City Council - Regular Meeting

Now 6 o'clock. I'd like to call the uh regular city council meeting to order. Um madame clerk, will you take the role please? Mayor Cooper here. Deputy mayor Cananter here. Mayor Council Person Carrington here. Council member Collins here. Council member Graham here, Council Member Boer here. We have a quorum.

Thank you. And before we start, please uh remember that the audience please uh silence your cell phones. Um and on the council the same and is if you have an emergency, please let me know and we can take a break and we probably will be taking a break after the proclamation. Anyway, so um Martin, would you lead us in the pledge, please? Thank you. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Move on to approval of agenda. What are the wishes of the council for the consent for the agenda? Move to approve. Your microphone work. Maybe I just need you to talk louder. I can't hear you. It's It's working. It's just not loud. I don't know what to do about that.

Yeah, I think I made this comment before. So when we have our next budget season where we buy new um equipment then maybe we'll be better. Okay. So move and seconded. Um are there any any discussions clerk?

Mayor Cooper. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alexandra. Yes. Council member Carrington. Yes. Council member Collins, yes. Council member Graham, yes. Council member Moer, yes. It's approved. Thank you. And we get to come to a a pretty fun important uh part. We get to swear in a new council member tonight. And Rick Allen has been selected. And clerk will

please. Okay. I, Richard Allen I, Richard Allen, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear to support and defend to support to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America the Constitution and laws of the United States of America the Constitution and laws of the State of Alaska. the Constitution and Laws of the State of Alaska and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Palmer. and the charter and ordinances of the city of Palmer. and to do the best of my ability.

And to do the best of my ability ability. Honestly, faithfully honestly, faithfully, and impartially and impartially discharge my duties discharge my duties and obligations as and obligations as city member or sorry, council member of the city of Palmer council member of the city of Palmer. So help me God. SO HELP ME GOD. SIGN YOUR LIFE AWAY, RICK.

NOW, now you can take a seat. So, now now we're at proclamation. This is a proclamation declaring March 29th, 2026, it's education and sharing day. And I would like it. Oh, there it is.

Education is the cornerstone of a strong and free society. Determines what we know and shapes who we are. In that light, education is more than the mere transmission of facts and figures. rather must prepare children for a life of responsibility and purpose forming and strengthening their moral character. And a global spiritual leader and leading advocate for the advancement of education rebi stressed that a moral and ethical education empowers every individual to realize their full potential and make the world a better place. Such an education can nurture the unity of diverse peoples through encouraging increased acts of goodness and kindness. Imbued with the awareness that even a single positive act of an individual can change the world and usher in an era of global peace. March 29th, 2026 will mark 124 years since our baby's birth. From childhood, he envisioned a world of peace and tranquility for all and advance the sacred responsibilities and ethical laws known as the se seven noahide laws that have formed the bedrock of society since the dawn of civilization to honor the creator, respect life, reject violence, act honestly, value family, promote generosity, and build a just and moral society. An education and sharing day is observed each year on Rey's birth in recognition of his outstanding and lasting contributions toward the improvement of education, morality, and acts of charity around the world. A day to pause and reflect on the responsibility to ensure our youth have the foundation necessary to lead lives rich in purpose and fulfillment through service and good works. Therefore, I Jim Core, Mayor Palmer degraph proclaims Sunday, March 29th, duty education sharing day in the city of Palmer will ask and call upon government officials, educators,

volunteers, and citizens to reach out to those within their communities and to work to create a better, brighter, and more hopeful future for all. Thank you, mayor, and thank you to all the members of the council. Um, for this special honor, in 1978, the US Congress designated education and sharing day on the Reb's birthday, which always is celebrated 4 days before the holiday of Passover. And this year, that will be Sunday, March 29th. And the purpose of this day is a time to pause and recognize our responsibility to ensure that our young people have the foundations necessary to lead lives rich in purpose and fulfillment. From childhood, as you just heard in the proclamation, the Reba envisioned a world of peace and tranquility for all and advanced the sacred responsibility and ethical values known as the seven nohide laws as instructed to Noah by God and again at Mount Si to Moses which was formed which has formed the bedrock of society since the dawn of civilization. These have many details, but in a nutshell, they are to honor the creator, as you just heard before, respect life, reject violence, act honestly, value family, promote generosity, and to build a just and moral society. The Reba teaches that education in general should not be limited to the acquisition of knowledge and preparation for a career. Instead, education should be should put more attention and indeed do the main attention on building character with emphasis on moral and ethical values. Education and sharing day is about creating conversations. It is about conversations we have with our children around the dinner tables around the conversations we have with our students in the classrooms and the conversations we have day in and day out that can have an impact on the hearts and minds of our young ones here in the mat here in the school here in this Matsu borrow the

school district has in all the public schools have begun their day with 60 seconds of quiet a moment in which neither teachers nor administrators instruct the students what to do. It is simply a time for silence. This uh gives parents a special opportunity uh to discuss with their children how to use that moment meaningfully at the start of the day when minds and hearts are fresh. What thoughts would they focus on? How can they set a positive tone for the day ahead? These discussions help lay foundations for children's studies, interactions, and personal growth. The Rebba emphasizes that the key to moral and ethical behavior is to instilling in students the awareness that there's an eye that sees an ear that hears, the creator and master of the universe who watches over each individual and cares about their thoughts, words, and actions. This understanding reassures children that they are never alone. Encourages them to act with kindness, responsibility, and integrity. By beginning the day with these thoughts, students are more likely to make better choices, speak with sensitivity, and treat others with compassion. People are more influenced by the things they do than the knowledge they are taught. And therefore, beyond the conversations, it is important to promote these ideas through action. In 1974, the Reb introduced a charity campaign. This was not a fundraiser for a specific cause or to a call to philanthropists to write great big checks. Instead, it was a grassroots campaign to train us all to become givers. The idea is simple. To set aside a box in your home or in your office as a charity box and to start off the day by giving a small amount to charity. Children should have their own charity boxes and should be encouraged to give charity daily. This is to educate them to have empathy and to care for others. The key is to do this on a consistent basis. Beyond the value of the accumulated charity money benefiting worthy cause, the hand becomes a giving hand and one becomes a giver as a result. And therefore, when I conclude my words, I will give all the members of the council as I've done in many years in the past uh this little yellow box for to promote the idea of charity. Although March 29th has been set aside

as education and sharing day, its theme and message and message is relevant every day of the year. Even today and especially today by divine providence, today is the 7th day of the month of Adar, which is the birthday of Moses, the prophet Moses, 3,418 years ago. Um, and in Judaism, every every great Jewish leader is considered the the one who fills the place of Moses. So talking about the birthday of the Reba in March 29th on the birthday of Moses, the very first uh great Jewish leader Mo. Um so today is a special day to think about all these ideas and to promote these concepts of of kindness, morality to our children and to all. And may God bless all your efforts uh to make a brighter future for everyone here in this city and beyond. And may the merit of your crucial work bring God's blessings into each one of your personal lives as well for good health, success, and happiness. Thank you so much. Congratulations. You got one yesterday, huh?

Yeah.

Not bad. See you. Yes. Okay, moving moving on. Now we have a presentation from the Palmer Community Foundation. I think the chairman is here somewhere. The chairwoman. Yeah, I'm talking to you.

Yeah.

Do I need to sign this? No. No. I I know. I know. I I know who you are. Okay. Is that okay? Can you hear me? All right. Do I need to talk louder? Little little bit louder. Okay.

You You want my regular voice? Is that what you're asking? Mayor Cooper, you know me well. I um I love following this. It couldn't be more perfect as far as um individual philanthropy and giving. It's perfect um introduction. Thank you. Um, good evening. I'm Saunders McNeel. I serve as the advisory board chair of the Palmer Community Foundation. Thank you for the opportunity to share um and raise local awareness about the Palmer Community Foundation, what and who we are, and the value we represent to the city of Palmer and the southern Matsu region. The Palmer Community Foundation was established in 20 late 2017 and our mission is to support resilience and self-reliance in Palmer and Madusco watershed communities now and into the future. Our purpose is to strengthen community. We serve greater Palmer, but Lazy Mountain Buffalo Soapstone Sutton Chickaloon and Glacier View. Connection, generosity, endurance, and inclusion are the core values that guide our all volunteer advisory board. Seven local adviserss currently serve the Palmer Community Foundation and we are seeking an additional four community members to complete our 11 member advisory board. The Palmer Community Foundation is an affiliate of the Alaska Community Foundation who serves as our parent organization. The Alaska Community Foundation contributes administrative support, underwrites our part-time program manager, manages our endowments, provides board development support and um nonprofit sector support and maintains our national community foundation accreditation. Our goal is to grow two sustainable endowments to the Matthews wershed

region. The first is a grant giving endowment which um as of a couple days ago stood at $440,000 to support the long-term dynamic needs of our communities and the local nonprofit sector which serves them. The second is an operation is an operating endowment which uh stands at $495,000 designed to sustain the Palmer Community Foundation self-sufficiency and eventual or the eventual organizational independence. In nine years, the Palmer Community Foundation has raised nearly $1 million between the two endowments dedicated to the generational needs of our region. The unique value of a local community foundation is it provides a means for individuals, businesses, governments, communities, and partners to pull and grow funds and distribute those to local nonprofits with on the ground expertise. Additionally, the distribution of these funds is directed by local adviserss. Palmer Community Foundation has awarded grants to 51 nonprofit organizations since 2018, returning more than $120,000 into our region. The city of Palmer, based on my um uh data analysis last night, has benefited from 21 of those 51 organization grants uh or 41% of PCF's grants which have awarded uh have been awarded to local nonprofits who provided direct services, programs, and infrastructure to the city and her citizens. Uh, and you may be familiar with many of these. Um, some of which include Alaska Family Services domestic violence shelter fence expansion and community garden, the Bright Lights Book Project, free installation of smoke and

CO2 uh, detectors and homes, veteran fabricated batting cages for the Palmer baseball fields, a Palmer Public Library, AWE early lit uh, literacy station, K through2 art for fun programs, and the restoration of the Bailey piano. Palmer Food Bank signage and the purchase and installation of food storage shelving and a wonderful year-round ADA accessible family play park. Those are just some other grants we have awarded outside the city limits also benefit city residents like trails and parks programs and outdoor infrastructure projects. Currently, the community foundation is only able to support a small percentage of the total grant requests we receive each year. However, as PCF's two endowments grow through individual donations, business and government collaboration, and valued partner contributions, we will be able to increase the number of grants and their amounts over time. The Palmer Community Foundation represents a growing asset specifically designed to increase our local nonprofit sector's capacity to respond to the city of Palmer and the region's civics civic needs. Please spread the word that the Palmer Community Foundation's 2026 grant applications open to local nonprofits on March 1st and close March 31st. We are hosting a free grant workshop on March 6th from 1 to 4:00 p.m. at the University of Alaska Matsu campus in the Fred and Sarah McInt. There are 40 seats available and you can register online uh through our website to learn more about grant eligibility, register for the grant writing workshop, review the entire list of past grant recipients, and donate to one or both of PCF's endowments. You can go to palmercf.org.

You can also find us on Facebook and uh Instagram. If advisory board service is of interest to anyone listening, you can also find information about the application process on the PCF website. Thank you again for the chance to raise awareness about the Palmer Community Foundation and its increasing value to the city of Palmer and our service region. Thanks. Thank you, Saunders. Is it do anybody have any questions or comments to Saunders about the PCF? Deputy Mayor. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, thanks so much for your presentation.

Uh, explain to me again kind of the the two pockets of money you mentioned. One had 495,000 and another one has 440. So there's a little shy of a million dollars in total that exactly. So explain to me again kind of the differences between what the two pots do.

So we have Palmer Community Foundation has established uh and is managing and growing two endowments. One is a grant-making endowment. Right now, the balance is $440,000 that we've raised since 2018. Um, we use a percentage of the interest earned off the corpus of that fund to provide or to award grants every year. Um, on average, we have distributed 15 to $20,000 each year in the annual grant review process. and our grants average between $500 and $5,000. And um I think we've averaged about seven uh six to or six to eight awards each year. So, uh, our goal is to continue to grow that grant making endowment, um, over time, um, and in perpetuity so that nonprofit organizations can apply to Palmer Community Foundation grants, um, be reviewed and, um, uh, awarded grants based on also a a um, all volunteer community review process. So hopefully that answers that question. The other endowment is the Palmer Community Foundation Operation Endowment and we that's about $495,000 at this point. Um the purpose of that endowment is to sustain the Palmer Community Foundation as an independent nonprofit organization that serves the nonprofit sector of our region also in perpetuity. So, one of the core goals for us is really um uh uh autonomy and independence and self-determination and our ability to um be here long term for

um our region and to be able to be responsive uh and have uh eventually a full-time program manager. So, that's what we're building that that's what that fund is for. And people can make donations to either endowment. Um well thank thank you and my next question would be um you mentioned u 21 out of 51.

Is that 21 out of 51 that are based in the city of Palmer and the other ones are greater Palmer or other areas meaning they could be the but they could be they could be anywhere else. Actually, our service region, our communities are but lazy mountain, greater Palmer, uh, and I'm, uh, going along the map in my head. Um, uh, you buffalo mine. Um, okay. Yes. Sutton, Chickaloon, and Glacier View. So, the the watershed of the Manhattan River. Thank you. Keep up the good work. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Any other questions?

I do have a I do have a question, Sanders. So currently you are um BCF is an affiliate of Anchorage, Alaska. Um is growing the endowment uh is there is there a point in time when the PCF becomes independent? I know there's like 11 or 12 affiliates throughout the state. Is the goal for ACF to uh make them all independent?

That's a good question. Actually, I think the number of affiliates statewide stands at 13 right now. Um uh a sister affiliate is uh the Jessica Stevens um community foundation out of Taletina. Some of you might be familiar with uh their team and their work. um you know the affiliate program as far as I understand it the the because uh what the mayor is referring to is that the Alaska Community Foundation functions as our umbrella parent community foundation. they provide an enormous uh support um and administrative kind of back backend work for us that allows us um to do other important kind of deep engagement in community um uh through that support. So the answer to the question is I there are some other community foundations uh in the state that are completely independent of the Alaska Community Foundation. Um my understanding is that the affiliate program really isn't intended for those affiliates to come out from underneath that umbrella. Um the partnership um is incredibly valuable um and uh in both directions as far as developing kind of the concept of community foundations as a infrastructure to serve nonprofit sector um all across the state. So, you know, instead of being an individual nonprofit that serves a specific purpose, community foundations serve the purpose for all of those nonprofits

and all the funds that are from all the affiliates actually go into Anchorage Alaska controls all those and that's why where we get interest and and and so we we the PCF does not have to worry about having an accountant if you will. They do that. Yeah. Yeah. And they also the Alaska Community Foundation maintains a national community foundation accreditation which we fall under. And that process in and of itself is quite complex. So the the benefit of that to us and to our region is that um uh they have that expertise and they are paying for that expertise and we're the beneficiary of that.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments of Palmer Community Bounty Saunders? Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Y

now we're going to hear from the friends of the Palmer Public Library. Mardine

mayor and council. Um glad to be here to share a few um things that are happening with the friends of the Palmer Public Library. I will start with uh the Palmer Public Library started in a mardine. Could you tell us who you who your name is?

