City and Borough Assembly - Regular Meeting

Good evening, I'd like to call to order the regularly scheduled assembly meeting of August 25th, 2026. Please join me for a flag salute. The assembly of the city and borough of Sitka would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional first people of Sitka. With gratitude, we proceed on . Sarah, roll call, please.

Ms. Carlson? Here. Mr. Yesstad?

Here.

Ms. Riley? Here. Mr. Christensen?

Here.

Mr. Mosher?

Here.

Mr. Saleen? Here. And Mayor Eisenbaez is absent this evening.

Thank you. Along with the assembly tonight at the table, we have the administrator, the attorney and the clerks. Next item on the agenda is correspondence and agenda changes. Are there any correspondence or agenda changes from the assembly? Seeing none, we'll move on to special reports. We've got several scheduled, two from departments, the Sika School District, but first Sika Tribe of Alaska to welcome forward General Manager Bert Adams, if he's here tonight. We will let him come forward later if he shows next. The Sika School Board President, Mr. Burdick, please. Thank you. Welcome back to school time. Excited to hear we did it.

Another summer. It's nice to see everybody. I'd like to start off with a big thank you to the maintenance department. Huge kudos for helping us to get our school year off to a smooth start. Even though they're a short staff, they fixed, they cleaned, they checked up on all the buildings to help create that safe and welcoming environment that supports students and families. It's not a small thing, and we really appreciate it. Also in kudos and awards, Keith Gushihin, you may have heard, was named a Microsoft Elevate Pathfinder School mostly because of the work of Cindy Duncan. She's been a leader in integrating place-based, culturally connected technology in the district for years. This is an award that very few schools or districts receive, like maybe five in the whole country. We're really proud of that work. Also, Bridget Reynolds was recognized at the Sea Alaska Heritage Institute's 2026 Culturally Responsive Ed Conference, where she received SHI's Distinguished Educator Award. This recognizes teachers who integrate Indigenous knowledge into their lessons. Ms. Reynolds teaches science, technology, engineering, and math at Pacific High School. She's also an adjunct professor at UAS Southeast in Juneau, where she leads dual enrollment courses for rural students across the region. So I'm real pleased about that. A couple of things to keep our eyes on. I've been talking about this every chance I get, so here's another chance. The federal government is looking at restructuring or modifying the federal E-rate program. We don't get a lot of direct funding from that, only about $65,000, but we use the reimbursement program to leverage funding that paid for the tech refresh that we just got put, we just voted on it at our June meeting, and that was $250,000. So if you have a sophomore in your life, they're real pleased about that. So if this program is shuttered, rural school districts and libraries stand to lose more than funding. We'll lose equitable access to broadband internet and technology infrastructure, which is a huge deal in this state, as you all know. I did chat with library staff, and they told me that our library is not a member of the E-rate program, but She was very helpful and I also appreciate that. So we've been lobbying our DC delegation. I do have a handout, except I don't, about what's at stake and how you can help with legislature and stuff. Maybe I'll chat with Mayor Eisenbeiss or maybe Deputy Mayor Carlson about a joint resolution. I just, I'm not a resolutions guy. The other thing to keep an eye on is we've heard rumblings from the Department of Ed that the local contribution foo for all is coming back on the table. The Department of Ed and Governor Dunleavy are looking for clarity again on what is local contribution. We thought we had put this to rest last year when the state did not pass the federal disparity test. This year we did pass the federal disparity test, we being the state of Alaska. So the federal disparity test is this complex math that ensures that the highest funded and lowest funded districts in a state are within a certain percentage of funding. We passed the federal disparity test, so I'm not sure why we're looking at what local contributions are. I'm not sure what the point is with that. Again, I'll just remind everybody, this impacts our funding because we have so many partnerships in this district. We have so many people from Sitka Sound Science Center and the tribe and local government and local businesses. And if that counts as an in-kind donation, that person's salary or then that would come directly out of local funding. So again, we talked about this last fall with the State Board of Ed. They chose not to look at it. They decided that it was not worth it, but we're hearing that maybe they're gonna take a look at it again. And on that note, Commissioner Dena Bishop and the State Board of Ed will be in Sitka on October 13th. We're going to spend, we get a little bit of time with them, but mostly I think they're going to be looking at Mount Edgecombe High School and funding for that. So I'll just be keeping my ear to the ground and letting you know, you know, as I hear things. And yeah, so thanks again for everything. If there are any questions, I'd love to chat, but I'm sure you have things to do.

Any questions? Yes, Katie.

I just want to give a shout out to that fantastic work that our local teachers are doing. That's incredible to have two awards announced in just the past week, and just really kudos to our educational system and all the work that you put in. The rest of the school district, thank you for your efforts. All right.

Yes, thank you. We echo that. I wish you the best during count day and the rest of the year. Yes, it is those teachers and kids. Thank you. Next on special reports, Sika Tribe of Alaska, new general manager, Bert Adams. Please come forward. Welcome. I know your first day was last week. We appreciate you coming to speak with us at the very beginning of your time. This is a kind of special reports that allow for some back and forth at the end, so there will be opportunity for questions after. On the bottom of the microphone, there's a button. You press it. There's a red button.

Okay, got it. So the red light is yes. Can you hear me? Okay. Well, thanks for having me. And I showed up just in time. I actually got lost in Sitka. So once again, I'm Burt Adams. I'm the new general manager at Sika Tribes of Alaska. I'm glad to be here. My first day was last Tuesday, and so I've been really swamped and hitting the ground right now. Our tribal chair is out of town, and so she asked if I would sit in this evening and give a report. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read a report, read this report for the first time. So bear with me. So at the August 19th tribal council meeting, the tribal council approved the following agenda items. Appointed tribal election judges and supervisors. Appointed an STA nominee to the SBS Tourism Commission. Other things going on at STA is SNEP summer camps. Over 85 SNEP first through 12th grade students participated in a variety of summer camps this year, ranging from Kunah Sak'ai Fish Camp, and Sitka Splash Mountain Camp, as well as camps focused on teaching each grade well-rounded cultural knowledge, such as Tlingit song and dance, traditional foods, form line, design, beading, creating regalia, and more. Thank you to our STA staff and community partners. without whom these camps would not be possible. STA ordinance updates, Sitka Tribal Council is currently reviewing a draft legislation ordinance and a draft committee ordinance, which are available for review at the Sitka Tribe website, and you would go to our government slash law and policy section on the website. Tribal citizens are encouraged to review the proposed ordinance and share feedback. The proposed judicial ordinances was approved on the final reading and will become effective September 19th. Sitka Weaver's community gathering Raven's Tail and Chilkat Weaver. Lily Hope sat in with over 20 budding and experienced weavers to learn more about what resources and support they have or will need to develop a strong weaving community in Sitka. The participants shared numerous laughs and deeply touching stories on community in Sitka. to Lily Hope for her generosity and volunteering her time to connect with our citizens. Upcoming events, Gentle Flow Yoga, Monday, 6 to 7 p.m. at Yoga Union. STA offers yoga in partnership with Yoga Union Mondays from 6 to 7 p.m. Classes are open to all with no cost to tribal citizens and STA staff. Family Fun Game Night, September 4th at Harrigan Centennial Hall, 5 p.m. 30 to 630. Family fun game night is back. Bring the whole family for an evening of laughter, games, and good company. We'll have plenty of pizza and popcorn to keep the fun going. Come play, eat, and make memories together. So that's the report I was assigned to give. And I can try to answer as many questions as possible. It is good to be in Sitka. I was born and raised in Southeast Alaska. I was born in Yakutat and went to high school there, graduated. Spent about 20 years or more coaching. So I traveled through Southeast and every rural community in Southeast Alaska. every year, and the regional tournament was held in Sitka every three years, so I spent a lot of time in Sitka, and really enjoy it. So I'm happy to be here, and excited, really impressed, and I said this at the council meeting last week, with The school board president coming in and giving a report. You had National Park Service give a report. You just don't see that at tribes and in rural communities. I've never seen it, and I've been in tribal government for 30 years. You just don't get that kind of community coming in and sharing and reporting And that's a great thing to have, and it just makes it more exciting to be here in Sitka. So I'm looking forward for my time in Sitka, looking forward for collaboration and continued work and growth between the tribe and the city. So, kunisheesh.

Yes, we highly value our government-to-government relation as well, and that collaboration is very important to us. So it's great that you've already experienced that in your first week and see the value in it, because we too agree. Any questions or comments from the assembly? Yeah, yes.

Just a quick welcome to Sitka. Thank you.

We're always looking for coaches, too, so if you wish to get back involved with our youth, there's opportunities abound.

Yeah, thanks.

