City Council - Regular Meeting

This meeting is being transcribed and summarized.

I'd like to call to order this regular City Council meeting on September 17th.

Please call the roll.

Gage? Here. Finnegan?

Here.

Coos? Here. Gass?

Here.

Bradbury? Here. Zingy?

Here.

Mears-Heeperson?

Here. Please rise.

FOR ALL. THANK YOU.

THE CATCH CAN CITY COUNCIL WOULD LIKE TO RESPECTFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRADITIONAL FIRST PEOPLE OF THIS PLAN. FIRST ITEM OF BUSINESS, WE HAVE A PUBLIC HEARING ON RESOLUTION NUMBER 263038, ACCEPTING THE 2026 DESIGNATED LEGISLATIVE GRANT FROM THE ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DIVISION OF COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS In the amount of 6,875,000 dollars. Authorizing the city manager to execute any and all documents necessary to accept. And administer the grant amending the 2026 general operating capital annual budget to provide a supplemental appropriation for the harbor department in the amount of 6,875,000 dollars. Is there anybody here to speak to that tonight? Hearing seeing none will close public comment. Communications, we have a calendar that played on the table with us tonight. Uh, person to be heard. Do we have who do we have.

Tonight 1st, Becky King.

Good evening.

Hi, my name is Becky King. I'm here on behalf of myself. And any students in my classroom, I'm a kindergarten teacher at charter school. I'm only bringing this to you right now because you don't have another meeting before October 1st. We received at the school the following email from a head librarian, Ms. Tully, that was given to our principal and assistant principal. When the Ketchikan Charter School Library closed at the beginning of the 25-26 school year, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District Library librarian and the Ketchikan Public Library's head of youth services stepped in to help. This school year will not be possible to provide the same library services to the charter school. The school district librarian is now the sole school library staff member for Houtley, Schoenbar, and Cahigh, and so will not be able to update charter school library accounts. Public Libraries head of youth services does not have the staff to support and prepare or deliver books to the charter school or to host more than a very occasional class visit. Since charter school library accounts will not be updated this year, they will expire at the beginning of October. Charter school teachers and students can renew and convert their accounts to public library accounts by coming to the public library. Charter school teachers need to bring appropriate IDs. Students accompanied by their parent or guardian can renew and convert their accounts. By converting their accounts, students and teachers will be able to continue to check out items from the Ketchikan Public Library. Please pass this information to your students and teachers, and thank you for your understanding. If this sounds vaguely familiar to some of you, I was here saying similar things two years ago. when they said that our accounts would be shuttered. The last time it wasn't expired, but something similar. Not being able to deliver books, perfectly understandable. Budget cuts, staff cuts. Claiming it will cost more to update accounts than to open all new ones. Doesn't make sense. Signaling out the charter school students. Doesn't make sense to me. Converting accounts back and forth when students transfer to other schools or graduate KCS and go to the high school doesn't make sense to me. Reaching out to the superintendent or building administrators or to our APC to find a workaround like the city council directed everyone to do two years ago, that makes sense. Perhaps having a staff member be our librarian like the last two years or training a staff member to update accounts. Having the superintendent direct the district librarian to update accounts, brainstorming ideas and solutions. Yes, please. That makes sense. Our superintendent emailed us back today that she's willing to work with Ms. Tully to find a workaround, get proper training, whatever is necessary. I don't know what exactly is involved because I am not a librarian. I'm a kindergarten teacher. But I can tell you that every week last year, I went and checked out 32 books every week from our children's library so that we could have reading buddies with fifth grade. And I plan on continuing that this year. When the children's librarian came to me and said, okay, can you not clear out a full shelf because then you're taking all of certain authors, I said, hey, no problem. So I left some of every author and only took one if there were multiple books by the same author, like Stephen Kellogg or other popular authors like that. I only took one of each one from any one author. More than willing to do that to help out the library, more than willing to put in the effort to drive there and do it myself every week, hauling bags and bags of books to my car and back. That's on us because we had to close our library in our school building. To close our accounts, that saddens me greatly. We have students whose parents will not take them in to get personal accounts. If I take my kindergarteners to the library, I'd like them to be able to check out books and have the experience of going up to the counter and giving them their name and having their own library card and their own library account to do these things. So if they have a grandparent that can take them and check out books or anything like that, then they can go and they can do that. I would love for the library to put books in the hands of children. And like I said, our superintendent is willing to work with Ms. Tully. So where our administrators, we had an APC member volunteer to be the librarian, our administrator, our vice principal. I mean, we're willing to do what it takes, even if that's a monetary issue where we pay for someone to work a few extra hours to update our accounts and to put the kindergartners into the system. Um, but I would hope that you would just ask her to work with us. Um, I'm getting those counts, um, updated and keeping them from expiring. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Any questions? Sorry. So every look into that, see what the story is going on there. Yes, that's right. Thank you.

Deborah Hayden.