I'm sorry. Mardine Collins. I'm president of the Friends of the Public Palmer Public Library right now. Um the Palmer Public Library started in a colony tent in the late 1930s. In October 1945, the LI Palmer Library Association was formed with a constitution and articles of incorporation as a nonprofit organization in the territory of Alaska. Palmer Library was officially recognized in 1946 and moved around until a permanent location was completed in 1985. And for those of you that have lived here for a while know that at one time it was housed in a chicken coupe. And this very room uh was the Palmer Library for a long period of time. Today's iteration, Friends of the Palmer Public Library Incorporated, has been active since 1980 and as a 501c3 nonprofit organization since 1982 and has been dedicated to promoting literacy and the Palmer Public Library ever since. Our purpose is to assist the Palmer Public Library in developing programs to meet current community needs, promote knowledge of and participation in library programs, and aid in providing funds to meet special library needs. We fund a number of activities related to the library. One of the big um items that we fund is the summer reading program. And I think each of you have in front of you um this summer reading program handout. Uh if you look at that, the numbers are pretty amazing. Um registration for the summer reading program was 681

participants, children. uh of those we see that the total program engagement was 6,976 in various activities at each of these um during the weeks of the summer. We had local business partnerships. Uh you can see down in the lower leftand corner the demographics of those who participated. 25% of them were ages 0 to 5, 36% ages 6 to 11, 12% ages 12 to 18, and interestingly enough, 26% were ages 19 and over, which includes some adults. Our final summer party had an attendance of 320 individuals and that included prize drawings and food and just a a nice year-end um or summer program. What I'd like to do though is share a letter that was written as a result of this activity. Um, thank you for the tremendous job that you did this summer in providing the best summer reading program available in the area. We are hands-on grandparents to two young boys who live in Palmer, Alaska. In fact, we spent seven months this year in Palmer. We had the opportunity to visit many libraries in the area, including Sutton, Palmer, and Wasilla. Each library had unique features and facilities, but we had to commend the Palmer Library staff for doing the most with less. Your summer enrichment programs were quite entertaining for all of us. We participated in collecting the unique cards which were distributed each week, looked high and low and finally found the golden book on the shelf and even tried our combined hand at geocaching which we had never done before and loved finding the p the Palmer arboritum. We

thoroughly enjoyed several afternoons of summer craft activities and even survived the sword and shield building activity. The best educational activities we were involved in was teaching our grandsons what a library catalog was and how to use it. We even put a book on hold and renewed our books online. We want to commend each of you and thank you for a job well done. In appreciation of your hard work, we have decided to donate $10,000 to the new Palmer Public Library. keep up the good work and know that you are appreciated both by strangers walking through your doors and by the community for which you work. And I think that's just a testament to the quality of programming that our library is offering and that we're able to support. Uh just some recent numbers. Uh la on Sunday, February 15th, the Matsu Orchestra performed its annual Valentine's concert in our behalf with 90 people attending and bringing in $1,100. Uh this past Saturday, February 21st, we had a book sale with 56 people participating and $300 that we were able to raise there. Um we are doing collaboration with community groups, uh the Palmer Arts Council. We sponsored uh the Chickaloonis, which was a graphic storytelling workshop with 40 plus participants. We have Alaska fiddling poet Ken Waldman scheduled to come in April. And uh we're also doing a Alaska Council on Aging uh an art class and art is pretty broad in

this uh category. It won't just be art. It could be jewelry making. It could be dance. Whatever kind of art people would prefer. Um, so we'll be kicking that off pretty soon. Um, Grandmother Raven Productions, which is a small group here in uh, town, sponsored a mystery loves company walking tour with a hundred people that participated this last fall. Pick Click Give 45 people that donated through that agency. All told, it our support has exceeded 600 individuals who have donated to the Palmer Public Library and to our nonprofit as the Friends of the Palmer Public Library. I want to say how much we appreciate the community's support, their enthusiasm for the library. We appreciate the quality of programming that we're able to support. We appreciate um everyone that's involved in any way with supporting the friends on a volunteer basis and in helping us raise funds. Currently, we have uh a little over $200,000 as the friends organization uh to be able to donate and hopefully to donate more based on our current fundraising, which I will let Janelle share with us. Thank you. Well, unless you have questions for me individually before I leave.

Sorry. Deputy Mayor. Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Martine, I can uh feel your passion from uh a distance and it's uh I'll walk on eggshells a little bit because I'm a ardent supporter of building the best library we can afford. I hope is, you know, in the 14 to 16,000 square foot kind of range. So I have no doubt that you can run a fantastic program from a chicken coupe leased building or or uh this city hall. But do do you believe that you've seen the schematics from Wolf Autry Architecture, you know what kind of library we're thinking of building. Do you believe as the president of the Friends of Public Library that uh that things can get even better than they are now? That once we once we build this library in two or three years that we can do even greater things?

I would think so. Um because you know just the nature of the temporary location uh we're servicing anywhere from 3 to 4,000 individuals each month. Uh when we had um a real library uh it was closer to a 100,000 individuals uh each uh month or excuse me each year I'm sorry. Um, right now we're servicing about 40,000 people uh in the year's time. So I I would anticipate that that will grow substantially when we have a facility that can handle more people. As most of you well may or may not know, we use the depot on a regular basis for a lot of our programming right now because there just isn't room in the temporary location. Any other questions of Mardine? Thank you, Miss Gion.

Oh, yes. Okay. Um, thank you. I won't I won't take up too much more time. Um, but I just want to say thank you for giving us the opportunity to share just a fraction of what the friends of the Palmer Republic Janelle Ganon,

thank you. um resident of Palmer um just a fraction of what the friends of the Palmer Public Library do for the library and um in doing that for the the community. And I am just I'm a member of the Friends and I've just offered myself up to do um some extra fundraising work knowing that we have this new library coming and um we have to build the building but then we also have to outfit the building, right? Um, but beyond that, the friends have always been a separate organization and they've always fundraised for the library. So, um, regardless of what the new library needs or doesn't need, they're going to continue to fundra for the library to support the library. So, that's what we're continuing to do. And um I'll just point out that each of you also should have gotten a um a replica of the poster that you'll see around town um of a uh a first of other fundraising events that we'll have that we're kind of putting under this slogan of Palmer, the little engine that could. The logo that you see there is a logo that was drawn by a local artist, Lindseay Dinger, who has done uh Palmer State Fair posters and Colony Christmas posters in the past. Uh we're excited about the new logo, the slogan, and we're um hosting co-hosting with Active Souls a big St. Patrick's Day event on March 15th staged out of the depot. Um most of which is free. It takes place from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. Um very familyfriendly event with uh Irish folk dancing, Irish music. Um there will be some some light uh food, beverages, refreshments for for sale, some um uh friends of the Palmer merchandise for sale. Uh Palmer Arts Council is coming to do some arts and crafts. And then what Active Souls is doing is they're putting on their regular Palmer uh Dash for the Gold race with a onem fun run, a

5K, and a 10K. and uh the owner Annne Thomas and Active Souls are donating all of the proceeds from that race to the new Palmer Library. So, I hope that you can show up. Um I want to thank Mayor Cooper for agreeing to be there and to um be the person to kick off before the races start. There will be a parade that will uh welcome everybody. Uh it it should be short, maybe three blocks, and um it's an opportunity to dress up, bring noise makers, instruments, and just make a joyful noise for the library that so many of us can't wait to get into. Thank you. Before you leave, any questions of Janelle?

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.

Moving Moving on. City manager report. Thank you. We look forward to the groundbreaking here soon of that new library. Uh this past week, I met with vicinity to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the city's internet and IT network systems. Their review identified several opportunities to improve our efficiency, optimize some of our internet lines, increase network speeds, reduce some of the redundancies that we see throughout the city, and improve overall pricing structures. And what this uh project ultimately will do is we'll have a resulted estimated savings of nearly $300,000 of taxpayer monies over the next several years. While some changes will take some time to realize as some of these legacy contracts come up for renewal and that new pricing can be negotiated, but we do anticipate very meaningful long-term cost savings for everyone. We'll continue to review the evaluation findings and then also um bring vicinity up here for an uh presentation once that project gets implemented. The library executive committee uh held a productive meeting to discuss some potential parking lot design modifications including some configuration to the layout and adjusting some lighting placements. These changes could increase the number of available downtown parking spaces and overall functional functionality to the area. but no decisions have been made. But that's just something that we're looking at in this committee. And as we move into this spring season, the committee will meet more regularly to continue um refining some of these concepts and advancing the project timely. HR and I have also begun reviewing some title four of the code with the goal of improving clarity for overall readability for everyone. During this review, we've identified several ambiguous provisions and inaccurate code citations, and we'll work together to correct these issues with our attorneys

um and any proposed revisions to the code for it's more concise and accurate and just easier to interpret overall for everyone. Um we also expect to post the city hall update RFP shortly within the next few weeks. This RFP will address the asbesus mitigation that I mentioned during budget season, carpet replacement, painting, and then any necessary upgrades in this facility. Not unfortunately IT related stuff for this time. And now I will invite the director of community development up for a department update. Good. All right. Good evening. Um, yeah, I'll piggyback on uh the city manager's report. Um, so you'll if you uh notice today the temporary fence is coming down, which means that uh we are getting closer and closer to cutting ground. So H5 is has a tenative schedule of uh April. Uh so that's really great news for the entire community um and especially for the department um across the board. Um I do want to um highlight the MTA event center has been really just cooking uh lately. So uh two weeks ago on the 14th unrelated to Valentine's Day, there was a neon open skate. That was their third one. They had 120 skaters that came through. I was back there swinging skates. We actually ran out of skates. And for those of you, you might be able to coersse uh Alosh into picking up some game film of me crashing a couple times. So, I'm a football player, not a not a hockey player. So, if you want to see a hippo on marbles, it there's probably some documented video evidence of that.

Uh piggybacking on the um uh the Olympics, the Palmer Curling Club has had learn to curl uh events. And with the uh exciting news with the finger push and everything else from the winter Olympics, uh they opened up three extra learn to curls. So the last one was last week on February 20th, this weekend on February 28th, and then another uh ending the season on March 21st. So 28th is booked up. So it's uh I suggest if you want to get out there and learn how to do it, it's not as easy as it looks and they it it it's a lot of fun. So, I'll be out there with my crew from community development. We have a team team together and we're going to learn to uh do that a little bit more. Uh, additionally to that, um, the MTA Event Center hosted the their first uh 2026 ASAA first national cup division 2 uh, hockey state championship and it was a wild success. So, we look forward to hosting that again. Congratulations to the Delta Junkie Junction Huskys. Even though they took down the Palmer Moose, uh we'll still tip our hat to them. Um so, um a little bit more important for uh for the community, um is there's a regional transportation uh transportation fair going on tomorrow. Uh it's at the Raven Hall, so the Alaska State Fair, Raven Hall, from 3 to 7:00. Um and the reason why it's very important is because a lot of we have a lot of projects that are on on that schedule uh for them. So one of them I'm just highlighting the Glenn Highway Arctic Avenue to Palmer Fish Hook. It's a capacity and safety uh improvements Glenn Highway reconstruction from the parks highway to inner Springer uh Hammer Road updates and extension um as well as trail and pathway projects. So 49th Street, Pathway, Bogar to Palmer, Fishook,

Edrogen Park, it's a little bit outside, but Mountain Trails uh drive update and pathway and inner springer uh inner and outer Springer loop uh pathway as well. So they once again that's 3 to 7. So it's open for everybody that's getting off a little bit later. Uh they can swing by and be take part in that. Um, and then uh next I'd like to introduce Kelsey Anderson representing respect, the firm that prepared the Palmer Pal Palmer parking and pedestrian access strategic plan for the central business district. Kelsey has elected to be here in person this evening to ensure ensure the public and council have a clear opportunity to hear and engage in discussion uh regarding the study. As many of you are aware, uh, uh, two weeks ago, there was some audio issues, so she wanted to be here. Um, and because the, um, council's Q&A was a little bit affected by that audio issue, uh, she's here to help remedy, uh, and walk through, uh, any of the material again and answer any uh, unanswered outstanding questions. Um, the city appreciates Respect's continued partnership and Kelsey's willingness to be present uh to ensure full transparency and clarity as we move forward with this important work in downtown. So, I don't see the floor here, so I'll grab another chair. So, council members, what I just handed to you was the slides from their show at the last meeting where we had the technical difficulties. I thought it might be helpful for you to have them again at this meeting.

Great. Hi, everybody. Nice to see you in person. Um my name is Kelsey Anderson. I'm a senior planner with Greec. We've been working with um Nate and the city for about eight months or so um on this project and yeah gave my uh presentation and offer just some in-person uh Q&A with you all. Um so I think um with that I'd love to just kind of kick off if folks have questions. Um otherwise I can also kind of go through some of the um points of the presentation from uh the weeks prior.

Deputy mayor. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. uh Kelsey, sorry I wasn't here last week even for the technical difficulties, but but I was um with a couple other council members and the transportation and from the folks at the city of Kodiak talking about crosswalks that uh that light up and depending on what's coming to the crosswalk, people, animals, the dog, those kind of things. I'm just wondering, have you heard about that? I mean, I look at places like obviously crossing uh by Vagabond and and the train depot and then of course crossing further further down uh into Palmer. Have you have you ever heard about this this thing they're doing they did in Kodiak in this uh kind of lighted crosswalk where it lights up according to uh what's coming to the crosswalk?

Yeah, thank you Councilman. Um I have not heard about lighting variations based on species. That is super cool. Um, I wonder what it does with all the people and dogs. Um, you will see in the strategic plan that we do offer a lot of recommendations for um, safety enhancements at crosswalks that don't currently have them within the CBD. Um, design level things such as type of uh, beacons, flagging, lighting, things like that, those would be developed within a design of a proposed project. um when those funds have been created and that planning is in process. So we mainly focused on just identifying the crosswalks that needed improvements and then offered some types of solutions. Um but those would be design level um details Graham.

Hi again. Uh so one of the questions that I had had last week that I don't think got addressed due to issues was the option to have um with the menu based parking reduction the shared use parking agreements. Um my concern or I guess like my question is when you have two businesses that have agreed to share and you are offering both of those businesses the you know 10% reduction or whatever it is how is the city expected to manage that agreement and that 10% reduction if one of those parties leaves decides to sell their property that kind of thing. How is that handled on the city side? Are we talking about having additional um burdens on finance or code compliance where they have to keep track of who's got shared parking agreements and what? Um what happens when they leave and this other business is now, you know, are they grandfathered in until the next business comes in? Does it force the next business to continue the shared parking agreement? How is that handled on the back side for um enforcement?

