City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, the document, ready?

Thank you. ... ... ... ... ...

Thank you.

Thank you.

I CAN HEAR YOU. CAN YOU HEAR ME?

YES, I CAN HEAR YOU.

ALL RIGHT. I HAVE TO GET BACK ON. SOMETHING WENT OFF. OH. YEAH, I DON'T HAVE THE ZOOM ANYMORE, BUT ARE WE LIVE?

I CAN HEAR YOU. I CAN SEE YOU TOO.

Okay, that's interesting.

That's weird. I don't want to do about your side of the house.

Okay, that's right. Okay, let's call the meeting to order. Regular city council meeting, August 11th, 6 p.m. Before we get started, please, everybody, remember to silence your cell phones. And then before we do the call to order, everyone will notice that Councilwoman Collins and Graham are not in attendance. They are both attending family functions. And so they are excused. So Madam Clerk, would you call the roll, please?

Mayor Cooper?

I am here.

Deputy Mayor Alcantara?

Here.

Council Member Allen? Here. Council Member Carrington?

Here.

And Council Member Graham, or no, Council Member Mosher? Present. We have a quorum.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, would you find someone to please lead us in the pledge?

I already assigned John Priebus that job.

Thank you back to the Council. What's the wishes of the Council on approval of the agenda?

Second.

Hold on make notes. Do you want to have any discussion on that?

What I will mention to everybody is that these items, particularly item number two, all of those are for introduction only. And so the only reason if we wanted to pull any off would only be to discuss whether or not they should be here for introduction for public hearing.

Okay. Okay. Deputy Mayor Alcantara?

Yes.

Council Member Carrington? Yes. Council Member Mosier? Yes. Council Member Allen?

Yes.

AND MAYOR COOPER?

YES.

IT'S APPROVED.

THANK YOU. SO MOVING ON TO COMMUNICATION AND APPEARANCE REQUESTS. COUNCILWOMAN CARINGTON, WE HAVE A PROCLAMATION FOR MS. PATTERSON.

Whereas the City of Palmer is committed to recognizing the achievements and contributions of its outstanding employees, and whereas Joan Patterson began her career with the City of Palmer in 1981, and has dedicated 45 years to the faithful service to the city and to the Palmer community. And whereas, throughout her career, Joan has demonstrated exceptional dedication, professionalism, and commitment to the City of Palmer and its residents. Whereas Jones' years of service and leadership have contributed greatly to the success of Palmer and have left have left a lasting and meaningful impact on her colleagues, the departments, the community she has served, and whereas the City of Palmer extends its sincere appreciation and gratitude to Joan for 45 years of service and wishes her the very best in the next chapter of her life. Now, therefore, to be it proclaimed that the City of Palmer, the City Council hereby honors Joan Patterson for her 45 years of dedicated service, commitment to the City of Palmer and its residents, and expresses its sincere gratitude for her lasting contributions to the Palmer community. Thank you.

I'm not hearing anything else. You still have me?

I do. I don't know why you can't hear us.

Okay. Yeah, I can't hear anything else. And so we're on item number two.

There we go. Okay.

Madam Manager, we have a proclamation for John Priegel's.

A proclamation recognizing John Priebus. Whereas the City of Palmer is committed to recognizing the achievements and contributions of its outstanding employees, and whereas John Priebus began his career with the Palmer Fire Department in 2001 and has dedicated 25 years of faithful and distinguished service to protecting the lives, property, and well-being of the Palmer community. And whereas, throughout his career, John Priebus exemplified the core values of Palmer Fire and Rescue – excellence, professionalism, integrity, community, and service – and demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of the community he served. And whereas, the City of Palmer extends sincere gratitude to John Priebus for 25 years of dedicated service and leadership and wishes him continued happiness and success in the years ahead. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the City of Palmer and City Council hereby honors John for his 25 years of dedicated service and commitment to the Palmer Fire and Rescue Department and the City of Palmer, and expresses its sincere appreciation for his leadership and lasting contribution to the Palmer community.

is just take a five-minute break

Yes.

Actually, happy to see you.

GO AHEAD, MAYOR.

I'D LIKE TO BRING THIS BACK TO ORDER, PLEASE. WE'RE AT CITY MANAGER REPORT.

Thank you. First, I want to make the Council aware that yesterday I waived the formal procurement requirements for an urgent purchase related to the golf course irrigation system. Given the time-sensitive nature of the situation and the potential impacts associated with delaying the procurement to the next City Council meeting on August 25th, I approve the purchase pursuant to PMC 3.21.280 waiver of formal procurement. And I will be bringing this forward at the August 25th council meeting for formal approval. However, if I had delayed this purchase, it would cause significant and catastrophic damage to the golf course greens because it has to do with our irrigation system. The pump went down, and that means we can't get water onto the greens. So this purchase is for the golf course through the community development department. Two vendors were contacted. Two quotes were given. One had the pump on the shelf, and one did not. So we chose the one that had the pump on the shelf ready to go here in Alaska and not the East Coast. Do you have any questions? I will be putting this through in AM for the next meeting with more of the detailed information. And I did provide the invoice here for you guys to look at.

MR. Mr. Mayor? Yes, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, CMA. Off record, we've got some 70, 75 degree days that we're in and continuing here for a week. So is this finished? This is done.

OK. The check probably hasn't gone out the door yet. But no, it hasn't gone out the door, obviously. But I made the approval to get that happen. So the part is ours. The pump is ours. We just need to get it. Yeah.

OK.

Thank you. Oh, no. But is it producing water already, or are they still going to install it?

I believe it still needs to be installed, yes.

Oh, OK. Thank you very much.

Any other questions, comments?

All right, I'll continue. On to regular business. Fire chief interviews will take place this week and next, and I'm hopeful that we will have a decision within the next 10 days. We have several qualified candidates that we are eager to interview, and I look forward to giving that update at the next city council meeting, should those interviews progress as well, HR and I like. Today we held our annual employee appreciation luncheon at the depot, and I want to thank everyone who showed up and participated. Being a small government, many of our employees wear multiple hats, like I said earlier at the event, and they often take on responsibilities that aren't in their day-to-day normal duties, and so I really appreciate that. Everyone seems to step in and help when needed. They always find ways to get things done with the resources that we have I'm very proud of the team that we have built I'm grateful for everyone at Palmer Fire and Rescue Palmer police Public Works Community Development Airport Finance and everyone else in between The work that you do every day is appreciated in the community and the city see that Next people have been discussing annexation for some time since I've been here and well before I got here and it's been Annexation comes with expanded city services and additional resources that the residents will come to expect. At the same time, Palmer currently is dealing with an aging infrastructure and increasingly tight office space. If the city moves forward with annexation in the future, we will need to consider whether our existing facilities can adequately support the growing community and the services that come with it. We've discussed several possibilities, including opportunities to better utilize or repurpose some of our existing city buildings and to create additional space. Another idea being explored is building a combined Palmer Civic building which could bring a number of city functions together under one roof and potentially provide more convenient one-stop location for our residents, businesses, and visitors needing city services. I want to emphasize that the Palmer Civic building idea is just one idea that's being explored. No decisions have been made. There are no other options. And there are other options that may ultimately make more sense for the city at this point. But I want to bring up some several key staff that would be willing to walk through what some of this would look like if the city decides to annex and if we decide to go into consolidating all of our city services into one civic building. And come on up, gentlemen. Let's go. Thank you.