My name is Deborah Hayden. I reside at 11011 Victorson Court. And I'm representing Brokechican. I'm here to update you. Well, I'm here to tell you how grateful we are for the city grant that we got this year for $14,014.65. So thank you very much. It's a great spook to have those operating funds. And for that $14,000, we brought in $1.2 million Of that 951,226 is only for equipment. But we've got a $250,000 Rasmussen grant that will help us install that equipment. And so we're going to have three 40 foot containers, which will be kelp nurseries and which will grow kelp seed. And we're going to have a research lab within the premium in which we will do genetic breeding of kelp and oysters that will make them perform better, grow better in Alaska waters. So right now, for kelp, most of the seed comes from places like Hawaii and the Pacific coast. Not kelp, I mean oysters, sorry. All these came in. And they don't do well. Until there are certain societies, if they survive in Alaska water, because the nutrients are different, the temperature is different. There's the currents are different. It's so much different. They just aren't adapted. So we're going to have this genetic breeding facility that will create oyster seed that is better adapted, more survivable and better for the farms that we have there. I think there's 13. oyster farms right now in southeast Alaska. There might be more of them coding up as well. But anyway, there's at least seven to ten kelp farms, and so we'll be supplying them with seed. Right now they're gathering up wild kelp, and collecting the reproductive material from that it's very onerous because the state rules require them to get 50 different samples within a 50 kilometer radius of where they are that they need to use to collect reproductive materials and we will have a centralized more centralized uh source for them that we can just ship them see how it will be genetically adapted and to produce better for them. For example, right now, the way that works is the seed gets put on strings, which are tubes, and then they take those tubes out to the farm and unroll it along the kelp ropes. And then the kelp seed is on these ropes and it grows down from there. Well, right now, per foot of seed string they're getting about three to four feet of kelp growth and the proven method that uses what we're going to be doing will produce about seven to ten feet so there's quite a difference in productivity from the methods we're going to be using and Pacific Highbreed came here and designed the lab. We've got the list of equipment ready to go. I've got the Rasmussen grant in the bank ready to buy some of the equipment for them. We're going to start next week. And we have to wait for the grant EDA, the Go Back Better process of the paperwork before we can start with the big containers. very much in progress it's going to be done we'll have all the equipment bought by the end of the year and it will it doesn't need to be installed but a lot of it will be and grow catch can will own the equipment lease it to premium aquatics and we will own the seed and i will we will be selling the seed to the farmers And then I'm also reaching out and working with potential farmers to create more kelp farms. There's 13 permits met with Catlin, and four in Caker. Two in Caker are being developed right now. And I'm looking at developing a processing facility because raw wet kelp weighs a lot and doesn't have a long shelf life. And people don't want to buy that and have to ship it. So what we need to do is turn it into powders or some other form of ozone, macerate it so that it can be used for other things like biostimulants, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, ice cream thickening, food, replacements for plastic bags, forks and knives, and those kinds of things. The market is huge. I thought I'd bring you up to date. You have any questions?

Yeah, I have one. So if you're going to be working on these different spats and seeds and genetically modifying them, is there any oversight on that from any agencies in regards to what you're producing and what it will do in the environment that we have here? There's going to be any concerns about that?

Well, you know, Our partner, Kelp, our organization, they've been doing this, it's called gametified seed banking for years. And it's proven methods, and they're based in Los Angeles, and they're associated with the University of Southern California. And so, I can't tell you about family, I'm sure that the Department of Fish and They've been mostly in contact with them. They're getting permits to take samples for their reproductive material. So the inclusion game is what is permitting them to gather the material. So it's local Alaska material gathering. They're just breeding it to be more productive. The same with the oysters. Oysters spawn here, they don't spawn here. So seed has to come from somewhere else or we got to grow our own.

And the mortality rate is huge. Anybody else?

Thank you, Deborah. I have a question. Yeah. So you mentioned that the $14,000 that you got as a grant and it produced one point, what was it? $2 million or something.

That was John K. Leary.

That's my question though. So you are... Is the arrangement that this company is consulting with you to help get these grants? Or can you just explain to us the relationship a little bit and how the dots are connected?

Well, I basically wrote the grants, except that we have input from each one of the partners. So there are huge parts of it that I gathered together. It was a collaborative effort to write the grant. And I'm writing, I'm looking at writing more grants to get more funds for doing more processing kinds of things. So is that what you wanted to know?

Well, I was just curious what the relationship or the partnership, how that works with you.

We're very close partners. I depend on them for information because I don't know the science. I'm learning it. I went to the workshop in Kodiak to learn kelp processing. I learned how to speak kelp. I can say .

So for me, I think the question is, will we do value-added Manufacturing or is it like other things where you're going to ship them out of state to be produced. Processed or whatever, and we'll lose out on that investment. You know, catch a can because the major part of it that the production side of it, or the. Marketing side of it will fall short of what we hope exactly.

Well, that that also processing side is where it's going to produce the most employment. So I'm searching grants for a kelp dryer, which is a fairly expensive item, $100,000 or something, and for other equipment like that that we can use. And Pacific Kelp, who's already established here but is not intimately involved in this project, whether they're producing a biostimulant, which is a fertilizer supplement and helps plants grow better, They're very interested in getting a kilt dryer. So I offered to help them with that. I want to start, I do want to build a kilt processing facility.

Thank you. Anybody else? Yes, Abby.

I just want to say thank you for the work. I mean, anything that diversifies our economy here and potentially brings other jobs year round jobs is important. If anything comes up with processing plants or things that the city can help with, like, we do other industrial industries around here, please let us know because I think that's important. And that's where we can step up and help.

Thank you very much. It is very important to diversify the economy. Mariculture is a theme that has been settled on as an economic diversification for the state. And Governor Walker, when he was governor, signed a bill that created the Mariculture Task Force. And that became the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, then developed the Alaska Mariculture Alliance. So it has great potential, and so I'm pursuing it.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Mr. Weaver.

Yeah, that's .

