Kodiak Borough: Assembly Work Session of November 12, 2026

All right. I will call the Thursday, November 12th Kodiak Island Borough Assembly work session to order. We will begin with citizens' comments. For those who wish to call in, the local number is 907-486-3231, toll-free 1-855-492-9202, and please turn off your radio or any listening device to prevent feedback. For those in the room who wish to speak under citizens' comments, please come to the podium and sign in.

Turn on the microphone and make sure the green light is on before speaking and speak directly into the mic. And please state your name for the record. Address all remarks to the assembly as a body and not to any member thereof.

My name is— My name is Tuck Barney. I've been a Kodiak resident since 1962. I was elected 4 times to the Kodiak Assembly, served under 4 different mayors, and was elected twice as deputy mayor. And I know what it's like to sit up there. And in my view, there is only 2 possible choices on the issue of the election of Sam, of Mr. Williamson.

The first choice would be to respect the choice of the voters and change the code. And when changing the code, deal with any perceived conflicts.

Mr. Williamson won an assembly seat with the third highest vote count of 602 registered voters, and I believe the— and I believe the assembly has a duty to honor the will of the people. The second choice is to do nothing and use code and procedure to override the election. This would allow the assembly to pick a person that they want that aligns with their personal political agenda, not the community's.

Either the manager— Amy— the mayor's pushing this, I don't know who's pushing to keep this, to keep Mr. Williamson off. But it's a no-brainer.

You as an assembly need to follow the will of the people. That is why you were elected, and it would do well for you to remember that. I figure that you can seat Mr. Williamson on the assembly within 4 weeks with a couple extra work sessions and do what the majority of the voters have told you to do. Changing code is not rocket science. It simply takes 4 votes from 4 assembly members.

It's that simple. And I would hope I would see 100% consensus on this vote, because anything else would send a clear message to this community that you're not here for us and our votes don't count. Thank you. Thank you, Tuck.

Any calls?

Okay.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Assembly members. My name is Michael Bach. I'm also here to speak in relation to the special meeting scheduled for later tonight. I was here a couple of days ago encouraging the assembly to reach out and get legal counsel related to Mr. Williamson's appointment or seating on the assembly. I see through the meeting scheduled later this evening and through the articles to the KDM that you've done that, and according to code, he's been deemed unqualified to be seated at this time.

I think that it's important to follow the code and to follow the laws that have been set out before you. I acknowledge that these changes could potentially allow us to, like the previous speaker said, exercise the will of the people. However, the people at a greater majority also voted in favor of Proposition 2, which established this code 13 years ago. In the KDM article, I noted something really curious to me that kind of stuck out, and that was one of the assembly members was quoted as saying that the changes proposed tonight in the special meeting better reflect the intentions of the members of our community. I don't think that we can say that with confidence without bringing this to the community to have their intentions— or their intentions changed within the code.

And that propelled me to come here tonight because I'm a voter and I want my intentions to be clear. I do not support the changes to the code. I think they're too narrow, and I think that we're changing code for a singular person. I'm frustrated, just as everybody else is, that we have a qualified candidate who got to the election process. I would argue we need to address the root cause.

The root cause is related to eligibility for his name to appear on the ballot. His name should not have appeared on the ballot to begin with. If we address the root cause, we wouldn't be stuck in this position. I sincerely feel bad for Mr. Williamson and for the voters who voted for him because they thought that the borough had done their due diligence to vet this individual to see if they were qualified to serve in that seat. It's disappointing that he's not, and it's a misstep.

I think we need to acknowledge the misstep, align with code as it is defined today, and try to take corrective measures to avoid this happening in the future. This is something that is preventable. We are responding to a symptom of a misstep. I don't think that that is how good government works. I think that that is just kicking the ball down the lot.

And furthermore, I would just want to be really clear in my final 30 seconds. The code changes that I see proposed for the special meeting don't align with my intentions. And if this isn't going before voters, this is my chance to say I disagree with the code as proposed. I like the code as it stands today and as over 950, almost 1,000 people in our community voted in favor of. We want clean government.

We want transparency. And we want to understand that the people who are seated in your seats aren't being paid for by the government in which they serve. Thank you. Thank you, Michael.

Okay, let's take the call.

You are now answering a call from the queue.

Thank you for calling. This is the assembly work session. Please state your name for the record. My name is David Kodiak. Go ahead, sir.

Yeah, I just want to say that I totally agree with the with what Tuck Bonney had to say. The will of the voters is that Jeremy Williamson be seated. And I think that that's— to do otherwise is to, is to, is to, is to behave like a lot of the politics that's going on today where the voters are, are disenfranchised. And I think that that's outrageous, actually very irritating. So change the code.

Do due diligence. And, uh, and there's, uh, you know, lots of people watching, and, uh, and we're concerned that you just would cast aside our ballots and, uh, and, and really, uh, reinforce the idea that maybe the Borough Assembly is a good old boys club, which, uh, we hope isn't the case. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kodiak Island.

Okay, good evening, Mayor and Assembly. My name is Ryan Sharratt. I'm standing before you because 408 days ago my son took his own life. The microphone is on.

In 2026, I have sat with 9 children who have contemplated suicide. Those conversations stay with me, and they're why I am here tonight asking for sustained leadership support. Alaska's Health Department reports that our youth suicide rate is nearly 6 times the national average among children ages 10 through 18. The suicide death rate reached a 10-year high in 2025. My son, is a statistic.

Here in Kodiak Island, the 2025 Community Health Survey found that 1 in 4 respondents said that they or a family member needed mental health services. Nearly half of those reported could not obtain care. Among those able— unable to get care, 45% cited privacy concerns. Small town, big problems.