Yep. Thank you, Mr. Adams. Next special report is Department Quarterly Report from Planning and Community Development. Amy Ainslie, please. Welcome.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Mayor and assembly members. I'm Amy Ainslie, the director of the fully staffed planning and community development department. Since our last quarterly report, we've been able to welcome Sam Torres as our new head lifeguard. And we were also really thrilled to get a AmeriCorps volunteer this year, which we were not able to last year. But that was a kind of pleasant surprise coming into the summer this year. So Catherine Rosinski has joined us for the year. I'm very excited to have her. Kind of going across the four areas of my department starting with planning, a couple of project updates. The land study for housing development on municipal lands is going very well. We are planning for a September 2nd presentation to the Planning Commission on some density scenarios and preliminary lot layouts for some of the top rated parcels that came out of phase one. And ongoing work for phase two kicked off in May, which has had more extensive onsite work for particularly geohazard, floodplain mapping, stream mapping, as well as LIDAR and wetland mapping as well. And then we're seeing some really good results out of that, I think some really solid information expecting that to be able to be presented probably more into October for this year. But like I said, at least the couple of parcels that really rose to the top in phase one, we're working on getting some concepts out in front of the Planning Commission and public. For a couple of the other projects that we've got going on that I included in the submitted report, we have a couple of lags, particularly in the Safe Streets project still, but we've heard that that is moving forward. Public Works is actively in contract negotiations for that project, so we're expecting a kickoff for that in the very near future. And centralized permitting has continued to chug along, but has been a bit of a challenge for us to implement. And it's both city staff side and capacity as well as the vendor side as well. Implementing any kind of new system like this always comes with some snags and we've had our fair share of them, but we're continuing to make really good progress there. You don't see in the rest of the report the host of other projects and initiatives that I know have been in the planning department's wheelhouse for quite some time. And it is my intent to be able to provide a more clear sort of scope of work, timeline, and department capacity for new initiatives. And to that end, We've released a couple of PSAs starting this week that the planning department, just the planning, sorry, not the whole department, the office, will be closed to the public from September 8th through September 11th. Our number one priority during this time is to deliver a project delivery plan. for the outstanding projects and initiatives that have come our way to kind of go through previously discussed items, and that's items that are internal initiatives, assembly initiatives, planning commission initiatives, back planning each one of them, stacking them on a six to 12 month delivery schedule and kind of being able to get our arms around a little bit more of what right now feels like a line of things to do rather than a list. So that's really our focus during that time and then just having some quiet focus time to advance those projects. So that is the planning office. And for sustainability, we have two kind of major projects. The Sika Community Renewable Energy Strategy is continuing to move along well. thanks to Assembly Members Carlson and Moser for participating in that focus group review of the findings and feedback that we've received on the project to date. We are preparing a community engagement approach and our plans to publish the draft plan definitely within the next month and still targeting a fall joint work session between the Sustainability Commission and the Assembly and adoption of the plan before the year end. The energy to community project is also going very well. We're continuing to really benefit from the technical assistance on a lot of the generation modeling, as well as our transmission and distribution modeling, risk assessment tools. And this week, we have GIS specialists who are in town as well to help us be able to leverage more of the technology and data that we have more quickly. We also had another great summer of internship program with the electric department as well. For Parks and Recreation, they had a very busy summer. They've had very high enrollment and waitlisting for their programs, including there were 54 kiddos that were served by our summer camp this year. So really great work, Parks and Rec, keeping the community busy, engaged, and active. Some upcoming things kind of on our roster is that with our AmeriCorps volunteer being placed with us this year, we're anticipating being able to do more after-school programming. Just one example is that we're looking into a STEM program at Hoots as an afterschool program. Very excited about that. With some of the more recent renovations that have been done at Swan Lake Senior Center, moving forward with exercise classes, a walk-in club, senior coffee social hours, also making more meeting space available to rent out to the public as well for conferences and for small kind of meeting conference space that sort of thing the department is also still monitoring our commercial land use plan and our permitting process around that there's an upcoming operator meeting to hear directly from the operators how the season went what worked what didn't what we should keep in mind for the next year and a community-wide survey will also roll out this fall And the team at Parks and Rec is also still working very closely with our facilities team, particularly on the pool to stay on top of preventative maintenance. The building department quarter two stats are now available, and those were included in the packet. April and June, those tend to be one of our busiest quarters. as people kind of get geared up for the summer building season. Lagging a little bit on permits issued by, you know, number of permits issued per day, but we have had, again, pretty significant uptick in the number of permits that were applied for, and if you see the difference in inspections between January and March versus April through June, it's about a 50% increase in the number of inspections, so. The team gets really busy this time of year, staying on top of inspection work. I also just wanted to note as well that the building team is working very hard at some of the technological changes that are coming their way. They're in the midst of the centralized permitting implementation right now, which is quite a lot of work, as well as new technology that's going to help us be able to do digital plan review as well. We're going to hopefully get to the point where you don't have to print out and bring a giant plan set into the building department and can submit those things a little bit more easily. So those conveniences and advancements are great, but they do come with a learning curve, and I think our staff's tackling it really well. So early in the fiscal year, not a lot to report on budget. Everything's kind of looking to be on track, and there's not any particular areas that we're concerned about on expenses for right now. Happy to take any questions.

Thank you. Any questions, comments for the assembly? We appreciate your diligence, and it seems like it's been a successful transition of tourism out and building department in. So congratulations on that, and keep at it. We look forward to those projects coming to fruition, and that week of dedicated approach for that project delivery plan is a great idea. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next on department quarterly reports is assessing. Larry Reeder, please come forward. Yes, it's a big day next Tuesday, I believe, right? That's when your bills are due for the community? Yes. Yes. Yes.

The clock does tick, doesn't it? It does. It does. Calendar turns.

Mm-hmm. Welcome.

Good evening, Assembly, Mayor. I'm Larry Reeder. I'm the assessing director. The assessing department currently operates with three full-time employees. We currently have an opening for our appraisal technician position still. It's myself and our appraiser, Casey Kinslow, who's been with the city for close to eight years now. With the August 31st property tax payment deadline in just a few days, our 2026 tax year will be complete. We are busy preparing to start our inspections for the 2027 tax roll. So what does an assessing department do? We prepare an annual tax roll of both real and business personal property, meaning we maintain values, ownership, exemptions, et cetera, all information that goes with those accounts. Once the tax roll is certified, It is sent to the finance who builds and collects the tax revenue, then distributes it to fund services. As I'm sure you're aware, we have been reappraising all the residential properties in the borough. We started this project five years ago and currently we have approximately 90% of the properties reappraised. We will finish that project this year. The project has been extra challenging due to the fact that we are appraising properties that have not been kept current for an average of eight to 15 years. Naturally, this has caused our property owners a great deal of angst, and they have not been shy about letting us know. Real estate trends represent, the main reason for the lack of maintaining current values was the lack of a process known as annual trending. Real estate trends represent the shifting dynamics in the housing market. The core drivers of real estate markets include supply and demand, interest rates, housing inventory, demographics, and economy. Assessing departments around the world maintain current values by conducting an annual study that compares sell prices to current assessed values. The results indicate the trends in the real estate market. Did the market increase, decrease, or remain flat? This study relies on an abundance of verified sales and current assessed values. Alaska is a non-disclosure state, which means the buyers and sellers have no obligation to share their sale price with us. Due to that, an abundance of verified sales here in Sitka requires our office to constantly monitor real estate listings. We follow those listings up to a sales date. We mail out sales letters after the sale to both the buyer and the seller. asking them to share the sale price with us, and we get about half of those back. The volume of sales is also an issue. When I did this study previously in Oregon, I would start with approximately 1,400 sales, and most of the deeds had the sale price included. Here in Sitka, we get approximately 150 sales and no sale prices on the deeds. Despite the challenges, it is abundantly clear that the annual trending must be a process we apply. Last year we applied a plus 3% trend to all residential properties. We will continue to trend every year. Applying annual market trends and consistent, accurate reappraisal will not only fill our budgets correctly, but also relieve our property owners of some of their angst in this property tax system. Current goals heading into this year, our tax year, fiscal year. Number one, we wanna complete that residential reappraisal. It's been five years to be our sixth year and we will be able to complete it. And continue application and modifying of a trend model. It's always a work in progress to tighten it up and make it a little more accurate. Also, starting to think about succession in the years down the road. Casey is a level two certified appraiser with the state. She needs to get to level three and we will get her there this year. She just needs one more class and as soon as they offer it, she can take it and then she'll be at the level three, which is required now in the state to hire as an assessor. We're also gonna get some Excel training for Casey. and introduce her to the appraisal review processes and completion of the annual state report. Budget-wise, so far, we're so new into it, we've only spent 5% of our budget. We don't foresee any problems with that going forward. Any questions?

Questions or comments for Larry, our assessor?

yes katie um yeah thanks so much larry uh you reminded me to pay my property tax so everyone out there listening go pay it um first i wanted to ask the the continue application modifying of a trend model will that at one point supplement the three percent trend with a more accurate trend or is the intention to just continue that three percent trend Is there any refinement that will happen over the years?