I'm here again to speak about the B-cell gateway review that's coming in quickly now. Petrican Medical Center is a city-owned hospital held to the benefits of this community. PeaceHealth operates it under a long-term lease and gives the city both important responsibilities and important health care. The city shouldn't presume either compliance or non-compliance. It should obtain a complete Ketchikan-specific record, independently test the material lease requirements, reconcile reported results, and then make findings based on the evidence. That is the responsible stewardship of for the HAC to review and comment on. It calls for a five-year gateway review, which is now coming up, of the performance, intended benefits, changed conditions, and relationship issues. These help resources to manage Ketchikan Medical Center and the agreement successfully. The present record records questions that should be answered with documents and reconciliations, not conclusions. presentations were delivered to the city and the HAC and when it was delivered and whether it was complete. KMC's audited statements to affiliates. 2. Centrally manage liquidity and major is now estimated to be approximately $13.9 million. should not label the difference of verified cost overrun The City should preserve all rights under the lease, including the potential Section 7i additional audit cost recovery or cost shifting, without prejudging any finding or remedy.

local care. Keep the dollars in the community. Identify jobs that have been lost. Return to the community to circulate those community dollars. Keep catching on a positive pathway forward.

It's now your chance to be holding peace, health, and accountable. I've included a packet of just a small amount of information. I will clearly state that this started off as a strong interest years before AI came around. AI has or any questions, any questions.

Thank you.

And that's all your honor.

Thank you. Then we'll pose personal to be heard. Move on to item five with the consent agenda. I see nothing at this point in time that needs to move to consent.

Yeah. Can we not move seven B?

Fine with me. 7B is okay.

All right. B is in below.

Do I have a motion?

Move to consent.

Second. Been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, would you please read the item?

Approval minutes, regular city council meeting with September 3rd, 2026 resolution number 26, 30, 38, accepting the 2026 designated legislative grant from the last part of commerce community and economic division of community and regional affairs in the amount of 6,000,008,175,000. Authorizing the city manager to execute any and all documents necessary to accept and administer the grant. Mending the twenty twenty six federal government operating the capital annual budget to provide a supplemental appropriation for the harbor department in the amount of six million, eight hundred seventy five thousand dollars. Resolution number twenty six, thirty thirty six accepting grant number G. T. G. two, six, eight zero zero two. Three, three, that goes out to the United States geological survey in the amount of thirty thousand dollars for the landslide threshold and risk communication project. Authorizing the city manager to execute any and all documents necessary to accept and administer the grant. And then amendment number 7 on track number 1944 agreement for professional services with Jacob engineering group, Inc. Limited alternative to filtration negotiations.

Thank you any question. Hearing seeing none, please follow.

Yeah. Primary yes, gauge. Yes.

Then again, yes, yes, yes. Thank you so that brings us the new business. Item 7, a resolution number 26, 30, 37 of any of the city compensation plan to provide for the class. A position of building maintenance tech 3 authorized in the city manager to execute the memorandum of understanding with the international brotherhood of electric.

Your Honor, I move the City Council approve resolution number 26-3037, amending the City of Ketchikan compensation plan to provide for the addition of the position of Building Maintenance Technician 3 at Grade 357, authorize the City Manager to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, establishing the classification within the General Government Bargaining Unit, and establishing an effective date.

Do I have a 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, what's going on there?

Yes, Mr mayor. So you may recall that Steve hofstead our facilities maintenance supervisor retired recently. He was our last remaining employee who was a supervisor and a member of the union. Over time, we've slowly moved our supervisors out of the union, and this is the last remaining one. So with his retirement, this will allow us to then hire. We're going to have Billy maintenance supervised by Joe Nall rather than replacing a supervisor, and instead we will hire another maintenance technician, maintenance technician three as a lead to do day-to-day coordination, but they won't be writing evaluations and that sort of thing. That will be handled by Joe Nall. So, this is the supervisor at street Joe is the supervisor of streets department. That's correct. And so that's what this would do is add that classification of a maintenance 3 to our classification plan and. And to the CBA, so that we can hire that as a union position still. That makes sense. I hope yes.

Yes, just for clarification. Former supervisor is at grade 361, and this would put the grade at 357, so a little bit.

Correct. It's a little bit lower on the scale because it's no longer a supervisor. Okay.

Any other questions?

Yeah, just a comment. This is one of those things that I think we do in good faith and we do with good intentions. But in the end, it's going to end up just costing more. I'm just convinced of that. So I still oppose it like I did last time.

Okay, so good. Anybody else? Please call the roll.

Age? Yes. Who's?

Yes.

Bradbury? Yes. Gass? No. Finnegan?

Yes.

Zingy. Yes.

Thank you very much. That passes. Bring this down to vouchers, which we have none. And then to the city manager, what do you have for us tonight?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, on the manager's report, just a couple of things since that went out. We had a meeting with Alaska DOT on the Hongus and Water Street Bidoc project and the changes to that from a full replacement to what they're proposing now, three phases. They went over that with us, answered some questions, informed us that they will be in town on September 29th, and they will do a public meeting at the library. I believe the start time is 4 p.m., but it might be 5 p.m. We'll get some advertising out there for that. It's 5 p.m.? It's 5 p.m. at the library. and they will be there to answer questions and talk about the project. I will also say that the website, I think it's ketchikanbiaducts.com, has been updated with the project information. The real short of it is, rather than the full replacement, the scope now is several sections of repair several sections of full replay of milling and replacing the pavement and ada upgrades to some degree but still not to the degree that is fully compliant i may be missing a third component but i don't remember and moving moving one crosswalk to about 333 feet that used to be it's in front of the west flight building

for us there right by and 300 feet so anybody and not putting wheelchair access or any kind of access there so that people will have to walk 325 feet and then back up.

Um, so there are, there are some concerns in that and staff is going to look at that and try to work with the state to figure out what can be done if anything, and whether they're actually compliant with the requirements. They claim that they are. I haven't verified that independently, but we're going to take a look at that.

