating to see how we compare with how much we tax our folks with the rest of the people. It talks about exemptions and what other boroughs and communities are giving for exemptions versus what we give, so it's full of information. I just brought that up because there's a lot— as that notice of values are coming out, last year we didn't say anything and the values came out a lot higher. So I just wanted to be sure that we're talking about it and be as transparent as possible that we, we have to meet that 80% mark to avoid them coming down and marking us at 100.

Sima, is there anything else you'd like to say? I just want to say don't expect just a 1% increase to make 80.

Thank you, Seema. Ryan, and then Larry. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I realize that there's probably been conversations that I probably either haven't been here for, so please forgive my ignorance. Uh, in regards to the landfill and the baler floor So there was a 6-inch overlay of material that had been applied to the Baylor Building, the original design of 10 inches with 2-inch wear layer.

Now we're at 17 inches. I was just doing some very simple math, and I'm, I'm concerned what this is going to do for our structural analysis. And although you've got comments in here about what I would deem as administrative controls, making sure that you don't have multiple vehicles in at one time. I'm curious how we got here.

Amy? I think that Cody has more details than I do, but the— you can tell when we took the layers down and we got deeper, there was— a layer that looked like the moon that was just filled with footprints, and it wasn't attached to any other layer. It looked like someone walked all over it and said, "No one will ever see this." And then when we got down far enough, you could see it. But Cody has more of the timeline ideas. It isn't very well documented how we got to this point, but the structural analysis was done, and I think it's very telling.

Yes, so—. When I was— we were doing the demolition of the project, we were reviewing the— as a project manager, you review the design, right? The design showed a 10-inch slab that we were supposed to be working into. It was, uh, we core drilled for preliminary findings. It was 17 inches overall thickness.

Red flag number one. It reached out to the design engineer. The structural engineer was P&D Engineering. They noted that it was a 10-inch 10-inch slab with rebar at the top. The rebar was on the bottom.

So as for how 6 inches of concrete got added to that, I cannot find any record of that project, so I do not know. It is visibly apparent, though, when you come into the facility because you step into the facility and you step out of the facility transitioning across the concrete slab. The doors are shortened height, so it's pretty apparent that there's added material there. The as-built showed a curb. Surrounding the interior of the facility to drive like material, I assume, into the chute.

That curb is no longer there. It's concrete wall-to-wall, door-to-door.

So with that, there were some concerns brought up to my boss, Dave Conrad, saying, hey, we obviously have more material. The structural engineer wasn't comfortable, so that initiated the request for the structural analysis. To ease your concerns, we do have the results from this structural analysis. They're dated January 29th. It took us a few days to digest that information.

We wanted to give it to the staff and then ultimately to you once everyone was notified and we fully understand the impacts of that. Um, what those are, essentially the heavier equipment, 66,000-pound pieces of equipment, are the items that they do not want driving further back on the slab. So the operational changes that Madam Manager was speaking about is Currently, staff was using like a 960— or a 950, rather, CAT front loader with a gross vehicle weight rating of approximately 44,000 pounds to drive batteries to the back of the building. They're no longer allowed to go back, uh, 15 feet from the baler opening, and that's on that elevated slab. So there'll be some slight changes that have to occur in their operational processes, and then Similarly, the smaller pieces of equipment, we only did the analysis to beam 3, which is 6 feet off the baler opening, because that's where the structural engineer was comfortable with calculating to and not wanting to exceed past that for questionable integrity and things like that.

Continue, Ryan. Oh, thanks. Um, so I would love to see that structural report if you could cycle that through to me. Um, all of us. Yeah, that would be fantastic.

Um, I have to say, um, and I'm just going to say this in general terms, whoever takes this information or takes offense to it, so be it. Um, I'm really disappointed in how we got here. I'm really disappointed in this project. I recall during the initiation phases of this project that several questions were asked, including coring. And when we're coring, we should— at the completion of our core, we should know everything we need to know about how the design, how the installation, and what the final results going to be.