I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS PROJECT, THIS IDEA, SINCE 2020 WITH CHIEF SHELTON WHEN HE TOOK OVER AS THE CHIEF. AT THAT TIME, THAT WAS ONE OF HIS GOALS WAS TO CREATE A NEW PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING AT THE TIME, WHICH WAS GOING TO HOUSE THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, AND A LOT OF STATE TROOPERS. That has evolved into something what Manager Zirkle was just talking about was a civic building. So let me walk you a little bit through what we've been doing for the last couple of years trying to make this happen. We came up with the idea of trying to create this building. We started looking in the city of Palmer for possible locations that we could do this because that's what we have to find first. We have to find a place to put this building. It's going to be a very large building. So we investigated the area behind Peak Inn, the Gary Lundgren property. He wanted a lot of money per square foot, and he's in Panama, so it was a little hard to deal with him. We looked at the property, the Walmart property that is at Palmas Hill Highway and Irwin Loop. The upkeep for that property, since it's in such a hole, would be very expensive and hard to maintain. There's property across the street at the north side of the Brittany State subdivision, however, because of the design of that subdivision. There's a drainage that cuts right into the main spot of where the property would be. So we wouldn't be able to move that. We identified a piece of property that's across from Midas up on the hill. It's the Kertulla property. They had about 40 acres there. They were willing to shave off about 10 acres for us. We applied for some grants for the land. We did not get awarded those grants. And then that was in 23. In 24, we kind of went through some city manager things here in the city. So a second attempt for a different grant was not pushed through at the time, which kind of put us back into square one and kind of stuck in the mud. So from there, what we ended up doing is we were talking to the troopers. They were our partners in this. But they also have their needs as well, like the building that they're currently in. is not sufficient. They're spread out around seven different locations throughout the Mat-Su Borough. So they were also looking for a new home. They were hoping to get in with us, and when we got stuck back in square one, they had to keep looking. At a meeting on August 2nd of 2025, where they did a large public safety meeting, the troopers' leadership basically said we need to, they want to reduce their footprint in the Mat-Su Borough because of the size of it. um their leadership feels that it should be more policed by the borough and the cities versus the troopers they want to go to the outlying areas but they started looking for their own building from there there are different options so at that point we pivoted and said let's let's look at what we can do here in the city and definitely the one stop spot for all the city services is kind of mainly what we were looking for so if we can include the palmer police department POMER FIRE TRAINING CENTER, COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, CITY HALL, IF WE COULD ALL PUT THEM IN ONE SPOT, PUBLIC WORKS WITH AN OFFICE, WE UNDERSTAND THEY HAVE THEIR OWN YARD AND IT MAKES MORE SENSE FOR THEM TO BE THERE, BUT THEY WOULD STILL HAVE SOMETHING. THIS BUILDING WOULD BE SOMETHING THAT WE'RE LOOKING TO GROW WITH FOR THE NEXT 40 TO 50 YEARS. SO WITH THAT IN MIND, I STARTED LOOKING AROUND FOR MORE PROPERTY BECAUSE WE WERE KIND OF STILL We're still looking for that because that's where we have to start. We have to find a place to put this, and the city is limited on what we have. I did identify a piece of property, and I talked to them. It was not on the market, but I approached them and said, What do you think? Would you be willing to talk to us about this? And they said yes. We've had some discussions. They asked – nothing's been obviously set in stone. Nothing's been done in writing. But we've had good conversations. They're willing to entertain the idea of selling to us. They want to remain confidential at this point because nothing's on paper. But I have identified a piece of property that would be suitable for our needs for this building. To talk about specifically the police department and why this is something that we need, our current building was built in 1983. So it is going on 43 years. And by the time, even if we started today, this new building wouldn't be built for five years. four to five years. So we're looking at almost a 50-year-old building that's housing public safety. We have 4,600 square feet of what we use in the building. A study, an assessment study done in 2004 by Wolf Architecture said that we needed a 17,000-square-foot building for our needs then. That included a parking garage, but that was 22 years ago, and we've grown since then. Even if and when the trooper's lease runs up in June of 2018, We have chosen not to renew that lease because the police department has its needs. We still need the space. It still wouldn't meet that 17,000 square feet recommendation 22 years ago. We have done everything we can to make the best use of the building, but we've run its course. The deferred maintenance is going to start catching up to us. Specifically for the police department, we were given a ballpark number of just the thing, the big things was about a half a million dollars. And that stuff has been kicked down the road because it's hard to afford that kind of stuff, but eventually it's going to come to an end. We're talking boilers. AC units, the parking lot hasn't been resurfaced in I don't know how long. We need new sidewalks. So those are just a few things. Painting the building, that's going to be something we're going to talk about later towards the budget. I don't know if you saw our beautification post last year, but it needs some attention. And I'm trying to give you a 50,000-foot view. The plan would be to put, with everyone in one building, there's a lot of positives. There's a lot of shared costs instead of doing five individual buildings or four individual buildings. Part of that would be the shared infrastructure, HVAC, boilers, generators, construction costs of one building versus four or five. Lower maintenance and operation. THE SHARED TECHNOLOGY, SO EVERYTHING IS TRYING TO BE, I WANT TO HAVE DESIGNED TO HAVE MULTIPLE USES. NEW CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS, WHICH WOULD THEN BE ABLE TO DOUBLE AS A LARGE TRAINING ROOM, WE JUST FLIPPED THE SIDES. A SHARED GYM FOR EVERYBODY TO BE ABLE TO USE. THAT'S THE PROCESS AND THE THOUGHT BEHIND OF WHAT I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT FOR THE CIVIC BUILDING FOR SO LONG. Mayor or Manager Zirkle did say, you know, one-stop service center, it would be very nice instead of every citizen in Palmer being able to have to go to all these different locations in the city, be able to go into one lobby, visit all the places they need and get all the services they can get. And one thing that was shared with me and I really actually like it is It's an opportunity to create a landmark building that really reflects the community character and the values for Palmer and that we can really put forward. It would be in a very visible location so that everybody coming to see would be able to see that for us. I'll let Chief Lindstrom speak to the fire department's needs for this building.