So, they're not looking at the full replacement had they, they originally correct. And they're not doing the fill section. Correct.

I remember the third component. The third component is some structural stabilization and repairs underneath the viaduct. Without digging it up, they're just going to go in underneath and perform those in the open areas.

My concern is when they first started looking at this, they were looking at about a million dollar, million something there to do with Dawson. And the engineers found out there were substantial problems. They had an engineering firm come in and look at it. That's how that project grew to what it is. the report from that and the structural deficiencies hasn't changed. So how are you not going to do the full project and still meet the full compliance?

And I think it's a great question, Mr. Mayor. The answer that we keep getting is that the funding is not available for that full project, so they've moved that off to a future unfunded status, and they're trying to do some piecemeal work to keep us going with the current structure until they can secure the funding for that.

I think this meeting is going to be happening at the same time as Southeast Conference, so it's going to be a hard time getting some attendance in regards to public officials. Um, and that's concerning, but, um. I would, I would like to know, because right now they say that that is rated at a 4 out of 9. If it goes to 3, it's.

They, they have also offered to meet with us ahead of that. That would be possible. I can check the dates and see if that's. I'll check the dates and see what counsel's availability is and maybe we can schedule a special meeting where you can come in during the day and they can brief you on.

They're going to replace the whole thing. I would think it would come back to a 9. right? If they're not, what are we going to appeal? My concerns. Thank you. I think we do need to have a presentation to the council. I'll see if I can get that.

Um, and then the last thing I wanted to talk about just briefly is the city hall H, that project there is an update in the. In the manager's report, a lot of it is now wrong because it's moving very quickly. This project is funded and the contract was awarded and there was some long lead time on some major components of the system, the HVAC units themselves. There's a long lead time on getting those. And so about two weeks ago, we were under the impression there was gonna be a delay in the start and we had a couple of months probably before they would start. Then about just under two weeks ago, they said, no, we're ready to get started next Monday.

Well, that's nice.

So a couple days from now. Um, so staff quickly put together that initial plan that we thought we were going to have more time to put together, which was a phase relocation phase 2 and a half months on the 4th floor while staff is still working on the other floors. Move back in, move out the next floor, move back in, move out the next floor all the way down to the 1st floor. That would take all the way until May. I did a walkthrough with the contractor and other staff on, it was Thursday or Friday last week, and during that walkthrough it became very clear that this is not going to be a good environment for our staff to be in during that project and that we needed to find another location and try to clear out the entire building and move so that they can come in, do the work, and get done. Two things that's going to take our staff out of this environment, which will be helpful. Also, it should make it more efficient for the contractor. They'll be able to come in and do what they need to do. They won't be working around staff, et cetera, et cetera. No dust exposure, all of that. We've been able to locate some space in the borough assembly building or borough building in the White Cliff building. And I've talked with the borough manager and they are working with us to identify how we can move our entire staff into that space for the duration of this project. And it looks like it's gonna work pretty well for us. It lets the staff stay together where we can coordinate i've been at public works for one day now and it's already difficult to sign off checks for finance or you know get mail all of those things take extra time so i think it'll be useful for us to get into one place and we should see some efficiencies on the time of the project as well as the cost i can't quantify those for you exactly yet um But there will be some savings in both time and expense by doing it this way.

Do I understand you were going to be able to use the assembly chambers?

Yes, sir. And so we have already, regardless of anything else, we have secured the assembly chambers. After tonight's meeting, all council meetings will be at the assembly chambers and budget meetings will be at the assembly chambers through the duration of the HVAC project here.

So, Madam Clerk, are we still going to do voting downstairs for a period of time?

Early voting will take place on Monday. We're downstairs in the conference room, which is right across from customer service. So it's actually a little bit easier now for people when they come in, they'll just come in, hang up left and we're set up and we're ready for early voting.

at the borough assembly or at white cliff right no that's here we had already announced that that was going to be here and gone out so we're not changing that the clerks are just using that that conference room on the first floor in this building until we get this other stuff figured out unless there's a conference room down there it's just a small a lot of people i have two questions one is there a cost on what the arrangement to use white cliff There is a small cost and it's the cost of janitorial service and the cost of utilities allocated by the space that we utilize, would be utilizing.

And then I was just going to ask if you could elaborate a little on, you mentioned that the plan was to do the one floor clearing at a time and you did a walkthrough and determined that that was not feasible. What could you just elaborate a little more on what made you come to that conclusion?

So the project involves them coming in and ripping out the entire ceiling. They have to open and extend the opening of penetrations through the floors in order to run HVAC ductwork between the floors. and um then they'll come in and once they have all the duct work installed and the and the hvac control units then they come back in and put the new ceiling in but primarily the going through the floors and and taking out that material it's going to be loud and it's going to create a lot of dust so we're figuring somewhere around two grand a month it'll be a little less than two grand a month Abby and then Dick.

And then we will be protecting, like, all the stuff in here, like, covering it, not just letting it be exposed.

We're moving many things out. Okay. Things that either can't be moved or that we don't need during that interim period will be protected in place with plastic and taped off.

And how much is the moving of off, like, everyone out of here going to be at one time? It's going to need a lot more manpower, it sounds like.

We're kind of staging that. Okay. The best guess right now in this plan is still taking full shape on the timing, but probably going to have about 30 days to get everybody moved. Streets and building maintenance are helping us to move all the heavy stuff. Some staff are moving some of their lighter stuff with them. And so our primary cost for moving will probably be we'll probably have to rent a couple trucks in order to pack stuff up and move it in a little bit bigger truck. But moving should not be a huge expense.

