City and Borough Assembly - Regular Meeting

With gratitude, we proceed on Tlingit Aani. Sarah, roll call, please.

Mayor Esenbaez?

Present.

Mr. Pike?

Here.

Ms. Carlson? Here. Ms. Riley? Here. Mr. Christensen? Here. Mr. Mosier?

Here.

And Mr. Selene?

Here. Thank you. Any correspondence or agenda changes this evening? No ceremonial matters. We will move on to schedule special reports. We do have a couple scheduled special reports. We'll start tonight with HR.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Assembly. A lot of this is kind of my standard stuff that I put in here. I wanted to highlight a few things. As part of our NeoGov rollout this April, we did roll out annual training, safety, and education. and HR related stuff for the first time being organized the way it was. I think it was very successful and we're just gonna keep on building on that through for the rest of this calendar year. Actually had one of the things that has came through from employees is the desire to have like leadership and management type training. And we had a good meeting today with some of those options from a provider. So looking to be rolling out some leadership and management training especially all new managers, but also just all management staff. So that's gonna be coming up soon as well. And we're also, it says it'll begin this month, but are we turning it on this month? Probably for July 1st start for evaluations for all employees. So it'll just coincide with the, we've already been testing it. We have intermittent participation in our evaluation program currently. This will become obviously 100% mandatory, easily tracked, and easily held accountable for making sure all of these are completed. So that's gonna be a big thing that's coming up in the next couple months. As far as the collective bargaining agreements, it's on the assembly agenda for tonight. PSEA negotiations happened recently, and that'll be up for your consideration. All the rest of them are still a couple years out. We're also, under benefit administration we're doing our first annual open enrollment through neogov as well it's usually a very like manual process email and all that kind of stuff now it's just a thing that pops up in neogov for employees to elect their benefits and things like that so that's another huge benefit for processes as far as neogov's related We have 19 budgeted positions we are seeking to fill with around an 89% fill rate. Since then, we've filled at least one of those, so we're averaging about 90% the last couple quarters. Of note, the HR staff have onboarded, it says 23 on here, it's probably closer to 30 now, so just a big shout out to Denise Sawyer, Salter and Amelia Aveda for their work. It's a busy time of year where it's just onboardings almost every single day and still keeping all the rest of the things going. And again, if anybody is looking for a job, QR code's right there. Feel free to check out the vacancies that we have and we're always looking for good applicants. So that's all I have, pending any questions.

Josh, seeing as how we got positions now in the building, but guys have to have Freon cards, are we any closer to having a stipend to reimburse them for using their tools to help save the borough money by becoming self-sufficient and fixing refrigeration, heat pumps, and the like?

Thank you, sir. I... We are not any closer with a stipend. It's definitely something that's on my agenda as far as making sure that the job descriptions match what we're looking for for those positions and making sure they have the tools. In my conversations so far with building maintenance, it has been that the preferred model is to buy the tools and ensure that we are providing the tools. So I haven't explored the stipend beyond that, just based on what building maintenance tells me that they need.

Thank you.

Thank you, appreciate it. Moving on to the man with the best shirt in the building tonight, IT.

Grant Turner, IT director, and I thought I'd wear the appropriate shirt for the weather today. So, these guys. Our department's currently fully staffed across all five of our positions. Having all these positions filled continues to help us maintain better stability, quicker response times, and stronger project progress. It also allows the department to keep supporting both citywide operations, public safety needs more effectively. IN TERMS OF OUR MAJOR PROJECTS IN INFRASTRUCTURE, WE'VE CONTINUED MAKING PROGRESS IN SEVERAL MAJOR TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS. OUR NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED JUST A LITTLE BIT AGO SUCCESSFULLY AND THIS LAUNCH IS COMPLETE AND THE NEW WEBSITE GIVES THE CITY A MORE MODERN, INTEGRATED AND EASIER TO MANAGE SYSTEM. the city network infrastructure. Work is going on with other departments to build up more city-owned network infrastructure. One example is the Sea Walk project going on right now. We have a conduit going in the ground there along with that to help connect this complex, the library in Harrigan, with City Hall as part of a potential city-owned network. We're also updating our network equipment. A core switch at the data center has been installed and is now being configured. We are starting to put some equipment online with that one as we start to cycle over to the new equipment and away from the older equipment. We've also installed and connected several firewalls at a lot of our locations to increase security and improve the network management at those locations as well. So all of these projects continue to move the city forward towards a more secure, reliable, and maintainable technology environment. In terms of our service levels and support demand, our help desk remains highly active, and we maintain a strong efficiency over the past quarter. We've received 186 requests over the last three months, successfully resolving 158 of them, which tends to keep our standard maintenance of between 20 to 30 tickets open at any time. Those keep revolving over and over, so we have to see about always trying to reduce those as much as we can. This time, this quarter, we have a first contact resolution rate of 65%, which that basically means that more of the problems that people are bringing to us are difficult instead of the more straightforward ones. So we've been seeing a lot more of the more difficult issues. So thank you, everybody. Thank you. Let's see here, our budget. Looking at the budget to date, expenditures are sitting around just over 80% for the annual budget. It was a little higher than earlier in the fiscal year, but that's as expected as we approach the year end. Expenses do not spend evenly month to month because they include annual software licensing, support agreements and cybersecurity tools and equipment and maintenance renewals that come at different times throughout the year. With the ones that we happen to have, they seem to have a bunch right at the beginning of the fiscal year and then a bunch right at the end of the fiscal year. We're continuing to monitor the budget closely, especially contracted services and equipment related lines as we finish out the fiscal year. But everything looks like it's being on track to stay just under budget in totality. Any questions from anybody?