I realize that this predates you, so you're just going to take the brunt of it, unfortunately, right now. I'm, I'm really disappointed in your staff. This should not be happening at the level we have the responsibility for, for our facilities. This is absolutely uncalled for. So I'm, I guess, surprised, just not happy.

So Cody, I apologize, you're taking the brunt. Please send over the structural report so I can— we can take a look at it. Thank you. Well, one comment on the coring. I will say I operated the core drill myself on two additional cores with Dave Conrad, and the material that we found in the areas that we were told to core from the engineers did not match the material that we saw the contractors— and I believe you've seen the photos and videos before they were quite literally using shovels to scoop up— I mean, kitchen table-sized slabs of concrete.

So not making any excuses, but I'll share this and get it to you. Thank you. Larry. Thank you. Amy, you were talking a few minutes ago about a document that indicated sales tax and property taxes around the state.

Can we post that on our website if it's not? I think it would be really interesting for the public to be able to look at that because, you know, we hear a lot of rumors about our taxes compared to other communities, etc. So I would really appreciate that. And just so I understand correctly, are we going to— if our property values keep going up, and according to this, they are, the trajectory is still to increase, can we assume Generally speaking, that our taxes, if we don't change the mill rate, will be going up also. That's an interesting question.

Not necessarily, because we have MAPTR on the books. So with our max allowable property tax revenue, we can only collect how much we collected last year, plus— I have the, I have the sheet, I'll make you an updated infographic— but plus inflation, plus legal fees. Fees plus true-up, anything that we didn't collect the year before. New construction. And— thank you, Mr. Mayor— and new construction.

So that will keep us in an area that we cannot pass. And then when we are setting the mill rate, if the total property value is higher, the mill rate has to be lower because we can't pass that amount. The problem that we're going to hit this year, and this is not you asked for, but is the school funding window shifts right with when our notice of values goes up too. So this year our high side of funding is $13.9 million, so that's our cap. And so with the MAPTER and then that high of a cap, we're going to have to make some decisions this year.

So just to clarify, in the past it seemed like property taxes would go up, and I realize, you know, the assembly has to set them all right. But generally speaking, they would get a large increase in the value of their land whenever they got reevaluated, like, say, every several years. But what I'm seeing now, or what I think people are seeing, is they could see an increase every year based on an algorithm that would say, here's how much our property values are increasing, therefore your assessment is going to go up also every year. Your assessment might go up, but that doesn't mean your taxes are going to go up. No, I understand that because that's related to the mill rate.

But I think people, whenever they see the valuation of their property going up, they don't say, oh, oh gee willikers, you know, my property is worth more if I sell it. They probably think, uh-oh. Absolutely. People do not know about MAPTR. As an assembly member, I didn't understand MAPTR.

So it's hard to explain. But we have those infographics all over the borough, and assessing has them, and they show them to people people when they come in to try to explain that their taxes aren't going to go up. But I want to say that MAPTR is only property tax. So if you live in a service area that has road service and fire district and they need more money, those mill rates can go up to cover the needs that you have. So that's— those are not regulated by MAPTR.

That's outside of MAPTR. I appreciate your explanation. And the reason I asked the question is for the public, you know, because they always want to know what's Thank you. Dave. Thank you.

To that MAPTA question, my understanding was that that's not a binding requirement. It is in our code, but it is past the date where it has to be on our code, but the assembly would have to vote it out. So we would have—. If it's out of date, it stays until you remove it. Yes.

It doesn't have a date listed in the code. Under state statute, it's in effect and you— and the assembly cannot change it for 2 years. That has expired. But any other questions, Dave? Okay, Bo?

Oh, okay, you did have your hand up though. Okay, just on there. Okay, any other questions on Seeing none at this time, we'll move on to messages from the borough mayor. I want to thank NRCS for making the visit to Kodiak. I felt it was very informative, and they just seemed like great people to try and work with and try and solve problems.