Good, yeah, 2 questions. 1, what's the duration? Beginning when it went.

So, my, my best yes, at this point is that we would try to get all of our staff moved out of here by around the middle of October. So we'd be completely out by the middle of October. The initial estimate for completion was around May of next year. And I think that with them having the whole facility, it's likely we can see a couple of months at least earlier where we get back in the building, potentially by March as opposed to May.

Second question, employee parking at the borough building.

There is some parking there. It may be tight. There's some street parking also available. And then there's also a city lot somewhere in that area that I'm not sure exactly where it's at. So we may have to look at utilizing some of that paid parking lot for employee parking temporarily.

Yes, yes, thank you for reshaping this plan and fairly short notice and for having answers to our questions this evening to the best of your ability for members of the community that might want to reach out to city staff members. What's going to happen with the phone numbers? Are they going to be able to move with the staff? Is that something that KPU is arranging?

Yes. So our phones are all IP phones. They plug into a network cable. We basically pick up the phone, you move it and plug it in anywhere there's internet with power and it will power back on as my phone or your phone or their phone. So it will be the exact same phone numbers, exact same email addresses. All of those systems will work. The only difference will be the physical location. And once we know 100% for sure what that is, we'll definitely advertise that on social media and on the website, et cetera. Thank you. Yes, Abby.

Last question. And then all of our servers and our IT equipment in here, is that getting moved to KPU, telecom?

Our servers and it equipment, it equipment are in spaces that are primarily not actually being impacted during this. We already have air conditioning in those spaces. There is a little bit of duct work being extended in there. But those specific rooms are not pulling out the ceiling. They will be the main part of the server room will be. partitioned off with a pressurized plastic zip sheet, I think they called it. And so that would be protected from dust. We will have a couple, at least a couple of IT folks working still in this building coordinating with Dawson on that. So they'll have a space that's isolated with plastic so they're not getting dust in there. And they can keep an eye on our equipment as well. But that will just be just a couple folks probably.

All right. Well, it's a plan. It's a plan. Anything else happening?

I think that's all I have, Mr. Mayor.

Any questions? Yes.

I just had a question on the sales tax report. Obviously, sales tax reports are doing better than what we had predicted. I was wondering if that is, like, are we seeing more spending by visitors or people in general, or is it the... The seasonal tax rate increase. I'm trying to figure out, what is the extra million dollars really? Where are we getting that? I mean, the economy is not that great. So I'm trying to figure out, is it the rate difference or are we seeing just more spending?

The finance director is here. I'm going to ask her to come up and see if she has any insights because I have nothing valuable to add for you on that.

Your Honor and council members, when information is reported it's really hard to tell whether this one month is is an indicator of additional revenue you really have to look at the quarter so until we get the full quarter a lot of it depends on when when's the due date for remittance this was a monday so we could have had a better remittance um a better number of people remitting their taxes on Monday rather than if it was on a Friday or the end of the month fell on a weekend when it was due. So until we get the rest of the quarter, we won't know if this quarter is really indicative of what we expected. And then the next payment, which I was expecting this week, but we haven't received the information for sales tax yet. So I'm expecting it next week. So once we get that, then we'll have a better idea. Is that high as well, or is it offsetting the rest of that quarter? So we may have received more sales tax this time because the due date was on a Monday, whereas next time we'll see less just because we received more in August. So some of it's just timing, but we don't know until the quarter. We don't get details. We just get numbers based on a category. So we don't get the detail of how many people and how many vendors, how many there are, how many reported. The borough probably has that, but we don't get that detail.

So you want to follow up?

Yeah, I want to follow up. So speaking of that detail, like every, we've only had one month that we've been less than what we projected. All the other ones we've been up. So it's a natural trend so far this year. that we are trending better. And I'm wondering, have we noticed any upticks in certain categories or, I mean, I feel like coming up into budget, we should be monitoring like what is the cause or is it the industry? Is it construction? Is people really developing? You know, what that is, especially if we're looking at potential raises or something.

And we can give more information on that quarterly. Those reports, they don't, If you look at one quarter partway through the year, it doesn't necessarily show us the whole picture. So our biggest quarter is the next quarters. So the July, August, September quarter is the biggest quarter. So we don't get that. So July, August, September, we don't start getting July until the middle of September. So we won't see that until the full quarter is remitted.

Michelle, do the reports tell us what category they're coming from or what type of business or what type of operation? I think that's the question. I don't know.

And we do have some categorical reports. We get gross sales, we get net sales, and then we get sales tax remitted. And that's based on when they were to admit to us. So it doesn't necessarily line up with the quarters and when the sales take place. But we can certainly provide that through what through the data that we have it's just not necessarily a full year and it's better to be able to look at the whole year with those reports and then they change they can change from the last time they remitted the report to us to the next time just because they report on a different cycle than we do so they're they're updating information based on that but i can definitely remit i mean i can i can submit that to the council and and given that report multiple times to you guys so I can give it to you as of the July month end.

And I think I understand the question you're trying to ask, Councilmember Bradbury, and I will work with the finance director to try to see what we can get from the reports that they give us.

Yeah, that probably answers the question I had. I think we need to be aware of the sectors that are paying taxes in town to see whether they're going up or down, or maybe see if somebody's not playing the game right. Because I think we can get a pretty good idea. We've got a lot of new ventures for tourism, and I'm not too sure they're putting their taxes back in. And whether or not the borough even has a way to track it, and if they don't have a way to track it, maybe we need to work with them. We can't identify the individual person. But we can certainly identify that sector a lot closer.

Trends in that sector.

Yeah. We've got to know. Okay. Anybody else?