How's it going with the library? As far as the Library Commission giving me a hard time about their technical abilities aren't where they should be there for the equipment.

The public workstations specifically or?

I have no idea. All I know is that they're not happy. They're still at the library with equipment there.

I know we've had a few tickets with them and resolved most all those ones. The biggest issue we have outstanding with them right now is the public workstations, which are old, and we've been trying to maintain those as best we can while we get in the new ones, which we have right now we're configuring. As hard as it is to believe, that is one of the more complex actual systems that the city actually runs, is the public workstations in terms of cybersecurity and to keep the public's information safe as they try to use them. And it's very complicated. And so those ones don't work well with everything else we have very well right now. So we've been trying to figure out the best way to most efficiently have those installed in there. And we have a solution now that we've got it settled. And now we've got to implement that into the actual workstations and then bring them over. But we've got everything in hand here. So hopefully within the next few weeks here, we should have all those installed and up and running at the library.

Lawrence, thank you.

Yeah, thanks so much. The rollout of the new website, I was just wondering, I was navigating through it and came across some 404 pages for missing information. How do you prefer that is dealt with? Do you just want to be sent those pages and say, can these be repopulated? How do citizens tell you that information is missing?

Well, in, in, in the whole, each department is kind of controls their own information for each section of the website. So if it's, if you're coming across something in like electrical department pages, you can, you know, let, there should be a contact information on their main page for that. Uh, if, if you can't find something, then yeah, there's a, there's a contact us form in there on the website right at the top bar there that you can be able to click on that and fill it out. And that comes right to myself and Melissa and we can, go through that and find those and solve it.

Thank you.

Grant. Thank you. Appreciate it. And finally, a clerk's a special report this evening or quarterly report, I guess. All right.

So, um, as you know, in our office, we, there's three of us, um, myself, Holly, the deputy municipal clerk, and then Brian Schoenfelder, the assistant municipal clerk. I'd like to give a shout-out to Holly. She just celebrated her five-year anniversary with the city, so yay, Holly. And Brian, he just completed his first of three courses to become a certified municipal clerk, so... Moving on to public records requests, we had 46 of those the last three months. We're continuing to work on our records digitization. We had a visit with our records consultants onsite last month. We identified about 15 more boxes that need to be scanned. They will come back in October for a final visit, and then we're gonna continue to work on some other areas in our office for scanning. The general code legal review recodification, we migrated to the new platform recently. I am working with them to, you will see in each of the code sections, there's ordinances that are noted. They are not linked and we're working on getting those linked so that folks can easily access those ordinances for the particular pieces of code. And then Rachel is working on the review. She's taking the first review of the legal analysis that General Code did for us. Board Commission committee training. We took I took a little bit of a pause on that to reevaluate And we're starting that back up in July. So instead of meeting with the whole commission, I'll be meeting individually with the chairs, vice chairs, and any support staff. And then we'll go to the commission as a whole if needed. And what else do we have? Oh, Holly's the public records request software. We're about ready to go live with that in the next few days. So that's exciting. And you'll see some news announcements on that. And then, of course, the general election or the municipal election, we're getting ready for that. Candidate filing opens up in July. Brian is working with the Culture Club on the Workplace Culture Initiative. We have the summer picnic planned for August 1st, so you'll see information about that. And then as far as the budget, we are at about 73%. That's all I got.