We must become comfortable being uncomfortable, saying the word suicide, listening without judgment, asking difficult questions. We must challenge the stigma that keeps people silent. Seeking help must feel safe and recovery must feel possible. I recently launched whathappentomorrow.org. It's an online platform for free, no advertisement, no tracking, to connect young people, families, veterans, and other with mental health education, encouragement, and pathways to qualified help.

In February 2027, I'm working towards Enough is Enough Alaska Live, a free 3-hour community forum in Kodiak with a proposed statewide livestream. I'm gathering an impressive speaker list. Speaking nationally recognized mental health experts, public figures, veteran advocates, and people with lived experiences whose voices will encourage people to attend, listen, engage. I have commitments from Ketchikan, Wasilla, and 5 rural villages, and I expect this forum to reach far and wide. This effort begins in Kodiak, but its message must connect communities.

People should leave with practical tools, trusted contacts, and opportunities to stay involved. Long afterwards. I'm asking this assembly to help bring together providers, schools, businesses, and community organizations and make this conversation part of ongoing work. Our borough code already recognizes a mental health role. Please establish mental health and suicide prevention as a standing agenda item with substantial monthly discussions.

Invite regular reports from CANA, Providence, and other providers.

Youth services and unmet needs. Include young people and families. Ask where people are falling through the gaps, what providers are needed, and what the borough can do.

Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you, Ryan.

Any calls? Anyone else? All right, we will then continue on with Manager's comments.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Today, the assessor and I attended the Kodiak Island Area Leadership Institute's Fall Rural Forum to provide a borough update. That was— we're very grateful when we get invited to that. I know there are a lot of years where we weren't invited, so we're grateful to be able to participate. We shared information about the assessing village visit, which, the assessor goes with members from CANA for elder services out to all of the villages to sign up people for senior citizen exemptions and disabled veteran exemptions.

We also talked about rural school maintenance, election results, updated them with, the new assembly members' names and contact information, and answered any questions that they had. So thanks to Seema for coming along on that. Mayor Griffin and I attended the Rural Health Care Transformation Program regional meeting on Monday. Alaska Department of Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg was here, uh, leading the meeting to better assess what our region's needs are and how the Rural Health Care Transformation Program can help meet those needs. Uh, during that meeting, I found out that we were really lucky to get the grant that we did for the hospital and, um, look forward to working with Providence to make that project come to a successful completion.

Uh, next week on the 19th, we will have an executive session to discuss union mediation. We have interviews being scheduled for our GIS analyst. Um, we have applicants for our jobs in engineering facilities, but no interviews scheduled yet. In finance, November 16th is the deadline for your second half payment. I'm sorry about the way your papers are stapled together.

Please remember, if you are paying in installments, that second half is due by November 16th. Please take it into the Postal Service if you are close to that date. It needs to get hand-marked by the post— post office. They don't always receive a postmark in the same manner as it has in the past. And we had a new accounting technician for accounts payable start work this morning, so welcome to Lisa.

In community development, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a work session on Tuesday. The Commission reviewed Chapter 4, which is Transportation and Mobility, and Chapter 5, which is Economic Development, of the draft of Plan 2045. They also had a training session related to the housing crisis and the 21st Century Road to Housing Act that was passed by Congress earlier this year. They will not be having a regular meeting on November 18th because there were no cases filed for that date. In IT, they're working with engineering facilities at the landfill to replace— finished replacing broken security cameras and their cabling.

They finished up installing protective covers on the satellite internet. They also worked at the Leachate Treatment Plant helping the plant's monitoring and control system. They worked at Bayside to support the department. It moves into and sets up new spaces. And we also are working on our building automation system here at the main borough building.

IT finished installing new wireless equipment in the main building and finalizing settings so they can roll it out to other borough buildings. They also installed a new firewall at Bayside, and they're collecting quotes for equipment funded by the state and local cybersecurity grant, which will provide tamper-proof backup storage to protect borough data against ransomware. We have 5 people that we're going to interview for GIS. We had 13 applicants for that job, so from literally from all over the world. So Fred has narrowed it down to 5, and Seema is going to help with those interviews.

In assessing, the only big change you're going to see in that section is under exemption updates for Calgary Baptist Bells Flats. A determination, determination letter was sent and they're in their 30-day appeal window. Everything else remains the same. Seema didn't put it in, but today and tomorrow are the days where they take all of the letters for business personal property and both types of exemptions, and they're all stuffed into envelopes. So all day today, that mail machine just ran doing all the postage.

Those will get mailed out tomorrow. Um, and so in the next few days you can start looking for your exemption paperwork. In engineering and facilities, uh, we have a couple of changes. I told you last week that we got our, or maybe the week before, we got our resignation from the ENF director. I, on Monday, I also got a resignation letter from our maintenance coordinator.

Uh, both of those positions' last day will be on November 20th. We are waiting for closeout documents for the landfill soil remediation. NWFF is working with us on the long-term care spill. We're awaiting from a response from ADC on that and no changes with Karluk. That'll be something that happens next year.

For small projects, our leachate treatment plant citric acid dosing skid was completed last week. We're waiting for closeout documents. The only other change on that is that work is continuing on the building automation system at the KFRC. ARB, and we're awaiting a report from Long. For designs, we got our final design for the North Star roof.

That'll be heading to the ARB along with our 65% design, uh, for the pool small-scale repair. It says repair, but it's really destruction that we're looking to do. Um, and we should be any day getting our 95% design for the automatic transfer switches, switches at the hospital. Upcoming contracts. We have a contract roster for auto and tire heating, plumbing, and electrical services.

Two bids were reserved, uh, received, one for auto and tire and one for electrical services. We have sent notice of intent to award for those. It will go before the assembly on November 24th and December 3rd. Upcoming meetings. We have our school district maintenance meeting on November 19th.