Yeah, so with this, I'll just call it Civic Center. Part of that would be moving the fire training grounds to that. Some of our, it's on my notes. Some of the issues that we're having currently right now with our training center at the moment, I don't wanna bring it up, but we are an airport property. So there will be a point where we are required to move. Our live fire training capabilities with the current burn rooms that we have, they're low and they're not realistic for today's needs. Our smokehouse needs to be remodeled. The 24 years I've been here, it has sustained no water damage. So we've got that coming down the room. Our classroom size in our training center is barely fitting a full night of responders for training. We've made some changes. It's going to work for now, but we're very quickly running out of room. We don't have, and I'm gonna call it three six or the training center, so I apologize if I bounce back and forth, because that area by the airport is a fire station as well as a training center and classroom. So if I get that backwards, I apologize. But we do not have adequate dry, clean, or temperature controlled areas to be able to keep training equipment or operational equipment. We're running out of room. And with that room, As far as the fire department goes, the city, we do not have a one-stop shop where we can get off of a call and actually completely rehab all of our equipment, our trucks, the hose, personnel gear, any of that. We have to keep bouncing from a borough station to a city station to a training center to be able to get everything back in order. Our efficiency is degraded pretty immensely with that. So that's just some of the training center and 3-6 issues. Station 3-1, that's right behind you guys, was built in 78. We've got almost a 50-year-old station. If anybody hasn't noticed, fire trucks haven't gotten any smaller, and that building has not gotten any bigger. If you do get a chance to walk through when all the fire trucks are in there, it's tight. I don't want to drop the safety word, but it's borderline at times a safety issue with responders coming in, getting around the trucks, getting to their gear. Currently 3-1, the future of Palmer in the next five to eight years is probably going to have 24-hour shifts of some sort of full-time personnel. That station 3-1 cannot accommodate that without extremely extensive remodeling, which Pardon my term, maybe putting lipstick on a pig. It's an old building. So we have no kitchen capabilities. We have no dorms there. We have nowhere to keep the responders gear from any of the carcinogen contaminants, the diesel exhaust from the trucks. Currently at 3-1. Our decontamination room where we run the gear after these calls through is the same room that we are drying the gear in. We are filling air bottles in. We are decontaminating our air masks in. We are decontaminating our air packs in. We're making it work, but it's far from ideal for the city or the responders that have to deal with this. We've outgrown it and we need to plan probably pretty quickly or we're going to be even further by in the ball.

Nate, if you want to talk about community development.

Sure. Me and my staff are not nearly as important as these two to my right. More or less from the community development side of things long-term planning, as you've heard, is most of the facilities that the city has are aged out. It's just what happens. Operationally, they're not meeting capacity, efficiency, or the coordination side of things. And so the Civic Center is IS THE ABILITY TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT. AS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, THOSE WHO HAVE VISITED US, WE HOUSE NOT ONLY PLANNING AND ZONING BUT THE BUILDING INSPECTOR AS WELL AS MYSELF AND THEN ON THE OTHER HALF OF THE BUILDING IS THE ADMIN FOR FIRE AND THE CHIEF'S OFFICE AS WELL. AND SO WE DON'T HAVE A CONFERENCE ROOM. sit with builders or anybody coming in for variances or anything like that. We're all corralling into either my office or Kaylee's office. So operationally we're below capacity, but not quite as emergency side of things for being mission ready. But with that, we have – I've identified we have several properties throughout the city that we do currently own and have owned. Operationally, they're not large enough, right? Fire Training Center and Community Development off of Cope Industrial is 5.58 acres. And with City Hall, between the parking lot front, back, rear, and the building is about a third of an acre. And then PBD shares their facility, so both DEC troopers and PBD take up about two acres. Operationally, we're talking about seven acres. That would be kind of just plug and play. For growth, as Commander Zipsky was discussing, is we want to not just fix this for five years. This is a 40, 50-year investment. The city is growing. City Manager had discussed annexation. This is not a new topic. This has been revisited since 2002. And we haven't had necessarily a successful annexation since 2012. And planning and zoning has been, you know, So that's been – we've been facing that a lot. As you saw in your agenda for next month, we have three rezones – or two rezones on that agenda, and we've dealt with two other rezones this last year. So annexation allows us the opportunity to right-size the city. OUR EMERGENCY SERVICES FAR OUTSIDE THE CITY LIMITS, AND THEY'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO GROW. THE BOROUGH TODAY, I WAS JUST IN AN NPO MEETING, AND THE BOROUGH IS LOOKING TOWARDS PULLING OUT A LITTLE BIT MORE AND HAVING, AS SIVAKY SAID, HAVING LOCAL JURISDICTIONS HAVE A LITTLE BIT MORE OWNERSHIP IN THEIR AREA. AND PALMER'S AT THAT CRESCENDO. AND WITH THAT CRESCENDO COMES OPERATIONALLY, WE HAVE TO BE READY. That's pretty much all I got to say. Not as exciting. But I did volunteer firefight for about three and a half, four years, nowhere near the capacity of the people in the room and Chief Prevost that left. But I understand and I agree. Operationally, everything's fragmented is a good word for it. The buildings are fragmented. The operational readiness is fragmented. You're constantly playing Tetris with apparatuses. And so I can concur with what Interim Chief Lindstrom is talking about. So any more questions over here?

The only thing I would add is the piece of property that I've identified is about 10 acres. And so with math, it's a little bit more, and then it gives us room to grow. Again, that's thinking. It's trying to do forward thinking. I'm not going to be around for the 40 or 50 years, but I want to be around for at least Getting in there picking out my office and then leaving so Yeah And so I'd like to discuss this more just the the Particulars are hard in this point to say in an open council meeting But what I would like to say is that this is also the starting point. We have to start somewhere. We will be looking for grants for this building. But we can't most, I would say 95% to 99% of grants that we'd be looking for to help build this always want us to have a piece of land first. They want us to be able to do it. They want to say that they're going to take this money that we give them, and they're going to build something with it on a piece of land that they already own. And without that, most of the time they won't even look at us. So that's all we have for now. Do you have any questions? Is that how this works?

Mr. Mayor? Yes, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Commander Zipsky and Chief Lindstrom and Director Oates. I hear what you're saying about if we get too far in the weeds, we need to have an executive session. a little light tonight as far as Mayor on Zoom and two council members missing. So I appreciate these update and kind of the 50,000 foot view, as you said. I always use 30,000, like 50,000 your way up there. But I'm going to ask a couple questions. You can tell me if you can. for six years now. So there's a building design from however many years ago. Do you know the total square footage of that building that you were talking about? Or are we still kind of putting on a napkin and seeing what we're on?

Any design that would have been from years ago, I don't have. The numbers I have are directly from the Wolf architecture study.

If I could continue, Mr. Mayor, just a couple more. Yes. So we have, you know, not lately, not in the last two years, but list for a couple years previous to that and as we know the legislative process now capital budgets are scant or almost non-existent so getting getting big grants out of the state at least in the near term is kind of a tough deal but did you have or way back in 20 years ago or are maybe even five years ago with Chief Shelton, was there a total cost of the structure? I'm remembering somewhere around 40 million and if I'm way off line on my wagon, you can correct me.