So in reality, this quarter, the biggest quarter, we won't have the full numbers of that until after budget's done.

That is usually correct. As soon as I get the first payment, which the October, I won't get till November, but I do try to update that. So I may have to bring you a budget update if it's wildly higher or lower, but it's not lower. It's higher if anything, but if it is significantly different than the estimates, then we will definitely be bringing that as a budget update because we want to reflect that in the revenues.

Appreciate that. Anybody else? Thank you.

Thanks.

Anything else? Nothing else. That's from Eric. Council committee reports. We have any council committee report for today. Did he work file.

Just wanted to remind everyone that early voting does start on Monday. You can vote the borough and the city ballot here and at the borough office. Early voting starts September 21st through Monday, October 5th, and then election is Tuesday, October 6th.

And this is for local?

This is the municipal and local election.

Okay.

Thank you. So the attorney's file, the attorney's not here tonight. future agenda items? Yes, Abby.

I have three. I have another one to go in. The first one is myself and sponsored by Council Member Zini to require that you be registered with the TMBP program for port passes. It's something we've talked about, discussed, and I'd like to get that going before the new year.

Okay.

The second one is asking, do you have my papers? Welcome to my world. I know that feeling.

The second one is sponsored by Ready to Guess.

It is to not allow a ship to tender into any of our spaces if all four docks have a vessel currently at them. So I'm just asking for a legal review to see what our options are. So basically fifth ship day, if they're tendering, not talking about hopper thing, just talking about extra tenders coming in.

Lightering, right?

Lightering, yeah. And then I don't know if that's how we, if we can do an ordinance or if that needs to be a work through. And then my third one is sponsored by Council Member Zingy. And this is to ask CLIA to allow us to use CPFee funds to fund our humanitarian and homeless grants. My goal is to have the same formula that we currently Use every year, and whatever that number is, instead of it coming out of the general fund and keep you that we can transfer that money from the CP fee funds to continue funding that through the financial crisis that we.

Thank you.

I think the last 1. Judy, thank you. All right.

Mayor and Council President. Abby.

I'll keep short and sweet. I'm a little disappointed to hear we're in the same position we were two years ago with the library. I hope we can find a solution and make sure that our library is accessible to all children in our community. We know our children have or the children in our community, not all of them have a great life. It's really rough. And if we can make sure they have access to this, no matter what, I think that is super important. We'd never want a kid not to be able to get a book when they go with their class. So I hope we can find a remedy and maybe keep that remedy moving forward instead of constantly going through this scenario. And I'll leave it there.

Thank you.

Riley. I know things are busy. There's a lot going on, but there's quite a list of things that. Has been 4 hands or voted on. For support, not only my items, but other people's items. And as we all know, you know, it takes a long time to get things done. So some of these items I really would like to see. Brought back to us, so we can start adopting some of these things. The ones that come to mind that Judy's been harping on for quite a while is the properties. I would really like to see that come back back in. I don't know June, I think when we did the. With council support here, I brought forward a thing to request, to start the conversation with the cruise lines about basically just requesting some financial contributions to the things that they use, such as our roads and our utilities that they use. We were told, wait till the MOU is done, and then we can bring those requests forward. That's been several months. More recently, the request to increase the tilt payment on the port, the policy change for the museum to start funding that out of a combination of ticket sales and some sort of tours and money cpv or port fund or however that could be shaped out so there's quite a list here and i know it's a lot but i'm just going to keep and i'm mentioning it until we start to see some of these come back for official vote i think some of them are more complex than others but certainly some of these things like requesting you know just asking hey because at those meetings that we've had the last few years with clea they said oh I'm just going to repeat it. They said we have our red light, our yellow light, and our green light. Our green light is things on the port, and our red light is things at North Tongass or something. Then there's the yellow light, things that we impact that are gray areas, so by all means please bring them back request it to us let's get the conversation going that's been years so i really want to see that push before we go into the budget cycle and have to vote to raise everybody's rates again because that's right around the corner i know it is so i'd like to at least try some of these other solutions to get some participation from the very prosperous tourism industry so please you can fit into your schedule to bring it back we would really appreciate some of those items

Can I just share Mr mayor on the on the pilt and the museum funding? We're absolutely looking at those as part of the budget process. I've already talked with staff and we're working on trying to incorporate those items already. So, I know you haven't seen movement on those apologize, but those are actively being worked. Um. I will get something scheduled with CLIA and I've already talked to the attorney about the property. So those are all, all four of those specific items are moving. They're just not back to you yet. I appreciate it. You're welcome.

There's a little phrase I always live by, which is a squeaky wheel gets the grease. So I'm going to keep speaking.

Well, just to kind of echo what Abby said earlier, I'm very disappointed over the library. I mean, that was a big issue. a couple of years ago, and they did say that they had taken care of that and that they were going to work on the library memberships. And it sounds like that didn't happen at all. So I'd like an explanation as to why that hasn't happened and how they're going to make it right. And that's all I have for tonight. Except thank you, Riley, for bringing those things up. I still say we should have a part on our agenda that lists all those things so we know when they're due, when we ask for them.

Dick? Yeah, I think we need to start. The season for the cruise lines is starting to close down. We've already got a week and a half left, basically. We've all, I think, heard issues down there that need to be dealt with. And somehow or other, we've got to maybe bring together a work session or something that brings those issues to a head. And we figure out what to do with them. And I'm going to mention one of them, this little bitty parking lot right back over on the other side, right at the entrance to Dock 2. I ended up working Dock 2 today, and I got 10 ears full of what's wrong with that parking lot. And if they're right, then we've got a bunch of vans that are going to go bye-bye. Because they're over there basically selling tours. They're not just picking up and delivering. They're selling. And those issues like that and some others I think we can come up with. But we need a work session to determine what it is. And to work maybe some of the things Riley mentioned. We talk about having a downtown plan that we want to get the cruise lines to help us fund. We'll get working on it. And so we need a work session to figure out where we're going to go.