No, I will do this study every year with the data that's available. That's kind of a mantra of the work that we do is you've got to use the best information available, even if it is a little bit. That's been the tough part probably over the years for everybody is figuring out how can I determine market trends when I only get this many sales and I don't get very many sale prices. But we think we're getting the best we can out of what we got, using the best information available. I'm also applying a very conservative approach to the market trends that we're going to apply. When I did my study last year, it actually told me I should probably trend up 10%. but I realize, I understand that we're not completely done with the reappraisal, and it's been a few years since we started the reappraisal, so maybe we're not comparing them to current assessed values as good as we can, maybe give it a little more time. We'll see what that does. So I chose to just be ultra-conservative and go 3% for this year. In the end, an appraisal's an opinion of value, and it's the same thing with these trends. You study all the data you can, you follow it throughout the year, You dig into each one that you possibly can. You make phone calls, send the letters, knock on doors. Try and get as much information as you can and then make a decision that you think is best for serving the public going forward. So even though at the end of that study I looked at my indicated trend and it said 10%, I thought no, I'm just gonna conservatively go 3%. But the key to it is to apply it every year so that we come around and reappraise after eight years or so or 10 years. It's not such a big pill to swallow for the property owners.

Thank you so much for that clarification. I appreciate that.

Sure.

Anything further? Thank you, Larry. Your work is very appreciated and understood a little bit more now from that special report. With no additional scheduled special reports, we'll still see if there is any government to government, municipal boards, commission committees, school board, students or guests. for a special report? Not, okay, thank you. All right, now we're at persons to be heard. For public participation on any item off of the agenda, not to exceed three minutes per individual. The agenda is available at the back of the room, also on the city's website and printed in the newspaper. If there is any public comment for items off of the agenda, please come forward and state your name for the record.

Thank you.

There's a button at the bottom of the mic. Press it. It'll turn red, and you can begin for your three minutes.

Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor and members of the Assembly. It's great to be here. I'm Debbie Miller. And I have this lucky wearing of a hat tonight where I'm the coordinator for the second annual American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Sitka. And I just thought I'd make a brief announcement. It's happening thanks to a community last year that really supported the festival. Businesses, Katie, you were involved. We had filmmakers coming from as far away as Brazil last year. This year, we've invited 33 filmmakers We have 33 films. We're going to have three nights at the Pack, October 9th, 10th, and 11th. And then matinee shows at the Coliseum, where we've got some great pizza going on. And very excited to partner with both Sick at Fine Arts Camp at the PACS, they do a tremendous job. Shout out to Sick at Fine Arts Camp for really running a wonderful venue with the projection system and all that you would want to host a film festival. Hoping that this will become not only a regional event, but a statewide event where we'd get people coming from as far away as Fairbanks, Anchorage, because right now we are the only documentary film festival in Alaska that we're now an annual event. This is the second one, and always looking for volunteers, sponsors, people that might want to help bring a filmmaker to Sitka. This year, right now, we have about seven filmmakers that are coming, and they will be offering a director's forum at the Sitka Public Library on the Saturday of that weekend where anybody can come, particularly high school students that are interested in filmmaking, where they can meet a filmmaker, ask questions. So thanks to the library for that, that forum, which will be free. And then we're making this open to all high school students. so that any high school student that's interested in the content of our documentaries, and we've got science, art, music, sports, social justice, you name it, we've got films that cover many, many topics that would be of interest to teachers and students. Thanks to Rotary, we're going to be busing students from Mount Edgecombe so that they have the opportunity to come to opening night at the PAC and see some of these films. On our closing night, Sunday the 11th of October, we'll have an indigenous-related night with the Nakahiti dancers, and it's the day before Indigenous Peoples Day. So we have a film where we have Dune Lankard coming down from Cordova, who is a kelp farmer, commercial fisherman, EAC tribal member. He'll be here present that night. And so we've got a lot going on with the festival with different themes, programs, and community involvement. And I just wanted to let the listeners know and the assembly know, tell your friends and reach out to people in Juneau because they might want to come to this. And there's some great films coming to Sitka. Any questions?

Thank you, persons to be heard. It's not a time for a back and forth with the assembly. Thank you. Anyone else here for persons to be heard? Please come forward. State your name for the record, and your three minutes will begin.

Good evening, my name is Jeffrey Reinhart. I'm a local physician in Sitka. I'm here to speak on behalf of Captain McLaughlin,

That is an item on the agenda this evening.

So am I out of place here right now?

Yep, you can speak when that comes up on item, let's see, F. Okay. So there'll be a time soon. Thank you. Anyone else for persons to be heard for items off of the agenda? All right, thank you. Moving along to the consent agenda.

I move to approve the consent agenda consisting of items A, B, and C. Second.

Yes, please.

but I can state the titles when I go into public comments here. All right, any public comment for items A, B, and C, which are the approval of the minutes for the August 11th assembly meeting, approval of renewal application for Northern Lights Indoor Gardens, LLC, located at 1321 Sawmill Creek Road, Suites M-N-O-N-P, on the standard marijuana cultivation facility license and retail marijuana store license, And authorized the sale of the municipal equipment, a Sierra Shear baler valued at more than $20,000 in accordance with the SICA General Code Section 18-10-020. Any public comment on that? Seeing no comments from the public, coming back to the Assembly for deliberation. No deliberation. Sarah, please call the roll.

All right. On the consent agenda, the motion to approve that agenda consisting of items A, B, and C. Mr. Christensen? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Mr. Moser? Yes. Mr. Saleen? Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. And Mr. Yestad? Yes. The motion passes 6-0.

We're moving along to item D. This is board commission committee's appointments. We have two people seeking reappointment for their respective commission committees. May I have a motion?

I move to reappoint Rachel Worthy to a three-year term on the library commission and Marianne Hall to a three-year term on the local emergency planning committee under category eight, members of the public.

Second.

Is there any public comment on this motion to reappoint these two individuals to their seats on their committee and commissions? Okay. All right. Back to the Assembly for deliberation. All right. Mr. Mosher.

I just wanted to say thank you for serving. Anyone else?

Yes, we really value everyone who likes to volunteer for our board commission's committees. It's a very important role, and we thank you for your service. All right, Sarah, the roll call, please.

All right, on the motion to reappoint Rachel Worthy, And Marianne Hall, Rachel, to a three-year term on the Library Commission, and Marianne to a three-year term on the Local Emergency Planning Committee. Ms. Riley? Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Moser? Yes. Mr. Yesdad? Yes. Mr. Christensen? Yes. And Mr. Saleen? Yes. The motion passes 6-0 on item D.

Thank you. With no unfinished business this evening, we're moving right along to new business. There are three items under new business. The first one, item E, is looking at a lease at the airport between City and Borough of Sitka and Alaska Airlines. May I have a motion?

I move to approve a terminal sublease between the City and Borough of Sitka and Alaska Airlines Incorporated.

Second.

Right, looking towards John here for an introduction to this item, please.

Sure, thank you. As you know, the airport project is getting closer to completion, and one of the important steps with that is getting our subleases back in place now that we know what the spaces are actually going to look like. It's been quite the process to get here with Alaska Airlines, not on any fault of Alaska Airlines or the city. It's just the structure of the project. We've had leases in holdover for quite some time until this got done. Alaska Airlines is one of them, and they are our prime tenant there. So as part of this process, the subleases have to be put together, basically reviewed for compliance with FAA aeronautical leases, and then approved by the state since they are the, they're basically the prime lessor. We are a lessee, or do I have that backwards? I don't remember which one. and then we're going to sublease it to Alaska Airlines. I can go through the terms that are here in the memo if anybody would like to hear questions about them, and if we get into some of the specifics, Mark Seavey is here, they can probably help me out, but I think the important thing to note is There's a big square footage increase with this new airport, more common areas, and the lease is built where common areas would be shared amongst airline operators, but we only have one now. So in this, Alaska Airlines leases the common spaces that are used for aeronautical purposes, and if another airline happens to come in, it would be restructured to split that amongst them. But the exclusive area, they pay a lease rate The important things in the fiscal note is that presently we get about $277,000 a year from Alaska Airlines. That was based on the old lease. Trying to get them up to the new aeronautical sublease rate was a pretty big shock to the system, which can translate into higher ticket costs. So what we worked out was a a scaled increase, so a 50% increase this year, and then going to a full rate next year. From $277,000 annually this next year, they will pay about $505,000 annually, and then in FY28, it'll go up to the full rate of $735,400 annually. And then after this lease, we'll be working on the subleases for the non-aeronautical purposes. Hopefully I summed enough of it up there.

Yes, thank you for that introduction. Now to public comment for any comments on this lease. Seeing no public comment, back to the Assembly for comment. Deliberation.

Right, Tor? I just wanted to thank John and his crew for slogging through this, and I know it's a lot of... a lot of work back and forth to get this in, but it looks like we're going to start getting market rate again, so that would be good and help keep that thing afloat.