I would say two years ago we were searching around for an estimated cost. Trying to find a like-sized building with recent construction, but it was lower 48 and I believe it was Around $55 million for a 40 or 45,000 square foot building. And I can say what the police department would need. That $17,000 is probably right on par for what we would need. The fire department's going to obviously need some more, so I don't know what their need would be, especially with the fire training center part of it. But I would say that's at least a starting point.

And this might be a city manager question or chief question, but Palmer PD total staff, sworn officers, dispatch, et cetera, are we talking around 40 staff, 35 to 40? I don't think anybody can answer.

I'm not going to hold you to an exact number. We're full-time. We're at, what, 25? Yeah, it's almost 30. Yeah, it's almost 30 now. And then we have on-calls and part-times.

Okay. All right. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah.

Anybody else? Chief Lindstrom, I have a question for you. Yes, sir. Currently, the borough does EMS. Are we thinking of taking over that or ?

I mean, as far as my radar right now, borough EMS is I mean, that's a plan that we can look into, especially if annexation is in the future and we do grow that. That may be something that we do need to adopt back into Palmer Fire and Rescue is EMS services. Right now, Borough EMS and Palmer Fire, we're not looking to take into that at the moment, so.

All right, thank you, thank you.

And just for clarification of everybody, Not only is the police department and the fire department old, the community development, if people remember, it was the old tsunami warning center that we moved down from up at Felton Road to its current location. So it's also an old building. Madam Manager, do you have anything else?

No, that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments of the city manager?

for the procurement contract position with the upcoming budget cycle these reviews of new projects on the horizon is it possible that we can have a dedicated role in place for this and Also, the position is critical for ensuring consistency, compliance, and efficiency in how we manage the contracts, purchasing, and project oversight. I'd like to know the status of the position and how soon we can anticipate posting it. Having a procurement manager on board before we enter the next budget cycle would strengthen our internal processes and support both staff and council as we move into a busy period. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. So the procurement position that you and the mayor brought forward and approved, we have written the job description and we are writing the position, like the posting of that now. I do need to work with the mayor on figuring out where this person will sit because currently the only space available is his office. WE'RE IN A LITTLE BIT OF A PICKLE. WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF SPACE. HOWEVER, THAT WON'T STOP ME FROM HIRING THE PERSON AND FIGURING IT OUT. WE WILL HAVE A PROCUREMENT POSITION FILLED, HOPEFULLY, I MEAN, BY 2027. THEY WILL BE ON BOARD HERE SHORTLY ONCE WE GET THAT DONE. BUT I'M JUST BEING MINDFUL OF THE OVERALL BUDGET AS WELL FOR 2026.

All right, thank you. So my report, a week or so ago, I attended the Chief Boatwright's celebration of life, and it was a good event. We had all subsequent police chiefs since Chief Boatwright, they were there, and a fire truck. And we also had a number of fire personnel that were there as well. And it was, I don't want to say a happy celebration, but it was good to get everybody back together again and show respect for Chief Boatwright. There's a special meeting of the policy board for the municipal planning organization this Tuesday, and we're discussing what the borough wants to do with their projects. As you know and I've mentioned before, we had a session where we scored all these projects. Both the technical committee and the policy committee agreed on that. And all the projects were ranked. And now what the borough is looking to do is moving their projects that were not scored very high up to the top of the list. And what that does is display some of our projects. And so we're going to have a special meeting to discuss that next Tuesday. Okay. THE CHAMBER IS GOING TO HAVE A COFFEE AND CONNECTIONS MEETING ON THE 20th. AND PALMER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION MEETING IS THE 24th. AND I KNOW THIS IS A LITTLE BIT OUT THERE, BUT ON THE 28th OF AUGUST, WE'RE HAVING, I BELIEVE, TEN MEMBERS FROM SAROMA TO COME OVER. Just view the city. The previous mayor, Mayor Horry, wants to come one last time. He's 88 years old and he would like to see the city again. So I'll give more information at our next meeting and hopefully people will be able to show up for that. That's all I have. Any questions?

Mr. Mayor.

Yes.

So I want to speak briefly about our advisory boards and commissions. These groups do a tremendous amount of heavy lifting for the council. Much of that work comes before us, especially during regular meetings. They have already been reviewed, discussed, and shaped by these volunteer members. Their role is important, and it is essential that the people serving on these boards and commissions take their responsibilities seriously. With that in mind, I'd like to ask mayor if we can begin actively advertising for all advisory boards and commissions that we currently have vacant seats. It seems clear that we have many residents who are interested in participating and learning how the city operates. A consistent, ongoing advertisement until all seats are filled would help us bring in people who want to serve our great town of Palmer, Alaska. Filling these seats strengthens our processes, supports the council, and keeps our community engaged. I'd also like the city manager to be more involved with the Board of Economic Development in working with the downtown business community. This board is currently not active, and we have not heard from them.

thank you thank you for that i think that currently we have one vacancy on parks and rec and uh i'd have to defer to the clerk to see whether or not the the other commission has been committee has been posted i sent the ad out to the sentinel for the golf course advisory committee

Yeah, earlier today, so it should be advertised in the Sentinel any moment now, and we'll get it up on Facebook tomorrow morning. And my, and I'm, the only vacancy on parks is the only one I'm aware of as well.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Are there vacancies on the Board of Economic Development?

I believe it's full. Yeah, I was going to say they just met a week ago, two weeks ago.

WILL THOSE MEETINGS BE RECORDED IN THE FUTURE?

IF THEY'RE RECORDED, WHICH I BELIEVE THE LAST BIT WASN'T RECORDED BECAUSE CHAMBERS WAS TORN APART FOR THE REMODEL, BUT IF THEY ARE RECORDED, THEY'RE ALSO POSTED ONTO THE WEBSITE.

Madam Clerk, your report.

I really don't have much to report. As everybody knows, we have an election coming up in October 6. The candidate period has closed. The final list for candidates is on the website. We begin early voting on September 21st. If anybody has any questions for me, I encourage them to reach out. I do need some direction from the council regarding our community grants account. It has been exhausted. I have $195 left in it and I have two pending community grant applications. So my question from council is, do we want to just close community council grants at this point because we've exhausted our funds, or do we want to add some more money to our account?

And ma'am, can you explain what that's used for?

Community grants are generally, I just read the, I was gonna say, I just had an application, because I read the criteria again before I came. Application organization, the goal and objective of the city community grants are, goal, to provide modest levels of support and assistance to help foster and develop community programs, services, projects, and events to enhance Palmer's quality of life, and objective to treat all organizations fairly and consistency while creating a minimal administrative process. So for those who were curious in the past, we have given grants to like the Rotters for their auto show. We've given grants out to the Chamber to assist with Friday Flings and Colony Christmas. We've given grants to the local organization that does all the free books. We've given grants in the past to the organization that provides free lunches. So that is kind of where our grants have gone.