Questions for Sarah? Seems like we all interact with Sarah on a pretty daily basis almost. And here for the next couple weeks, Holly. Thank you. Anyone else here for special reports tonight? Any government to government, municipal boards, commissions, committees, municipal departments, school district? All right, moving on to persons to be heard. This is public participation for any item off tonight's agenda, not to exceed three minutes for any individual. Okay, consent agenda please.

I moved to approve the consent agenda consisting of item a approved the minutes of the May 26th assembly meeting and item B approve the liquor license and endorsement renewal application for LG JL Sitka Inc DBA coal bar and grill at 33 or 330 Seward street.

So that's been moved in second and to approve the consent agenda. Is there any public comment? Sarah,

All right, on the motion to approve the consent agenda, Mayor Eisenbeis?

Yes.

Mr. Christensen? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. Mr. Moser? Yes. Mr. Saleen? Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Pike? Yes. The motion passes 7-0.

That'll bring us tonight to new business first readings. Item C, please.

I move to approve ordinance 2026-14 on first reading, making supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2026, the secure rural schools.

Second.

Thank you. It's been moved and seconded to approve ordinance 26-14. John, you have an introduction on this item?

I do, thank you, Mayor. Brooke's feeling a little under the weather today, so I'll take this one. So as you remember in the budget discussions, previous for FY26 and then the SRS back payments we did not get from FY25 and 26 and then the authorization for 27. The assembly moved to at least for FY27 funded 100% of Secure Real Schools, but in FY26, that was set at a 50-50 split based on that discussion, and now that those payments have come in, this appropriation will re-appropriate the portion that went to the city from the FY26 payment to the school along with the back payment from the previous year. If you're following the math closely on here, the amounts differ a little bit because we did receive the first payment of about 577 a few weeks ago, and the school was already given the about 289,000 from that. So what you're seeing here in the appropriation is that other 50% plus the total of the other back payments.

Thank you. Is there any public comment on Ordinance 26-14? Back to the Assembly for deliberation. JJ?

Thank you for that intro. I'm still a little confused. So this is money that we just got, but that is for the current fiscal year that we're in, so the 11th month of this fiscal year, 26. Is that correct? Correct. Okay, so money was previously budgeted, you know, in the budget cycle two cycles ago, and half was to go to Public Works for streets. That was originally done, and now we're moving that money around? That's correct. Okay, so did we not spend that money already? Because we're in the last month of that year?

No, we have not, no.

Okay, so we just have? money to move and that's why we're doing it. Okay, thank you. I think that's an important question to like, didn't we already spend this? Okay, thanks.

Yeah, I think some of my thoughts on this kind of echo that, to make sure that A, we had the money available, right, that is important. But then the other really important thing about this is that this is one-time funding for our school district. I fear that we get into a situation where they become reliant upon it. Now I understand the crutch is needed to bridge a gap which may or may not be changing in future administrations at the state. but I don't want them to become so assured of this and this funding level that that becomes an issue that binds future assemblies and future school boards to an unsustainable level, right? And that's what I feared about this large one-time disbursement when we talked about it a while ago. I also, I'm not a huge fan of going back on a budget that we passed because we all agreed 50% of a previous fiscal year was gonna go to this. That was where we were. I kinda like sticking to that, but Tim, as I'm sure he will speak to tonight, can eloquently speak to the needs. There are needs at the school district. There are needs at the city. I could argue the school district's needs are larger. I could argue our potholes needs are larger, right? So just as a reminder to school board members, you know, this is not continual funding. Most definitely. This is very much a gift right now. Use it wisely because it at this level will not be coming forward. Could not be coming forward again. I can't bind future assemblies to that, but it yeah, use it wisely.

I just want to make note that this year we did have the, I guess, accounting snafu, we could call it, that put the school district in a bind that's not a year-to-year thing. And I think, though, it's appropriate to help them out. And honestly, this is the only way we could have. I mean, if we, given what's going on with the state and other things, I mean, we're hard up against it. So this was the only way we could. So I have no problem giving to them this year.

Kevin? Thank you. Thank you for everyone's comments. Mayor, I totally understand and agree. I believe that the school board understands that we can't guarantee 100% moving forward, but I do believe they definitely need it this year, and I wholeheartedly support this.