As soon as we get members assigned to the ARB, we will schedule a meeting right after that. And the same for HFAB. As soon as the new assembly members are seated on those committees, we will schedule meetings for them. And that is all I have in the manager's report tonight. And I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

Great. Thank you. Any questions for the manager?

Okay. All right. Thank you, Aimee.

All right. We have a few agenda items on tonight's work session. The first is the discussion of the state and federal improvement project list. I think some of us are having some— there we go. Okay.

Thank you for adding the list that we have so far, but I will hand this over to to Aimee to start us off. Absolutely. Thank you. To support our lobbying efforts at the state and federal level levels, the Assembly creates two lists of projects to inform both our state and federal delegations of the needs of the borough. The signed resolution at the state level is entered into our Capital Project Submission Information System.

You'll hear us just call it CAPSYS. And then our signed resolution for the federal list is sent to our federal lobbyist who distributes it to our federal delegation. In your packet tonight, um, you're going to find our federal list that is drafted by our federal lobbyist Sebastian O'Kelly, and then you actually have a, um, something in front of you that was a handout with our 2027 resolution. I did look at the packet and it said, it said '26, and I'm like, it's '26, we're good to go. But that's what was approved for this year that we approved in January.

And so the handout that you have in front of you is what Planning and Zoning passed. Sometimes when these resolutions are passed, we'll have language in there that says in no particular order. The Planning and Zoning Commission one does say in order of priority, and that's something I'd really like to look at. I would, I would question the order that came from Planning and Zoning for the state level list. If we were going to say what was the most important thing to the borough, I'm not sure that Number one, um, and I blamed Assemblymember Scott Arndt, but he's not taking credit for it.

So I think we should re-look at the order on those. Um, and then it's November, and so we're really early, and this is great. We don't actually start lobbying efforts until we go to Juneau in February, and last year we didn't pass this until January 2nd. So nothing has to be decided tonight. We just wanted to get it in front of you and start thinking about it.

So that when we're ready, it will come to you as actual resolutions in a regular meeting. We just wanted you to look at it and start thinking about how we want to do this. We don't currently have a strategic plan, but we're working on a strategic plan, so there's no real guiding document to guide these two until that strategic plan is done. All right, that's all I have. Thank you.

So you want to take these one at a time? You want to look at, like, I think the federal list might be the easiest one to look at, and then we can dig into the state state one? I think that's the easy way to go. Okay. All right.

So let's take a look at the federal CIP list.

And yeah, I think this is a— I think it's a pretty solid list, but there might be other things that we want to add. So any discussion or questions about the federal list? Mr. Smiley. There's nothing on here about the rocket launch. Is that not on the federal list, or?

Well, that's a, that's a private corp— or that's a state corporation. So, but they're getting a big chunk of federal money. They are. And I want part of it. Well, me too.

Yeah, I don't think that's— this is the appropriate list to put your request on. It's not really a capital project, right? But there is a little bit of, uh, movement on, you know, kind of like a state PILT, but that's not really— yeah. A capital, a capital project. But I see, yeah, I see your concern.

I think this is not an all-inclusive list of what we would actually lobby for. This is just as it relates to capital improvement projects. So when the assembly— like, before we go to Juneau, one of the, the discussion items that come up in a work session is what are our priorities and what do you want the folks that are traveling to Juneau to lobby for. I think that is a good time to put that on the list. Yeah.

The other thing would be dollar amounts listed after the full introduction to each segment.

You know, that's a good note.

I think the federal list is usually not— typically not as specific, a little bit more conceptual sometimes.

So you would like to see, like, if we were to go back to DC, because some of them, like the EAS, well, it does have the $680 million in there. So, Mr. Smiley, so if there is a dollar amount in the narrative there, you'd like to see that in bold next to the Yeah. To the header? Okay. I got you.

It's just a formatting thing. We could probably do that.

Anyone else on the federal list?

Okay. Let's take a look at the state list.

This list, Aimee, you said— so this is P&Z's priority list, but the state, when they see this resolution, we don't necessarily have to put them in order of priority, or does it help? This is an interesting list. We do— this will get sent to our senator and our representative from Kodiak, but really our true communication method with them is through CAPSYS. And so—. Can we have some new members?

Can you explain what CAPSYS is? Sure. I just read that acronym's meaning out. So CAPSYS is the computer system that every region— so the city can put stuff in. Each of the villages has their own sign-in, and the borough has their own sign-in.

And when we have state projects, if the state has any money that they're allowed to spend on projects, they go into that list and they look for things. It's been a few years since there's been money for that, but this is a good, a good possible year with the increased oil prices. So there's a lot of frustration on the time and effort that goes into making the list, and then no money ever comes. But I think this year is probably a good way to do it. Um, Louise's chief of staff Matt really helps us and asks us questions and kind of makes sure that all the information we need is in there.

So hopefully he follows her to the Senate level so he can continue to help us. And then I think when we lobby this year, because we have a new representative, we'll have hopefully enough time with her to be able to explain what those needs are and, and how, how those things affect the residents here. So I think that'll be a— before, with our previous representation, we kind of have a spoil of riches because they were so familiar with Kodiak and been doing it for so long. So I think we'll have to spend a little more time on like an educational piece of why some of that stuff is probably important to us. So I'm going to ask an informational question for perhaps the new members too.

So you said that the city has their own villages or city, you know, other village cities have, have their own also. How do you see that working with our list? Does our list kind of support them or do they compete? Well, I'd like to actually talk to our, uh, to Louise and Kathy and see what they would prefer. So previously, um, when Gary and Louise were down there, they didn't want us to all put in our— they didn't want the borough to also put in village stuff because it just overlaps and they, they knew which communities were in the borough and they didn't want to see the same project over and over.