Katie? Yeah, thank you for that introduction. Can you share a little bit more about the facility charges that customers might be facing reflected on their ticket? Did they give any indication of what that would look like, or did they just say that they would be increased?

They're I'm not getting any indication of what customers would see, and there aren't any special facility charges that should be passed through. I mean, passenger facility charge is a, if you see that on a ticket, that's a very different thing. A PFC is kind of like a CPV head tax where you have to have a reason that you are doing it, and it has to be for airport improvement projects. So we did have a PFC to get this project done, but there shouldn't be anything on, on the tickets related to this lease cost.

Thank you.

Kevin.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I just want to ditto what Tor said. Thank you very much. This couldn't have been easy trying to increase that. And that I just I'm sure it wasn't something that they were quite expecting. But I think the thing to remember is that it was below market rate. So we're just adjusting the market. Thank you.

Yes, Chris.

Yeah, again, thanks for all your work on this. Yeah, happy that both parties are accepting of it. One thing I'm kind of curious about is where does that put us now with the airport fund? Is it in the black, in the red? Where do we stand with everything that's been changing there?

Are you giving teasers for my report later tonight? No. I will be talking about some other airport issues later tonight, but this definitely gets us in a better position. I don't want to say we're going to be in the black. Obviously, there's a discounted rate this year. We still have to get the other non-aeronautical leases in place, and like we talked about at least over a year ago, We can't favor non-aeronautical over aeronautical, so those lease rates for the non-aeronautical purposes will reflect that. And that will also help with the coverage of the expenses at the airport. And we'll be talking about parking soon, too.

Thank you, John. So this is based off of the square footage rate, $27 per square foot to start and then jumping up to almost 40. And that is that aeronautical rate. So if we are to get a second airlines in here, would they also be paying those or would that be a separate negotiation process?

The way this lease is built is if another airline comes in, they will pay the same rate as Alaska Airlines.

thank you and that being the prime purpose of the airlines and you just mentioned anything else is at an increased rate beyond that we've got a restaurant a gift shop other services there at the airport are you said those leases are to come those are to come and uh just so i can talk about it here now um this airport was built with faa aip money um and

Their view is, and I would agree, FAA money, you're building airports to be an airport. We're not building airports to be restaurants. We're not building airports to be gift shops. Now, granted, there are those opportunities that present themselves in the space, but primarily it is for aeronautical purposes, and we cannot favor non-aeronautical over aeronautical.

So do those, some longstanding rental companies as well as restaurants there at the airport, are they aware of these increases?

Yes.

Yes, they are. And they're most likely. So I don't want to say, you know, we're talking about others, but I talked about this, but there, there is a, you know, more to these, these leases because they are coming to us and one at a time, but kind of as an add a bundle, um, is to make sure everyone, uh, understands this increases is happening and that we're not going to be shocking any local small businesses by passing this lease tonight with a large carrier. It's a five year term with more to come in the future. Is that going to be an assembly review in five years or this to be internal?

It's intended to be internal, and we also have to keep in mind that any renewals will first have to go through the state since they are the prime leaseholder.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, this is a very extensive packet. I appreciate you and your staff and the attorneys and all public works that have reviewed this. It definitely shows the need for a port director. for for doing things like this. So I hope that position comes back around in our next funding cycle. Because this is definitely necessary and, and important to have the people in place to do this big work.

So not everything falls on the top two people in this organization.

So thank you for that. Any additional comments deliberation on this motion? Katie.

My question is just for Sarah. Do we need to amend the motion to authorize the municipal administrator to execute the document, or is it okay as it stands that part was left out?

I didn't catch that. Thank you. Yes, that part should be read. On the record, please.

Can I make a friendly amendment? Yes.

Even though there is no such thing as a friendly amendment, I will let you.

Go ahead. I move to amend them. Yeah, to add. I move to add and authorize the municipal administrator to execute the document. Yes, thank you.

Second.

Is there any public comment on the amendment motion? The motion that now reads move to approve a terminal sublease between the city and borough of Sitka and Alaska Airlines and authorize the municipal administrator to execute the document. Seeing no public comment on the amendment, back to the assembly for deliberation on the amendment. All right, Sarah, roll call on the amendment, please.

I should have just.

Is that not how we do it?

No, you're fine. Okay. We don't, that was more of a clerical thing. Yes. So we don't have to do an actual formal motion.

All right, well, let's just go back.

For the amendment, so we're just back at the main motion.

Excellent, even better, thank you. Any further discussion on the main motion?

never really changed because it was a friendly okay there please let us vote on the motion sorry about that um all right so the motion uh before you is to approve eternal terminal sublease between the city and borough of sicca and alaska airlines um and to authorize the municipal administrator to execute the document mr christensen Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Salin? Yes. Mr. Yesdad? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. And Mr. Moser? Yes. The motion passes 6-0 on item E. Thank you.

Item F. I move to approve the hire of Brian McLaughlin as fire chief as recommended by the municipal administrator. Second.

John, do you have an introduction to this item, please?

Sure, thank you. So this is kind of similar to what we did with hiring the police chief not too long ago. Since we've restructured some of the supervisory Roles have transferred to the assistant municipal administrator and the fire chief is one of those positions. However our code Having not been updated since 1972 on this still talks about Department heads and it's kind of a loose definition on what a department head is, but it does say in charter that the municipal administrator does the hiring and termination actions subject to approval of the assembly? So that's why that item is before you tonight. And what you will see in the packet is my endorsement letter on the recommendation from the assistant municipal administrator on recommending the hire of Brian McLaughlin for this role. So I don't want to take all his thunder, but Josh is available if questions come up, but I'll leave it at that for the introduction.

Thank you for that introduction. Moving on to public comment. Sir?

Thank you, Madam Assistant Mayor and Council. As I stated previously, my name is Jeffrey Reinhardt. I'm a physician in Sitka. I believe I have some unique skills and some experiences, and I would like to speak on behalf of Captain McLaughlin. I've known Captain McLaughlin since he and his family moved to town. I know them socially as well as professionally. In another life, my last military occupational specialty was as a utility helicopter repairman. I've had some flight time. It's my opinion that Captain McLaughlin is somebody you could classify as a born leader. who had the opportunity to serve for a number of years in the Coast Guard, which provided him the training to become an excellent leader. I've not witnessed his work, but I have worked with more than one of his airmen and rescue swimmers. And to a person, they all spoke so highly of their desire to continue to work under Captain McLaughlin. I had previously worked for the fire department as a lieutenant with the dive team. And under different circumstances, if I could continue that, I would be absolutely honored to continue to serve in that capacity under Captain McLaughlin if he's hired as the chief. I can't think of a better individual, somebody more suited to lead people. He understands how to teach and coach. He knows when it's time to get the book out and put your thumb down and get things done. So my experience is, and based on my opinion, I think he would be an excellent hire and an excellent addition to leadership in the fire department. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Any additional public comment on the hiring of Brian McLaughlin for the role as fire chief? Seeing none, back to the assembly for deliberation.

I'd like to have the chief come up as the interim one last time. Tell us about what's been going on, although I was expecting you in uniform, honestly. Could you borrow one from Craig, maybe, if you don't have one?

The pants would have been a little short if I wore Craig's.

I guess just saying mainly I was gonna say welcome, but also just what your thoughts on how you've been with the department, in this chair for a few months and how it's going.

All right, thank you Deputy Mayor, Assembly, thank you for having me. It's been right around four months and a couple days since I began the interim job and I'm a little exhausted from running the whole time. It's been a whirlwind of learning and growing with the fire department as we move to grow as a team, build new systems of training and safety and policy. to make sure that we're serving the community as best possible. I think it's going really well so far. I've been working. My primary job in there is to earn the trust of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day. and to do that i need to be there as much as possible working alongside them and getting them the resources they need and that's been my primary focus so that they can then go out and serve the community as as best as we can so in that my my continued mission will be that Should I be voted in, my first act as full chief will be to hire a deputy chief though. I'll tell you what, I need some help with the paperwork. But it's been an excellent opportunity to serve within this community and with the men and women of the fire department. my background is managing men and women in high risk operational environments. And this is very similar. with a slightly different bent. I'm not in a helicopter this time, which I miss, but driving fire trucks is pretty darn cool as well. So we've had a couple fires recently. We've had a lot of EMS calls throughout, and we've got to work through those together as the pager goes off now. We'll catch that later. And I've got to work with these men and women to save property and hundreds of thousands of dollars of property because of their quick actions and their expertise on the job. And managing operations is what I love and working with people who do the operations is what I love. And I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be in that position and look forward to any opportunity to continue to do so.

Any other questions for the next chief as he's sitting here? All right. Thank you. Deliberation from the assembly. Kevin.