Mr. Mayor?

Yes, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Clerk, we had $195 left over. I thought we steered that little bit of extra money to the Avalanche Rescue Center. I thought we increased that one from $1,500 to, like, I'm going off memory here. I thought we did the $195 that was left over.

So it could be zero.

So speaking of zero with two applicants, I mean, personally, I wouldn't be opposed if there's two applicants trying to get $1,500 micro grants, mini grants, whatever we're calling them, of trying to find a way to find the $3,000 potentially if they're scoring high enough for the people that have applied. And then just letting the new, I think it's usually an annual budget of around $12,000. We could start that again. January. So I don't know how the Mayor and others want to handle it, but if there was two applicants in the hopper, you know, for many grants of $1,500, I could certainly support adding $3,000 to get us till, you know, the end of the fiscal year. Just my thought, but thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, Deputy Mayor, I concur with you on the THE AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT WE GAVE TO THE AVALANCHE THAT I REMEMBER YOU SAYING THAT, YOU KNOW, INSTEAD OF GOING 1500, WE WANT, WE DEPLETED THE ACCOUNT.

I THINK SO. YEAH, WE DID. MR. MAYOR?

YES, PLEASE.

I WOULD LIKE, BEFORE WE MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT IS IN OUR CONTINGENCY PLANS, IF WE HAVE MONEY AVAILABLE. MAYBE GINA CAN TALK TO THAT.

I believe I have money to move around within my own budget for that or within your guys' budgets for that. I don't have my budget in front of me, but you guys have quite a bit in your discretionary funds. I believe we could move money from there. But I can certainly ask Gina to come forward as to where we could get $30,000 for the grant money. Right? I didn't bring my budget book in here with me.

GOOD EVENING, MR. MAYOR, COUNCIL MEMBERS. I HAVEN'T LOOKED AT THE BUDGET COMPARISON RECENTLY FOR THE COUNCIL MAYOR CLERK'S BUDGET, BUT I THINK POSSIBLY WE COULD PROBABLY FIND IT WITHIN THAT BUDGET.

People that are asking for $1,500.

So I do have an application from the chamber, and they're actually asking for $2,400 for the colony Christmas and colony days in 2027. So I'd have to talk to Kelly about that because the fiscal year thing. But anyway, $2,400 to them. And then I had another... I didn't print it, but I had another one for a leather place, and I believe they were asking for right around $1,500. It's in my email. I didn't think to print it out for whatever reason.

I don't have a problem with that. If we can find the money, we can move it. So without objection, I'd like to just direct the city clerk to go ahead and do that.

Any objections?

Thank you.

Seeing none, I'll move $3,000 over.

Thank you. And I have to apologize for my halting speech because I'm getting two feedbacks here when I speak. So I apologize for that. Madam Clerk, do you have anything else?

I do not.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor. One last question. Yeah, please. Madam Clerk, did we end up having anybody going to the summer or fall conference in Fairbanks?

Nope. I've gotten four for sure no's. I have a couple other council members I need to follow up with, but right now. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, thank you. Madam Attorney.

Good evening, Leslie Neate, City Attorney. I'll give a couple updates on what we've been working on. A lot of this may have been covered, either what's in your packet materials or by other folks up here. But starting with the single matter that we are representing the city on in litigation, The Borgford complaint filed against the city and the council. The court did docket our answer between our last meeting and this meeting. That showed up on the docket last Friday. We have not received a pretrial order for that case, but the court did set a pretrial conference for October 1st, so I'm not sure we'll get anything before then, but if we do, we'll let you know. That will be the next horizon for when we learn what we're going to do for schedule and hopefully set a trial date. I'VE BEEN WORKING WITH THE AIRPORT ADMINISTRATOR ON LEASE ASSIGNMENTS. WE'VE BEEN HANDLING A LOT OF RECORD REQUESTS WITH THE CITY, WORKING WITH THE POLICE, THE MANAGER'S OFFICE AND HR TO HANDLE THOSE. WE'RE ALSO BEGINNING WORK WITH THE CITY CLERK ON THE RECORDS DESTRUCTION SCHEDULE FOR THE NORMAL RECORDS DESTRUCTION CYCLE. We've been working with the finance department on collections for delinquent sales tax accounts. And then also reviewing legislation that's showing up on your agendas before it reaches you, either ahead of when it's distributed or in preparation for meetings. So that's my report. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions of the attorney?

Thank you, ma'am. Moving on to audience participation. I'd like to open audience participation. Please sign in, state your name, three minutes per person. Council meeting rules protect your right to testify and be heard even if others in the room disagree with you. Council meeting rules also ensure that those attending can express their views if they do not interfere with the rights of others to see and hear the proceedings. At all times, our orderly decorum will be maintained in keeping with civility and dignity of the legislative process. Please be respectful during audit participation. No disruptions to the city business or threats of any kind will be allowed. Individuals who cannot follow these guidelines will be removed. Any threats against others could result in criminal prosecution. Again, please sign in, state your name, and three minutes per person.

Are we turned on? Can you hear me now? Yeah, Tom. Thank you. My name is Tom Roberson. I'm here again about the Marsh Road subdivision or fire station. I'm asking for a second driveway to be put in as an emergency driveway, an alternate driveway for fire vehicles, emergency vehicles. Currently, the borough And the state is the one who's doing it. They're the ones paying for it. So they don't want to put another driveway in off the highway. They keep saying, well, we're going to widen the road someday and then we'll fix it then. That's baloney. They screwed that intersection up 40 years ago. 30 years ago. And it's a blind intersection on a blind hill. So they're not in any rush to fix that. So that's why I'm asking the letter of support from the city. The city doesn't have to pay anything. I just need them to write a letter to the governor saying, hey, we need DOT to do this. DOT wants to boss people around and They don't own the fire station. They don't own the city. They need to correct their mess. And in the letter I put down here, there was an accident last month there with a tractor trailer and the road was blocked. You couldn't get out. There's no other access to fire departments like any emergency services. They need a second way. They always need an alternative way to go. This is a screwed-up mess of DOT's design, and DOT does not want to work with the borough. I tried working with the borough manager on this. He said they tried with the DOT. DOT slept them down. We just need it done right. We don't want an accident. We don't want any people getting hurt. If the intersection is down farther, it's not on a blind hill, you can see in both directions if they're coming, anybody's coming. If you're driving a car, it's not a big deal because you can see a lot better and easier to jump out in traffic. When you're driving a truck, an ambulance is a one and a half ton to two and a half ton truck. You see the fire trucks, they don't drive the same. They're not going to jump out in traffic or anything. And the visibility is very limited. So an alternate driveway is definitely needed. It doesn't cost the city anything. I just need a letter of support to get this done and make it happen. Anybody have any questions about this? Anybody know what I'm talking about? Okay, on the top of the hill. Again, if you're driving a car, it doesn't seem like it's a big issue. But when you're driving a truck, it is. Thank you.