I also want to thank Andy and Bernadette Thank you for showing through and giving us the history on the area and showing us how much it has eroded. And, and especially since the last time, Larry, that you were out there several years ago when both of us were there, it's quite a bit more. So with that, we'll move on to new business contracts. First one here is Contract number FY2025-42, Kodiak Fisheries Research Center Elevator Maintenance Services Contract with TK Elevator Corporation, not to exceed $34,300. Jared.

Move to authorize the borough manager to execute contract number FY2025-42 with TK Elevator Corporation for KFRC elevator maintenance services for an amount not to exceed $34,300. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff report, Amy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The Kodiak Fisheries Research Center has an elevator that requires quarterly and annual maintenance and elevator code required testing to continue operating. The Engineering and Facilities Department advertised the invitation to bid on the Kodiak Island Borough website beginning December 23rd, 2024, and advertised the designated 3 weeks per Kodiak Island Borough Code 3.30.040, and bids were due by January 22nd, 2025. Staff received one bid package. Following the review of the bid package for responsiveness, staff determined TK Elevator Corporation to be a responsible bidder.

Previous contract fiscal year 2020-10 for KFRC Elevator maintenance services with TK Elevator was approved at a not to exceed $25,000. Previous contract from fiscal year 2020-10 costs were $12,791.99 for the quarterly inspections and Category 5 test, $12,202.16 for the cost of additional maintenance repairs and state inspections, for a total of $24,000 $1,994.15. It is important to note that the KFRC GSA lease requires a standalone contract for elevator service for that building and also that this contract is good for 4 years. Thank you. Any questions of staff or discussion?

Ryan. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Is TK Elevator Corporation the company that we could not come to terms with during our previous one?

Patricia? No. Perfect. Thank you.

Okay, any further questions of staff or that?

Seeing none, roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. LeDoux?

Yes. Mr. Sharrett? Yes. Mr. Smiley? Yes.

Mr. Whiteside? Yes. Mr. Ames? Yes. Mr. Griffin?

Yes. Mr. Johnson? Yes. Would anyone like to change their vote? Motion passes, 7 yes, 0 no.

Alrighty, thank you. Next we have is other items, and, um, there's the confirmation of Merrill appointments to the Planning and Zoning Commission. This is for the city seats. Of Sean Clary and Nick Mangini. Jared, move to confirm the mayoral appointments of Mr. Sean Clary to the Planning and Zoning Commission city seat for a term to expire December 31st, 2025, and Mr. Nicholas Mangini to the Planning and Zoning Commission city seat for a term to expire December 31st, 2027.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Staff For Borough Clerk Nova. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. There are currently 2 seats open on the Planning and Zoning Commission, and they are city seats.

We have received 3 applications, including Mr. Joe Delgado, who have submitted his application. All the applications were given to the city of Kodiak, and they have reviewed the applications and they have made recommendations for the appointments of Mr. Sean Cleary and Mr. Nicholas Mangini. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

And, uh, for the assembly's information, um, I reviewed the applications. I know both of the individuals, and I concur with the recommendation from the city. So that's why you're seeing them brought forward. So any other Assembly discussion? Larry?

I just want to say that I am very pleased that both of these individuals are willing to give their time to serve the community this way. I know them both and I think they'll do a great job. Thank you. Any other? Ryan?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to identify and get a ruling on a potential conflict. Um, I know Mr. Mangini well, and he and I are in a venture to establish a 36-hole frisbee golf course out past Dead Man's Curve. It is a not-for-fee business, but I do want to make sure that everyone's aware that we do have a business dealing together. Okay.

And make a shameless plug for frisbee golf course.

With that, I'll rule that there is no conflict. Wrong. So any other comments? Roll call vote on the motion, please. Mr. Sharrett.

Yes. Mr. Smiley. Yes. Mr. Whiteside. Yes.

Mr. Ames. Yes. Mr. Griffin. Yes. Mr. Johnson.