But I think talking to the, the new folks, or at least to Kathy, and seeing how she wants to see it so she can better understand some of the individual projects— I don't, I don't think it'll be a big lift or anything, just what their preferences are and how they want to access that information, make sure that we're doing it in how they need to see it. I also have seen some of the other communities. And like, we just send a resolution and do our CAPSES, but I'd like to— I've seen some of the other managers and other communities do their resolution, and then inside of their resolution is like pictures. So if we're like, help, we need money with the harbor, they will send like the worst possible picture they could find of the harbor. Or, um, you know, you know, we need money for this roof and here's why, and show the swimming pool inside of the, you know, catching the water inside the school or whatever.

But just like the visual aspect I think that's going to be more important, having that extra information in there. So anything we can do to kind of make that just— I don't want to call it attractive because problems aren't attractive, but just so they can notice it better, I think would be in our best interest. Yeah. And, you know, this is a list for discussion. We can add things, we can take things off.

I'd like to see a priority list that the things at the top are the ones that affect, right, the entire borough, health, safety, you know, those kinds of things. And then, you know, kind of go down like that. But any discussion or questions?

Is there any meeting date that we would like to put it on for future discussion? Let me take Mr. Gardner first and then yes. Yes, Amy. I thought that we had—. I thought the KCHC expansion had sort of stalled out.

I knew they were awarded RHTP money, but I thought that was sort of at a standstill, and I was a little surprised to see it on here. Was I wrong? So this list by Planning and Zoning is— they start, like, for instance, they'll start next year's in February. So I think that the list is created well before that conclusion came out. Yeah, I think when we're redoing this, that it would be in our best interest to reach out to KCHC and find out where they are in that moment and make sure that the list reflects accurately what their plans are.

They did return, or I think they had plans to return the money for the actual expansion. They were gonna have to rewrite that grant to say something differently than what they were originally planning on. And so, um, I'm not sure where they're at right now. Yeah, um, I thought we should remove that. And then, um, I also thought, um, pretty sure I thought we should bump the Port Lions Fire Station insulation quite a bit higher up the list just because I felt that was an easy win that would like definitely be included.

And it's kind of, uh discussing that their water truck freezes in the winter. So, um, like I said, I thought that was just an easy win. And then, um, I found quite a few typos, uh, in what was included in the packet. I don't think it really serves us to go through those one by one, but I'll just email everybody. I've got 10 or 12 typos here.

I thought it would look a little bit more professional when it got to the right people.

Very cool. Thank you, Mr. Gardner.

Manager Williams, you raised the question, when do we want to bring this to a formal vote? Last year we did it, yeah, in January. Was this before— I can't remember, did we approve this before or after our joint work session with the City?

I think we did it before. Okay, we're planning— by the way, we're planning a joint work session with the city at some point in January before winter AML, but before the CIP lists are due. I think the assembly has always agreed that St. Herman Harbor is going to be really high on our federal list, and we share a federal lobbyist, so that list usually mirrors the city's. We usually turn in the same list, but for this state, they're going to have different priorities. And so there's always been a discussion, and every assembly decides each year whether or not they're going to include city projects on the state-level list or not.

But we've always— we— I think everyone has a good understanding of how important the ports and harbors are, so that's been really easy to support. But other projects in the city, that's just— that's a— the assembly can choose to or choose not to, right? I would recommend we put it on the January 5th work session. That works. Okay.

Yeah. As a proposed resolution, Mr. Mayor? Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, if you have ideas, yeah, look at the format there.

We can go ahead and maybe go ahead and, if it's okay, if there's consensus to include the recommendations that Mr. Gardner made and have that reflected in the resolution. I'm seeing one other nod, and since there's only 4 of you tonight, I guess that's consensus.

But, you know, it would go through the amendment process. You can add things back in or take other things out. Okay.

Okay. Up next is assembly review of Alaska Municipal League resolutions. And position statements. Um, Madam Clerk? Um, yes, on a yearly basis before the Alaska Municipal League conference in Anchorage, uh, the resolutions and policy statements are presented before you for your review.

The mayor serves as the representative for the borough when it comes to voting, which is on the last day of the conference. You've always— or the assembly, you've always reviewed them so that you can give the marching orders to the borough representative, which is the mayor, on how he should be voting on behalf of the borough. This is your evening or your opportunity to tell the voting representative how you feel about these resolutions and policies. Statements. Thank you.

Thank you, Nova. Yes, the AML Board looked through these after the Resolutions Committee. I'm on the AML Board, so, you know, so transparency, I generally support, generally support these.

I support, I would, and so what I have here, these are just my proposed, you know, my proposed votes, but if there's like strong feelings from you or if there's strong amendments you'd like me to to pursue, then I would do that. A lot of them— a lot of the ones concern, you know, school funding, but the big ones for me were in support of local control, especially over property tax determination, you know, schools, things like that. And then there was one there, number— there are a couple there 15 on the senior citizens' property tax exemption.

Just like, I think, I think the resolution could be stronger and just make sure that we protect the people who are already receiving that exemption. And then if there's any kind of transition plan. But that's probably neither hither nor thither. And then the other one— and I wanted to get NOVA's take on this too— was No. 21, The municipal public records processes.

I support this because I want to relieve the staff burden because they've been receiving a lot of requests for public records, but I have a journalism background, so I want to make sure that we protect the actual real public interest requesters. So, um, uh, so I'm, you know, I have a little thoughts on that, but I would, I would support, I would vote in favor of the slate even as they were written. I would vote to support. Um, really quick, Nova, can I get your, your take on number 21? Yes, I believe this stems from a lot of municipalities, especially cities.