Yeah, that's a great question. And uh I would say the first part of that answer um are going to require further um further development for actual code implementation. And so things like you're asking about like how does the city kind of rectify that private private agreement agreement between two private business owners. um those would be decided in the development of legislation and code for how you're improving upon or changing your code. Um to me that seems like a reasonable assumption would be that the city would have some sort of uh six month we'll call it or or eight month time frame where people can rectify their uh parking requirements. Right? So, if you are in an agreement with someone who owns a lot that you're going to kind of use as your shared parking and then that goes away, you would have 6 months or 12 months to then use one of the other options that we have in code, right? as if you were to go forward with that menu idea, there's five or six other options to choose from that you can then say, "Okay, so we're going to account for our parking in this way now instead of that way." Um, that would be to me like the reasonable approach to making sure that people are still being held accountable for the parking lot that they said that they would um provide for their businesses. Um, but you are giving a little bit of that leeway to say, "Hey, we understand that businesses, you know, move or fail or or whatever." Um, and I think the city showing that they're open to that flexibility is just one more way to um, show that you're, you know, providing for economic development in the CBD. So,

with that being said, the I'm assuming that this idea of the menu based parking reduction and specifically the shared use parking agreements has your in your guys' research and putting this together, you guys have seen other municipalities, other cities implement this.

Yeah, I mean, we've gone through part of the existing conditions report um highlights some of the cities that we looked at. Um I would have to look at it to see exactly which cities we looked at for this question. Sandpoint was one. Um we looked at some cities in Colorado. Um but those are found in the existing conditions. Um and then I would say the other side of that is not just private private um agreements but also public private. So having, you know, you'll find a lot of recommendations in here talking about what can the city of Palmer do to work with business owners or to work with owners of vacant lots to see how the city can kind of increase its own parking for the public. Um, so not just relying on those businesses that have already established their own parking lots and things like that, but there's opportunities, we found in our analysis, of vacant lots and um, opportunities for the city to actually engage with the private sector to then offer more parking for citizens.

One more real quick. Um, I haven't had a chance to look at the full document that you guys have. Does that also list out um like you said it does it list out the municipalities that use something similar to that where they've got that shared parking agreement and does it also include how many of those cities uh have those parking agreements on the books? Like if we offer this and we put it out there, we put all this work forward to change city code to put the backend work in as far as how do we enforce this? How do we keep track of this? How often are these things reviewed? How often are these other cities using that as an option? Kind of like is the juice worth the squeeze and putting in all that work in the back end to even offer that because of how much workload that could be on our our city employees.

Yeah. So, I mean we do have that information in the existing conditions report and I will say like every city is going to be different. Your resources are different than Durango Colorado's or Sanpoint Idaho. So, it's really going to be um doing the work to figure out what um how to implement that here in Palmer. And what we really focused on was providing a great foundation for city staff and the planning and zoning commission and you all to think through these problems as they pertain to Palmer specifically because um where you guys are really um not there are other towns obviously in the US that are like Palmer in this but um the event parking was really what came out as the major focal point for the public that we talked to and that took our survey and everything. Their main focus was we need better parking options um for event days and that was that was the highlight. So I hope that in this it helps you all think through how the code can reflect or how city staff work can reflect increasing parking and access and mobility for um those event days as well. Let me respond to that a little bit. The issue it becomes more complicated that you have two private entities are in an agreement, one leaves, the other decides not to do that again and now you're stuck with the variance depending on depending on who comes in as a business. Um, and what that potentially can do is shut down that business from coming into is an issue that we need to be really concerned about. Counciloman Carrington,

so just a quick connection on that. uh the reduction strategy. What is adaptive reuse?

Yeah. So, adaptive reuse is um a fancy way of talking about maintaining the history and the character of a place like Palmer. So, we have buildings it, excuse me, in the CBD that um ideally we're looking to have people come and invest in, right? We want to see people putting their businesses in these buildings that are maybe a little more rundown. Um, have been vacant for a while, offering a bit of a carrot as a parking reduction to see if that would be a way to kind of enhance the um interest in kind of infilling some of the CBD instead of having businesses spread out a little bit more um away from the central area. Yeah. And those uh definitions are also found in the document too if you want to reference those as you're going through things.

Yes.

Like a really good example of that is the new Poppy Lane. Right. So Jeff Johnson when he went in to revitalize that building um which is incredibly historic some of the stories he had about going there and uh was really cool to to pick his brain when he was doing that project. But he he as well had to get a variance as well. Additionally, um the forgive me the address um right off of Evergreen, it's the old central Matsu building on uh Matsu school u building literally right here. That's same thing, right? Um so adaptive use is more or less going in and maybe I don't want to say blighted, but abandoned buildings, buildings that may have been vacant for a little bit longer than we'd all like. Um and what what would be the reasoning for that? Right? Making sure if if that pinch point is parking, we think of it as a variance, right? It's really adaptive use, we have it in code as a variance. When there's something that's hindering economic development or a developer coming in or an owner coming in and putting something there depending on what that that uh business is because that's some businesses are easy to put in because of parking. Others not so much. the retail and the restaurants and all that. That's where like our heaviest pinch point that we've been talking or at least we've seen that, right? So, it it is it's a fancy word for variance, but it's more less across the board. Um being able to pinpoint a specific location, a specific building that has historic value and we want to like make it available for somebody to develop it. And and if that big that I hate to use the word again, the pinch point of that is parking, then that's something that we can we're trying to to work towards working hand in hand and being able to allow that to no longer be as vacant.

Any other questions there, Nate? Thank you very much. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. Question question for city manager though. Question,

please. Um, thank you and thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, thank you, city manager Zurkel. I thanks for the cough drop and appreciate that, but I was going to ask the questions whether I had a cough drop or not. So, uh, I wasn't here at the last meeting. You probably got a nice break from me. But uh but 70 days ago now, 10 weeks ago, we sat together, some of us, not not a couple people on the dice here, but probably the most well attended um city council meeting in history, certainly in my three and a half year history. And I talked to folks been around for a while, and they said it was uh as as most well attended ever been to. and we adopted uh we unanimously made a motion to have a golf course contract with Eagle Golf Course Management and now we're sitting here on February 24th and I realize I wasn't here on the uh 10th. Um but we're 70 days later. Um I have sort of multiple questions, but I'm fearful. I mean, I know that uh Palmer Golf Course has opened in March before. And one of the pride parts about Palmer Golf Course is that it's open the earliest, stays open the latest, and sometimes you can even golf out there in the winter time. So, I guess I have to ask, uh, you know, as we sit here going into March next week, in spite of these 15 below temperatures coming our way the next couple days, um, where are we now? Where we at?

So, the city attorney or Mr. Ciola on January 29th sent um well via me George and the proposed contract he confirmed he received it and sent it to his legal counsel. There was a deadline of February 12th to receive redline negotiations from that. That deadline came and went. We extended that and on February 17th Mr. Ciola and Mr. Colum's attorney spoke. We were supposed to receive a redline version within a few days. We had to reach out again on Monday because we hadn't received it and as of noon today, we finally got that after nearly a month of it being in the contractor's hands.

Okay. U Mr. Mayor, thank thank you man circle. Uh so I asked this question I guess four weeks ago, but how much have we spent on MCS and Mr. Ciola so far? And uh do we have or whether it's him or his partners or anything like that and how much do you have the authority to spend on that involvement?

This is um your council. You directed the city clerk to hire Mr. Ciola. I can I'm happy to to get that information pulled from you, but that was done and directed by the city council to the city clerk. So rates and all of that. Yes, I can see all of it. I can pull the invoices and I'd be happy to send them to you tomorrow. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, one more. Do um you said you received something just today at noon or yesterday at noon? Uh, today at noon. Yes. After we send it January 29th.

So, do Thank you for that. Do you have any uh feel that uh we're making progress that we come back here in two weeks that we I would be happy to provide um those in executive session since this is still in negotiation phase and nothing has been determined. Okay. Thank you very much. Madam manager, do you have any further report? Anything else? Nothing further.

All right. Thank you. On to me. So, uh, before we went to AML, um, met with the, uh, I was at the chamber lunchon and, um, it was, uh, the speakers were friends of the Palmer Public Library and it was well attended and, um, I think they got some donations at that point. So, that was good. Um, Friday they had Reach Reach 907 auction. Reach 907 is uh an organization that u has camps and and you know various other stuff that they do for children um to help help the kids around the valley. And so they had a a dinner uh that was served by the Boy Scouts that were there and uh they also had an auction for the uh the mayors were auctioned off for lunch. And I am proud to say that the mayor of Palmer received way more money than the other two mayors. Um and it was interesting that um

must have well I was I was I was a little concerned. Um but uh the actual the uh individual who he purchased all three lunches with the mayor and so uh it it cost him a pretty penny. So which I was proud about that. Um uh so last week the majority of us were at AML. I think it was a good conference for you know the folks who had never been there. We got to go up to the hill and and meet with our legislators. We also took them out to dinner and got to talk with them a little bit. Um you know the the deal is that they say that we don't have the state doesn't have any money but we still gave them our projects. Um because you just never know. there's typically an an outfall at the end that they have dollars and so we gave them our revised list and I think that that might that might work out as part of that uh the municipal planning organization uh I meet with them uh tomorrow and I met with them today the executive director and there are projects within the city that we can give to them that they are potentially willing to fund. Um they have two different projects uh monies going on. Um the bureau also has money that they've received I can't remember how many million dollars that they are willing to distribute to the cities in in you know Palmer Wasilla Dina area. Um, and you know, we're going to be meeting with them as well and uh see if you know, right now we have one project that's in there and and I think there's an opportunity for us to get, you know, a number of other projects that we got going on. Uh, next Wednesday, uh, city manager and and I and the police chief meet with the bureau on animal control, uh, transfer of responsibilities. uh they want to make sure that when they

do that that that we're all on the same page that they just don't take it away, you know, without us, you know, having input on what's going to go on. And and I know that our city clerk is working on moving moving some of our restrictions or our opportunity that we have people have chickens and all that kind of stuff in the city. The bureau does not allow that. So, we have to move that into a land use organ, you know, or ordinance. So, that will be coming up soon. Um, I don't want to take a lot of uh away from the chamber because I know they're here, but there's a a free lunch. Tomorrow is their annual annual meeting. They can talk about that. Um, but also there's a free lunch that's going to be put on by the Palmer Chamber and Wasilla Chamber uh with support from the Matsu Health Foundation. Um, it's called Child Care Policy and the Workforce. what businesses need to know and do it. And it's a business focused event designed to help employers understand how child care shortages impact workforce participation, retention, and pro productivity. Um, and that will be uh at Evangel's Restaurant. Like I say, it's a free lunchon. Uh March 24th, 11:30 to 1:30. Um, and last but not least, next week we'll be issuing a a proclamation to our uh hockey uh kids uh age 10 that they both A and B teams won the state tournament. And so uh we probably will have that meeting in the depot because there's 20 kids I think on each

not the tournament. Yeah. Um and there's 20 kids on each team. So there'll be a bunch of folks for that. So any uh questions for me? Yes, sir.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh more of a comment than a question. I think uh uh just to give you some kudos cuz I know I they can give you some ribbing sometimes about not having a written report with nice pictures like your predecessor always did. But um but I will say but I will say the amount of hours that you're putting in to being mayor of the city of Palmer should definitely be applauded. I mean it's a lot of time and you know that it's what you make of it and you're doing a lot of good work out there meeting with a lot of different folks and uh I for one just really appreciate uh how much effort you put into it. So thank you. Thank you. THANK YOU. Moving on, madame clerk.

Um, I don't have a whole lot to report. I just I wanted to let council know the same that I should have the introduction for the to repeal Palmer Municipal Code Title Six and to um start the process for handing the powers over to the burrow and then um start moving some of the other animal issues and land over to the land use part. So, I should have that at the next meeting and that's pretty much it. And not to put Kelly on the spot, but were you able to get signed up to give your report or would you like to step forward and do it now? For whatever you I know that we talked about until you guys get there and business or I can do it now.

Okay, we'll do unfinished business. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to check. That's all I have. Any questions? Oh, of course. Yes, sir. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, first off, my apologies for to city manager circle because I did not realize that the contract uh with uh MCS was with you and with the mayor. So, same question resides. Do you have I mean, you're a little on the spot now cuz you didn't really know um she didn't, but do you have a ballpark not not necessarily how much you paid so far? That'd be nice, but what's the max that can we can pay out on that contract? That must be something that's already set in stone. I would think.

I mean, it's really it's really not. You just, you know, instructed me to hire an attorney to bridge the gap between losing our other city attorney and hiring another one. In the meantime, we had the issues come up with the golf course. So, um, he was so then the decision was made by council to retain him to finish up the issues with the golf course even though we hired Landy and Bennett, which just made sense. So there was really no cap given just is because they were hired to deal with this issue. We can certainly as we get close to like our 15,000 mark which is kind of our you know revisit that but hopefully we'll have this resolved by that point. I don't think we've reached that cap yet. I'm sorry our mark 15,0005.

Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions of the clerk? Thank you, madam attorney. Okay. Um, hi Lesie Me Landy Bennett Plumsteine. Um, here to give a city attorney report that is short. Um, no pending litigation to report that's on our lap. Um, we continue to work with individuals in the departments here at the city as they have questions or need assistance. Um, that's been enjoyable. We're happy to be meeting and getting to know people and understand more about how we can be helpful to the city. Um, and I'm happy to be here this evening. So you have any questions, we can answer them. Any questions?

All right, that's probably the best person not to have questions. So all right, moving on. Item G, audience participation. This will be three minutes per person and it'll be limited to a total time. Can we take a quick break? Sure. Any object? Any objection to All right, take a break. You can open the

Oh yeah, maybe for next time. to put you guys on the spot.

So, you already have I want someone there to accept it. I'll register. All right. Okay.

Luckily, I've known you for a really long time. I've been learning a lot. Yeah. That is true. I think we're probably going to have

That's Hilarious from So many come back. Okay. I'm just stuck right now. Yeah, we I won't get

your friends who regular regular Right. So, we've been together. Yeah, I remember

I can retire from that. We can now super that's kind of Now my kids are a little older.

What's up? You look at me. Oh, I want to ask Jim. Jim question.

Kobe. It's like a whole different airflow now. Okay.

What? I'm going to say something and then I'm going to get the hell out of here.

All negotiations. Perfect.

Yeah. All right. Thank you. Okay, we're we're back in back in session. We're at audience participation. 3 minutes per person, limited to a total time of not more than 30 minutes. Please sign and state your name and it will be 3 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 with 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 who cannot follow these guidelines will be removed. Any threats against others could result in criminal prosecution. Please again sign in, state your name, and three minutes per person. Madam clerk

Jill Valerius.

Oh yeah, there'll be a light on the Hold it for about three seconds.