Tim and then JJ. Sure. Thank you. Yeah, I think this is a, I think when we talked about this originally, this is a rare one-time occurrence. Never happened before in my experience in education. Because usually the federal government was handing this kind of money out on an annual basis. Not always, because this has always been an appropriation. And so Senator Murkowski really pushed forward to make sure that the back payments were made too. And I think you know, as we talked about at the time, this is a unique opportunity for the, for the city to support the schools and the needs are very large and, and the state has not stepped up and done their part. And I think, you know, we had Phil in front of us explaining how far behind the state is in terms of what it really should be funding education to. Um, and unfortunately, unlike some other states, our constitution doesn't allow the schools to, you know, for a lawsuit to go forward, to encourage the state to meet their requirements like they do in Washington, for example. So, And so this is an opportunity to bridge us through and do a hopefully better fiscal environment with a governor who would be more amenable to funding education and meeting the requirements for the state. So I think that's where this comes in. And this isn't gonna happen again in terms of like back payments, I would assume. And I don't think that the school district or the school board expects 100% going forward. I think this was an opportunity that took place right here. But their budget, when they first put it together, also included 50%. So as you recall, they sent us a 50% of Secure Roll Schools budget. So it was a opportunity that we had that we could do this, and I think we took advantage of that. So I would encourage us to continue this funding. But yes, I think the school board going forward needs to expect no more than half of it.

I'm tracking this conversation and appreciating it and I agree. I'm also a little stuck on how this money is available. We had a late snow, pretty heavy late snow in March and we did some supplemental appropriations to facilitate that snow removal and potholes and whatnot. So we moved some, you know, we had some general fund money going into streets and now we somehow have 300,000 now we're pulling out. So are we just subsidizing and around about way from streets to schools? Or how does that where I mean, there's a question for probably a finance director who we don't have here tonight, but how does that supplemental that that series of supplementals get us to this point tonight?

So I think our budgeting differs a little bit from the school district's budgeting. We pay very close attention to the secure rural schools funding if authorized and received up to a certain amount. So we do not necessarily hard-code it as being received in our budget and have a plan for it. It is expected revenues, but it's not in on the appropriation side unless the revenue comes in later and then there would be a follow-on appropriation.

Okay, so it was maybe just a little bit of moving of money, but since it never left our account with that supplemental in April, we're good to go. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that explanation.

Tim? Yeah, I think it never made it in the budget, and so as it arrived, it sat there, and we're not taking it from anything. If it was available, it would go somewhere, but we never actually put it anywhere. because we never actually had it. And that's why it's in the 11th month. I mean, they're just really, this is when they released it. Katie?

I have a question. Is funding for secure rural schools like a longstanding item on our legislative priorities or something that we talk about with the delegation during our trips?

We do. It all depends on how long it's authorized. I forgot how many years they just authorized this last one, but... pretty much a year or two out from it being at risk. We do talk to our delegation in DC about the criticality of keeping that in place.

Okay, thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to reiterate that as a funding source, you know, the school shouldn't depend on it. But I think we saw in previous years that we could not necessarily depend on it either. So that is something that we need to Fight for for the criticality of our communities and especially with costs increasing for schools and road maintenance all of those things Just really think that's important and appreciate the discussion about what we're doing with it tonight in the investment that we're making Anything further Sarah

All right, on the motion to approve Ordinance 2026-14 on first reading, Mr. Saleen?

Yes.

Ms. Riley? Yes. Mayor Eisenweis?

Yes.

Mr. Christensen? Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Moser? Yes. And Mr. Pike? Yes. The motion passes 7-0 on first reading.

Mr. Mayor, I'm gonna need to excuse myself. I had minor dental surgery yesterday and I am a little uncomfortable, but I wanted to make sure I made this vote.

Yeah, appreciate you coming and understand. Thank you. Thank you.

I move to approve ordinance 2026-15 on first reading, amending title 22 zoning of the SICA general code for the Gary-Pacton special zone. Second.