Yes. Mr. LeDoux. Yes. Would anyone like to changed their vote. Motion passes 7 yes, 0 no.

Okay, thank you. Next item is citizens' comments, and once again, the local phone number is 907-486-3231. The toll-free number is 855-492-9202. Ask you to sign in and state your name for the record. Turn on the microphone before speaking.

If you are calling in, please turn off any listening devices to prevent feedback. Rob, go ahead. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] But they are significant factors in this community. I just come before you to answer any questions that may have arisen from our discussion. And what we hope to do is get a letter of resolution just supporting work when and if that phone call comes down the road, and it will help us get forward with the legislature.

I'm still playing phone tag with Mark with UFA.

We went from working the last— well, since 2016 together, myself and Russ, to our first corporation, OPR Alaska, in 2020, I believe. And originally, we'd worked— our plan was to try and get with the grace of the state to do hopefully up to 3 projects a year for 10 years, and we had very close to gotten the funding, and the funding went hand in glove with needing the consensus of the legislature.

I think that having just the vote of confidence of the city of Kodiak, and as much as I can, I give you my personal assurance that— I mean, to every level of my ability, I've checked this out every way I can, and from the fisheries aspect and and going all the way back now to Lee Wakefield and Lowell Wakefield, my father, I'm pretty well connected with the ocean and our resources, and we've seen this continuing decline. I can't say 100% for sure that it's going to work, but I know that for the size of the project, what the Haida Gwaii experiment was in 2012, the rewilds were outstanding. Understanding, and the perceived negatives never came to pass. And there were many charges. Russ went from being the green community's hero, and the narrative changed, and I don't know why.

And I think it gets a lot into the levers of power at the upper levels of climate. But we've entered a new era, and we're not chasing the carbon credits right now. And of all people, you know, who would think that Donald Trump is the economic or the ecological guy that's going to actually do something. I feel like we can continue to study and ask questions or we can go out there and do something. And now to have it put on us possibly to try and draft a plan for the entire oceanic interests of the United States is pretty overwhelming, but it's also a pretty big feather in our cap.

And I do believe that we have a chance to really pull this off. And, you know, we go out and if there's something that doesn't work, I mean, we're the first that's going to admit it because we're not in it for our glory. I'm certainly not. But, so if I can answer any questions, I'd be happy to. Again, I'd like you all to, if you had a chance to take a look at the website, it's pretty interesting.

There's some pretty colorful stuff there. Dr. John Martin, amazing man. Well-respected, really, really is the father. And he's the man that coined that quip, "Gentlemen, you give me a tanker full of iron ore and I'll give you an ice age." And that's how strongly he believed that phytoplankton balance is so important.

Two projects that you probably haven't heard of, and I was surprised to hear it, but they're serious projects or proposals. One is to create a dam from Greenland, I think, to Denmark in an attempt to stop the flow of heat from the Atlantic into the Arctic. Right now, whether it's obvious to us or not, the temperatures in the Arctic are warmest than they've ever been recorded. Another, and it seemed like a serious proposal, is to put 1 million wind turbines in the Arctic to pump water on the ice to reinforce the ice layer. And, you know, this stuff is just outlandish.

Where does it come from? And yet we don't— looking at the initial— in my opinion, this is the way that God intended things to work. The phytoplankton at the surface, they grow, they need iron, they can't photosynthesize without it. What we as humans can is give them iron in a fashion that nature doesn't provide uniform. As Asia has developed, we're not getting the dust from the Gobi, from Asia in general, into the Pacific, and the Pacific is blue, and blue water is sterile.

We need good, healthy green water. As the dust of the Sahara goes all the way and makes that fantastic growth in Brazil and the rainforests happen, so we need the dust from Asia, and we don't get that. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] have to— I didn't realize the timer hadn't been set. I'm very sad, but I appreciate it. But I do want to comment that per discussion that we had, I asked that you try and get in by tomorrow a request for support, a letter of support, so that the manager Amy and Jared Griffin and I can talk about putting that on the work session for the 13th and on the regular meeting for the 20th.