Yeah, I just want to say I'm grateful. Thank you for serving. I think we're going to be very fortunate to have you on board full time. Thank you for doing that. I just think that I've only heard good things about you and my interactions with you and working on other things and then seeing you at the fire hall have been nothing but top notch. Thank you.

Yeah, so I don't think it's a conflict because there's no pay, but I am also a member of the department. And I've also had a number of people, I won't say who embarrass them, independently come up and endorse Brian. So I'm enthusiastically planning on putting yes, and I think the department's in good hands. I understand that we may not have him forever, but... I think he'll leave the department in better shape when he leaves than when he started. So, look forward to working with him.

Chris.

Yeah, I definitely plan on approving Brian as our chief. He obviously has a great background to give him the tools to be a leader, to fill this role. You know, just in his few short months as interim, he had some pretty big cases come up. And from everything I've heard, handled extremely well and haven't heard one bad thing. So, you know, he got challenged right off the bat, though he had never been in this role completely before and did well. So, yeah. Yeah, I think we're extremely lucky to have him apply for this position, and I know he's really pouring his heart into this community, so I think he's gonna do just great, and he cleans up very nicely, so yeah.

Scott.

I had quite a few calls, decades of experience at the fire hall. And the last couple that I had, really that I got total faith in Brian taking this job. And that's all I got to say.

yeah as well just uh echo and reiterate what everyone said um really appreciate uh the work you're doing i don't know who convinced you after an interim position that you were like you had to stay but uh if you took that of your own accord that's fantastic for our whole community so thank you for stepping up to the plate there and um yeah i'm just i'm really happy to hear that your priority is to build trust with your staff i think you have a great staff over there and they have also you know been been communicative and supportive of your leadership And so glad to hear that that's a priority and look forward to where you take the department.

Any additional deliberation? All right, Sarah.

All right, on the motion to approve the hire of Brian McLaughlin as fire chief, Ms. Carlson. Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Mr. Selene? Yes. Mr. Mosher? Yes. Mr. Yesdad? Yes. And Mr. Christensen? Yes.

The motion passes 6-0 on item F. It being the top of the hour, let's take a break. Assembly members, return to your seats. Let's do about five minutes. The assembly is seated. We are reconvened. looking at our agenda we're moving on to item g now item g has a little bit different kind of procedural kind of things we need to go over first it's not our typical kind of policy work this evening for this item we're looking at an appeal so there is more steps that has to happen before we make that motion. The motion will be at the end. In advance of that, we're looking at, let's see, the appeal to the assembly of the municipal clerk's determination, the public records requested, filed by Austin J. Cranford, dated June 23rd, 2026. So in this administrative appeal hearing we're going to be stepping into, we're not reconvening as the Board of Adjustments or Board of Equalization, but it's a similar kind of quasi-judicial kind of proceedings. So it is different than our typical kind of discussion. We're going to be very narrow in our scope, what we can deliberate on when we get to that based on the evidence we hear tonight and what was included in the packet. So what we're going to see here when we start this appeal will be 10 minutes from the appellant to present evidence and argument, then 10 minutes from the municipality. I believe the attorney will be speaking on behalf of the clerks. Then it goes back to the appellant for five minutes. and then the municipal attorney again for response and clarifying statement. So 30 minutes total, then that gives the assembly a time to deliberate and then we'll make a motion and move on from there. So we do have Rachel here now in advance of her becoming that role of municipal representative. So some procedural advice first, Rachel. Help us kind of reframe, remind us of what this quasi-judicialness looks like and what we should be hearing and seeing and doing.

Sure so just to clarify so typically your role is legislative and policy based you're making decisions that affect everyone in quasi judicial proceedings you're taking the code and the policies and procedures that have been applied and reviewing if they were applied correctly to an individual circumstances. In this case, the levels of appeal were the clerks and then the administrator. So you'll be reviewing the application of ordinances and procedures to the appellant's particular circumstances, not making public policy.

Yes, and that's why we have different rules. Like, you know, we can't talk to others in advance of appeals because then it would be ex parte communication and that would become a conflict of interest. So to start, is anyone here needing to ask for recusal? Anyone had a conflict? Any conversations about this appeal in advance tonight? Thank you. All right. Let's kind of go over, Rachel, while we have you, what in that deliberation piece for the assembly later on after that evidentiary discovery time, help guide us on what our scope would be for what we can talk about in deliberation.

So the subject matter of an appeal is set by the appellant what issues from the decision that was made that they're appealing. And so you're deciding whether to grant or deny the relief requested by Mr. Cranford.

Okay. Thank you. And as the deputy mayor, I'll be keeping everything germane to that topic. So if we Stray or move beyond they're talking about other things I'll be here to guide us back to to that kind of limited scope Any anything else in advance Rachel that we Any other questions on procedure from the assembly I Any specifics here? I understand this is different. Yes, Kevin.

Thank you. Will we be able to, during deliberation, ask you or the appellant follow-up questions?

You're able to ask me or the appellant questions and any witnesses that voluntarily appear on behalf of either of those parties, but there is no subpoena power in these proceedings.

Thank you.

Any additional questions about procedure for this appeal we're about to hear? Okay. Yes, and since Rachel will be becoming representative, she'll be kind of moving to the audience and then stepping forward to the table. Even if we have questions later on about proper procedure, we wouldn't be able to ask them because she switched over into that role. So now is our time. Okay. All right, so let's move on to that first 10 minutes. Rachel, please join the audience. Appellant Austin W. Cranford, please come and give 10 minutes to present your evidence and argument.