If they have a police force, they are getting a lot of records requests for videos, and they are being used to— on social media to earn money. And so clerks are being bombarded with requests all over the United States. And they are— sometimes people would use that it is of public interest and they are asking for waiver of fees. So this may have stemmed from that. So they are trying to— yes, curve that a little bit so that they are not getting a lot of this request bombardment, like clerks being bombarded with too many requests.

It's timing because after this discussion we're going to be talking about the records management code for the Kodiak Island Borough. I can see that we need to find balance, just like what Jared said. In our code that I am proposing, when it comes to the media I think it's important for us to go ahead and do the request. However, if it's more— if it's requiring fees later, we're going to say that we're going to collect the fees later but not hinder them from getting the records so that we're not putting a block in access to the record. So I think there needs to be a balance.

That's my take on it. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I appreciate that, Nova. Anyway, I'll just open it up to the assembly for thoughts. Mr. Smiley.

I guess the only thing I'm concerned is 15, the senior tax exemption. Originally the state paid us for all of these and they gave that up.

But there's also another part to the equation, which is means testing for these exemptions, and I don't know how to get that around, but I think they should be means tested.

I don't know whether we can do it.

I have a feeling this one's going to be debated. A little bit. AML. Suspect. Mr. Gardner.

I was glad to see that you put require modeling on number 11. I was trying to wrap my head around that one and I was having a really hard time. And then I guess I would urge stronger support of number 13, but I also appreciate how you put clarify litigation in there. I would like to to understand that better as well. And then there's one more that might seem a little silly to everybody else, but being that I consider myself an expert on the matter, number 22, electric assisted bicycles.

There's a bunch that came into our community. There's a bunch that came into a bunch of different communities. They come in legal meaning that they can't go more than 28 miles an hour, and then you basically pop a jumper cable out of it, it de-restricts them and lets them go upwards of 65 miles an hour. I personally have almost hit 3 different children that come flying out of nowhere on what's marketed as an electric bicycle, but it's an electric motorcycle. I think that motorcycles are awesome.

I think bikes are awesome. I want everybody to have them. But when we have something that has the capability to do the same speed that a motor vehicle does. It needs to be regulated in a way that the user— we're ensuring that they understand the rules of the road. I think it's a very short matter of time before we have a young one get hit here locally and somebody, you know, having another unfortunate circumstance with our youth.

We've had enough of those lately. So I'd appreciate really strong support on that. I think it's kind of a big deal for sure. Thank you, Jared. Yes, Mr. Scott Arndt.

I would, I would speak to that too because it's showing that with those e-bikes, tremendous increase in the accidents nationwide, just tremendous.

Sure, I just want to make sure. Yeah, okay, that's right. If you want, I can even provide you with some resources tomorrow or the next day. California, New Jersey, and Florida have all adopted good regulations on those that, you know, you're not taking anything away from every— from anybody, but you're not putting a 12-year-old on something that can go as fast as a car and just letting them loose. And I don't think that parents understand what these things can do.

They're marketed as being only able to go 28 miles an hour. I don't think law enforcement understands. I mean, I could going all day. Okay, noted. They're fun as can be, though.

Yes. Anyone else? Any other comments? If I don't really hear anything, then I'm going to assume that— go for it, Jared— and follow through on some things. Yeah, Mr. Arndt.

On the senior exemption, I haven't read this year's, but I'm thinking it mirrors it Basically, the state requires the $150,000. Municipalities can increase that on their own. So for instance, the Kenai Peninsula Borough is around $350,000 is what theirs, but they have oil money and they have a mill rate of about 4.25 to 4.5 for to operate their borough and government and sales tax. The different cities have the sales tax, so you have Seldotna, the city of Kenai, um, you know, so you got Homer, you know, they're all part of the Kenai Borough. But, um, the idea is that, um, you know, some people, you know, we hear it and we'll continue to hear it that it should be increased in Kodiak to meet the inflation of a home.

But the problem is we have to take something away from somebody to do that. And that's why I'm not in favor of spending the money on the means testing when you leave it at the 150. If you were going to go up, then you know, you're going to have to spend some money potentially to do that, and that costs quite a bit. But at the $150,000, I don't support means testing, and we leave it at that because I can't figure out— it takes too much away. Our senior exemptions and disabled vets are increasing every year.

Yeah, so thank you. Yeah, no, thank you for that. Appreciate it. Ms. Williams. There's also that really, um, intricate complication with the state has a mandatory exemption for certain classes of people, but when we're determining our local school contribution, it's off the full value, and then they require us to not charge taxes on that.

So when we're talking about taking chunks of money out of that local contribution formula I think that would be a really good place to look as well. And we don't— like, we have— we pay tax on land that is going to be exempted. We pay the— when we get our full value determination, it's off the value of everything. And then the state makes— says, oh, but you can't charge tax on this and you can't charge tax on this. But that doesn't change our local school contribution.

So that's an interesting— it definitely affects us. And it's the areas with a lot of national forests and stuff down by Ketchikan. It really affects them as well. So, and then the other thing, sorry, because now we're talking about education. In the second one, there's talk about federal impact aid and the state takes that away from the municipalities, half of it.

And they had a bill in the last couple of years like, oh, we're going to give you another 5% or— and they were very proud of that and we'll take it. Yes. But really, I think the municipality should be getting 100% of that. So when we talk about that, I wouldn't mind hearing us be a little more vocal on the state should not be taking our federal impact aid. It's not statewide.

It's $1 million a year for Kodiak. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It's $9 million for Anchorage and $9.5 million for Fairbanks.

Yeah. So I mean, that would, that would do a lot to offset the tax payers. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm happy to see that come up in one of these resolutions, and I think if we talk to some Fairbanks and Anchorage folks, we could get a pretty strong coalition of people who are— oh yeah, tell the state to take their hands off that.

Yeah, I agree. Okay.