That's been moved and seconded to approve ordinance 26-15 on first reading. John, I understand Amy has an introduction on this item.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Assembly members, Amy Ainslie, Planning and Community Development Director. So for those of you who are maybe not as familiar with the way that the zoning code is structured, the Gary Paxton Special District is probably our most unique zoning district right now in terms of the way it's currently structured in the zoning code. For the rest of our zones here in Sitka, we have a series of use tables. There are six use tables, and it's a grid, and it'll show you the per zone. It'll show you a list of uses that are in the rows, and then in each one of those cells, you'll either see a P, which means that use is permitted outright, a C, which means it's conditional, or it's blank, which means it's prohibited. That is binding for all of the districts, except for the GPIP zone. So the way that the GPIP zone was originally created was in concert with the creation of the board for the park. The idea was that it was too premature to designate very specifically what kind of uses would or wouldn't be allowed within the park. and that the board should have the opportunity to work through the market process of looking for lessees or buyers for the property and to let the market dictate what the best use of the park was and to shape allowed uses around lease agreements and sale agreements. Now that the park is more mature and we've disposed of more of the property, especially through sale agreements, and then therefore we don't have sort of the ability to really kind of foresee the uses that are gonna come in those properties in the future, the GPIP board had decided that it was time to convert to a more stable zoning designation and to essentially kind of treat it like we do every other zone. that we have and actually kind of nailing down those uses that are either permitted, conditional, or prohibited. The board started working on this last summer and into the fall and just went through the tables line by line and worked through a couple of drafts of that with the intent of it being really, generally speaking, a pretty good blend between our industrial zone and our waterfront district as well. This was finalized over the course of the spring. In February, the board had forwarded a unanimous recommendation on a draft ordinance to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission reviewed that at March 18th. Oh, sorry. Let me get this back. I might have gotten this backwards. Yes. So the Planning Commission looked at that again in March. GPIP board reviewed those changes and they kind of went back and forth once again, but I think both boards ended up at a point by kind of mid-April and May that landed on a version of this draft ordinance that really, I think, met both boards' considerations and needs and was then voted on and recommended unanimously to the assembly by both for this ordinance that you now have in front of you. So I won't go line by line through each table unless asked, I'm happy to do that, but I thought I'd spare you. I wanna just kinda highlight a couple of the key things. I think some of the really important pieces are that first, we amended the intent of the zoning district. So it's now in this ordinance described as supporting maritime manufacturing and industrial storage uses and appropriately provides use designations that support that intent. We spent a lot of time talking about housing in the zone. There's a really, of course, as we all know, a really strong demand for housing and wanting to be able to accommodate workforce housing in the zone but not have housing move in and push those commercial and industrial uses out. So we spent a lot of time working on ways to craft the language to ensure that workforce housing for those working within the zone, and working in industries that are sort of the primary intent of the zone would have pathways forward in the code, but not sort of doors wide open, housing moving into the zone. Again, just we can see the market pressures for that. In other commercial areas that allow both housing and commercial uses, housing is tended to push those things out because of the demand. So wanting to be really thoughtful about housing. There was also sort of a geographic designation. There's certain parts of the park that have more value because of their location and proximity to the waterfront. And so wanting to preserve uses within that core of the park for those heavier uses or those that might be more marine dependent or be able to support maritime industry was important. So we created some geographic boundaries to sort of designate the park's core. and have certain uses that are either allowed or not within that core or outside of it, there may be more flexibility for other uses that wouldn't be allowed. Then we had a couple of cleanup on adding some definitions or cleaning up some definitions that just through the course of conversation went, oh yeah, these actually maybe aren't as clear and I can see where that creates some confusion and so just a good opportunity to get those cleaned up. We don't anticipate any costs that are anticipated as a result of this passage, the passage of this ordinance. Staff's recommendation along with both bodies, the GPIP Board and the Planning Commission recommend approval.

Thank you. If we have any questions, we'll call you back up. Is there any public comment on Ordinance 26-15? Back to the assembly for deliberation.

Tor? I would just say as a GPIP liaison that I think this was on every meeting for months. So this was not done in a light. I mean, you know, it was hashed out and then of course back to the planning commission and back and forth. So I think that this has been well vetted. and like anything man-made, it would very likely change some aspects of it over the years, but I think this is a good start.

JJ?

Yeah, I appreciate all the work that our boards and commissions has done on this. I've been tracking it a little bit, because we get those planning commission packets on our iPads, and just to see kind of the updates from what that packet showed, just really strongly want to give thanks to to all the members of the GP board, and the Planning Commission for their months of effort here. And I think this outcome is, is well within what what we'd want to see the workflow be from from our board. So thanks to them for getting it to this point. And I appreciate and just will will say yes, because they did such a great job.