Mayor, members of the assembly, my name is Austin Cranford. I want to clear two things up before I continue. First, in an email I wrote that the portal language changed within about 24 hours of Mr. Leach's July 6th message. My exhibits prove it changed sometime between June 15th and July 7th. I'm correcting it to what the evidence shows rather than my... speculations that were stated in my July 6th message. Second, on July 10th, I identified items four, five, and six as the refused portion. My brief identifies item six, and item six is what I am asking you to decide tonight. What I want is narrow and easy to give. The city's digital portal requires every online requester to sign a certificate of non-litigation affiliation and runs the request through a set of automated narrowing prompts. The paper form does neither. So I ask the city to identify the ordinance, statute, opinion, directive, or memo behind those extra requirements on the digital side. I did not ask anyone to write me an essay, only what rule or rules this is based on and who decided it. This is the whole appeal. Let's start with what happened between July 6th and July 10th. On July 6th at 11.37 in the morning, Mr. Leach asked me to identify what public record was denied. I responded later that day. That same afternoon at 4.45, he wrote, and I am quoting, I don't think I understand what you are appealing. Are you appealing the denial of any records that you requested? The next morning at 8.01, he asked a third time, what public record did you request that was denied and what specific relief are you seeking? Two days after that, Ms. Peterson asked me to come to City Hall so she could better understand the appeal. Four times the city told me my request was not specific enough to appeal and asked me to name a document. On July 9th, I did exactly that, stating any communication ticket or instruction directing or authorizing the certification language and the narrowing tips on the portal, including the July edit. Now look at page five of the municipal attorney's memo. It says that email quote does actually ask for documents, which is what Mr. Cranford's item six failed to do. And then it says that because I asked for documents, I filed a new request, which has to start over at the clerk's desk and which this assembly has no jurisdiction to hear. So the city's position comes to this. Item six was too vague to be a records request and that the email Ah, sorry, and the email that made it specific, which I wrote because the city asked me to make it specific, is a separate request that starts the clock over. So a requester who answers the city's own demand for clarification has just filed a new request and lost the appeal he was trying to perfect. Under that reading, nobody in Sitka can ever bring one of these appeals because answering the city is the thing that ends it. Now, I will admit in my own packet, I used the incorrect word and called the email a supplemental request. It was not a supplemental request because it did not add a new subject. It answered the question the city asked me four separate times about the subject already in front of you. Specifically, what put the certification on that portal It is a clarification of item six, the city requested, and it relates back to June 23rd. You do not have to take my word for the subject matter being the same. Read the June 23rd request and the July 9th email side by side, both for about certification and the narrowing tips on the next request portal. There is one subject in this file and there has always been one subject. The second thing I want to point out is on pages four and five of that same city memo, where the city takes two positions that cannot, both be true page four says that if the reasoning behind the portal's configuration had ever been written down it would exist as a legal opinion an administrative directive or a policy memorandum those are items three four and five and the clerk searched all three and confirmed they do not exist the memo says item six gave the clerk no additional search terms no additional custodian and no additional category of records page five says my july 9th email seeks quote, a different category of records. Both cannot be right. If a vendor ticket or a staff email saying add this paragraph is a different category of record, then it was never inside the three the clerk searched, which means those three nonexistent answers do not tell you that nothing documents the portal's configuration. They tell you that three particular document types do not exist. And while I think that not having those documents is an error on the part of the city, that is not the purpose of this appeal. Lastly, also on page five, the city describes the documents I am after more precisely than I did in my own request, proving that there is no genuine confusion about what is being sought. What the city has not done on its own account is look, its position is that it does not have to be because the request was quote, not properly filed. This argument about procedure directly violates the Alaska Public Records Acts. mandate of broad construction in favor of access furthermore the city has an explicit mandatory duty to make reasonable efforts to assist requesters and clarify files rather than weaponize formatting to deny them this procedural obstruction is the one thing standing between this assembly and the answer and closing it takes a single afternoon of someone's time as legally required by the act On whether item six was a refusal, read the ordinance this body wrote, SECA General Code 1.21.040, Section E says, quote, in the event an individual's request information and is refused, The word there is information, not records. I requested information and the answer I got was that my request was not the kind of thing the Act covers. That is a refusal to act on a request and the drafters chose that word because it's broad enough to cover things like what is happening now. On the certification itself, the municipal attorney's memo runs six pages and never says the certification is authorized. It says the question is not before you. Notice what that means. The city's lawyer has briefed this and has not told you where the authority is for this particular item. The one section the administrator pointed to is Secular General Code 1.20.060, Litigation Disclosure. It is short and it is in your packet and I would encourage you to read it yourselves. It does one thing, it says a record remains a public record subject to disclosure even when it is relevant to litigation. Its only effect on a litigant is to route those particular records through court procedure. In Basie 2017, the Alaska Supreme Court read the state twin in that provisionarily. It applies only where the litigation involves a public agency as defined by the act. Now read what the portal actually says. It has every requester certified that they are not in litigation with the city of SICA or with any other public agency in which the requested record is potentially relevant. Take the plain case. A person in a dispute with the state DMV or with the school district somewhere else in Alaska cannot truthfully sign this form if a SICA record might turn out to be relevant to it. That blocks their entire request on any subject, even though Sitka is not party to anything. And Sitka General Code 1.20.060 reaches only litigation involving this municipality. When that section does not apply, its effect is to send the requester to discovery in the case they are already in, not deny records. In the example I just gave, there is no case against Sitka to send anyone to. The form closes the door and the ordinance does not open another one. I would also point out that the oath asks a requester to certify that a record is not potentially relevant to their case before they have seen the record. Nobody can honestly make that judgment about a document they have not read, unless the city is keeping a crystal ball hidden somewhere that I am unaware of. The certification is broader than the provisions it cites, and it also does not explain why the paper form has none of it. section e of the city's memo says any record of the edit came after the response so it cannot make the response incomplete my exhibits show the language changed sometime between june 15th and july 7th and that window covers the entire life of my requests to the point the certification and the narrowing tips were already on the portal on june 15th before i filed any record of who put them there was created before my requests not after section e does not apply here Three forms of relief are in my brief. The third, suspending the portal features, is admittedly the weakest, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. The municipal attorney is right in her brief that an appeal from a records determination is not the tool for redesigning an intake form. However, I am not withdrawing it, but I would rather you rule on the other two on their merits than deny all three. If any member wants the portal question, the administrator and the attorney have both told me the route is a motion of this body and I would welcome one. The second is what I came for. Direct the clerk to run one search and document it. Emails, support tickets, vendor correspondence, and change logs concerning the certification and narrowing tip language on the next request portal. From the portal's procurement, through July 7th, 2026 in the clerk's office, legal and IT departments. If nothing exists, put that in writing and I will accept it and this is over. The city has twice told me to file a new request for exactly this. It is the same search either way. The only question is whether I get it this week or in October after another one of these meetings. There are only two possibilities here. Either there is a documented basis for these requirements, in which case a search finds it and the city is better off for having produced it, or there is not, in which case you have learned something worth knowing about a portal this body paid $21,000 for. It cannot be both and the only way to find out is to look. The paper form and digital form should ask the same thing of the same public. Right now they do not. Nobody has been able to say why. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Cranford for your presentation of evidence and argument. Now the municipal attorney will present the evidence and argument for the city. Thank you.

Thank you. Ten minutes. Madam Deputy Mayor and members of the Assembly, I'd like to say at the outset that I appreciate Mr. Cranford conceding that his third request is not appropriate relief in this proceeding. I stand by that position and the alternative methods for obtaining the relief he requested in item three. I'm just going to go through the items of relief kind of one at a time here. Starting with item 2, where Mr. Cranford requested those additional documents, which are in fact documents. The problem with that is not that they can't be searched for, they can be. As Mr. Cranford said, the city's position is that needs to be a new records request because those categories of document were submitted by him after the public records request that underlies this appeal closed. That discussion and that email happened after he got his response from the clerks. And it's a jurisdictional issue about what can be appealed to the Superior Court. So Mr. Cranford, can't get those communications tickets or instructions about why the website changed in this appeal because they were not part of the underlying request. That underlying request was analyzed by the administrator and now is before you. And if it continues to move forward should Mr. Cranford appeal, it would be before the Superior Court and That review can't include things that were not asked for prior to the clerk's determination. That has to be a new request. It's a jurisdictional issue. As to item six, the legal framework, the question before you is whether that's a document or not. The city's briefing did not get into the question of whether the language on the public portal was correct, was the best language available, should be revised, why it was revised, because those are investigative questions. Who made this decision? Why did it change? That's not a request for a document. That's a request for content. Kind of going back to what happened in the last public records request that Mr. Cranford had, we were discussing what is research and analysis that the clerk's office cannot be asked to do and what is grabbing a document which is proper within the forum. A legal framework is an idea. It's actually the result of attorney work, right? So a lawyer sits down, looks at the facts that are happening, looks at the webpage, looks at the options available on the webpage, looks at the governing law, applies their experience, makes an opinion, conducts analysis, and then advises the clerks Sometimes that's in paper, sometimes that's a policy opinion, sometimes that's an attorney memo, the documents that Mr. Cranford did properly ask for. A lot of the time that's conversation. A lot of attorney advice is given orally. And it can be given orally because the framework itself is an idea. It's an idea that the attorney explains to the individual they're advising, it is not itself a document. And so item six asks for that idea, that justification, that explanation, which is asking the clerks, I probably overstate this to say it's asking the clerks to engage in the unauthorized practice of law, but asking someone to explain a legal justification is asking them to do work that is properly done by an attorney. It's not just asking them to grab a document. In the last hearing where we talked about kind of what is that difference between analysis and research, we took the example of a librarian being asked to grab The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings. That's an appropriate document to press. Librarian, please go grab me these books. You could also ask a librarian for the complete works of JRR Tolkien. Please go grab everything he wrote. Those are documents. And then we talked about how being asked to find everything in the library that discusses hobbits becomes a research project. You have to actually look at the content assess whether it's talking about hobbits. We all know Lord of the Rings sure does, but what about a Scientific American article calling Neanderthals hobbits? Now you have to exercise judgment. Is that talking about hobbits or not? This goes one step further in that it's asking the clerks to perform analysis on whatever documents they may exist to see if there is a legal framework in it and if that legal framework justifies a city action. Going back to the librarian, It would be like asking a librarian to review Lord of the Rings and assess if it was a good authorship decision to have Sam and Frodo have a bromance instead of having a romance or an enemy relationship. You'd have to go through every page where the character development happened. You'd have to apply the narrative structure of heroic epics. You'd have to look at brotherly love and why that's a good narrative choice or not. And then pull every page that shows why that was a justified or unjustified decision. That's literary analysis. That would be asking a librarian to conduct literary analysis. And it's the same thing here. Mr. Cranford is asking the clerks to conduct legal analysis. of whatever documents he presumes exist to find a legal framework. That is research and analysis that is well outside the scope of their duties and starts pushing on unauthorized practice of law. In terms of moving forward on this appeal, I'm asking the assembly to deny it in its entirely because the avenue that is correct, the avenue that properly preserves your jurisdiction for superior court appeal is for Mr. Cranford to request those communications tickets or instructions that may or may not exist. They would need to be searched for in a new matter because they came in after this matter closed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Jones, for that presentation of evidence and argument. Now back to the appellant for a response or clarifying statement for five minutes.