All right. Okay. Um, thank you everyone for your feedback. Um, and, um, Manager Williams, and who else is going? Mr. Scott Arndt, will you be at AML also?

Okay, they will be there to help keep me honest.

Um, okay, uh, next is an item from the clerks, a review of ordinance number FY 2027-04, Records and Information Management Program ordinance. Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly. The last time we updated the code was from 2010. That was 16 years ago and a lot has changed. And I just want to give thanks to Lena for working so hard in making these changes to the code.

We have consulted our attorney and also reviewed APRA, which is the Alaska Public Records Act. A lot of people think that we follow FOIA, which is the Freedom of Information Act. We don't. We follow APRA, which is the Alaska Public Records Act. I'm pointing that out because most of the changes that you will see in the code here are based on APRA.

And also, I think the biggest change in this code is that Right now, everything that we seem to do is codified, and it lacks flexibility from the clerks because, oh, it's in the code, we can't do that type of thing. So we have changed it and, and just left the meat of APRA in the code, and then we're going to have a records and information management manual so that it could give us flexibility in changing little things on, or on how we do certain things. It provides us flexibility without changing the code every time that there is a change. It's changing the way that we do things, certain things. So it provides us flexibility.

I think what the important thing that we also change when it comes to fees is that currently our code says that if we have an extensive records request, we provide the first 5 hours for free in a month, right? But in APRA, if the records request extends beyond 5 hours, they charge including the first 5 hours. So we are changing our code to reflect that, because we are getting a lot more requests lately that says, "Oh, this is of public interest," but then at the same time in the application, or when we dig more, they're actually selling the information. So it's not of public interest. It's for profit.

So we're getting a lot of commercial requests. Request lately, so we are going to change— the proposal that we have here is that we're going to change our application so that they can say what their intent is. If they're using it for commercial or for-profit, then it's not for public interest, it's for-profit type of thing. However, if they don't want to fill out our form our code will require them to attest to that in their email, to respond to us saying that, hey, we're using it for commercial, or we're not using it for commercial, and we are able to ask more questions. So, um, that's the meat of the, the, the— or that's the intent of the ordinance that is before you.

And I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay, all right. Mr. Gardner and then Mr. Sweeney. Um, I noticed when I was reading through this, uh, Section 2.40.150, uh, it's about records retention schedules. It starts on line 332.

Throughout the document it says, uh, something along the lines of the records manager shall maintain records retention schedules establishing, etc. Uh, I was wondering what our retention schedule is, if that's already decided. You may have already answered this saying, um, that you basically follow OPRA. I was led to another government document on the Commerce website, um, that had recommendations, but I was just hoping someone could clarify retention schedules. Yes, so, um, the state has actually adopted a local government retention schedule.

It's a suggestion. When it was first put together, it was a group of clerks who were in that committee, and they put that together as a guidance to, uh, local governments. Our retention schedule is mostly based on that, and every time we make a change to our retention, it's presented to the assembly by resolution. Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

Mr. Sweeney. Do you have a rough estimate on the amount of requests that take more than 5 hours versus that don't? We do have a few.

So far, from July until now, we've had 20 records requests. I would say 5 of those would be very extensive records requests, and most of the time when they're that extensive. They're trying to ask for waivers, but it is very time-consuming for staff sometimes to put together records. And luckily we don't have a local enforcement, but that's the type of request that other municipalities are getting. And it takes a lot of time to redact at times because if it involves minor or Or sometimes they're videos, you have to blur faces.

And so imagine all the time that's being invested into providing records requests for videos and stuff like that. So I'm thankful we don't have videos. Mr. Arndt. So what kind of record requests are we getting? Are you processing?

We are getting a lot of records request lately that inquires if we have had purchases from certain companies. And so then we would have to go through sometimes finance records like invoices and stuff like that if we had that vendor. But imagine going through and trying to find a company's name if we've had purchase something from them, or sometimes if you use your credit card, because when they, when they ask for records, it's very like, it's like, do you— have you had the transaction with this company type of thing? And then have we purchased— maybe have I used my credit card to purchase something from this company? Then you have to go through all that.

Those are the type of things that sometimes they are time-consuming. Amy, there was one records request that came in that I, I'm assuming that AI helped them with because it was 13 pages long and it had 13 pages of line items of stuff that they wanted. And then we also get a lot of them about any communications that have to do with work on this property in this service area or So a lot of times record requests will come in if there's a conflict somewhere in the borough, then they're like, I want every email from every person who ever touched this. So a lot of it is having IT go through email and a lot of it we have to go back into employees that aren't here anymore and go through their archives and like search for names and topics. And so it takes a lot of work.

That one was so long. I think it took 5 hours just for me to read it all. So, you know, and you spread that out to all the departments and we're adding up all those times trying to just find out what you, your department might be. They are—. It's pretty extensive.

It was 13 pages. And what we did with that is that we provided some of the records. It's called rolling, you know, where we, as we find information, we kept providing. Until we satisfied the request, or to the extent that the requester was satisfied with it. But at the same time, that request was claiming that it was of public interest, and then I was able to waive, I think, 2 hours.

But then additional requests came in, in addition to to what we've already provided, which was requesting those emails from previous employees or anything that had to do with that subject. And, um, and it was another waiver was requested for additional 5 hours of staff time. And the way that I dealt with it, I said if we find more information that could be public interest, yes, we will waive. However, if it's just administrative type of, yes, I will provide you a map, or could I request a map type of thing, I said then it's not a public interest where we're incurring staff time cost or we're spending staff time in providing this type of additional request. So that one I had him pay.

For the additional 5 hours that we put in. So those are the type of requests that we are getting.

Have you— is the city doing something similar, or have they already done something similar? Not yet. Okay, I imagine they get more. Yes, when I was— when I work at the city, it's a different level response that we provided. And there were days that— or there were nights that I had sleepless nights based on the information that were in the records request that I had to read during the day at work.