So thank you. So please, please do that. Oh, he's on it. He's on it. What's been happening since he got the call less than 2 weeks ago, it's just been unbelievable.

And we're trying to step up and run with it. And that means we'll need you here next Thursday also. That's the least I can do. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Rob. Anyone else wishing to come forward under citizens' comments or call in? Do we have any calls?

Seeing none, we'll go on to assembly member comments. And, Bo, I'll start with you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to thank everyone who came out to the joint work session the other night. And it's— I'm encouraged by the amount of ideas that have been generated.

During that meeting and since then, some of which are potentially actionable. That's what we need. We need actionable ideas to work with. We are limited in what we can come up with here, and so it is really nice to hear those things. Whether or not we can put all of those into motion or not, it is nice that we have more options to consider.

As I mentioned during that meeting, this is a multifaceted issue addressing the housing housing crisis. There's no smoking gun. It's not just short-term rentals. It's not just releasing land. It's not just changing building codes.

It's going to need a little bit of everything for us to get through the housing crisis. And I'm discouraged by hearing multiple statements about this is how it's always been. I push back against those pretty readily. That doesn't mean that's how we have to accept things looking forward. But we can do only so much without folks leaning in.

So I'm really appreciative of the suggestions, ideas, and concerns that have been brought to us. I'm certainly thinking about several of them now that I wasn't a week ago. So thank you very much for those who are providing those, and I certainly welcome more. Thank you. Jarrod?

Thank you. Yeah, I want to echo what Bo said and also think the City Council for coming to the joint work session. I—. Okay, hold on, I'm going to back up a little bit. Okay, so I'm a Virgo, okay?

And Virgos are known to be like seriously hypercritical. And I've done, I think, a very good job of holding some of that hypercriticalness back. But I just want to— But so I'm just going to let you guys have a little peek of it tonight. I was, I was pretty disappointed in the work session.

And I think some of us up here have been teachers, and you know, when you come to a class as a teacher and nobody's done the reading or done the homework, that's what the work session felt like to me, at least. I think I was just And maybe it's leadership, maybe it's that we weren't clear about our expectations, like what we wanted to get from the city as a result of that work session.

But I think I was expecting more and not getting that.

A lot of it had to do— much of the discussion was about short-term rentals. And just as both said, we know that it's multifaceted, but we also know that there is something wrong with the market. And when there is something wrong with the market, it's up to the government to do something because the market is not fair and it's not working for everybody. Yes, there are several low-income apartments that are available, but the people that we are trying to recruit to the this island to work and build our economy and build our workforce. They make too much money.

My daughter, who just graduated from college and is back, back home working full-time, makes too much money. So there are guidelines there, you know, that's at the federal level, I'm sure. And that'll take, that'll take years to fix.

And I'm I also want to echo that I've been hearing a lot of back-in-the-day stories, and back-in-the-day stories are great for context, for color, but back-in-the-day stories aren't data. You know, back-in-the-day stories are, here's what I experienced when I was younger, and those aren't particularly helpful, I think, to us when we're looking at making some really big code changes and opening up land. These, these are big things. There is, there is a comment made a couple of times that someone, when they grew up in Kodiak, they only knew of one grandparent. And there is a whole community of Aleutic people who were growing up in multigenerational families.

So it's not just that. We are giving the public plenty of opportunities to come and talk to us about housing. We've been having intentional conversations about STRs, at least for the past couple of months. The high school is teaching financial literacy classes.

And so anyway, there's just some things I had to get off my chest before I wanted to talk about Dr. Withrow, who was a— who delivered my stepchildren when they were born and who was a staunch supporter of KMXT and was a quiet— not so quiet, but supporter of the high school drama and debate team. Every time we won state, he would write them a letter and it always came with a check. And it was— it's really nice. And we're going to miss his generosity and his kindness. And so, so, yeah, I would just want to say thanks to the family for letting us share in Dr. Withero while he was here.