There you uh thank you uh mayor and city clerk and council. Uh my name is Joe Valerius. I live here in Palmer. I own a business here in Palmer. And I think I'm one of the few people that can claim both that I live and own a business. I want to speak to the uh sales tax and uh number one, I'm in favor of it. I would like to see us implement sales tax for 18 months. I think looking at numbers, if you have a home that's worth $400,000 and we have a $10 million bond, I'm going to pay a hundred bucks a month. That's equivalent to me spending $10,000 a month in the city for 100 bucks. Generally, I don't spend $10,000 a month in the city or really anywhere. So, I think I just want people to understand that I think we freak out when we hear about taxes. The reality is government pays for things and government needs money. So it's kind of like the bureau talking about a tax too. Like you know what money's going to come from somewhere. So maybe you don't pay property tax or maybe you're paying more property tax or you're paying sales tax. And I would say for most people, if you don't travel outside of this area, boy are you going to have your eyes opened when you do because the amount of tax you pay on different things, whether you're dining, staying in a hotel, um, city taxes, property owner in this city and a business owner in this city, it makes far more sense to me to pay an extra 1% for 18 months than it does to have this big bond. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, George Colum.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. My name is George Colum from Eagle Golf Course Management. I want to address the timeline of the 2026 contract negotiations. On January 29th, the city provided Equal Golf with a proposed contract. We submitted our redline response on February 23rd. While this took some time, I want to explain why it was necessary due to the significant changes proposed by the city. It is our understanding that the city council approved three specific changes to the prior contract. The city would pay for fuel, the 475,000 contractor fee, and no liquor sales. Eagle Golf accepted all three of those changes. However, the contract proposed by the city went significantly beyond those three items. It was not simply the prior contract with three modifications. It was a substantially rewritten agreement containing materially different items. Our redline response was measured and reasonable. We accepted the vast majority of the city's new provisions, including updated insurance requirements, new lean protections, subcontracted disclosures, and revised capital repair provisions, where we proposed changes. We did so to preserve the operational structures that have worked successfully for years. Most concerning is the requirement for two completely separate point of sales systems, one for the city sales and one for the contractor sales. This is a fundamental departure from how the course has operated for over a decade and would directly harm customer experience. The proposed contract also imposed extensive weekly reporting far beyond the monthly reports used successfully under the prior contract. Eagle Golf's Redline proposed restoring proposed restoring the proven reporting framework while maintaining the city's gap and receipt requirements. On February 17th, the attorneys for both parties discussed the contract and potential approaches to bridge the differences. Following that discussion, Eagle Golf carefully reviewed every

proposed change and provided a good faith response that addresses the city's concerns while recognizing the practical realities of operating a golf course. Doing so required time. In order to provide a good faith proposal that would meet the city's needs while also permitting the continued and effective operation of the golf course, Eagle Golf has acted in good faith throughout this process. We submitted proposed 2026 rates to the city in October of 2025 and received no objection. It was not until February 2nd that the city manager directed us by email to suspend all pre-sales of punch cards, season passes, and other all other sales. We complied, but the fourmonth delay in receiving any feedback has created uncertainty for our operations and for our golfing community. Eagle Golf wants to work with the city. We want to finalize this contract and ensure golf opens and operates effectively in 2026. We have been committed to the Palmer golfing community for 18 years and look forward to continuing to work with the city in good faith and reach an agreement that is acceptable to both parties. Thank you for your time. I I I would like to re remind the audience that uh we that we don't have uh applause either for or against. Thank you.

I'm I'm the handwriting's kind of rough, but Mike Buford Bford, sorry.

That's okay. Nobody answer. Oh goodness. I'll be very brief. My name is Michael Borford. I'm a longtime Palmer resident and a 70-year resident of the state of Alaska, a small business owner and the president of the Valley Golf League, which plays at Palmer Golf Course. But tonight, I've come to talk to you about something a little different. Good evening, Mr. Allen. Welcome aboard. Leadership. I've been coming to these meetings for 5 months. You've seen the old guy with white hair with the flannel shirt sitting in the back at all of these meetings. Guys, you need to speak up. very often and especially when we have issues we're voting on, not necessarily anything with our golf course with PGC, but with many issues, only one or two people say anything. Voice your opinions. We are the public. We elected you. We want to hear what you think. Good leaders collect data. They analyze and they make reasonable, concise decisions. If you want to meet a good leader, that man sitting at the very back of the room at the end of the row that was just up here is an outstanding leader. Please give your constituents what they need and that is to hear you, each and every one of you at these meetings. Thank you,

Bert Barl.

Bert Barl, I'm here again. I can't believe it. I've only started coming since the golf course became an issue. And I have left previous meetings uh optimistic because two times I've heard this uh council give directive to uh let's just get this contract signed and we'll worry about the details next year when we uh have everything uh that we need to go forward with at that time um losing the golf course. So last time I left was from the depot and it was very encouraging because you talked a little bit about money before you went into executive session and we were only $15,000 away. That's5 apart uh on fuel. And I thought, "Oh, good. This thing is going to get done." Well, thankfully I would like this contract to get signed. I would like us to move forward because I'm at the investment stage of my golf. I represent a group of golfers who pay thousands of dollars to play for a year at Palmer Golf Course. I usually pay that in March. We were assured uh or maybe uh we were told in at the December meeting, hey, don't worry, we've signed the the contract before as late as January 12th, as late as January 16th. That was to, you know, let us know, hey, don't worry about it. We're going to get this done. Well, January's gone. February is gone on Sunday and we're into March already. A time when I have usually paid my multi,000 corporate pass and I'm ready to pay it now. It feels like we've been so close in the council administration you and the administration. You must be tired of being the focus of the blame game. So let's get this done in a let's get it done now. sign a service contract so we can get the golf course moving, taking money, and going forward. And then we can move forward with the steps required

to get all your work done for a release of obligation. Thank you, Paul Larson. I apologize. I signed that. I didn't realize I was signing for that. That's okay. You're okay. What about Michelle Grimes? We won't make you talk. It's fine.

Hello, my name is Michelle Grimes. I'm a business owner here in Palmer and I would like to offer some um corrective information regarding the history of the city of Palmer golf course liquor license. So in January 27th during the city council meeting, city staff discussed that the Palmer Golf Course liquor license had been seasonal for decades and meaning that sales of alcohol were limited between April 15th and October 15th for decades. If you look at the AMCO records, I've only looked at them from 2007 through to date, but from 2007 to 2024, that license was issued on an annual basis, meaning alcohol sales were not restricted to a seasonal basis. What happened is at the last renewal which was filed in 2025 or excuse me filed for 2025 filed technically in 2024 the city applied for a seasonal license which then limited alcohol sales to April 15th and October 15th. Now notably and if you're familiar with the golf course you might realize this would pose a little bit of an issue because we are very proud that our golf course is the first to open and the last to close. In fact, my daughter and I, we have a challenge every year. We want to golf the first day that the course is open and the last day that the course is open. And if we're lucky, we try and golf and ski on the same day because Gibra is sometimes open with groomed trails. So, our golf course uh so it's important that you as the council operate with accurate information and this is accurate information that is available. I believe it has been shared with you and I hope that you incorporate it in your discussions and in your decision-m good governance depends on accurate information. You cannot make sound decisions and have reasonable productive discussions with inaccuracy. So it is not the public's role to manage

that record, but it is the public's right and perhaps at times the public's responsibility to participate when concerns arise. That participation is fundamental to how our system of government is designed to function. That participation, that process is why all of these people are here tonight. Solving complex problems is never easy, especially when addressing issues that you have inherited. Right? The conversion of the seasonal alcohol limit was not something that originated by the current council or mayor or current city manager. However, this is an issue that is yours to resolve. But I'm very confident that you will and that you can. There are other issues that need attention and things that have arisen more recently. You have all expressed your desire to have an open and thriving golf course. You have the power and the responsibility to ensure that your intent and your prior vote translates into effective action. Please know it is not too late and there is still time for a positive outcome. John Sherak.

Uh, good evening again, John Sherock. Um, uh, this is my first opportunity to thank you all in person for voting to pursue a release of obligation uh, for the golf course. And thank you all. Um, I'd also like to welcome Council Member Allen. Love the jersey. Um, the airport advisory meetings begin this Thursday and I'm wondering if the council uh as the airport sponsor has instructed the airport supervisor to leave the golf course area untouched and to remain identified as a public recreational area in the master plan. Um, if the master plan includes development in the golf course area, it would completely contradict the release of obligation process approved by this council. Um, also, have any steps been taken to record, broadcast, and share airport advisory and planning and zoning meetings to document and increase public involvement during this process? In recent FAA letters released by the city, public involvement is noted as a very important part of the process. Um, last season, the Palm Municipal Golf Course opened 26 days from today. And fun fact for all you guys, uh the earliest it's opened is March 5th. Learned that the other day. Uh normally by this time of year, my family has already purchased our season pass. We paid our trail fees and are anxiously watching the weather for opening day. This year, we're watching the council. Many of us are greatly concerned that the delays created since the December 16th unanimous vote to extend the management contract and again uh the January unanimous vote to extend the contract will have negatively affected the ability of the golf course to have a successful season. The current operational uncertainty surrounding a profitable municipal asset warrants clear direction from the council. $400,000 in profit last year, multiple

unanimous votes to extend the current management contract, and yet here we are again and closed for business. Uh so what formal steps will this council take to resolve the issue and get this golf course open? Thank you,

Sam Olen. Thank you, Sam Olsson, Palmer, Alaska. Um, I I need someone to explain to me how we've gotten to this point in the last 18 years of an faithfully operated contract. George stated he didn't have a contract in October. And then we went through all the way to December fighting about the airport to now we don't have a contractor. So, we passed one December 16th, right? 300 people. We were ready to just walk away. Not a big deal. Now we have another problem. All of a sudden, AMCO's involved. Now we have another vote. Now we have an executive session where nobody knows what's going on in this in this room. And that's why we keep showing up. Like I told you guys that I will take AJ events away. My first one is May 15th. That's like in three months. And you guys have the power to direct city staff to finish something. You might not have the power to like negotiate, but you have the power in your charter. So, please give us a reason to have faith in you again. Otherwise, I'm just getting so frustrated coming back here and trying to prove you guys wrong over and over again. I got told that it was a seasonal license before the last meeting and then I had to say, "No, it's not. I don't want to argue with you. I want to be an advocate for you, but this whole community doesn't feel like we're being advocates for you because we feel like we're fighting with you to prove staff wrong. You're supposed to protect us, not make us feel dumb. Please fight for us. Get this thing done. I need it done in two weeks or we're going to move events. I don't have a contract with you. It won't cost me any money. Thank you. Joel Stfansky.

Yep. My name's uh Joel Stfansky. But first, I want to give the new member something.

Thank you very much. Yeah, a lot of my concerns have just already been said, but I'm going to go over it again because it seems like we need to say it over and over and over again. You know, I've been living just outside city limits for 43 years. You've heard my history, um, my passion for the city of Palmer and all the other people that have donated and and done amazing things for this city over the decades. And we're passionate about the golf course, too. And, uh, just like I noticed everyone's very passionate about the friends of the library and what they're doing. Why can't we show that passion towards the golf course? Where is it? It's not there. I don't see it. You know, the last time I was at a city council, city of Palmer was 2006 and 7 when they were talking about annexation. Now, I've been to the last five because we can't get it. We don't seem to get it right. And why aren't we getting it right? There was nothing wrong with the old contract council. There was nothing wrong with it. I've done lots of contracts. I told you before I worked for MEA for 28 years. I did a lot of their contracts for the Rightway Clarin. I'll volunteer my time. I'll save you $15,000 in lawyers fees. I'll do it free. Free. That's how much this means to this community. We have kids in Special Olympics. We have junior golf programs. And we have senile citizens like myself. Half the membership there is probably people older than 50 years old. And it's

a wonderful thing. You know, the thousands of hours of love and smiles that go on at that golf course. And you guys might be the ones involved to kill it. And I challenge you, and I've done it before, to do the right thing because I find there's a few people that don't want the golf course to succeed. And you know who they are because their actions speak volumes. There's three words that come out tonight. Morals, ethics, and transparency. I'd like to see more of that in the future. And I know you guys can make this happen. That's why you're put here. The community needs you guys to do the right thing. And we need we need not to ever show up in this room again. Thank you for your time.

Jackie, go for Thank you. Good evening, mayor and city council. My name is Jackie Gforth, and I'm not talking about the golf course. Um, I'm also a romance writer. My name is Jackie Ivy, published author, and it is not a pseudonym. It's my maiden name. I have 58 books out. I'm known worldwide. I'm in seven different languages. And I have been writing since 1982. I wrote seven books while I raised six children and worked for the post office as a manager for 25 years. and my ninth book finally was published in 2004. I didn't realize what was happening in the world because I was so busy writing. I didn't read anyone else because I didn't want anyone else's voice in my head. So, I didn't realize that prior to the year 2000, if you wanted an obscene book as an adult, you had to go to an adult bookstore. They weren't available anywhere else. And in the year 2000 they started going online and a company called Allora's Cave was formed and they started putting these books out as pay on demand books and they became a huge seller. They were called erotica and erotica was a huge seller and in 2004 when I finally got published Zebra Books who I was with Kensington opened up an aphrodisia line their own erotica line because the mainstream market said wow we want on we want in on this. So Erotica went mainstream and it came out with a tag on it that said erotica. So everyone knew what they were buying when they bought it. And that's what happened until the year 2009. And in the year 2009, as Amazon got so big, they decided that if you had erotica on the cover, it couldn't make a bestseller list for the same reason that an X-rated book can't make the Academy Awards. And so they just took erotica off and they folded it in to romance. So, romance became filled with oops

books. Now, I'm not joking. I didn't realize that this had been labeled onto romance writers until I was teaching a class at a youth writers conference in 2017. And I was almost heckled from people who were calling my books obscene. And I know what the law says about obscenity. I have studied it. But I didn't realize until the year 2023 that these this this mode of pushing the line had gotten into young adult books. Young adult which is 12 years old. Do you realize this book has in it and it's in the Palmer Library. This book has in it that the anus is the entrance to your bowels.

That is physically impossible. It's not. Ma'am, you know, if you're talking about pornographic stuff, you know, and you know, it's illegal to to even particularly when online,

but excuse me, but this is a book in your library for children. This is a book in your library for children. This is a book in your library for children. And when I challenged it in Palmer, I was denied saying it was good for children. And so, I will be challenging it again because I can only do it every 3 years. And I did not realize when I challenged it that I would have so much censure heaped on me and so much disgruntled behavior and so much awful names called heaped on me and called and and being called these names. I didn't realize that, but I do now. And I'm not going anywhere. Thank you. Kelly,

I too. I'm not talking about the call force. Um, chamber announcements and then I'll do the survey when we get to the unfinished business. Um, so I met with Jude at public works and probably she made our chamber by the way. Um, met with Jude public works today and we have a footprint in place for colony days and col and Friday flings. We have a solid plan moving forward and appreciate that. The chamber's annual auction is coming up on March 28th. Tickets are available now on our website and we are looking forward to the great community event. Tomorrow is our annual meeting. We're excited to share the tremendous growth the chamber has experienced in 2025. We are not just existing, we are thriving as a chamber. We will also be recognizing celebrating some of our outstanding and longtime members at that meeting. Um so please come if you can. It's open. If you haven't registered that's okay. Um and I will talk to you in a few minutes. Thank you.