My name's Joel Stefanski. I'm going to talk a little bit about the golf course again. Obviously, we've been blessed with our summer. And we had a wonderful chamber golf tournament there on the 31st of August. It was a wonderful sight. I happened to run into the mayor in the front of the building there. And I talked to the mayor. I said, see that parking lot? That's the way it used to be every single week when the pest contractor was running the golf course. Every single week, weekend, the golf course was filled like that day. I miss those days, folks. A lot of your financial problems could be solved right now with the money coming from that, what we had at that point. And yes, there was a Kiwanis club, which I sponsored, one of the holes I do every year. So I know two tournaments there, but what a wonderful thing, MEA. I was honored to represent Palmer Bar with Wes, my wife, and JD, the past green superintendent. We had a wonderful time. I think we were the only truthful team out there, because I know we kicked ass. Everything else was sandbagging. And I don't know how someone shot a .48, but it was a wonderful thing, and it brought back a lot of great memories, the way that course is. And I highly recommend, if you guys need a boost for your campaign, I'll pay for you to get on a cart. I want you guys to go out there and see right around that course. Kobe, I'd love to see you out there on a beautiful day. see what we have in this community it is a treasure i was out there doing some volunteer work last week and i talked to the guy on the um more and he's retired like most of the people like mark behind me and he says man i i look forward to coming out here every morning it's the most peaceful place And the one question I have for you, council, and I hope you ask the question, where are we financially compared to last year at this time to now? I want that question asked by some of you. Ask the mayor, ask the manager where we are financially. I'd really like to know. But enjoy the time. Get out there on the course. If you don't play golf, go ride around that course. It is just beautiful out there right now. Thank you very much.

Hello again. John Sherrock. Tonight I wanted to ask all of you when the council will have a conversation about the future of the Palmer Golf Course. During the special council session, I think it was in July, but it could have been in June, the one you guys had on Saturday, a lot of you were in support of putting the golf course out for an RFP. And I was wondering if one of you guys was going to bring that forward for a public conversation. But before you had that conversation, I'd encourage you all to go visit our golf course. and also like Settlers Bay Moose Run Anchorage Golf Course and compare them and see what the product is, see what the experience is, what's being sold. And I want you to compare the pro shop selections, the food and drink options, check out the driving range, maybe even play around, maybe you'll get hooked. see the differences at the different courses, see what the, you know, having a starter at the first hole and marshals that are maintained in the course throughout the day, all day, you know, see the difference that that makes. You know, I think there's a lot of opportunity for profit being, you know, kind of overlooked, such as maybe it just couldn't happen this year, but, you know, merchandise with logos on it. You know, coats, golf apparel, shoes, hats, towels. You know, we don't have any of the logo stuff at our shop. And, you know, golf tourism is a real thing. And, you know, the merchandise is purchased as mementos more so than I need another hat. And, you know, I'd also say like food and drink is a little bit more limited at our shop than than others. You know, and, you know, so people go elsewhere for meals or snacks after the fact. But I think that a real conversation should be had just so that that opportunity for profit is not looked. Today is August 11th. The irrigation system is probably going to be need to be blown out and put away by the end of September, so roughly about 50 days ago. And I am going out on a limb and speculating that the city will be shutting down the golf course this season and beginning preparations for next season. But the questions that need asked and answered are, you know, will the liquor license be correctly applied for this year? Who will be selecting, ordering equipment and apparel? who will be maintaining the grounds, who will be arranging tournaments, who will be advertising to get customers back, and who will be managing the online T-SNAP program, because it frequently shows no capacity at the golf course when it's wide open. And I don't know why that is. I was also curious when the golf course advisory panel would be selected or advertised for, and I heard about that earlier. Again, I truly think that if the golfers had a voice, the course could return to a more prosperous state. And I want to say also that golf is more than just good course conditions because we have good course conditions. The guy behind me is making sure of that. But the experience, the ambiance, the amenities could really be improved. And if you fix that, we can get some of those golfers to come back and fill up the time slots.

One of the things that keeps on kind of going through my head is we have the police department and the fire department. They're thinking about what they need now, but they're also thinking ahead. We do need an area where those guys can all have a modern facility because our responsibility as a community is growing. need to look at annexation just for the money aspect. I was also thinking where some of their facilities are right now, can you, as a city, go in and maybe none of us really want a bigger airport than it is now. Where the facilities are now, can the city buy some of that land to put in a new facility for them? where their training area is now. um and to keep the airport from growing um just some of the stuff that was kind of going through my head um but yeah the city has responsibilities to the outlying community more than palmer itself with law enforcement and fire and fire issues so we need to look at annexing we need more people you need more people to help even govern the community Because you're lacking people on the boards or having issues with the boards. So you have to expand. And I know you guys don't think about it, but I'm glad that our local protectors are looking towards the future and not just five years down the line, ten years down the line. They're looking out past themselves. also is looking at 25 years down the line. What's going to happen after you're gone? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, wherever you are. I'll ask you a question. I know this will be rhetorical because you cannot answer, but where were you in 1981? Joan Patterson came to work for the city in 1981. I'd already actually been on the ambulance service for a while, so I appreciated her being here because the guy who was chief needed a good person like Joan, and she provided incredible support. Dunn Prevost has been with the city in a professional way for 25 years. I wanted to speak a little bit to both of them because they were both longtime public servants. And they both were extraordinary in what they did. There's a reason why that happened. It wasn't because they were afraid to go work somewhere else or move or whatever. It was because they found a calling that worked for them here. And I think you could look, today was a day of appreciation for many employees. over at the depot earlier today have also been here a long time. And I think it's appropriate to celebrate them and also to look and say, okay, what is it that we did right that allowed, because it wasn't, they didn't have to overcome hurdles to be successful that way. There were many things that the city did right to encourage people. And reflecting upon that is probably a good thing to do because There are still younger people who have come to work for the city, and they too need to be encouraged in one way or the other. I just wanted to mention that in any case, because if you call over to the building area, Joan's voice still answers the phone.

Madam Clerk, anyone else?

I don't believe so. I think we're good.

All right. Seeing no one come forward, we'll close audience participation. Move on to public hearings. Resolution 26005, Bravo. Amending the budget for the City of Palmer, Alaska for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026. And I will open up the public hearing. I THINK IF ANYONE WANTS TO COME FORWARD AND SPEAK.

I'M NOT SEEING ANYONE, MAYOR.

ALL RIGHT. SEEING NO ONE, WE'LL CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING AND BRING YOU BACK TO THE COUNCIL. WE NEED TO HAVE GINA COME FORWARD. MANAGER, IS THAT CORRECT?

If you have questions, she's certainly here to answer them.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. What you have before you is the amended budget for the 2026 calendar year. Primarily, it's a lot of cleanup stuff, mid-year. You know, there's a lot of stuff there budgeting for the golf course. Since when the golf course budget was approved back in November 4th of 2025, the city wasn't going to be operating it, and now it is. And so there's additional line items that needed to be budgeted for in the golf course fund on 15.