Austin Cranford speaking again. The attorney has used the library scenario twice now. I would like to remind the assembly that the previous time that scenario was used was as mentioned by the attorney at the last records request I made, which is currently before the Superior Court here in Sitka. So that same argument is also before the Superior Court. Allow me to push back on that scenario. The law of the state of Alaska and public records law in general allows us to collect records. It allows us to view records, city, state department, governor's office, doesn't matter where the records are hailed, how they're hailed, how long they were hailed. If they are in possession of any of those entities, we have a right to see those records basically until they're destroyed. obviously there's laws about how they can be destroyed. If I make a request saying I want every document that has the word salary on it as presented in the scenario, the city by law is required to give me every document that has the word salary on it. It is my job as the person requesting the records to conduct the analysis myself. So in this example where I asked for the legal framework, the attorney says that it can be in conversations and she does also mention that it can be in paperwork. So essentially, we're getting to the point where it's like okay what paperwork am i looking for are we falling back to uh there is no paperwork which again i believe that is shoddy city administration or if there is paperwork again by the act the city is required to assist citizens in finding those documents but to go further She mentions that this clerks would have to engage in a practice of law. Again, that's not what I'm asking. I am asking for any document that allows the city to put the certification on the portal. It's not on the paper form. It's only on the digital form. That means that somebody, somewhere, be it an email, be it a memo, be it a conversation, somewhere, somehow, somebody made a statement saying, we're gonna put this on that digital form. And we're gonna cite laws that don't actually apply on that digital form. Sure, maybe the conversation happened orally. There was still a request, be it a ticket, be it something else, that told them what to put on there and why to put it on there. That's what that legal framework is. The legal framework is any document that possibly points to the justification of why it was put on the portal. That's what I'm looking for. Because if there's a ticket over here saying that, hypothetically, the city administrator has ordered the IT director to put this on here under the advisement of the city attorney. That still tells me that there's either a document that I need to go find or that there was a conversation that is not documented, in which case, why was that conversation not documented? The analysis that the clerk is talking about, or not the clerk, the city attorney, and the searching and all that, that is my responsibility. But I can't conduct those analysis and I can't conduct that research without the documents. And that's ultimately what it's coming down to with six. I'm more than happy to put in another 50 requests. This body is well aware of how many records requests I put in. I'm trying to be generous to the clerk's office and make my requests broad enough to hopefully grab everything that I'm looking for. it is their responsibility to help me narrow it by the law and then interpret my request broadly. That's ultimately what this comes down to. Legal framework is not just a legal document or just a conversation. It's anything that can point to what is the legal justification for this being on the website. And as stated previously, there is no legal justification in the memo on the website, in any of the documents that have been given to me of why this is there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Cranford, for your response and clarifying statement. Mrs. Jones, now five minutes for a similar.

So Mr. Cranford just told you exactly what the problem is here. He wants a justification. He wants an explanation. That is an investigation. He wants an investigation into why this website's language has the language it does. That is not a request for a document. And this is the same issue we saw with Mr. Cranford last time where he is imprecise in what documents he requests and then tries to change that later through the appeals process. In the last appeal that he submitted, he asked for police officer contracts and then was frustrated that he did not get dispatcher contracts. Here he asked for attorney memos, policy opinions. He was told those don't exist. And then through the appeal, expanded the scope of his search into communications, tickets, or instructions. That's just not appropriate procedure. It does not preserve your jurisdiction correctly. And if Mr. Cranford wants those things, he needs to ask for them. in his request. It's not the clerk's job to read his mind about what documents might be out there that prove the thing he wants to prove. They can tell him what types of documents exist, but they can't tell him if there is content that proves or answers the question he has. That request to prove, to justify, to explain is an inappropriate request for an investigation. He needs to precisely state what documents he wants.

Thank you. That concludes the evidentiary portion of this hearing. Back to the assembly for deliberation. Now, we can possibly do this in executive session. That is not standard, but that is an option if anyone wishes to. All right. Tor wishes to begin.

Yeah, just I don't, first of all, I don't think we need to go into executive session, but yeah, it makes sense to me that asking for legal analysis is dangerously close to asking our attorney to work for somebody else. And although it wasn't, well, it makes, what our attorney said makes sense to me Uh, this is, I would think it'd be very frustrating when you're asked to provide things that aren't documents that it would just be so hard that you, you know, what were you thinking? In other words, I'm like, it's not, it's not something that can be done with a documents request. So I will be voting to deny the appeal.

Kevin.

Thanks, TJ. Yeah, after listening, after reading this information in the packet and then listening to both the appellant and our legal counsel, I am choosing not to approve the appeal, to deny it. I think that Ms. Jones has made a very clear explanation, and I agree with it. Thank you.

Scott.

I just gotta get this straight. This isn't about the word corruption searching everywhere. This is about how the words were written on the city's portal.

Are you asking a clarifying question of the appellant?

I'm sorry?

Are you asking a clarifying question of the appellant? Do you wish Mr. Cranford to step forward and answer a question? Or are you asking a question of the assembly for discussion?

I'm just trying to catch up with what the whole thing is. And so, yes, I guess I just, because my next question is, there was conversation about if you're gonna litigate from Sitka General Code, one 20.0 six zero on item six or something that you couldn't use that if you're going to litigate, I didn't understand what litigate meant as far as you not getting item six.

So I think there's a little bit of confusion there. So there is section E within the city attorney's memo, which was referenced in my document. And then there is paragraph E of the city's code, which is the litigation disclosure. I am requesting to answer your first question, why it was put there and what, documents, emails, et cetera, any paperwork of why that was put there because stuff doesn't just magically appear on a website. That's to answer your first question. Your second question is the litigation disclosure law as it is written and as its twin in state law is written, what is on the website isn't even legal under... the three lawyers that I've talked to because the way it's written, if I sue the city of Sitka, okay, yes, it applies. You check the box and if those documents are relevant to the lawsuit, you go through discovery at the court. That's what that law is designed to do. What the city is trying to do here is they are trying to expand the law outside of its box so there is no, legal justification where if I sue the DMV or the governor's office or anything like that, I can't request records from the city because I'm now suing another agency. That's how it's written currently. And it's also asking if these documents are relevant to the case. I can't read documents that aren't presented to me, so nobody could check that box.

but if there's no document and it's like what Rachel's saying, it's content of the wording that you're looking for, how those words were constructed. That's what item six is. That's what you know.

I item six is why that box was put there and under what justification it was put there. What law is the city using to put that box there? Because according, like I said, according to the three lawyers I have spoken to, there is no legal justification for that box to be there. So if, I checked it. Let's say I check the box. I go and make a request to the clerk's office tomorrow. I check the box. I'm currently suing the city in federal law and have an appeal here at the Superior Court. So I go tomorrow, I check the box, and then the city comes back and says, you did something bad. You checked the box and didn't. didn't follow the proper procedure. I could turn around and sue the city a third time because the box is not legal. And I'm trying to find out why the city put the box there because every lawyer I've talked to says it's not legal. So either the three lawyers I'm talking to

don't know what they're talking about which i find hard to believe or the city has uh made an error those are really the only two options beyond the question we're doing testifying there's a limited scope for this appeal and we've passed that scope we are no longer in germain to the topic germain's the topic is the who what where when of the records request not a why and a how involved in your wish to explore.

Madam Mayor, may I kind of clarify for Scotty what I think he's trying to understand here, or what's being explained?

I'm doing that, thank you. There's a records request that was asked for on June 23rd. A response was given on July 6th. That is the scope of what we are here tonight. What records were asked for? Were they refused or denied? Or did the municipal clerks not suitably, reasonably,

respond to the request.

If a box is on a page on a website is not germane to the topic this evening. So was a record asked for was that record received or was an explanation a reasonable explanation given? That's what we're doing.

I think the conversation that you guys are having over the legality of whether or not that non-disclosure box can be on the website is outside of the purview of this investigation. We're just saying, is the legal framework that is behind that decision to include that an available document or not? So not whether or not that disclosure is legal or what lawyers think of it, it's like, did someone write a document that said, this is why we're including that box? And the city's answer is no, that decision was reached through a variety of means that is not a written document, and therefore, they did not provide that document.

Yeah, I'm on board now. I got it.

Any further deliberation from the assembly?

I'm kidding. Yeah, thank you. I just, you know, I think it is, yeah, it is pretty complicated to understand this request. just given how narrow it is, but I'm understanding it like that. Item six, I believe it, what I understand is that this document was not provided because it does not exist. It's asking for a series of things that you would have in a conversation or in a variety of documents that might lay out the things that comprise the legal framework, but it's not A memo that John writes when he says, here is the policy for how we do this, like that document does not exist. And so I think that in the response that the clerks wrote, it does not clearly say does not exist. It explains why it does not exist, which is more clear. I believe that asking for these additional records the clarifying things that Mr. Cranford pointed out, you know, tickets, emails, whatnot, those are an additional request. He is welcome to submit those to the clerk's office. They have provided narrowing advice both in person as well as like, you know, from what I understand, the narrowing tips that are provided online are the advice that someone would normally receive in person. And so I think it's appropriate to include those prompts given that if you're submitting online, you're not directly talking to someone who's helping you frame that search request for the clerk's office. So I think that it is very important to be precise with the requests, the public records requests, given how many documents exist. And if that is something that someone is finding difficult with when they are doing their public records requests, it sounds like our clerks make themselves very available to help with that preciseness and i would invite anyone who is submitting a public records request to go in and talk directly with the clerks about how they can make their request as precise as possible to avoid um this kind of back and forth that might otherwise occur over email and you know get past the period of requests so i will be voting to deny this chris

I move to deny the appellant of the relief requested as to his request for relief on items one or two and or three. Second.