Cindy heel first.

Sorry I had to change a little bit what I was going to say. You guys did business in Palmer for a long time. I sponsor a charity, Palmer Golf Course. Um, my family's relationship with golf and Palmer goes all the way back to the reason that we moved here and that I owned an insurance company here. So, um, kind of changed what I was going to say. I was going to talk about it being 70 days, and I had 70 days listed five or six times in my little 3minut speech, but thanks for the opportunity to speak with you guys today. Following council member Alcantra's questions to the city manager minutes ago, I'm again puzzled by the city manager's response. George hired an attorney to negotiate this contract for him. Although a contract really was just an extension of 2025's contract. If you guys remember on December 12th, there was discussion of the need for this contract to go out to bid for next year for an attorney who was hired prior to the meeting by the mayor or sorry the city manager without your knowledge. There was discussion about that too. For this to have become a complete renegotiation in which he says he's estimated 10 to 15 hours his attorney has spent on the renewal of a contract is crazy. It was a unanimous vote. Business owners have to prepare for a business. Right now we have a business owner who can't negotiate to purchase anything for the Palmer Golf Course. If you haven't played golf, you might not know that there are things involving equipment. A lot of the tiny profit well retail profit is 100% if you

don't know that retail markup is 100% in standard businesses. We don't buy new golf clubs every time we go golfing but we buy golf tees, golf balls, food, all these things. This business is unprepared because of your decision simply not being brought to fruition. George stated that the contract arrived yesterday. It may not have gone to Kobe until today, but to in turn tell us, oh, in a couple weeks I will have gone over it is unacceptable. I do absolutely agree with Mike that you guys should be willing to have conversations and answer questions in front of us. Why does everything have to be behind closed doors? including the fact that three or four of us had no idea that the council did agree that this gentleman should be hired by the city and thatif up to 15 grand should be spent for not a new contract of a contract. And I probably sound accusatory because this is blowing my mind. There are people who travel here and spend a lot of money. We know the golf course makes money. It's just not okay to allow one person to kick the rock down the road while the rest of you guys have to sit and wait. It would be nice if action was taken a little bit quicker than two weeks and for next year.

Genie presents.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Jeannie Troinski. Um, I'm here tonight to speak in support of using the 1- cent sales tax to fund the library. And I feel that I can speak to that because I am the president of the Friends of Wasilla Public Library. I served on the city of Wasilla's uh I was the chair for the pre-development for the Wasilla Public Library and I was the chair for the building committee. The reason the 1 cent sales tax rate makes more sense than a bond is pretty simple. If you went and bought a car and you had enough cash and you could just pay cash, you pay the amount that's on the sticker on the window. But if you go and you don't have that kind of money, which most of us don't, so you take out a loan, you're paying a significant more amount of money for that car than the sticker price. And that's what's going to happen with the bond. You are going to be on the hook for way more money than what it actually cost. the Wasilla Public Library. We raised the sales tax 1 cent. In two years, we raised $16 million. You guys don't have quite the infrastructure that we do as far as some of the big box stores, but you have the state fair. And one of the reasons it makes the most sense for you to tax uh people at the state fair is because 80% of the users of your library, just like 80% of the users of the Wesville Public Library, live outside the city limits. And so all of us are paying for it. And I want to when I come and shop in Palmer and I want to when I go to the Palmer State Fair pay one cent extra and have your library paid for the day you walk into it because that's what happened to West Public Library and it is one thing that I am the most proud of. I was elected president of Friends of Wesville Library in 2001. It took till 2016 to get that library built. But when we walked in the doors, the building was completely paid for. There's been some crazy rumors coming out of Palmer for some reason about the expansion we're

doing. We're doing an expansion because we don't have enough room for staffing. When the building was built, people did not think we were going to need more staffing. They didn't think people would come. People have come in droves. We are the third busiest library in the state of Alaska now. We only follow uh the null win in Fairbanks and Lusac in Anchorage. Uh we the the Monday after your roof collapsed, we normally on a Monday have 200 people because we're only open four hours on Mondays. We had 600 people come through our doors. People are hungry for a library here. They use libraries. And one of the things I love about librarians, they keep great stats all the time. So get your library built. I really recommend the 1 cent sales tax. It is just such a a great way for everybody to be able to contribute, but then you don't have to pay for that car for a whole bunch of years. Thank you.

That's our That's our half hour. So, we're going to close in uh audience participation, bring it back to the council. We have no public hearings listed. Uh no action memorandum. We're on item J, which is unfinished business. Resolution 260002B, a resolution of the Palmer City Council amending the 2026 fee schedule to increase a rate of the city sales tax by 1% beginning on April 1st, 2026 and expiring on October 31st, 2027 to finance the construction of new Palmer Public Library. And this is continued from the February uh 10th, 2026 meeting. What's the wishes of the council? Move to approve.

Second. Thank you. All right. Discussion, ma'am. I I will give it to Miss Collins for as the maker.

All right. Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor. I did get a little feedback after last meeting um with just some questions that I I kind of skipped from point A maybe to point C without covering point B. So, I I might be covering some of the same territory that I covered last meeting, but I think to make um things clear, I did have a few comments prepared. Um also, I did want to point out in this week's um agenda packet, there is this library funding scenarios comparison, which I think has a much more userfriendly way to view what um using bonds to fund our library would do to property taxes for those living uh within Palmer. Um so just a little bit of history of how we got here. Um the city currently has just under $10 million for construction of the new library. This money has come from the insurance payout state and grants from several local organizations and uh individuals through fundraising efforts. However, the city is still $3 million short to be able to fund the building of the new library. The city has two options for bringing in that needed revenue. One option is through bonds. Palmer residents did approve up to a $10 million bond. As part of the bonding process, the city of Palmer would be required to make regular payments on the bonds. The revenue for payment on the bonds would come in part through an increase in property tax. That necessary increase in property tax would be for a term of 20 years. So just was as we pointed out here um taking out a bond as a rough analogy is like borrowing money to do anything else. There's fees associated with that. There's interest associated with that. you end up paying more when you borrow money than if you pay cash upfront. So, the other option uh for paying for the new library is a short-term increase in the sales tax. As a member of the city council, I have proposed use of a short-term increase in sales tax rather than use of the bond. So, that was one of the questions I had. So, would there

be an increase in sales tax and a bond? The intent is that the increased sales tax would make the bonds unnecessary. Um, so we use the sales tax to finance the new building. Uh, the proposal includes an increase in the sales tax of 1% for a period of approximately a year and a half. If approved, the increase would start April of this year and terminate in October of next year. These dates span two summers, which would include peak tourist season for our community and would result in being able to acquire more of the needed funding from visitors to our community rather than from the community members themselves. In addition, because the termination date is written directly into the proposed legislation, no action would be required by city council to terminate the sales tax increase at the end of that time period. In comparing uh the two options, the short-term sales tax increase is a more attractive option um than 20 years of payments on a bond. Um so I used one potential scenario as an example last meeting. I'll use a different one today. Um looking at in that uh document I um just referenced the library funding scenarios comparison. It talks about um uh so if homeowners uh having average home price right now $400,000 in the community would see an increase of $468 a year if the cap is raised on this uh properties tax uh to cover the bond. So, as was pointed out by one of the individuals that spoke here, when you look at what we all might be paying with a 1% sales tax increase as compared to what we would be paying as homeowners uh in Palmer, the difference is uh astounding. Um, so if we had an increase of $468

annually for the average home owner, that would um, and that amount was paid in sales tax, that would be $46,000 of taxable goods and services um, to be the equivalent there. So, or another way of looking at it, say you spend $2,000 a month in taxable goods and services here in Palmer. Um, you would pay $20 a month in sales tax. That would be $240 over the course of a year. $380 over the course of the year and a half. Um, so $380 in sales tax over the year and a half if you're spending $2,000 a taxable services. So, not your mortgage, not your medical, those other things that aren't taxed as compared to $468 a year for the next 20 years. Okay? So, we can either pay in a year and a half what's needed for the library or we can pay over the next 20 years that same amount year in year out. Um, so my goal in proposing this increased sales tax is simply to limit costs um for those living in Palmer. Like I said, whether it's homeowners or renters or those trying to get into a home that higher um property tax would affect all of those individuals. Um there has been some concern expressed by business owners in Palmer and what that would do um to businesses. Of course, one option is always to pass that cost on to the consumer, which I think most businesses in Palmer do. Um, some don't. Um, but um, sorry, I lost my train of thought there momentarily. So, um, there's also the fairness concern as was pointed out using a bond. Um, only those actually living within Palmer city

limits would be contributing to the cost. This despite the fact that only 18% of users of the Palmer Library actually live within city limits, 82% of library users live outside of city limits. That sales tax would more equitably spread the cost of the library over the larger community. Circling back to the business, uh it my train of thought came back. Um a couple other points I wanted to make. one um even if it does uh negatively impact businesses um as far as potentially eating some of that cost if businesses choose to do that. Your average consumer though is going to have more money to spend because they're not spending it on property tax. So the more money uh that people have at their discretion to spend um generally the better business is. Um my second thought on that is that the library brings in a lot of people to the community. Um as was mentioned before the roof collapsed um they were seeing about 100,000 users over the course of a year. Um with a smaller building those numbers are down to between 30 and 40,000 a year as I understand it. Um but particularly for those businesses um providing services within the downtown um Palmer business district having a 100,000 people come through town um to use the library um and with a a new library. I imagine those numbers are going to be even larger um and the community has gotten larger since that opening collapsed as well. it. So, um my hope and expectation is that ultimately this will be a good thing for businesses as well as um property owners here in Palmer. So, those are all the comments I have. Thank you.

Thank you. Um I am going to enforce two rules that we have. One is a 10-minute conversation on each topic and only two time two bites of the apple. So, ma'am,

I have exactly two bites. So, with the sales tech increase right now, um, if we were to pass it, we have the bond. Sorry. Um, if the sales tax increase is passed, it goes through, we have that bond still available, right, to meet a shortfall should that come up. My question is, if the sales tax fully covers everything, at what point do we retire the bond and how does that work? Because the we have it on the books. Does that money just like sit there forever? How does that process work? That's one of the questions that I've gotten from folks. Um, which ties into my next question after I get an answer on that one.

Currently, we don't have the $10 million because we haven't actually let the bond. We just have the bonding authority. So there is no retirement of $10 million at this point because we haven't done it.

So if we got to a point that that the 18 months or year and a half, yeah, 18 months um we need some of that bond money, would we have to do the entire 10 million bond? Okay. Um that answers that question. Uh the next question I have that I got from someone is if we are going to be getting rid of the bond or changing what the bond um essentially pays for if it's not towards the building, if it's towards um furniture, that kind of thing. What is the legality of that? And what is the legality since it was voted in of getting rid of of not collecting that bond essentially? Is is that a concern that we should have? I don't know how that works with this having been passed by the voters versus the sales tax increase not needing that.

I would have to review what was actually voted on and approved. If it had terminology for furniturees and fixtures, we would be fine. If it didn't, I would be hesitant to use any bond money for furniturees and fixtures because it wouldn't be approved by the voters.

Thank you, Councilwoman Garington. So, in the scenario that you laid out, you the numbers for the the mill rate increase for property taxes uh was basically on the 10 million bond million dollar bond, right? So, if we're only doing 3 million if which is what our shortfall is, how does that look as far as uh what effect it would have on property taxes if we're not doing the full 10 million? Let me let me answer that. The the the the tax the property tax is based on value of your home, not on the value of the bond. Regardless if it's 500,000 10 million, you know, if you have a $400,000 home, you're going to pay $468 regardless. The only difference is how long it takes, particularly how long it takes to pay off.

So is that I mean, so it's it's not going to be the full 20 years then. It's just until the bond is repaid. That's normally the case, but you know, you can get a 15, 20, 30-year bond. Um, then we can retire the bond once we get we can pay it off. Pay it off early, right? But as far as I know, there's no penalty. So, okay. So, the mill rate would be the same for for everyone regardless of how much we take. It's just how long it's going to take. Okay.

Deputy Mayor. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. mayor. Um, first off, sales tax is simply the most regressive tax uh you could implement. Um, take a little trip down memory lane here for those that weren't here in 2023. In 2023, we uh voted to allow the voters of Palmer to vote on a $10 million bonding authority. I was outvoted six to one because I wanted to cap it at $8 million. I don't think we're I don't think uh my council member to my right or anybody up here thinks we're going to use either 10 or $8 million, but the reality is I thought there would be a little bit of uh trepidation from the voters on a eight figure number. So I wanted it to be an $8 million cap and and then I went out and advocated for and voted for the $10 million bond because that's what was approved on a six to1 vote here at council. The reality is they gave us a tool and a toolbox. the voters did. 79% of the voters, four out of every five people that live in Palmer that decided to go vote gave us a tool in the toolbox. We don't need to change the tools in the toolbox. We need to use the tool that they gave us up to what we need to have. There's a very good potential. The 3% sales tax that's already being paid by people that live in Soapstone, Lazy Mountain, BU, everywhere else that's providing the overwhelming majority of our budget already. The people who think that budgets comes from property taxes. No. 15% of our revenue comes from property taxes. Huge huge percentage comes from sales tax. The reality is Palmer has survived for decades decades on a 3 mil rate and a 3% sales tax. There's absolutely no reason for us to be sitting here today saying let's change what the voters approved.

down the road we may have to come to that if we can do I'm I'm a little chagrin that we can go and ask for bonding authority but we can shove a sales tax down your throat with a with a couple of meetings and a vote that's that's almost criminal to me that the voters don't get a say to say hey we want this hey I'm a I'm a property owner and a business owner I want this and by the way the $1,200 the the three mills on a $400,000 house that's what exists now if We if if we have to have huge bond payments, which I don't think we will, I think we'll find $216,000 through Friends of Palmer Public Library, through additional sales tax revenue that's already going to come. Uh we may never have to bond at all. So why would we tax our citizens before knowing? I find it very ironic that uh the great people from Respect were here earlier. We spent tens of thousands of dollars on a parking study. uh we spent months on that but want to do a sales tax right away without studying it without deciding is this best for the city of Palmer. It it it's it seems ludicrous to me that we just oh hey we want to pass this uh 1% sales tax increase when it it doesn't make any sense that the additional authority on the bond for three for this this would be $39 a month. Yeah, there's some property owners that may not be able to afford an extra large pizza once a month, but the vast majority of them probably can. A lot more than the renters, than the people struggling that might have to pay an extra uh percent for sales tax. I don't want to incentivize people that drive to Anchorage, the thousands of people from the valley and probably well over a thousand from Palmer alone that drive to Anchorage every day. I don't want to incentivize them to shop at Costco, to shop at multiple cars locations in Anchorage and Eagle River, to shop at

multiple Fred Meyer locations because now it's like, "Hey, I'm going to pick up 200 bucks worth of groceries. Maybe I'll stop at Eagle River Fred Meyer. Save myself eight bucks. I can buy another case of water. I can buy another uh uh something else for the family that I don't have to worry about going and shopping in Palmer." I commuted Anchorage for 12 years. always shop in Palmer because I want a city to survive and to succeed and I don't think paying I I think the damage it will do to our businesses to have a 1 and a.5% more of a sales tax than Wasilla and 4% more than Shugiak Eagle River and Anchorage. I think it'll be uh not not great for us and not great for the businesses. And I guess to just leave it and I know I probably going on about six minutes right now. Um the fact that we want to do this without studying it. Well, we're going to study parking. We're going to study other things, but we're going to do a sales tax increase that Palmer hasn't done in three decades without studying the implications to it. I I I appreciate the efforts and I appreciate the research that my fellow council member has done and the ability to bring an idea forward. I just think generally sales taxes the most regressive tax you can get is the wrong idea to begin with. And I think this time I don't think we need it. We're going to find $216,000 to pay the additional 3 million. If it goes up to 6 million, we're going to find the additional $432,000 by uh increased revenue that's already coming year-over-year. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, ma'am.