Do we have any questions on this, whether it's a CIP or a billing fund or anything else? Yeah, Mr. Mayor?

Yeah, please. Am I missing where this is in the packet as far as the numbers and dollar amounts?

Back page.

Back two pages of it, thank you. I have 88 of 89. Mr. Mayor, I have a question.

Yes.

So in regarding to the golf course funding and the golf course fund revenues amendments on page two of the resolution, I know that we're no longer working under a contract. Should we see payroll costs included in this?

So back when the CITY MANAGER BROUGHT FORTH THE POSITIONS THAT THE CITY WAS ADDING TO THE PAY PLAN. IT INCLUDED MOVING THINGS OUT OF THE CONTRACTUAL SERVICES LINE ITEM TO PAYROLL. SO THAT'S INTERNALLY SOMETHING WE CAN DO.

NEW SPEAKER SO CAN WE GET A LOOK AT THAT at some point to see where the salaries and that are reflected.

Correct. Yes. Hopefully within the next week or so we will have a second quarter financials to council where you can see.

Okay. All right. Thank you. And does this also include the expenditure that we just THESE ARE BUDGETED LINE ITEMS.

IT'S NOT ACTUAL EXPENSES.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS OR MISTAKES? NONE. THANK YOU, MA'AM. And we'll bring you back to the council. Which is the council on this resolution?

Make a motion that we move to approve. I'll second.

Thank you. Madam Clerk.

Deputy Mayor Alcantara?

Yes.

Council Member Allen?

Yes.

Council Member Carrington? Yes. Council Member Moser? Yes. And Mayor Cooper?

Yes.

It is unanimous and approved.

Thank you. Moving through IJK and L. Madam Clerk, we don't have your items placed on the table, do we?

I have the invoice from City Manager Zirkle and the example letter from Mr. Robeson.

All right, thank you. And that brings us to audience participation again. Again, sign and state your name three minutes per person. Council meeting rules protect your right to testify and be heard even if others in the room disagree with you. Council meeting rules also ensure that those attending can express their views if they do not interfere with the rights of others to see and hear the proceedings. At all times, order and decorum will be maintained in keeping the civility and dignity of the legislative process. Please be respectful during audience participation. No disruptions to city business or threats of any kind will be allowed. Individuals cannot follow these guidelines and will be removed. Any threats against others could result in criminal prosecution. Again, please sign and state your name, three minutes per person. Opening up audience participation.

Yeah, my name's Joel Stefanski.

I mean, I'm really missing something here, folks. We just went through asking about expenditures and details on who we hired at the golf course, and we can't even have a public discussion. What is going on here? Are we cooking the books, or are we embarrassed about something? I GUESS WE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED. WE CAN'T EVEN HAVE A DEBATE, A DISCUSSION. ARE WE ADULTS IN THIS ROOM? ARE WE SHEEP? GINA HAS A TOUGH TIME TELLING US WHAT'S GOING ON. AND COUNCIL DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO QUESTION THE EXPENDITURES ON THE BUSINESS. I'VE HAD A BUSINESS FOR 43 YEARS. I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT MY COST IS. WHAT IS GOING ON? WHY ARE YOU GUYS HIDING? WHY CAN'T YOU TELL THE TRUTH? YOU COUNCIL MEMBERS ARE REPRESENTING THE COMMUNITY, AND YET YOU GO BACK AND FORTH, OH, THE COMMUNITY, WE GOT TO GET A 1% SALES TAX BECAUSE EVERYONE OUTSIDE THE CITY USES OUR FACILITIES. You use it both ways all the time. Well, I'm greater Palmer area and I'm really concerned the direction this council, where it goes and what you guys are being labeled as. Be transparent and be flowing with the numbers or else it's not gonna look good for you folks. It's like going to grade school, coming here and watching the deception. You should all be embarrassed. I can't believe you guys even represent the Palmer people. Thank you.

This is John Shark. Yeah. Thoughts on the annexation thing. And I know that, like, it's a process that's kind of been going on for a long time. And, you know, maybe eventually it will happen somewhere down the road. Maybe it won't. But we have these, you know, committees that don't have enough people on it. Could you do a, you know, open up the area for committee people so that they could, you know, like, just to a large area, kind of like you did with the golf course thing where a couple people can be from, you know, in the greater Palmer area, because a lot of people that live in the greater Palmer area, like me, spend a lot more time in the city of Palmer than I do in my house. And it's just the way that life works. But I'm here in Palmer a lot. I love Palmer. i don't know it'd be great to have the opportunity to do some of these things i'm sure a lot of other people in the same situation would like to be a part of you know the process and if they're going to annex eventually anyway you know no big deal um but i too was looking at the uh these golf revenue amendments and i don't know if this is what we spent this year or what we're proposing for next year but i'm just looking at this one line like 230 to 240 000 in merchandise is that stuff that's showing up next year in a couple months i mean there's nothing there's really nothing in the pro shop right now if you go in there it's relatively empty i mean there is merchandise and stuff is showing up but there's not 240 000 in there i'd say maybe 40 000 in there so maybe there's a lot of stuff in the back room or it's on the order but you know these numbers are kind of kind of funny you know advertising 10 000 you know i haven't seen an advertisement i'm all over the place uh you know other things make perfect sense you know gas fuel costs going up makes good sense but i don't mean it'd be interesting to see a better breakdown profit loss and everything thank you

ANYONE ELSE FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION? SEEING NO ONE, WE'LL CLOSE OUT PARTICIPATION AND BRING IT BACK TO THE COUNCIL. MOVING ON TO COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS. COUNCIL MEMBER ALLEN.

I'M GLAD WE'RE HAVING IMPROVED WEATHER HERE IN AUGUST COMPARED TO JULY. It's always good to remember that correlation does not equal causation, and that July was the wettest July in the history of the record of bombers, so it probably had a little something to do with the attendance of all of us.

Thanks. Thank you.