So it was a different type of records.

Any other questions or discussion for Nova? If there's no objection, in maybe the next regular meeting, if we could introduce the ordinance. Yep, I'm fine. Thank you.

Um, okay, that takes care of the work session items. Let's, uh, jump into packet review for next week's regular meeting. Um, up first, we will have a presentation from the Foraker Group about Alaska's Nonprofit Sector Generating Economic Impact, and they were in town for something, and then they asked if they could come and make a 10 to 15 minute presentation. And so we agreed.

One resolution next week is FY 2027-09 designating Information Technology Director Fred Berestoff as a temporary AO during the absence or disability of the borough manager. And designated administrative official. Madam Manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So this resolution will be naming, um, our IT director as the secondary administrative official.

So if I'm not at the borough, someone has to have my signature authority. It is usually Seema. If both Seema and I are gone, we need a third person. We, you may have remembered, we've recently switched that to Kodi Allen. Since Kody is leaving the borough, we have to redesignate, and it's gonna go to Fred.

And Fred knows, and he's willing. There are two days that I'm aware of, December 8th and 9th, where he will have that designation because Seema and I will both be in Anchorage. It's a payroll week. He shouldn't have to do too much that week, but he is aware and he's, he's ready for it. Okay.

Any questions?

Okay. All right. Thank you, Aimee. One ordinance for introduction next week is Ordinance Number FY 2027-12, amending Kodiak Island Borough Code Title 3, Revenue and Finance, Chapter 3.35, Real Property Tax, Section 3.35.040, Method of Assessment Regarding Reporting. And this was requested by Assemblymembers Gardner and Smiley.

So maybe I'll let one of you take the lead on this, and then we'll— we can pass it over to Madam Manager or Mr. Root. So there's not a whole lot here. Um, it's right on— begins on lines 50 through 58. Um, Seema and I worked on this, uh, quite a bit, a little bit of help from Nova as well. Uh, effectively, it allows the borough to tax Property that is on—.

In a non-taxable zone, for instance, you bring a contractor down from Anchorage to build a house for the Coast Guard base and they bring $1 million worth of tools. Just like any business that's already here, allows the assessor's office to have a little bit of teeth to be able to tax them on that personal property.

That's pretty much it. I guess we were basically told in the past that, um, the code said that we should be reporting that, or that the people in question, AKA Coast Guard or Alaska Aerospace or any nonprofit, should be reporting that, but they, they didn't have to. It never said that they had to. So that's all this does is say that they have to and gives them a timeline to do it.

Great. Thank you. Anything to add, Mr. Smiley or Madam Manager? No.

No? Any questions or discussion? Mr. Arndt. So what I'm hearing is, for instance, you know, rather than small equipment, I'm interested in the multimillion-dollar crane that's out there for the dock work, and there's been multiple cranes there. That's what you're— the barges, you're looking at going after all that equipment.

Yeah, um, just want to make it clear for the public. Yeah, it basically levels the playing field. So as a business owner, I get a personal property form every year and I put my tools and my computer and everything on it. Well, companies come from somewhere else and they're conducting business here and they're not getting taxed on any of this at all. So it levels the playing field with locals and non-locals paying into the pot.

Thank you. Mr. Sweeney. I'd just like to say from an insurance standpoint, it creates a really nice paper trail for in the event of a claim on stuff where it is and, you know, if it's not supposed to be there and whatever else. So I'm all for that.

Cool. Great. All right. Thank you, Jeremiah and Scott, for putting that together and for the staff's assistance. And Seema, thank you.

All right, up next, mayoral appointments of Assemblymember reps to different boards and committees. I try to do my best to get everybody's choices in there and kind of match experience with interest and professional expertise too.

This is— hold on.

This isn't really a— I don't know. This isn't really like an ordinance or resolution, but when we vote on it next week, you can certainly make amendments. And if you guys want to shift seats around, that's certainly fine. That's certainly fine too. There are— I did leave a few open, as you can see, for the 7th member, whoever they end up being, we'll make that appointment later on in December.

So I had those there. Some of the big ones that, like, involve big meetings and travel, I decided to keep Mr. Garner on SWAMC because the relationships that are there— and that was really it, the relationships that are there are really important. And then also Manager Williams. To keep her on the Prince William Sound RCAC. And then, um, Mr. Vizcocho was interested in CERCAC, the Kodiak Island Regional Citizens Advisory Council.

I decided to put him on there because of his professional experience with environmental assessment and that kind of work, and that's some of the work that they do at CERCAC there.

But, yeah, I'll open this up to negotiation between the 4 of you who are here, if you'd like to speak on it. Yes, Mr. Arndt. If you look at what I filled out, I did not list Joint Building Code Review Committee as one of my lists. I put next to there already on the committee.

I have a city seat. I represent the city on that committee, so I can't hold two seats on the same committee.

Was that the, uh, I might be mistaken, was that joint or ARB? This is the Joint Building Code Review Committee that you've booked me for the Bureau. Okay. Yeah. Then—.

Can't hold two seats. Can't hold two seats.

Hold on. Did I scroll past it? There we go.

Let you think about it. I see you on there. Okay. No, yeah, we absolutely— Let me know if you can't do that. Certainly change it.

Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out. Yes. That's why I listed it there.

Joint.

Thank you, Mr. Arndt. Anyone else?

Okay.

I think that's an easy change— easy change to make. Um, all right, next, um, under other items is confirmation of Assembly appointment to the Womens Bay Service Area Board of Mr. Andrew Finke. Um, and, uh, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Assembly. So for the new Assembly members, uh, most of the mayoral appointments are— most of the appointments to boards and committees are made by the mayor.