Mr. Mayor, I being new on council, um I was not there for a lot of the discussions and determining whether to go to a bond or to a sales tax. I've heard both sides from constituents. Uh, did the council ever, prior council, ever talk about an alternative to a bond? And is is that anywhere that can be found or did we just go straight for a bond? And I I think that needs to be addressed. Um, well, I I understand the math that uh Council Collins is trying to do because I'm a financial analyst and so uh this part of me where I'm on the fence, it makes sense. It absolutely makes sense. Why pay the extra interest when we don't really have to? But on the other side of the coin, I can also understand small business owners. I can understand a market segment that may be on a fixed income, but I also understand our commuters who are going back and forth to Anchorage. They can just call in on their app. They can do anything uh and pick up their groceries on the way home. I know I certainly do um at times, but uh I So, Councilman Alcantra, I can also see where you're coming from. And so I'm set here with a dilemma of was there ever was an alternative ever discussed or did this just go straight to the public, you know, for a bond issue.

And I'll yield my time back for an answer. Number two. Yes, sir.

Yes. Uh then I'll take a little more time than just answering the question. My recollection from 2023 is that no a sales tax uh piece was not talked about because we were going to give the voters of Palmer the opportunity to vote and I was fearful. I was fearful that this could go 5149 5545. I mean I thought to myself, hey, this is 10 million. This is an eight figure number. There's going to be people out there like, "No freaking way am I giving you guys $10 million to help rebuild the library that had just collapsed in February." So, I was my spirits were booied definitely when almost four out of five people said, "Yes, you can bond. You have the authority to bond up to $10 million." I don't I in my mind, we're going to build about a $16 million library. Um, we're at nine and a halfish right now. There's other potential resources that might come in. I don't see a scenario where we go to a $10 million bond. There's a scenario where we can go to a $6 million bond and the numbers that my fellow council member talked about double. Uh, certainly, but that's what people decided they wanted to do. We built 85 new houses in Palmer in 2024. there's more increased revenue. And these people that are moving into uh to these houses that are $400,000 plus, they can uh whether they're here 3 years in the military or whether they're here for 30 or 40 years, they can afford 39 bucks a month or even 78 bucks a month to have the library that I think we should have. It's like, you know, go big or go home. And I think we should build a library that we can all be proud of. I don't think we need a sales tax to do it. I don't think we need to tax our citizens, double tax our citizens that live in Palmer an extra percent at Cars and Fred Meyer and the other places and tax them

on their potentially. I I understand this is meant to be a um a supplanting of funds and not supplemental funds, but who knows whether we need more than three million. This is $3,28,000. This isn't this may not be enough to get us there. So, I look at it as there's still that potential. you do you do this to your citizens which I think is an erroneous start and then you also have to end up taxing them a little bit on the property tax side. So I guess my time's up. Thank you. Graham,

I just had a really quick question because that brought up a a question that I thought I had settled in my brain and now there's lots of numbers. So on the page that it it specifically talks about the legislation that's being enacted, the financial impact or the fiscal impact on here is $3,28,000. On the page 66 of the packet where it break basically breaks down the math for how much money would be generated by half a percent or 1% in that time frame. You've got April 1st to December 31st of 2026 through a million 28,000. Then you've got through sunset date uh 331,000. Those are more um that those two numbers I just want to make sure I'm clear when I'm that I'm not mixing this up. The current shortfall of 600,000 would not be met because those two numbers are not to be added together. Correct. This through the sunset is estimated to make $3,310,000 through October of 2027. Is that am I correctly reading that? Which means that no matter what, we're still going to have potentially a $3 million pulled out of that bond to meet that $6 million shortfall total. potentially.

Okay. Sorry, I'm looking at this as somebody who is not a financial analyst. Um, and I know that sometimes certain budgetary type documents are made for people whose brains work in a certain way that mine does not. Um, so I wanted to be clear when I was looking at that the had another one, lost it. It'll either come back or it won't. Thank you. Mo,

do it's probably just what Amanda just said. Um, there's still that that volatile area that we don't know what's going to cost it and and what maybe the upgrades or the modifications to the contract. So, we will probably have to touch the bond anyway. And so, uh I'm still on the fence about this. And I I'm well, part of me says yes, part of me says no. And so, uh I'd like to hear more from others. Yes, sir.

Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say that I uh I agree with uh Council Council Member Collins and uh and uh Dr. Valeris, I agree with her comments as well. You know, when we look at um we all want to have a nice library that we can be proud of. I think um most of us who have kids and raise them in this community uh use the library a lot and uh something that we can all be proud of. One one of the many assets including our great skating rink and our great golf course and the many parks we have. These are these are assets that um our community can all be very proud of. And and so then we say what's the fiscally responsible what's the prudent way to take care of this business to make sure that we get this paid for. And when you look at these numbers and you say that over 80% of the people that will be using the the Palmer City Library don't actually live in the city of Palmer, then it really does seem unfair that the people that actually live in the city of Palmer and pay property taxes would have to fit foot that whole bill. we might we're probably still going to have to put a little part of it, but it does seem to me that um tourists from the lower 48 in the summer and then just Alaskans who live in other parts of the state or other parts of the burrow that come to Palmer um that they should contribute as well. Um, and I just I have a hard time with this argument that it's like, no, I'm not going to go to my favorite restaurants in downtown Palmer because I'm going to have to pay 25 extra cents on my bill for this library. I think most people are happy to make this very minor contribution uh to the greater good. The other part about it that I think is very important though that that really should be stressed is that this proposal comes with a firm sunset date. So when 18 months is up, the tax is over. We're not going to, you

know, I think people always have this fear of, oh man, once they increase your taxes, like they'll they'll never clot back. The way the way that she's written this is it it's a firm sunset. So um I I think it's a fiscally responsible thing to do. You know, there really is a third option that hasn't been discussed, and that would be for us to deplete our savings, but again, that's hitting the people that live here in the city of Palmer uh for the whole bill, and I just don't think that's fair. So, I think that this is a common sense proposal, and I think it's fiscally responsible, and so I support it. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. So, this the page that she was reading off of the that has the the tax information for the 1%. Was that in that wasn't in the original uh funding plan, was it? So, this is because one of the things I I kind of have a a little bit of a problem with is it kind of seemed to come out of nowhere because it wasn't discussed there and it was always has been the conversation has been about the bonding and then uh and then last week the proposal came through to or two weeks ago to do the the t tax. And so I I was just wondering where that came from as far as as a council we've not hadn't discussed it and uh and the then the community hasn't had a lot of time to to discuss it. So I'm just I'm just curious is how how we got here with with this in particular.

An alternative alternative to bond. Okay. Yes ma'am. I can address that a little more too. Um,

so and I because I've gotten that from a couple people is like this totally took us by surprise why we're I don't know like we prep for this um kind of idea but the thing is with open meetings act we're not able to discuss those things except for here in meetings and the way we do that is to put something on the agenda. So, when I first started looking at um sales tax as an option is when um the city manager and Miss Davis provided us with the library funding scenarios comparison uh several months ago. And when I saw what those numbers were actually going to mean for property owners here in Palmer and looking at um then going through the budgeting process, looking at how much we bring in, what a one annually generally through sales tax um and what a 1% would be able to do for us an increase. When I compared the numbers, I just thought um from a financial perspective, it seemed to me like if you want to use the term, a no-brainer as far as um using the sales tax instead of the bond. Um so, and one of the concerns was like, well, so what if you know the sales tax there's sunsets and we still need more money? That could happen. We don't know. It's a moving target. We don't know exactly how much the building is ultimately going to cost the final price tag, but we also don't know exactly how much the sales tax is going to bring in. Each year we bring in a little more. Um so, you know, if there is a shortfall as far as after that sunset, we do have some other funds available as Mr. Alcantra pointed out um that could possibly be used if we decided to go that route. Um but the other reason I brought up now is my understanding is that uh entering into a contract with H5 and the funding needs to be secure now. So, um there have been comments about like, well, why don't we annex first and then we can tax a greater uh area uh

with the property tax or um waiting to see how much the building ultimately costs or you know, all these things we wait and see, but we don't have that luxury when um the contractor wants to know that the money exists and that uh we're able to pay the bill. And so, like I said, I could be corrected if that's wrong, but that was my understanding previously from our city manager was that they needed to know where the money was going to come from. Um, and I think it is important to point out that because I did follow I followed this even though I haven't been on city council um you know, only since last fall. I haven't been on that long, but I did follow this process through the city council since the collapse of the library. And the council at the time was not interested in discussing um a increase in the sales tax at all. So that was not something that was ever proposed or discussed. And so it was presented to the voters as if you want a new library, we're we need a bond. And um and there was overwhelming support for that. But I would um I guess submit that what the overwhelming support was was to get a library built. And that's what we heard consistently through city council meetings as well, you know, during public comments. Um is that they want the library built. Um and then I think it's our job to figure out how do we best do that? Um and so that's how we got here as far as discussing this now. So um yeah, I'll end there. Thank you. I'll I'll finish this off with um we get about 11.4 million from sales tax. $1.5 million coming from online sales tax. That's from people who are buying from Amazon, eBay, whoever it is. We get $1.5 million that way. Um and that's not even anybody coming into the city.

So, um I am, you know, and I another example is if you spend, and I'm not sure how many people do spend $10,000 a year on, I'll say groceries, your bill goes up from $300 a year tax bill to $400. You spend $100 more a year versus at a minimum $400 and some odd dollars a year for property tax of which goes on forever. Um, and so, you know, I am of of the belief that because of this $12 million that we get in sales tax, that's not provided by the 4,000 households that we have in the city of Palmer, the majority of that is coming from people who live in the but lazy mountain, Sutton, um, outside greater Palmer area. those people that are coming here and spending their money on our goods and services. Um, and like Miss Collins said, the majority of the businesses is in town pass on that sales tax. Um, and yes, I have to agree it is a very aggressive tax, but you know, those same people that are paying this sales tax are going to be paying more on property tax if we if we instill the 4.17 increase uh the 1.17 increase to the to the mill rate. Um, I just think it just makes sense that we and I'll call it distribute the pain uh to let people who live outside the town help pay for that library. Um, you know, and my guess is that uh the proposal is that, you know, we expect more than 12.5 million uh next year in sales tax. Um, and so I think that we're going to get

more than the $3 million, $300,000 that is projected. Um, and yeah, the library might cost us more and we do have other options. We do have money to take out of the bank. We do have the bond that we can that we can push forward, but that would be a very small uh time frame. So, um, I am in favor of the increase in sales tax because I, like I say, I like to spread the pain to everybody. Uh I do not want the city uh residents to pay for the whole library. I want to have everybody else who lives outside the city to come in and uh contribute if you will. Thank you. Um

I I have that all council members have spoken at least twice except for council member Allen. So that is entirely up to you. Sir, do you want to speak one more time? No, thank you. I'm sorry. Oh, did you want the report? Oh, I'm sorry. Please. You want to vote on this? Do you want to vote on You want to hear what she has to say? I think they shared the study about the chamber did. So, here's the survey results. This is a discussion by the chamber on their sales tax review.

Yes. Thank you. Um, so the chamber recently conducted a survey regarding the proposed 1% sales tax increase tied to the library project. Our goal was simple, to hear directly from the business community and share the feedback with you. We received 47 completed surveys. 83% of those respondents are current members. The strong industry repres representation came from professional services at 26% followed closely by the restaurant and food services at 24% along with retail and other sectors. One important takeaway is awareness. 26 respondents were familiar with the resolution but 21 were not. This tells us that there is still room for additional communication and education about the proposal. When it comes to support, 43% of respondents oppose the tax increase while 21 support it. The remaining respondents are neutral or undecided. We also asked about business impact. 30% said they were very concerned about the increase would affect their business while 32% said they are not concerned. However, 55% believe a sales tax increase would push customers to shop outside of Palmer. That concern was especially strong among retail and restaurant businesses. The highest reoccurring concerns were the potential impact on local retail and restaurant sales, the addic added cost, burden on residents and families, and apprehension that the temporary tax could eventually become permanent. the strongest. Um, we also asked whether spreading the tax across residents, visitors, and shoppers influenced their position. 66% said it did not change their view. 22% said that it did not make a difference. It did make a difference. I'm sorry. Excuse me. What was very clear though is that the

transparency matters. Respondents indicated that they would be more likely to support the resolution if they were provided with a detailed project budget and total cost, a transparent time timeline with defined milestones, assurance that funds would be used only for the library project, and a clearly defined enforcement sunset clause. Finally, I want to highlight that 43% of respondents believe that the public library is very important to the community. while only 13% feel it is not important. So while there are concerns about the funding mechanism, there is meaningful recognition of the library's value. The chamber's role is to share the voice of our business community. Our members are asking for clarity, accountability, and careful consideration of economic impact. Thank you. Any questions about the survey?

Yes, ma'am. So, I know I said that I'm not a financial person, but I am a statistics person. Um, because I do a lot of statistics. Um, I just want to make sure that I'm clear. The Palmer Chamber membersh, are those businesses entirely within the city limits? Are there any that are outside that would have responded to this? And was that question asked about their business? Yes. So we are the greater Palmer Chamber. So some of them are outside of the chamber of business and they chose to put their business in there or not.

Okay. And do you have a percentage of your uh responders? Did you ask that question whether or not their business was within the city limits or outside city limits? I did not. Okay. Thank you. That answers my question.