Amy, I hate to call you up for such a basic, simple question. I wish I could just do a head nod, but for the record. It appears to me, I think I already have the answer to this, but it appears to me that work has been done to ensure that the current historical uses of the park are not interrupted. I can think of the bunkhouse at Silver Bay because we talked about housing and some other uses. The little RVs looks like they're still permitted. I just want to make sure that things will flow in continuity while still allowing and preserving the core like you guys want to.

Yes, absolutely. We did a lot to try and match in the code, again, those existing uses and if they're working, then great, let's make sure that there's a way for them to work. For anything that's maybe a little bit unusual that maybe going forward wouldn't be as clean a fit, Those uses can also become a legal non-conforming use, which is a kind of technical term for essentially kind of grandfathering something in. And so through the zoning code, we have a route of administratively issuing legal non-conforming use permit that demonstrates that at the time that this use started, it was legal, it's above board. Those often are very helpful for financing terms. We'll be asked to kind of issue that permit or a letter or something like that. And so we're also keeping track of all of the property owners and known lessees that are in the park and creating a list of those. Our plan as a department is to, if this ordinance is passed, to reach out to all of those property owners and to request any information about non-conforming uses so that we can get on top of issuing those non-conforming use permits if any are necessary. We don't anticipate any right now, but we have a plan for those if there's some that we don't know about right now.

Okay, and that answered my follow-up of do we know of any at this time, and we will find out. Thank you. Any other questions for Amy while she's sitting here? Appreciate it, thank you. Anything further on this item? Sarah?

All right, on the motion to approve Ordinance 2026-15, on first reading, Mr. Christensen? Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Saleen?

Yes.

Mr. Pike? Yes. Ms. Riley? Yes. And Mayor Eisenbeiss?

Yes.

Motion passes 6-0 on first reading, with second reading on June 23rd.

Assembly, it is very early for recess, but we have on our next item, each applicant has five minutes to speak towards their thing. That's 15 minutes, so that'll put us a bit past the time. Do people need a break now? All right, we'll charge forward. Moving on to item E this evening. This is a consideration and award of the request for proposals submitted for the available funds in the Fisheries Enhancement Fund. So tonight, as indicated, each applicant for the Fisheries Enhancement Fund will have a five minute opportunity to speak to their application. Then the Assembly has a discussion on the potential award amounts. It would appear that the groups have gotten together to try and make it easy for us tonight, but I would remind the Assembly that the ultimate power of appropriation lies with us. So if we determine any of those wards to be excessive or not enough, we have the ability to switch them around. Once we've had that discussion, then we can move on to a motion which would award each of those amounts. So if there's no questions with the process this evening, Great, we'll open it up to five minute opportunity for the applicants to speak to their proposals if they wish.

Thank you, Mayor and members of the Assembly, for this opportunity to speak tonight. I'm Linda Behnken from Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, and with me is Emily Scott. As you know, commercial fishing remains one of the cornerstones of Sitka's economy, with over 540 permit holders residing in Sitka, several hundred who work as crew, and close to 1,000 people who work in the processing sector here. The health of our fisheries is really tied to the health of this community and vice versa. ALPHA's requesting 15,631, or one-third, of the available Fishery Enhancement Fund to continue and expand programs that strengthen Sitka's fisheries through workforce development, resource stewardship, energy innovation, and fishery access. I want to express our strong support for the other applicants, the Sitka Sound Science Center and Sitka Tribe, and also our appreciation for their willingness to coordinate our asks. The Fishery enhancement fund serves as a critical funding catalyst for our work, helps us leverage larger investment from outside sources. In 2025 alone, we used the Fishery Enhancement Fund support and the support from this community to leverage more than 1.3 million in grants, program-related investment, contracts, donations, and fundraising support. We've seen this leverage affect repeatedly. Local support helped position Alpha and our regional partners to secure funding from Sea Grant, from NOAA, from the Department of Energy, and from private foundations to build out a number of projects that all benefit this community. The programs included in this application are all designed to enhance Sitka's fisheries in practical and measurable ways. I'm gonna turn it over to Emily to talk a little bit more about those programs.