Thank you, Jared. Dave. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, yeah, I— we lost some giants of the community here in the last couple weeks. Um, you know, Bill Frieda—.

Uh, Bill—. Excuse me, Bill Frieda was, um, you know, I learned he's forgotten more about that harbor than I'm going to be able to learn while I'm in that job. I've learned more history about— learned more history about boats in that harbor him than I have anyone else, just from, you know, despite his retirement, every time I went into the shipyard, I saw him there doing his rounds, taking a look at what was going on, and that's going to be missed. You know, as Artie has been alluded to, you know, other, you know, again, just giants of our community. So we've had a loss, and it's sad, and they will be remembered and missed.

To some of the other comments, I agree with my fellow assemblymen assembly members that, uh, you know, how we've always done it is how we got here, and, and maybe looking to do things differently is how we move forward. Um, I was also a little discouraged by the conversation the other day. Um, you know, I think if you've been in a home here in Kodiak for a very long time and, and not had to try and navigate this market, you probably lose some perspective, and I think that's unfortunate, but that's, you know, that's government, I guess. I'm very excited that the Lands Committee is looking at lots that we can potentially be used for housing. I'll put a flyer on that right now that for my vote to be yes, I'm going to want to figure out how we do owner occupancy covenants on those transactions.

I'm not interested in seeing speculators scoop those up and try and flip them for high margins on the backs of our community.

For my fellow assembly members, if anyone's interested, there's an ordinance change request on the clerk's desk that I believe is waiting for another signature to allow remote participation in assembly meetings before that can become before that comes forward. So if anyone's interested, I would appreciate their signature. Thank you. Thank you, Steve.

Um, I'd just like to say that I've pretty much wrapped up the Old Harbor job, and hopefully I will be in town a lot more this year and be a more active member on this and be able to better serve my citizens. Thank you. Thank you. Larry.

I could just start off by saying I certainly appreciate the other comments and agree with them. I think sometimes there is a statement— and Jared, I'll have to depend on you to correct me— but if you ignore the history, then you're prone to repeat it. So I think we need to be careful when we talk about what people have done in the past, because I think there's a lot to learn from the success and the mistakes. And, but I would tell you that I've always fought against the momentum of past practice because it's a barrier that's hard to overcome. And that's the biggest— we get into habits of doing things and it's hard to break.

A couple of things. First off, I want to thank Patricia, who did an excellent job. It's first time I really, um, with the, uh, Landfill Contract Committee supporting it. I know you may think it was a small thing, but you made the job a lot easier, and I wanted to to thank you publicly. You're also one of my former students, so it's nice to see you.

Um, the, uh, some of the couple of things— I'll be really quick here— that I really would like to explore because I don't understand it. And maybe we could have the presidents of, or the directors, or whatever, they're of the service districts, to come and tell what the borough's role is when they have a complaint. When they bring in a complaint against the service district about some— what is our role? Okay, because I feel really, um, passive sitting here, like I can't do anything, and I would like to know what role that is. And also, if there's a concern with whether they're meeting on like they're supposed to or they're not following bylaws— and I have no evidence that they are, so don't misunderstand what I'm saying— what is our role?

And I think that would be be very, very important to have a discussion because I'm a little curious. We've had some concerns about how the— what the contracts look like and how they're negotiated or not negotiated, those kinds of things. Um, during the hearing on Wednesday, you did a great job with the Alcohol Control Board hearing representing our point of view. I had a chance to sit in and listen to it, and I certainly want to thank you for representing us well. In our point of view.

Um, one of the things— and I grew up in a house-building family, so I'm not saying this without any background. I grew up doing that, as did Scott. And, uh, but some of the things that Dan said, I think sometimes we need to take a look at. It would really be interesting to bring in builders, people who build houses in town, and tell us some of the challenges they face developing land because of our own ordinances or our codes are inhibiting construction, that becomes of this part of this complex plan of ours to improve housing in Kodiak. So, um, Dan mentioned a couple of things I'd like to understand more about that.