But with— when it comes to Board of Adjustment, Board of Equalization, and the service areas, they are appointed by the assembly. So the process for service area boards is that once we receive an application, we send it to the board for them to make a recommendation to the assembly. So in this instance, Mr. Finkes' application was sent to the Womens Bay Service Area Board. They discussed the application, and then they sent us an email saying that they are recommending him for the appointment. So this is an assembly appointment now before you.

Thank you. Thank you, Nova. Any questions or discussion?

Okay. All right, great. Moving on, the last item is declaring the seat held by Mr. Scott Arndt on the, on the ARB, declaring that seat vacant. Uh, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly.

So this is one of those, um, things that are in the code that says all the mayor and all assembly members serve as ex officio members on the different boards and committees. Mr. Arndt currently— or Assemblymember Arndt currently serves on the ARB board as a regular member. So we need to vacate that seat, um, and then we're going to start advertising and then accept applications. And the mayor has appointed him on the ARB as an ex officio member. So I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Yeah, and thanks to Lena for catching that, I think. Yeah, um, any questions?

Okay, all right. I think then— and then we will have an executive session discussing matters involving union negotiations with the IBEW. Anything you want to speak to with that? We had a full-day mediation session that went pretty well, and so I have some requests to bring back to the assembly that I need to talk to you in executive session about. Okay.

Okay, that takes care of packet review. So jumping back into the work session agenda, Clerk's comments. Mr. Mayor, members of the assembly, also I wanted to point out that the 30 days period for the elected assembly member to Or it— the 30 days expire on November 14th, which is this upcoming Saturday. If I don't hear from the elected official, I think we need to add to our agenda for next week, if you would like, the vacation of that seat so that we can start advertising for it. I just Well, I think it's in code, we have to.

Yes, we can add it to another meeting if you don't want to move on it right away, but if you do want to move it forward, we can add it to the next regular meeting on Thursday. Okay. Yeah, we can add it then. Okay, thank you. Oh, Greg's comments.

Yes. Okay.

So I just want to thank all our election workers who worked so hard last week. We had a lot of voters.

Every time I visit the precinct, we had lines. So it was, it was busy all day long. They had fun working that election. There was not a dull moment. So thank you to all our election workers.

For, uh, the successful election. Also, uh, where we have conducted the biannual review of the different liquor licenses, um, and we at this time we don't have any licenses that require presentation to the assembly. We are also processing 3 liquor licenses, um, 2 for Safeway and 1 is an outdoor recreation lodge application for Katmai.

We are going to be presenting you the liquor licenses for Safeway.

They're going to be on the December 3rd meeting, or yes, and then the Katmai will all be before you on December 19th.

And then I just want to remind everyone that the AML is happening in December. For those who would like to attend, let us know. And I also would like to remind you that we now are using the new code when it comes to absences. So you need to provide us, uh, your notice that you're going to be absent, uh, by filling out— by either filling out the form or emailing me and stating the reason why you're going to be out or why you're asking to be excused.

And pretty much that's all I have. We're also processing the, the vacant positions for the different boards and commissions, those ones that are expiring, and we are accepting applications until November 15th. That is all I have. Very cool. Thank you.

Any questions for Nova?

All right. Thank you, Nova. And then we will have Assemblymember comments, and we will start down at the end with Mr. Sweeney.

I don't really have anything to update as of right now. Okay, thank you. Mr. Arndt. Thank you. Um, I'd like to see us draft a resolution and to basically the state legislature requesting the, uh, funding for the shortfall last year on school bond debt reimbursement and I think we can talk with our lobbyist as far as helping to get some of that verbiage, but the intent is, and I think we're in a good position to do that, not just for Kodiak but for all boroughs, is what this deals with, the school bond debt reimbursement that we lost.

Aimee, the manager, could probably speak to that as to the exact amount a little bit better than I can, but I'd like to see us get a resolution on so it goes to the legislators and makes them aware if they're not already. But Kodiak is interested in doing that. We were successful in that before without doing a resolution. I had requested one and we didn't get the support on the assembly for it, but other communities did it for us. And this time I'd like to see us join that effort.

Thank you. Okay. Yeah, well, thank you. Mr. Smiley?

No comment. Mr. Gardner? Not much. I just wanted to say it kind of broke my heart seeing Mr. Sheridan here today and It's terrible that we had another tragedy happen on the island. So if you see somebody hurting, you know, stand up and lend them a shoulder or a helping hand and look out for your youth.

Thank you, Mr. Gardner. Mayor's comments. I really don't have a lot tonight. Yes, I was with Manager Williams at the RHDP and gave some opening comments there. It was pretty— encouraging to see that the state is encouraging a lot of more collaboration.

So for future grants, I think that's what they're, they're looking for, like community-wide kind of solutions. So it's going to take, I think it take a lot of work with some of the different healthcare organizations in our, in our community to, to take a look. And the next deadline is spring.

Yes. So they've broken up application periods between spring and fall for different things. Yeah. And if I may step on your comments for just a second. Oh, fine.

I did talk to Mike Pfeffer and talk about a possible joint application with KIHA and Canna. I'm still trying to do something with the mental health buildings. So just looking at that option through the joint application for something to do with housing. Yeah. Um, I will be in, um, Anchorage this weekend, maybe leaving tomorrow, we'll see, um, for a, um, uh, a public broadcasting conference, um, to get some lobbying efforts maybe around restoring state funding, um, for that and some other, other big projects we have coming up around the state.

Next week we have some major strategic planning going on at Kodiak College, and so that's really exciting too. And then, yeah, just watch out for the weather tonight. So with that, we will adjourn tonight's work session. We'll take 5 minutes. We'll take a 5-minute break, and then we will be back with tonight's special meeting.

Stay tuned.