Can I ask a question for clarification? Are you thinking a work session for council or are you thinking more of a public meeting where folks can come in and share with us the things that they've seen and heard and then we can take that?

Yeah, and whichever sequence that needs to happen. Maybe we want to listen to the public first and then take it on or take it on and then I'll leave it to them. Okay.

Understood.

Yeah. What I'd ask after that, you have the tourism director, give us all the information on that doctrine extension with the rules and regulations that exist today if there are any. And then we have something to look at regards to addressing.

Doc street extension, I thought he was talking about the parking lot between the KBP and the yeah, it's called though.

I know it is.

Yeah, I've heard issues with both. So we're, we're tracking.

I have a couple of things 1, I would like to see. I know that hospital lease agreement is coming up. I really want to see this KMC report. I've been told by multiple people, including people I've worked with in hospital that that 1 page report that we've gotten does not meet our standards for our lease agreement. So I would like that four hands for that because I think we need that in order to, and we need to start digging into this because it's going to come and we're not going to be prepared, period. And I'm really sick and tired. And I'll be the squeaky wheel this time. But then I have a couple other things. Oh, do I? The big one? Oh, yeah. Okay. Or hands you don't need it. Oh, I know you don't need it.

Okay.

Oh, okay.

Better work on it.

All right. So then I have a couple other couple other things. My understanding on the library just to. Throw in my hat on that is that with the borough funding being cut. and not being issued, that was part of that funding that went towards school district library system. I don't know if Jack can elaborate on that, but I think that was it. The other thing is with the museum, and I'm going to draft up something because I was at that meeting last night. And there, for the cruise industry, I will say there's an increase in local use of the library, about 4,000 people. It keeps going up. So they're probably projecting at 45 to 5,000 individuals, local individuals that are coming into the library because they clock those because we get free access. bathroom and caring for the bathroom has surpassed. It's about $849 for the off season and it's clocking up around, I want to say, $2,500 a month during the tour season. So we're looking at about 20, most of our budget for cleaning and janitorial service in the summer is around $20,000. And toilet paper, so I want to say there was 1 other thing. Oh, I did go to the meeting and yes, I was. It just missed me because I'll say what I said there. I am 60 years old and the last time that was done was when I believe I was either 9 or 10. It was early 70s, late 70s, early 80s when they actually fixed that bridge system from Talbots down to Silver Lining. There was a lot of what I felt to be, I mean, that walk area along there is all, well, my mom's 81. She was probably 9 or 10 when it was built in the 50s. or like 45, 50, somewhere in there, right? And for me, the idea is that they're just gonna kick the can. The attitude was they're gonna kick the can. We're working on getting the funding. And I think we've heard that for the last 50 years or since I was 10. And so in that respect, Um, for one, it's not accessible to anyone, um, in, in any capacity in a wheelchair scooter, many more individuals are on the side of the road. There's no, um, clear, you know, there's, especially when you start hitting the old ferries, um, store and start heading to silver lining because of the, the line poles there is, um, between the old sidewalks, there's no. ramp areas to you know um offset i know that um i mean it i mean if they're not going to do it for locals and we only do things for travelers and visitors and and we shut down all the things that are important to us those of us who live and work here and don't leave in some in the winter um then do it for the travelers because maybe then we'll get it done because at the end of the day There are a hell of a lot more people coming off those ships disabled and using scooters and wheelchairs. And I actually had a friend come in that I picked up out at Ward Cove. And we did a transit and we brought her downtown. And what she told me is it's amazing how many people stay on the ships with disabilities because their experience in our communities is that they are not accessible. So that's lost revenues. And it doesn't, it doesn't bode well with me because it says that it's dismissive of individuals with disabilities and it makes for, it's just wrong at the end of the day. It's wrong. And I pay taxes. Most people with disabilities pay taxes and I really get tired of people doing this to me about what it costs. So I get it.

Thank you.

yeah thanks your honor uh i i i wish director tully were here she could probably speak more authoritatively and i know um i'm just going to pursue more information on that matter i can't say from my recollections of meetings we've had with the library advisory board and other conversations that between the reduction in funding to the libraries, reduction in staffing, and the disruption to the system that integrates the school district accounts with the public library accounts is where some of the obstacles come into play. I know too, and I can't speak to the specifics, that's why I wish Director Tully were here, that in the closure of the charter schools library or the absence of their library staff, is one of the structural obstacles here that I think is creating this the tension that we have between the two organizations. So hopefully we can find some resolution because to the points that have been made by members Bradbury and Zingy, yeah, all our our area children, whether they're homeschooled or schooled in the school district, should have easy access to library materials. So I hope we find a way to make that easier for all parties. Separate from that, I'm a little late in this because, I don't know, I forgot to mention it when I saw, I think the majority of the work is completed. I think I saw another piling being driven yesterday, perhaps. But I just want to speak, I want to praise the work that was done at Bar Harbor North to replace the breakwater there. It was a huge project. It seemed to happen a lot faster than I anticipated. I have moorage in Bar Harbor North. There were very minor disruptions to traffic over the period of time that huge project was underway. And I was really grateful to the harbor masters who were on VHF radio, who were readily available to answer any questions I had. If I had difficulty getting into or out of the harbor, I had questions about timing, et cetera. So the new breakwater looks great. And I was really impressed with the speed at which that work was done.