Any other questions? Yes, deputy mayor. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Kelly, for uh coming and sharing uh what the business community thinks. I think it's pretty uh enlightening and illuminating. I think one of the most uh um one of the most pleasant responses is that 73% think the library is either somewhat important or very important to the community. So, that's good. And I, you know, I can go through and go on the part say yes, they believe a higher sell stack is going to push people to other locations and other things that are certainly in the majority. And uh I uh you know, I I applaud you guys for doing this with your membership and I thank you for coming in giving us solid information.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. We'll now bring you to the council for a vote. Madame Clerk, this is

Council Member Carrington. Sorry, you can't you can't you cannot escape.

I think we can come back. Yes. Council member Collins. Yes. Council member Moer.

Yes. Council member Graham. Yes. Deputy Mayel Canra. No. Council member Allen. Yes. And Mayor Cooper. Yes. It is passed. Thank you. Moving on to records. Records placed on the table. I have the documents from the Friends of the Palmer Public Library and the documents from Jackie Allen. We're now up. Yes,

we're now at audience participation. Again, three minutes per person. Sign and state your name and I'll read this again. Council meetings 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 with 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 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.

I have Jared Palinski. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and city council. Uh, I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I'm a lifetime um resident in Palmer, Alaska. grew up on Springer Loop and I am now raising my own family. Can you state your name for the record?

Jaredinsky. Sorry, I thought I said that. Um, I'm here tonight to ask you to reconsider the proposal to close our city golf course in favor of airport expansion. This decision is not just about land use. It's about financial responsibility, community access, and protecting one of the few city assets that consistently generates revenue rather than draining it. I find it ironic that so much of your city council is talking about things and ways to make money and you have an asset that makes you money and you're thinking about trading for an asset that doesn't make money. I can name a lot of things. The rink, the the uh library, which is important, and the airport that don't make money, and you have an asset that brings in money. Mr. Mayor, you talked about mics possibly in the next budget, getting new mics. you probably have that money thanks to the golf course because you're actually making money for the city from the golf course. So, it's ironic that we're talking about all the the things that you guys need money for. The golf course is more than recreation. It's an investment that pays the city back at a time when many municip municipality facilities operate at a loss. Elim eliminating one that produces income should give us a serious pause. Replacing a self-sustaining asset with a project that may require ongoing subsidy is not a a step forward fiscal toward fiscal stability. We also have to look at the community impact. Golf experienced a major and sustained boom following the CO 19 pandemic pandemic. Funny enough, it turns out people do care about their health and turn to exercise in the outdoors. As a result, one of the How do we get exercise in Alaska during the winter? And we're going to eliminate something that allows us as Alaskans to get out and enjoy our summers and get some exercise. It's unbelievable to me. Do you realize that the pandemic that increased golf by like 15% amongst women since the pandemic, 46% of women have now gotten into golf that weren't before. That's huge. And

we're wanting to turn this down. I want I I want to respectfully emphasize the importance of public trust. When major development decisions are made, residents need confidence that the process is transparent and free from any perceived conflicts of interest. Whether those concerns are real or simply perceived, they deserve open discussion, clear disclosure, and careful independent reviews so the community can feel confident that the decisions are being made solely in the public's best interest. This proposal of expanding the airport reeks of big government, secret handshakes, and backdoor dealing. One member on this council stands to benefit the most from such a deal and the proposed expansion will pad their pockets. This person has no interest in what's best for our city and only has a vested interest because of the financial investment their family will gain the windfall that they will gain gain if the project is allowed to move forward. This kind of government is is shady and has no place here in Palmer, Alaska. It will leave a black eye on the city for years to come. You as the assembly stand in the way of allowing such a thing to happen. It's your obligation to listen to the majority of the residents you serve, not a very few that the proposed airport expansion would serve. And I just have one quick question. I would love for Colby to be honest with us and tell her tell all of us how much she and her husband stand to benefit by the expansion of the golf course because she's been shady and dishonest to all of you.

Your time's up. And is it worth more money than the golf course brings in for you guys? I hope it's worth it, Colobe. I really hope it's worth it. That's all I have on the list. So, somebody wants to see if they can come on up. Honesty here. Sir, if you continue, I'll have to ask you to leave. I'll leave. All right. Thank you. Can you make her be honest? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Colobe. Tell the truth.

Yes, sir. West the Arts Palmer Bar. Um, first thing I want to bring up, uh, when we have wind storms, I know on my dumpster, I have dumpster locks on it, keeps the lids closed. When we have these windstorms and they don't have the dumpster locks on them, the trash just blows out of the trash cans. So, as we have city public uh dump trash trucks and that dumps those, um maybe we should make a requirement that they put the dumpster locks on all of them and actually make a code that during the windstorms they have to keep those closed because it's just blowing trash around the community because they're blowing open. Um that's one thing. Another one, changing liqu license is not that easy from a year round to a seasonal. Who changed it? Why did they change it? Um, that's effort. Uh, just let you know to have it changed. That needs to be brought up. Who changed it and why they changed it. If it's someone in the city, um, I have a few other things like the golf course. I know at least uh well easily over 10 people that have told me and some of these people are business owners that if the golf course closes down they will be leaving. Okay, they live here because they can go golfing. Um and some of these guys own businesses. I think you guys are looking at this not realizing how much is going into it. You guys are also talking about the library trying to find funding. Aren't you guys getting ready to spend $6 million to repave the airport? Um, just a random question. There's $6 million. You guys are talking about sales tax and just pass that. Uh, you're talking about homeless golf courses and all that. Um, how about we bring the city services that we have? Certain city services like the police department and

city works and all those guys are struggling. It's on their budgets. They're making it happen because they're great employees. Yet we have the airport that is eating up all this money and all these services. How about the we make the airport pay for itself first instead of trying constantly bailing it out. Um just some of the stuff to think about um because we're short of money. You just raise the things annexation splits of this whole when we're talking about the bond issue. annexation needs to would split how much everyone's paying uh on that bond. We have to grow in 2030. If we're not careful, we're all of a sudden going to be the fourth largest community in the Mass Sue. Houston and Big Lake will bypass us. Okay? We lose power on the burough level as as we move down as a city size. We have to grow. Okay? Um, these are just some of the things that are going through my mind about this whole thing. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Kaden Jennings. Um, couple quick things. Uh, first thing I want to talk about was the library. Um, you guys just passed a 1% sales tax, right? Um, one thing that I thought was interesting is the proposed amount is $16 million to build this library. If we, if you look at like, you know, the average cost to build of, say, a house or a small commercial building, you're looking at like $300 to $450 a square foot, I'm confused. If you take 16 million, uh, John, you would know this. It's 14,000 square feet, right? That's what they're proposing. It might be.

Okay. Well, let's take let's take 16,000 square feet. about that and you divide it um by that uh or sorry $16 million divided by 14,000 square ft that gets you $1,100 a square foot. That's like double the building cost of what everything else seems to be. So I'm confused as to where that comes from and just maybe something you guys should look into. I might ask just for, you know, what you guys are planning to spend on just because, you know, from the public's perspective, I'm like, well, how are they spending this much money on a library that's only supposed to be, you know, 14,000 square ft? Um, you could build a really, really nice metal building with heated floors for like $3 million and it would be beautiful. I mean, they ran it out of a chicken coupe. So, just my thoughts. Um, additionally, uh, the Palmer Golf Course. Um, I don't know if I'm stupid or if we're stupid or if you're stupid. I don't know. But I'm just a little confused here. Correct me if I'm wrong. On the 16th or was it the 16th or the 12th of December, whenever that meeting was where 400 people showed up, um, you guys approved a a three-part um, amendment to the current contract to extend the contract one year and then over this following year to um, amend the entire contract for when you put it out for RFP. I'm confused as to why that contract has changed so much. And I get that it's for legality is the excuse, but um it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me if the contract has worked for the last 18 years um and you guys voted to extend it with three small amendments to it. It it just seems confusing as to why that's not done yet. I mean, I could I could do it tomorrow. I have an attorney. It's very quick and easy. Um so, yeah, I'm just confused as to that. I don't know if we're stupid, if you guys are, or you know, maybe there's just some miscommunication or you guys voted on something that we didn't hear you vote on, but that's something that we'd like to know just as the public to be informed as to what's going on because it's it's very confusing for us. You guys voted on a

three amendment change. It was extending uh something to do with um Georgia's, you know, price amount was $475,000. Uh there was one other thing. And so I'm confused as to why a h 100 other things changed when that was supposed to be done for a future RFP and contract. So um just as a public we're a little confused. I'll probably be calling a lot of you this week just to ask if you know anything. Um but yeah, we'd like to know and you guys have the power to make something happen today. You guys could be making revenue off the golf course today. Like thank you walking in from the hinterlands in the uh the entryway there. My name is Tim Leech. Uh I'm a big fan of dual sport days that I think was referenced earlier. Really, I'm here as a volunteer board member for the Hatch Pass Avalanche Center and uh coming again before you to speak uh in thanks for the support that you provided our organization which is a nonprofit avalanche center here in the valley. uh forecasting as the name would entail for the H hat Hatch Pass Avalanche area or Hatcher Pass area. Um as many of you probably recall uh the city of Palmer through a Unity grants provided some support for our organization for the 2425 fiscal or sorry the 2425 uh Fed forecasting year. Uh so that included some of last year. I reported on that in August of 2025 during some testimony. So I won't cover that again uh other than to say thank you for that. But I am here basically to give you a quick update because we squeezed your dollar a little bit harder and gave the fire and rescue team two different trainings, one in November and one in December of 2025. Um, as if you're looking at some of the national news around avalanches in the last couple weeks here. Uh, fire and rescue teams are really critical frontline responders, of course, to our community in general, but also when there's an avalanche uh rescue and and that's something that's very important,

I think, to our community. We really have an incredible gem here. um you know what I mentioned the dual sport thing kind of tongue and cheek a little bit but we really do have a incredible gym in the place that we live I think we're all aware of how lucky we are Hatcher Pass is part of that um our numbers show that a lot of the users of our information about 30% of them come from the the Palmer area um so that connects back to you know some of those requirements for that community community grant um but also again that fire and rescue team uh they're one of the two teams that really go up or would need to go up and and do some avalanche recovery uh and assist in a multi- agency response if there's some avalanches. So, that training, that life safety training, I think is critical. And I just wanted to say thanks again because your support there helped make that happen for the fire and rescue team. Thanks,

Merrell. when I'm not an advocate for the golf course. I am a volunteer for the Palmer Lions Club and the Palmer Alumni High School Lions Club. Uh some of you might have noticed that the mile post is missing from down at the museum. No, the wind did not take it away. It has been taken down and totally refurbished. It's absolutely beautiful and we look forward to a rededication and a replacement back on the fountain at the at the museum this spring. And we would uh when the time comes up we will be inviting everyone down for the rededication of the milepost.

Hi, my name is Dean Fips. I'm a Palmer resident and a business owner for the last 5 years. Um, I would like to advocate for the moving forward on the contract for the golf course and to share a personal experience. My daughter tried to buy a season pass for me for Christmas in December. Was going to surprise me. Um, and she was told that it was in flux and she couldn't they couldn't sell a season pass. And so then I guess maybe two or 3 weeks ago, sometime before the latest um decision not to sell season passes, I got one in the mail. So when I read that um it was kind of on delay and the contract was was up in the air, I didn't know whether I had one of those season passes that you know the city was going to say you need to go talk to George and George was going to say no, you need to talk to the city. But that's the kind of confusion that takes place when you don't go forward with the decision. I advocate uh for moving forward on it. I think that I'm reading a book called Golf is not a perfect game. And when you try to work on your golf game, sometimes there's a limit to what you can do. And I think the same thing goes for contracts. You have a tendency to just keep dissembling and dissembling and dissembling. And it's really a way of of basically controlling and trying to protect yourself from the adverse outcome. And I think that's appropriate in looking at future contracts. uh that might be put out for a proposal, but not something that your business is is trying to go ahead and move forward on this year. Thank you.

Okay. Mike Malefki, that's my name and I live here in beautiful downtown Palmer. I was just speaking to someone recently about the number of these meetings that I've attended. I have just passed the 1,000 mark. Okay. Now, I'm not sure I should be proud of that or not. I think there are many other things I might have done with that time, but uh I served on the council and of course we we do the streaming for Big Cabbage Radio. And the reason why I bring it up is because as I listen to people raise questions, I realize that uh all of you have better things to do. So you don't come to every meeting. And as a result um many of the questions that are asked here somewhat rhetorically, you don't answer directly have been asked and answered many times and there are references that appear one way or the other. So, for example, um you mentioned 6,000 square feet of a air. Well, it's actually bigger than that and it's actually a dollar amount of about well $20 million. The majority of which, by the way, is not paid for by the city of Palmer, but by the FAA. And in order to do that, the work that's going to be done that's not going to be done next month, but it's actually going to be funded in August with the hiring of a a firm, engineering firm, HDL, to do the strategic planning that we've been talking about, which is going to take a couple of years. And having interviewed enough people to

understand that the FAA requires that before you can do anything of get rid of the obligation of the land that is underneath the golf course or any of the rest of it. So that I've heard the council state I've heard individuals say we're not interested in getting rid of the of this golf course at all. But I don't and I'm in a business that deals with another form of government called the FCC. And I can tell you there once you start doing that you realize it's not a simple matter. you just don't call them up and say, "Okay, let's do this and make it happen." Now, I wanted to make that clear that this is something that's ongoing that's going to take more time and that there's not an immediate effect of the airport encroaching upon the golf course. However, the second part, I have a little bit of time left, is to say, yeah, everything that's been said about the contractual arrangements, I don't think anybody here wants to prolong this. So the encouragement if I can offer that is to by all means whatever it takes. I I used to we had four kids put them in a room if there was a disagreement figure it out then you can come out. I suggest the same thing. Two lawyers two representatives go in the room and then you can come out. Thank you. Okay, I'm Cindy Heelhart. I got a little flustered because well, I had a big plan, but it didn't work out. So, I missed I missed the last part. Probably the most important thing I wanted to just say to you guys as a body. Um, I guess my challenge, my question with regard to what I've been seeing at council meetings, cuz I've come to more

and I've watched and listen on Big Cabbage Radio off and on for the last few years. Um, I'm just wondering after all the discussions we've had, how this body plans to ensure timely execution of council approved decisions moving forward. Um, today I popped open for like the third time the description of the city manager's job that's written on the Palmer website. The city manager's role is to implement the policy decisions of the city council effectively and efficiently. 70 days is not efficient. It's not effective. Um, I just like to say that I think you guys should hold yourselves to a standard in the same way that I hold employees to a standard. Um, you have power. you were elected. Let's make use of that power. I think the sales tax discussion tonight was fantastic. I enjoyed seeing you guys engage. I haven't seen anything like that in eight meetings and I really appreciate it. So, so anyway, um like to see you work together and get stuff done like you did tonight.