I'm not quite sure what that motion means. There, okay. Would not be. um can can we offer another potential motion this will

Okay, attempt number two, move to uphold the municipal clerk's July 6th response and deny the appeal in its entirety. Second.

So we don't go to public comment or have deliberation after the motion since we're in that quasi-judicial role. So we'll go straight to a vote unless... Sarah needs the motion to be read again.

No, just for the record, I have a motion is to uphold the municipal clerk's July 6th response to deny the appeal in its entirety.

Roll call, please, Sarah.

Okay, on that motion, Mr. Yesdad. Yes.

Yes.

Mr. Mosier? Yes. Mr. Saline? Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Christensen? Yes. And Ms. Riley? Yes. Motion passes 6-0.

Thank you. That moves us into persons to be heard. This is for participation on any item on or off the agenda, not to exceed three minutes per individual. Is there any public comment? Please step forward and state your name for the record, and your three minutes will begin.

My name is Austin Cranford. I'll be brief. I just want to state, obviously the request has been denied. I'm not disputing that. What I am disputing is what this essentially puts in place. Essentially, there was a comment that was made that the records request does not constitute a box on a webpage. The whole reason for the records request is because there's a box on the webpage. The box on the webpage was the whole subject matter that was being discussed. So I disagree that it didn't apply. And then secondly, essentially the argument that the city is making is we paid $21,000 for a new records request portal that we can go back and look at the assembly's own vote because this body was the body that approved that purchase and see that There was no documentation at all of how it was going to be implemented. Are we following state law? Are we following city law? Are we following federal law? We're just flying by the seat of our pants is essentially what this body has admitted to by denying the request. So I'll be happy to submit more requests and look forward to possibly another appeal. Thank you.

Any additional persons to be heard this evening? This is for items on or off the agenda. Seeing none, that comes back to the assembly for reports. Mayor's report, your mayor is traveling right now. He is at AML, that's the Alaska Municipal League, doing work for our town. He is not here to give a report. Administrator.

Thank you. Yeah, two things. I will be on the 6 a.m. flight going to AML tomorrow morning, so that's the first one. I'll be out for the rest of the week. And then the second thing I want to talk about is the airport. We've run into some issues at the airport, and I want to let everybody know where we stand because there's possibly some decisions coming forward that are going to need everybody's attention. You may or may not be aware, the state of Alaska owns and operates the Sitka Airport. The city and borough owns just the building that sits on that land that we lease from the state that we've just renewed two years ago, and that is a 50-year lease. The assembly approved that lease a few years ago. We talked about the project going on and we did a financial analysis and it showed that we were going to lose a significant amount of money over the lifetime unless we found new sources of revenue or adjusted some of the revenue sources like we did tonight with the Alaska Airlines lease. And we accepted that with eyes open as a service to the community. So what nobody signed up for is what's happened since. So year after year, the state has been asking Sitka to take on more of the jobs that an airport operator does. Most recently, some security functions inside the terminal, but the state keeps the authority through their operations at the airport and the airport security plan. Um, here's some things that people don't know is that the only money our building earns is the rent that tenants pay inside that building and our share of concessions. Remember the concessions discussion? That's it. We don't get landing fees. We don't get fueling fees. We don't get tie down fees. Um, so it's very revenue limited parking. We've talked about a few months ago that could earn us something. But that means paid parking in Sitka. That requires more capital investment from us. It requires ongoing maintenance with striping and snow removal and yet another lease payment to the state to take over that lot and manage that as well. Something that's very disappointing is meanwhile, since May of this year, the state has withheld more than $10 million in reimbursements back to us on this project. And it's all over a dispute on the ICAP rate. Basically, it's an administrative rate that they charge to manage the federal grant getting passed through to us. So our reimbursement requests have been held up since February. They let us know that in May. We've disputed. because for two years we've paid it one way and then essentially the opinion on what that charge is changing and until we agree to that our payments are being withheld. So we've worked with the department in good faith since 2020. We keep paying our rent. We're going to keep paying our rent. We keep the terminal open. We meet every obligation, and we're going to continue to do so. So this month, as we got into this position, I asked Senator Steadman and Representative Hemshoot for some legislative oversight. Both of them are engaged. I've talked to Representative Hemshoot, and I met with Senator Steadman in my office yesterday. I've also briefed leadership at Alaska Airlines on this, because if travel ever gets disrupted here, Things tend to get blamed on the city and borough of Sitka, and I want to make it clear right now that I don't want this one laid at our feet as we try to figure this out. So I kind of see three options moving forward. First is to restructure this deal at the airport where Sitka can become a true co-operator, which is a model that they use in Ketchikan. When you are an operator of an airport, you have certain authority and you can do things like charge landing fees and fueling fees, and then that's revenue that comes into the airfield. Like I said, it's not novel, Ketchikan does it, and even the state's website praises that model as a success. The second choice is the state just performs all the duties it requires per our existing agreements. The third, and this is the one that's a little more touchy and I don't say it lightly, we use the provisions in our agreements to hand the keys to the terminal back to the state in an orderly way and let them operate it themselves. So what I'd hoped in my last few months would be kind of quiet and transitional as I move out of this role. It hasn't been that. And I think since May, my work has been nearly nothing but trying to get these airport challenges figured out. So I'd rather spend time fixing it than managing it. So I just want the community to pay attention to what's going on and ask questions because it is their terminal building. Thank you.

Thank you, John. Attorney, your report, please.

Thank you. We're moving forward on the leasing and contract centralized software and the hiring process for getting that temp to do the data entry and flagging of that many legal issues we're expecting to find in some of the holdover leases that need to be brought into compliance. And in the meantime, we've started doing training modules. Mindy's been doing them, and then I'll be doing some also on that software to help us set up the architecture within it, like how things are linked to each other and set up in a way that will work for our particular operation. And then the other big thing in the legal department is that the appellate briefing is complete. in Wampler v. McGrath and CBS. The oral argument is scheduled on November 20th in Juneau, so the legal department will be out that day attending as the client. John Tiemessen is our appellate attorney for that case.

Thank you, Rachel. Liaison representatives. Kevin.

So the Parks and Rec Committee had a meeting on Tuesday, August 11th. At the last minute, something came up from work, so I wasn't able to attend, but I did call the clerk's office and got an update. And during that meeting, the staff gave an update on the upper molar, the fixing or repair of the security cameras and upper molar. That's almost complete. and then also next month next month's meeting they're going to be reviewing the commercial use plan you know we approved that commercial use plan well every year they review it and see how it went and and make any changes or recommend any changes at that point so they'll be going over that thank you katie

In addition to all of the great work reported on by Planning Director Amy Ainslie, the Planning Commission has been hard at work on some ADU code changes, and so I'm super happy to report that they finished those at a special meeting last night, and they unanimously recommended forwarding the ADU code changes to the Assembly, so that will be coming before us at our second meeting in September, September 22nd. And just they have put an immense amount of work and thought into that hours and hours of deliberation. And so really excited for what that represents for our community and just how much red tape and bureaucratic process is gonna be slashed by creating this accessible housing option. So excited to chat more about that.

Tor.

I was gonna say this is under the other, are we there yet? Okay, we're not there yet.

We are not there yet, so please hold those comments. Any other liaison? As liaison to Ports and Harbor, they paused for the summer. Their next one will be next Wednesday, and I'll welcome them back at 6 p.m. here in this room. That's September, excuse me, in two Wednesdays, September 9th. And Health Needs and Human Services has not been able to meet and for several months due to quorum concerns. so I have nothing to report from health needs. Any other liaisons? All right, clerk, your report, please.

Thank you. So I invite folks to take a peek at our website under Boards and Commissions. We have revised that page so now it shows upcoming vacancies, current vacancies, and it has a complete list of seats that are upcoming, expiring terms. We have the applications on the website. I invite folks to take a peek at that. If there's any that you're interested in, you can apply by filling out the form online and submitting it in an email to us, or you can stop by our office. We are also in full swing with the municipal election. I received the sample ballot today, so we have that posted online. Now there's copies in the back of the room. Early voting starts on Monday, September 21st, and runs weekdays 8.30 to 4.30, Saturdays 9 to noon, and then, of course, the election is on Tuesday, October 6th.

Any update on candidate interviews for administrator?

Yes. That interview is scheduled for Thursday, September 10th at 5 p.m.

Thank you, thank you. Any other reports this evening?

Yeah, so this is not really a, kind of similar liaison. So we talked at the last meeting, we agreed to have a public meeting about the taxi code. and I believe we set it for October 21st, right? Yeah, so it'll be here October 21st with Scotty and I there and of course anybody else who wants to. I guess if we're gonna have any more than one more person, better let Sarah know. But yeah, we'll be meeting with the stakeholders and of course anybody who wants to come and going over that tax code and trying to find something that make at least less people unhappy. So hopefully we'll have a good turnout.

Any other reports? There's no executive session planned this evening, so we are at adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? Aye. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say nay. We are adjourned.