Thank you all good comments tonight. There's a lot of stuff going on. I think there's going to be more pressure on the community as we. Especially for kids, as we see the budget roll out for school district, and I think that there's going to be a place that we're going to play a part in trying to cover some of those. I don't know what it's going to be, but. Being that we have a library system that supports education. Might be something we think about, uh, I am, uh, as you all saw the, uh. The fire on a cruise ship doc brand new doc. 8Million dollars worth of damage. So I just want to make sure our docs are up to spec and all the safety procedures and stuff that's needed to fight fires or do whatever we need to do down there in place. I know we have spoken about some capital projects for the port and I'd like to know if we've completed any capital projects of any size in the last few years and what our projection is for. coming up in regards to cathodic protection or, you know, file wraps and all that kind of stuff. We have money in the bank. It's hard to go ask the client for more money to do stuff when we're not spending the money we have on projects that are needed. So that concerns me. So the, I think that, you know, our community has some, Right spots, we got like, real catch can do their work in regards to their culture and hopefully doing some primary manufacturing there. But I think that we have a. A bigger part to figure out what's going on in our community and the hardships that are commerce is having private business, small business, that type of stuff and making sure that we're not part of that problem and part of the solution as we continue to try to build our economy here. Um. So I think all sectors are busy right now, but I think we need to have. A follow up at the end of the year to see where the problems were, what work, what didn't work and then beginning of the year. Of course, we always have our meeting with. The users of the ports and the cruise industry, and we want to make sure that we have clear defined projects if we were looking for money. Um, so we can tell them what it is that we want to do and what that's the cost for those things. Um, and then if there's any regulation changes that are coming at the, uh. For the port, we need to make sure that that's. Communicated, and if we're going to do any rate is that support. Um, that 18 month process as we're going through, we want to make sure that if we're. We're going to do something and we're ready to do that at the beginning of season for the following season. We'd be in place. That's what I'd like to see, but other than that, as I walk around the community, we're busy people are smiling as the weather's been good and enjoy getting out downtown and visiting with the different businesses. Talking to the people that are using those abilities. So, with that. That closes the council member comments and bring us on over to some executive session. The 1st, 1 is, they may need a break before we start to stuff. It's still fairly early request for the executive session, collective bargaining agreement and city catch can in the international brotherhood of electric worker in about 1547. do I have a motion.

your honor i move the city council declare that consistent with the assistant city manager's recommendation it is the best interest of the city to discuss strategies relative to negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement between the city of ketchikan doing business as ketchikan public utilities and the international brotherhood of electrical workers local 1547 to replace the existing contract expiring december 31st 2026 an executive session in accordance with that finding the city council will go into executive session in accordance with kmc 2.04.025a1 To discuss said negotiations and subjects, the knowledge of which would have an adverse impact on the finances of the city and upon the city's ability to negotiate favorable labor agreements.

It has been moved back to any discussion. Hearing seeing that, and then Chris, please call the roll.

Yes. Then again, yes, yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Bradbury yes.

With that, we'll recess in the executive. In their regular session, I'd like to make note that the fact that while we're in executive session, uh, council member gas recused himself from the, uh, discussion being that he is an active member of the at this time. Is there a motion coming out of your honor?

Yeah. Authorize I move to authorize the city measure to negotiate a successor. Collective bargaining agreement with local 1, 547 within the parameters discussed in executive session with any resulting agreement returned to counsel for ratification.

It has been moving in 2nd, any further discussion.

Hearing and then on the road. Yes.

Yes, yes, and again, yes. Yeah, yeah.

Bring just the item B request for an executive session piece. I'll catch candidates and our gateway review. Do I have a motion please?

Yeah.

Yeah, I moved the city council declared is in the best interest of the city to convene an executive session in accordance with 2.04025 a 1 and 3. To discuss the status of and performance under the city's lease with peace health. The medical center, and the city's objectives for the gateway review process provided for in that lease. immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect upon the finances of the city and which include matters which by charter ordinance or other law are required to be confidential so it had been moved and seconded discussion hearing i'd request that the attorney come into that session as well thank you madame chris would you please call the roll age yes yes yes then again yes

Yes, yes, yes.

With that reset.

Yes, maybe take a quick break.

Yes.

Thank you.

Recess and dig. We'll come back to order.

We met the exact stuff in regards to peace out by center gateway review, discuss number and numerous options and topics. And with that, we have a motion.

Your honor, I need to direct the city manager to initiate the gateway review process provided for. In section 7 J of the city lease with the cell for the operation of the medical center. To convey the city's document request to peace out in connection with that process. And to schedule a review session for January, 2027 with council participation as approved in section 7 J. Be designated by the mayor and to report the results of the review to the council.

Second, second, any further discussion. Gary, please.

Then again, yes, Bradbury. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you moves us on to item C request for an executive session for Harvard administrator for you result. Do I have a motion?

Your Honor, I move the City Council declare, consistent with the Assistant City Manager's memorandum dated September 11, 2026, that it is in the best interest of the City to review and discuss supports in Harvard's administrative review and executive session in accordance with Ketchikan Municipal Code 2.04.025 to discuss matters or subjects that tend to prejudice the reputation and character of any person provided the person may request a public discussion.

2nd, sorry, it has been moved in 2nd, and I see the armor master not here. So, we'll move into executive session. Uh, would you please hold the roll H. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Sure. I see our audience. Yeah, they did.

All right, so we'll come back out of the executive session. We've had discussions. No, actually taken. Do I have a motion for.

Yeah, yeah, motion. We can't.