So, thanks. Hi, my name is Joe Sher up here again. I am not going to talk about the golf course. What I am going to talk to you about is voter turnout. 367 people is what voted for the lawn. 367. I believe there was 463 people that voted. I don't know exactly how big the actual voting body is, but that's what the turnout was this year. Roughly 6% I believe is what it said of the turnout. 6%. I think we can do better. We need to advertise our elections. There not a lot of people around here you talk to like I just went and voted today and they're like there's an election. We got to do better than just a sign on the outside of this building and a couple yard signs. I mean there's very little very little involvement between the public and you know the people that vote unless you're special interest super duper out or something because those are the people that that turn out to vote. Um, I too also really enjoyed watching you guys talk about the uh the sales tax and hearing everybody's point of view and it would have been nice to have something like that for the golf course, which we've never had anything like that. Civil discussion sounds really nice.

Thank you. Have a good night. Anyone else wishing to speak for the council? Seeing no one, we'll close audience participation. Move it back. Uh no committee the whole and um I would like to move. Can we do this now or no? Do you do you need to move to amend the agenda? Right. Beforehand, right? No, you can do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I would like to move uh to amend the agenda to move council comments now before executive session.

I second that. Any discussion on that? Any objection? All right. Thank you. Um Councilwoman Graham, I'll let you go first for Councilwoman Council comments. Did I do that last time for you?

No, but I guess it's my turn. You say let like you mean it. Um, so a couple things I wanted to just address real quick. Um, the AMC licensing for the golf course. Um, I will absolutely 100% admit that I was mistaken and that I thought that it had been seasonal going back. The reason I was under that impression is because the cost to like get that license for the city has been about 600 bucks the entire time. However, um one of the other things that I had mentioned is that in 2024, Title 24 was entirely rewritten. It was a nightmare. Um in that rewrite, a new type of golf course license was introduced. You could do a seasonal for that continued 600 bucks or you could get the year round for 1,200. Um I was not on city council. I have no idea how or why anything happened past that point, but that's where I'm at with my understanding of how that situation could have come about. Um and like I said, I just wanted to directly address that I I was incorrect. It's like it's a thing. Um the other thing that I wanted to mention is that with that the new um 1% temporary sales tax, I know that there was a lot of us that were on the fence as far as one side or the other. So I just kind of want to real quick give people why I voted the way I did. um without as much huming and hawing at the mic. Um and that's

specifically because when I voted to have that 10 mil bond, the introduction of a temporary sales tax was not on the record. Like it was not talked about. It was not something that came up. Um I'm a huge fan of forward funding in the terms of sales tax. A lot of like what the other community members said, um you walk in the building, it's paid for. you're not paying extra money on that going forward. Um, with the cost of the library being what it is, due to the increased cost of everything across the board, um, just for some context, in 2018, um, the library would have cost significantly less than what it is costing us now simply because of how much it's raised. Um, like Kaden had said, the square footage seems really, really high for what it is. When you drop that money back and you look at, okay, what would this have cost back in 2018, which is, I think, where a lot of people, um, don't realize how much that cost has increased, it seems like sticker shock. Um, when you look at the square footage and what it costs now compared to what it would have cost in 2018, it's really not all that different. Um, if we're going by I think you said 14,000 ft, right? Something similar to that. Was it 18? I was doing my numbers on 14,000 ft, but um it it's similar enough that it doesn't give me sticker shock cuz that was a concern that I also had as far as like the library in Wasilla cost x amount. It's this many square feet. This library is going to be significantly smaller than what was got and it's costing how much? Um, it really makes your eyebrows go up. when you look at that the timeline, the math, the comparisons that have been done on the cost and what everything has increased, um it makes a little bit more sense. Uh other than that, uh I just want to say

thank you to everybody who's come out. Um I think that we are I'm I'm glad to hear that we're moving forward. um that there is communication between the two sets of sets of lawyers um for the golf course and the city. Um and I hope to hear that we come to a conclusion of that soon and we can move forward. So, thank you, Councilwoman Moer.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank everyone for coming out this evening. One of the things that's not really been discussed about the library and the cost and why the house costs significantly less is because the state requires sprinkler systems, fire suppression systems, and that really drives the cost up. Uh when you technically look at it, um I know across in my neighborhood, they have a an assisted living home. The house was built on the same foundation that my house was built on and it cost significantly more because they had to put in that fire suppression system. So, and and other uh alarms and things for that home. Um so, I I just kind of wanted to ask uh answer that question for you. And I also want to thank you too. I noticed early in the meeting that you got up and let a lady sit down. Thank you for that. It's very gentlemanly like. Um, I did go to AML uh in Juno. Uh, that was my first trip on a legislative trip. I learned a lot. Uh, and John uh that was actually a security system to track people crossing the highway or the streets down in Kodiak. That's what she said that was. But, uh, learning from other, um, city councils and what they're they're facing, you know, is a lot what we're facing here in Palmer. Um, they have a lot of the same housing issues, a lot of the same issues that we do. So, it was really great to sit down and just talk to them and listen to them, and it was also great meeting with our legislators. So, thank you. Um, y'all had a great weekend.

Councilwoman Carrington. Um, I'm gonna say it again. We do not want to close the golf course. The golf course is going to be open. And so that that being said, uh it was great to hear from the friends of the library. Uh they did a great job in doing a uh talking at the the Chamber of Commerce last uh couple of weeks ago. Um I'm excited to see that there's movement on the library. Uh the library is for I don't go a lot myself now, but uh when I was raising my three older kids, I was a single mom in Fairbanks and the library was a big part of our life and we went all the time. And it was really really great. I got to volunteer at the summer program here uh on the final party and that's been really fun. And so I'm excited to see us move forward on the library. Uh I was really turn torn about this vote. Uh this was uh was not an easy one. It makes sense. I think the the bottom line is is the tax of uh not not having to pay the bond to pay it back uh and and raising and reaching out to the the Palmer greater Palmer area to raise those funds. And so that's kind of where where I ended up kind of leaning into. And uh um and that that's it. Thanks for coming and sharing and and keep it up.

All

well, first I want to just say thank you so much um for the warm welcome today for my my my first day on the council. Um, I'm excited to work with this fine group of people who, you know, one thing we all have in common is we all love this place and we all want to see see it be the best it can be. Um, and and I so I'm I'm happy about the the work we were able to get done today. I think it was a um a robust debate, but a respectful one and a um a good one, a thoughtful one. Um, I will say that, you know, one of my priorities and and frankly, I mean, I've been I've been pretty clear about this in an interview I gave in my answers that I gave uh from the mayor's questions. Um, one of the reasons I threw my hat in the race here for for this position is because I care very much about this golf course and I want to make sure that u we as a council are doing everything we can to save this golf course. My family, like many families um in this community, we are multigenerational users of this golf course. My father is 83 years old. I've golfed out there with him countless hours. I've got two sons, um 16 and 22. They both love the golf course. That's it's I mean, I know it makes money and that's great, but even if it didn't make money, it would still be an important valuable asset to to this community. I call these things, you know, quality of life assets. Our community is better because we have this great golf course. Our community is better because we have a great hockey rink. We've got some great um parks. Um and then I know it's not in the city, but I'll throw out ski talk, too. Our community is better because we we can ski in natur, you know, we've got great momentum going with this city. It just keeps getting better. And I, you know, we don't want to take a step back with that golf course. that that is it's one of the

most spectacular golf courses you're going to see anywhere in terms of the views. Um it is so wellmaintained. I can say that in the 23 years I've been um playing golf there um you know when I first got when I first moved um to Palmer in 2003 um it wasn't as nice as it is now. I mean it's it it is a pleasure to play golf there. And so I just I know that there are some sticking points, but I don't want to, you know, I don't want to have a situation where um we're throwing the baby out with the bath water here. Um so even if it means that we um kind of cobble together an agreement that nobody's really happy about um just for a year to buy us some time to, you know, come up with a more perfect agreement, then then that's what I want to see, you know. um when you go into a courtroom and um and you know whether it's a civil case or a criminal case and everybody walks out of the room a little bit pissed off, justice probably just happens. Something good probably just happened. So, um I'm just hoping that we can come up uh with some solution at least in the short term so that we can get, you know, people can start buying their passes, they can start to prepare to play, they can schedule tournaments, all these things. It just I think you know that the community really cares about it clearly and I just hope that uh we can get it done for the community. Thanks

woman columns.

Thank you. Um also appreciate uh friends of the Palmer Public Library and others that spoke um on the library. I think um myself and the community is really excited about that getting underway here and um looking forward to that addition to our community. So, um, as far as the golf course, um, I know that I haven't said much publicly about that other than that, um, I think the golf course is an important part of our community. Um, the reason I've been cautious about that is a couple things and and I'll continue to be a little cautious. I guess this is why I'm explaining. Um, is that something there's been some things that we've had to uh discuss in executive sessions and those things are to be kept confidential. Um, and that's a duty or responsibility, obligation, whatever term you want to use there, that I um that uh is important and I'm committed to doing that. Um, the other is that I'm a type of person that likes to have all the information I need to make a good decision. And, um, some of this has been a bit of a developing situation, but the goal has not changed. um as was stated by council member Parington is um that we want to see the golf course remain open. We recognize that it's a valuable part of our community and um and uh we have even though it hasn't been public, we have had very robust um discussion and debate about things in um the executive sessions. And while I say that, council members, like I said, as everyone has voiced been in support of the um golf course, but as far as the fine details of how we get there, um I think we'll be discussing a little bit more tonight, it sounds like. So, um we um will, I'm sure, certainly keep people informed of that as decisions are

reached. But thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Hey, thanks everybody for uh coming out tonight, spending time with us here. You know, there's an old adage in politics that uh when you have the votes, vote, and when you don't talk. So, I had to use up my entire 10 minutes, which uh obviously my powers of persuasion are definitely not what they used to be. Um I'm saddened that we passed the sales tax without studying the impact and listening to the businesses seemed very, very rushed to me, something that was that important. But u obviously a six to1 vote proves that other uh folks that are otherwise um I want to congratulate Rick Allen. I think he's going to be a good voice on the council and already with his uh with his comments I think he already disproven that. Um I'm hopeful that we'll have some answers by next meeting or you know that we'll get to a place that uh Mr. Howen said where you know everybody's a little tweaked but uh but we get to an agreement. I thought we had that on December 16th. I thought December 16th was our agreement to get us through 2026 and then we were going to take this time now to move on to do RFPs to go out to other providers to go out and figure out what are we going to do for 27 28 29 and down the road. Uh I guess my bad for thinking that what we did on December 16th when everybody cheered and whistled was to get us through 2026. Uh that's what I thought was done. Uh, one of the reasons the golf course is phenomenal is the guy sitting in the back of the room. George Colum has been doing that golf course for 18 years and some years previous to that with Jeff Barnhart. And uh there's a reason that golf course is the jewel of uh the state when it comes to golf courses. The reason people drive out from Anchorage, the reason people come from Taletina, the reason people come from all around, not just get the views of Pioneer Peak, but to play that

particular golf course, cuz it is amazing. Didn't quite get uh out there as much this last year because we had a mayor's race and with five mayoral candidates, we still only got the turnout up to 12%. Uh turnout's always brutal. Uh it's even more brutal in Wasilla. Look it up. their turnouts between two and 5%. The gentleman who left earlier said that there was only a 6% rough turnout u in 2023. It's probably not wrong. It was probably 6 or 7%. It's about what it averages unfortunately. One of my big goals now I went to,200 of about 2,000 doors that are in Palmer. Don't listen to a 4,000 number. That's not correct. Um about 2,000 doors in Palmer. I went to 60% of them. My whole goal is to get at least a thousand people to show up to vote. We ended up around 620 620 folks that showed up, which was a bigger turnout than we've had in years, but still wasn't uh wasn't fantastic. Um the whole thing uh take some personal accountability. I haven't reviewed January of last year's uh re um council meetings, but I was here one of the few people that were here for that. And if I voted for a seasonal permit, that was a bad mistake. We weren't given the kind of information that we've seen since then, that there's always been sales of liquor, dimminima sales, but sales of liquor outside of an April 15th through October 15th window. I don't think that information was provided by a previous administrator, previous administration. Nothing to reflect on city manager circle, but I don't think we're provided that kind of data to make that kind of decision because had we been, we' have said, whoa, hold up. There's always some sales between October 15th and April 15th. Let's not change this. And I don't think we would have. Golf course has been around for 35 years. Let's make it

36 and let's make it 40 and let's make it 50. Uh last piece is on AML. Uh great time in Juno except it was windshields were between 10 and 20 below zero. So I tried to teach the council members the ways of the ninja to go through state office buildings and cut cut through corners and do different things. But even in 150 steps outside and 100 steps on the back end, it was still bitterly cold. And the one thing I feel sorry for our mayor is that he stayed at the Baronoff, which is only a few blocks from where we were at the uh Centennial Hall in Juno. If you get a chance to go to Juno, go to Juno, go to Centennial Hall, go these places. But luckily for at least me and I think the other two council members, we were at the uh Sheridan, which is literally right next door to the event. So So we didn't have the same walks the mayor did. But it was bitter. It was probably the kind of cold we're going to see here on Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully we don't get those kind of winds to go with our upcoming 15 and 20 below weather. Thank everybody for coming out. Know it's been a long night and a long long process and hopefully we're going to get to some resolution. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Rick. Congratulations. Glad to see we finally have a full table. My only concern is now we have three lawyers sitting here. That's that's potentially a little that's a little scary. Um

but but it's a it's a good thing. Um voter apathy. Um think about when you walk into your house, first thing you do other than unlock the doors, you turn your lights on. You might go to the bathroom, you might go get a drink. Uh all that works. Your garbage gets picked up, your street gets plowed, you're pretty happy. So that's I think that's my philosophy on why people don't come out and vote. Um like Mr. Alcantra mentioned last year was vote was 3%. Um which is pretty abysmal. 12 three or eight whatever we had. It's been the highest we've had in quite a long time. Um so get out the vote is always a tough tough thing. Um, you know, even when we had the $10 million bond and other things, you know, we just didn't get a lot of folks to come out. Like I say, you know, they're happy with, you know, the lights, the electricity, the garbage, and all that kind of stuff. As long as it doesn't really affect them personally, you know, they don't care. So, that's unfortunate. You know, people, you know, should have the, you know, obviously have the right to come and vote and they should want to come out and vote. And so, I hope, you know, next October that we'll get more than that. Um, but again, you know, thank you all folks that that came out. You know, you know, we do appreciate what you have to say. Um, and we do take it under advisement and like Councilwoman Collins said, uh, we do have some pretty spirited discussions in executive session and stuff that we cannot, you know, obviously bring forth, but and well, I'm sure we'll have another one of those tonight. So, anyway, again, uh, council comments were closed. make a motion that we move into executive session because the matters would bring immediate knowledge of which would clearly have an adverse effect upon the finances of the public entity.

Is there a second, please? I second. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council member Carrington. Yes. Council member Graham, yes. Council member Moer, yes. Council member Collins, yes. Council member Allen, yes. Deputy Mayor Alcantra, yes. Or Mayor Cooper, yes. It is approved and unanimous. I suggest we take a break to clear chambers.

Wonderful meeting.