So maybe we could schedule a time where we could actually have a discussion, um, with these folk. And I will say up front, I really do miss— on the school board, they can have discussions with presenters. We never do that where we could just bring somebody up and just talk with them and have those open discussions. We don't do that very often and I think it would really benefit us. I just want to say thank you to the Lands Committee.

I'm really pleased to hear, just like you've heard before, that we're looking at the availability of land and I also think we have to be careful that it doesn't get scooped up some way so it becomes one of the, what, 400 lots available that sitting on our community that are able to be built on, but nobody does it.

I was disappointed in our meeting with the city. Everybody was pleasant, everybody was nice. I've been to those meetings before. There were—. There was no tension.

But when I looked at the agenda, I said, huh? And I wish sometimes when we have those meetings we could sort of survey the assembly to see what we would— like, I would have liked to talk about scales of efficiency. I mean, somebody mentioned, uh, sprinklers.

We bring them in, the city brings them in. I mean, fire alarm systems, checking them out by code. We bring them in, they bring them in. I mean, we could work together perhaps and save a whole bundle of money. And just talking about ways we could work together— and this isn't a consolidation, It's a statement that we do it with our dog catcher.

What do they— do they still call them dog catchers? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Okay. It used to be the worst job in Kodiak when I was a kid. But in any case, we do it well there. We do it with building code.

It works well. Maybe we need to do it with some of our common needs with facilities, and we could save a lot of money. So thank you. That's all. Thank you, Larry.

Scott? No comment. Ryan?

Definitely comment. Back in the day on Woodland Drive, we didn't have any drainage problems. So I concur with Mr. Ledoux. Patience is not a virtue that I have. Surprise.

So yeah, I would— I would definitely like to see some action happen with Woodland Drive and in regards to Service District 1 so that it doesn't turn into a Lilly Drive.

I hear that we're gaining momentum on the open land— opening the land. Let's get it going. Patience, again, is not a virtue. We also received a letter from a citizen with a very simple request that the mayor have an email. Let's do that.

Let's figure out how to get the mayor an email. Um, I would love to see better project management controls. Uh, I'm sorry if I got a little heated in my questioning, Cody. I hope you didn't take any of that personal. Uh, but we need to do better in our project management, and I, I don't want any more excuses.

The public holds me accountable. I received a phone call about the short-term housing, and the very first thing they said is, "You need to do better." And I was taken off guard. First, I asked if it was my mom. And turns out it's not. It was a community member that was very frustrated with the short-term rental comment— or the conversation, and they said, "You need to do better." So if I'm being held accountable to do better, I in turn am going to hold you guys accountable to do better, and I'm looking for better in project management.

I also have to tell you, I'm still a little— I know I lost the vote. I'm not going to go on it, but I feel like when we do a little bait and switch, that that is the exact reason why the public doesn't trust the government. So if we approve a contract with a certain specific, we should hold to that. Let's see, we had somebody that wants to build lots, just like Mr. LeDoux was saying. Let's figure out how to get that done.

Let's stop talking about it. Let's just get it done. Thanks to Mr. Mangini and Mr. Cleary on your volunteering for public service. I want to thank everybody for their public testimony tonight, and I want to leave on a positive note and congratulate the paintballers for taking second place at Super Games Orlando, Florida. Another shameless plug.

Thank you. Thank you, Ryan. The next assembly work session is scheduled on Thursday, February 13th. February 13th at 6:30 PM. The next assembly meeting is scheduled on Thursday, February 20th at 6:30 PM in the Borough Assembly Chambers.

The borough offices and all facilities will be closed to the public on Monday, February 17th in observance of Presidents' Day holiday. Entertain a motion to adjourn. Move to adjourn. It's been moved. Is there a second?

Second. All those in favor say aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you all for attending tonight.