First, I want to talk about Alpha's Crew Training Program and Young Fishermen's Initiative. These programs help address the greatest challenge, I think, facing Alaska's fisheries, attracting and retaining the next generation. These programs provide entry-level opportunities, mentorship, safety training, and hands-on experience aboard commercial fishing vessels. Over the past decade, over 145 crew members have been placed on boats, helping young people gain the skills and experience needed to build careers in commercial fishing. Alpha's Fisherman's Expos and Fishery Conservation Network provide education, training, and collaborative research opportunities. These efforts connect fishermen with scientists, improve fishing practices, advance technologies such as electronic monitoring, digital logbooks, and support projects like seafloor mapping that help fishermen harvest more efficiently while reducing bycatch. More than 145 fishermen have contributed to these conservation and research programs to date. The application also supports energy and marine workforce development. Alpha's helping lead innovative vessel efficiency and hybrid propulsion projects that reduce operating costs and create new opportunities in marine engineering, vessel retrofits, and the supporting trades. These projects position Sitka as a leader in developing practical solutions for the future fishing fleet while creating new workforce development opportunities. ALPHA also continues to expand fishery access opportunities through partnerships with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust and others. ALPHA has secured more than a million dollars in quota share assets to support young fishermen and keep fishing access in Alaska communities. Programs such as the Local Fish Fund, Quota Bank, and the Southeast Village Fisheries Collective are helping ensure that future generations can participate in commercial fishing and that fishing opportunities remain tied to local communities. Finally, Alphas Alaskans' own program strengthens seafood marketing, value-added processing, and food security. It connects consumers directly with fishermen, supports local seafood businesses, and has helped distribute more than 655,000 seafood meals since the seafood donation program started in 2020. Taken together, these programs strengthen fisheries access, improve stewardship, lower operating costs, support innovation, build the next generation workforce, and keep fishing revenue circulating in Sitka. To close, thank you so much to the city for your continued support of Alpha's work, and thank you for your time and consideration.

Great, thank you, appreciate it. If we do have questions later, we'll be sure to call you up, if willing. Welcome, thank you.

Hello, my name is Kyle Rosendale with Sika Tribe Alaska. We are requesting one-third of the available fisheries enhancement funds to support sockeye salmon monitoring at Redoubt Lake. I think the Assembly is probably aware that the U.S. Forest Service is no longer able to fully support monitoring at Redoubt, and STA has tried to step in to cover the gap there. And so this year, in a really positive development, I think since we wrote our materials to you, the state of Alaska, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has offered more support for the project as well. So STA, the US Forest Service, and Sika Tribe Alaska are submitting a joint proposal to Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund that would basically operate the weir for two years. The funds we're requesting today would go toward non-federal match, specifically to support the automated video shoots that we installed last year. We had a pretty successful three-week pilot of it. We've still got some wrinkles to work out, and so we're hopeful that that can be sort of a longer-term solution to keep that monitoring program alive. And it's really important to keep that monitoring program alive because without in-season monitoring, we can't implement, the state of Alaska cannot implement their management plan. So that means that our subsistence harvest, we will be limited to 10 sockeye daily bag limit and 50 sockeye for the year, no matter how many sockeye come back to the lake. And there'll be zero commercial fishery, no matter how many sockeye come back to the lake. So we're really hoping to use these funds to make sure we can operate monitoring and maximize subsistence and commercial harvest opportunity for all Sitkins. Thank you.

Wait a minute, what'd you say there on the end?

Scotty, if we have questions, we can call them back up. Thank you. And now Science Center's gonna come in at the end and actually request all the money since everyone else has spoken. There's a button on the mic on the very bottom in front of you, on the microphone. The button on the very bottom turns red. There you go. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyways, my name is Bill Coulthorpe. I'm the Aquaculture Director at the Sitka Sound Science Center. Nice to be here. Thank you. First, I'd like to thank you for all the support you've had and given us over the years. Basically, our aquaculture, well, without the fisheries enhancement dollars, the SCC aquaculture program would not be where it is today. Our mission at the Science Center is science research, science education, aquaculture training, K through 12, as well as the college students at Alaska UAS in the aquaculture program. We utilize the hatchery to teach hundreds of people from around the world about science of salmon through our multiple field courses, summer camps, tours, and internships, high school as well as college. The fisheries enhancement money we have received in the past has helped fund our cohort program primarily. Providing funding for our fish food equipment and a one-year hatchery apprentice program. That is a training position of which we take a Hatchery Apprentice from egg take to release of the salmon, every aspect of it. They are qualified to work anywhere in the state of Alaska, and that's the idea. We are trying to put them out there and promote the workforce development of our programs. The SGA hatchery is permitted for 250,000 coho eggs annually, which results in releasing around 230,000 smolts. Coho are the most expensive species we rear. at a cost of around $35,000 annually. They are also the most utilized fish we raise in terms of education, aquaculture training, research, and tourism. We call our co-hold the teaching fish because every person that comes through our doors, K through 12, including strangers and UAS students as well as interns, are an integral part of rearing and understanding the cycle of these fish and their cultural importance. We are a small hatchery, but we feel we play a big part in fishery enhancement. Last year's commercial SJ coho catch was around 6,000 fish, resulting in around $34,000 in the common property fisheries. Sport fish came in at around 634 fish recorded. I think there were a few more that were caught out in front of the hatchery as well, but we do play a part in the sport fisheries in Sitka. In addition, coal that returned to the hatchery raceways that are ocean bright, in bright condition are also given away to the community and our partners. We feel we play a major part in the enhancement of the fisheries and we'd like to thank you again for the dollars that the organization have received in the past as well as ask for your support for these funds today. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it. So that'll move us on to the second phase of this evening assembly discussion. Scotty, you had a question? I wanna make sure you have an opportunity to get that one answered.