Councilman Moser.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'm going to take a moment to recognize Joan Patterson. Joan once told me that she was the longest serving employee in the city of Palmer, and she was incredibly proud of that. And that was when I became on the Planning and Zoning Commission when Brad Hanson was still there. Walking in and seeing Joan first thing when you walk in. She always had a smile on her face. She was very wonderful to work with. And she always left a lasting impression. And I also want to thank John Prevost. John has been a steady, reliable presence in our community and someone who consistently shows up with a commitment and integrity. His contributions has strengthened Palmer in meaningful ways, and his service reflects a kind of quiet leadership that often goes unnoticed, but makes a real difference. So thank you, John, for your dedication and positive impact on our city. The Palmer Police Department, I want to also thank them for ensuring public safety during the visit of the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and Alaska Representative Nick Begich on Friday, August 7th. I did watch the online videos, and that was pretty incredible what they were dealing with, so thank you. I also want to take a moment to address a couple of things regarding the golf course. First of all, what Gina provided to us for our back row audience is budget. A budget is very different than what a day-to-day operational expense listing is. So with that in mind, this budget was set last October prior to a couple of us coming on board here for council. But I also want to address the recent public commentary about the Palmer Golf Course. While the piece is very well written, it reflects misunderstandings of how our form of government actually works. And because this misunderstanding continues to resurface, I think it's important we clarify it for the public and ourselves. Palmer operates under a council manager system. In this structure, the city council is a legislative body. We set policy, adopt budgets, establish expectations, evaluate the city manager. The city manager is the chief administrative officer. They oversee staff, manage day-to-day operations, and carry out the policies we adopt. That separation is intentional. It prevents political micromanagement of daily operations and ensures professional administration of city services. The recent commentary assigns operational responsibilities to the council that do not belong to us. Issues such as bunker maintenance, marketing clubhouse utilization, driving range operations, etiquette enforcement, and daily management of the golf course are administrative functions. They fall under the city manager and the staff, not the legislative body. If the council attempted to intervene directly in those operational managers, or matters, we would be violating the very structure of the government we were elected to uphold. It is important to remember that this is the first year the golf course has operated meaningfully in more than three decades. Transitions of this scale take time. Systems have to be rebuilt, staffing models adjusted, and inherited capital needs addressed. It is appropriate for the city manager to be leading that work. It is also appropriate for the council to evaluate the outcomes and set policy direction. It is not appropriate for the council to manage the day-to-day operations. Oversight does not mean micromanagement. Oversight means setting expectations, reviewing performance, ensuring lawful expenditures, holding the city manager accountable when necessary. That is our fiduciary responsibility, not running the golf course ourselves. I appreciate the community engagement, and I appreciate people caring about our public assets, but we also have a responsibility to correct misunderstandings when they arise. The council cannot and should not assume operational control of the municipal departments. That is not how council manager government works, and it is not how Palmer is structured. If the public has concerns about operations, and those concerns should be directed to the city manager. If the council has concerns about operations, we address those through the city manager. That's the proper channel. That is the legal channel. And it is the channel that protects both the public and the integrity of our government. We all want the Palmer Golf Course to succeed. And the best way to ensure that is by respecting the roles, responsibilities, and boundaries that form our government work. Thank you.

I GOT TO THIS WEEK GO TO THE TENNIS JAMBERY IN DOWNTOWN PALMER WHERE PALMER HOSTED Palmer High hosted Colony High and Wasilla and watched them play tennis in little 15 minute matches. I have no idea who won or how they won. They had like a total different language. But it was fun. They were having fun and they were doing a great job. But the courses looked, the tennis courses looked really great. There was a lot of people out there. It was a lot of fun. I do look forward to seeing the numbers for the quarter and that will help. I know that you didn't have them tonight ready to share with us, but I anticipate that you will get them to us and we can look and see where things are at. I think that's important. the boards and commissions just for a little shout out some of them do have allow for outlying people to join some don't some do it I think most of them have a couple of seats that can be someone outside the city limit so just so that you know and I'm loving this weather and I want more of it so that's all

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Forty-five years, five months, and 12 days ago, Joan Patterson came to work for the city of Palmer. To show how long ago that was, I was a junior I want to thank her, especially for her incredibly long tenure. I mean, that's, I can think of people I've known in life, and I think only Mrs. Russell and her tenure at the Matsu Grove School District might have had a longer career with one employer. That's impressive. I liked what Mr. Molesky said, and I wanted to point out, as he did, I'm wishing Mr. Roberson was still here, but it's pointed out fairly often by Mayor Cooper and others that Testifying and audience participation is sort of a one-way street. You guys come give, tell us what you want to tell us. It's not the same as the legislative process in Juneau where they can ask you questions if they want to. We don't ask questions no matter how many times people say, hey, do you have any questions? Doesn't anybody want to ask me a question? It's just not the way this operates here. So thank you, John Prevost, for your incredible tenure service as well. I mean, not poo-pooing away 25 years of service. It's amazing and a fantastic accomplishment. regarding the golf course and I appreciate the statements that councilmember Moser but there I mean we got a great song by Boston about don't look back but we're gonna have to look back and compare compare years I think it's completely unfair to compare compare this year with 2025. This year we had all kinds of hiccups to get us where we are now. 2025, we had a record year of unbelievable golf that began March 30th, if I recall, out golf with my son and ended the first week of November. That was amazing. But comparing this year to having a five-year look back where you compare it to 24, 23, 22 would certainly be more just and more fair. And I look forward to that. And I hope that we can, Mr. Mayor and others, have a golf course on the agenda type discussion so people don't feel like it's been a waste of their 8, 9, 10, 12 months to come and testify. I mean, there's a lot of issues that need to be resolved. And hopefully, Whether we put it out to bid again or whether we try to improve the city performance, no matter what the council decides with a majority vote, I think everybody would like to see Palmer course succeed for 2027 and beyond. So I look forward to that. But we do have to realize that, and we talked about it before all these things happened, we're going to lose a lot of money on this endeavor compared to what we made when George Column and Eagle Golf Course Management was running the golf course. There's no way around that. It doesn't mean that's going to be the case. Twenty twenty seven twenty twenty eight and beyond. It's just it just depends on how things can happen or what kind of what kind of contract we get if we do put it out for an RFP. So appreciate and listen to everybody who emails texts and especially comes here and spends their Tuesday evenings testifying. Don't think that it just completely falls on deaf ears. I mean people are people are listening and people. DO CARE ABOUT OUR GOLF COURSE AND DO CARE ABOUT PALMER. I DRIVE BY THERE FAIRLY OFTEN, MR. MAYOR, BECAUSE I WORK A MILE FROM THE GOLF COURSE AND I LIVE TWO AND A HALF MILES FROM THE GOLF COURSE, SO IT'S EASY TO TAKE THAT NICE LITTLE SPRINGER CRUISE AROUND AND SEE WHAT'S UP. YEAH, IT'S NOT HEART WARMING COMPARED TO HOW IT USED TO BE WHEN THINGS WERE PACKED AND THE GOLF COURSE WAS IN BETTER SHAPE. water issues, the incredibly bad spring that we had. that kind of put us way behind the eight ball, and I look forward to maybe we'll have an incredible August, September, October run at Palmer Golf Course, and we can rebound a little bit before the snow flies. So I hate talking about snow when it's 70 degrees out, but I have to do it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for everything, and I hope everybody has a good couple of weeks. See you back on the 25th.

All right. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. The only thing I was going to say was that our numbers guy beat me to the 45 years, five months, 12 days. And, yeah, that's quite an accomplishment. And John was just a cadet when I was mayor last time. So, you know, that's also an accomplishment. You know, and we also have a lot of number of other employees that have a lot of time spent in. But with that, I have nothing else and we will adjourn at 732.

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and exit the Zoom, Mr. Mayor.