I'll bug him tomorrow.

Okay, sounds good. Anything else? Further discussion from the assembly? Tor?

No, it's just more of an observation that the tribe, I really compliment the tribe for stepping up on that. My lunch today was some readout sockeye that I made salmon burgers with. I don't know the percentage of people in Sitka that have had some fish from there in the last year or two, but it's probably most of us. Like I said, all of these are good, but I really think that that fits the intent of this program to a T. Katie?

Yeah, I just wanted to thank all of the applicants. I really enjoyed reading the materials that you submitted and hearing about all of the programs that you do and the work that benefits Sitkins and our economy. And I think the contributions that we consider here tonight have a very outsized impact on Sitka's overall economy from what I can tell. from the information provided. So just wanted to say that that's a really valuable, you know, small contribution that we can make that has a great knock-on effect for our commercial fisheries, our sport fisheries, and our subsistence fisheries. And it's fantastic to have that entire spread met. So thank you all for the work that you're doing as well, and I'm happy to support this investment tonight.

Plus when I hear matching funds on a much larger scale, that makes me excited as well. Scotty?

Just a little history note there, how important readout is to this area. Like the Russians had up to 150 people out there. A lot of them were under lockup, but salting fish and milling up stuff, sailed up from California and stuff, and then it all got wiped out in 1836 with the big tidal wave. And those mills grinding wheels are still there. We're fishing game. Kids that go diving there can see them down there, but it's just a highlight of, it used to really feed town.

Anything further from the assembly? Okay, I guess the motion is in order then.

I move to award 15,631 to the Alaska Longland Fishermen's Association and 15,631 to the Sika Sound Science Center and award 15,631 to the Sika Tribe of Alaska. Second.

That's been moved and seconded to award $15,631 to each of the three applicants from Fisheries Enhancement Fund. Is there any public comment? Hello, there's a button on the bottom of the microphone to turn it on and then I'll just need you to state your name for the record.

Hi, my name is Alexandra Fujioka and I'm here to support ELPHA's application for the Fisheries Enhancement Fund. I grew up deckhanding in the power troll and longline fisheries for my late father, Chad Fujioka, as a way to earn money and be with my dad, who was one of the vetted skippers who took people out. When he died, I wanted to continue working in the industry that I had experience in as a summer job to use my skills to help build savings for my future, even though I planned to go into astronomy as a longer-term career. My father recognized the value of the program in helping bring new people into the aging fishing fleet. After he started off as a deckhand for his father, then later a hired master of sorts, fishing with his best friend in his father's boat in the last days of the Howabit Derbies, and worked in multiple roles in the salmon industry in high school. When he became a commercial fisherman, one of the things that was important to him, besides fisheries advocacy, was training my sister and I as deckhands for him. But he didn't just teach us, he also taught other people too. Thanks to the program, I've now been matched with a vetted skipper that I feel safe with because he put safety first and should have my first few days of commercial deckhanding since my father died in a week from now. I want to thank both the Alpha Crew Training Program and Eric Jordan tonight.

Thank you.

Any other public comment on the award amounts this evening? Further assembly deliberation? Sarah?

All right, on the motion to award $15,631 each to, well, that same amount to Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, Sika Sound Science Center, and Sika Tribe of Alaska for a total amount of $46,893. No, I'm sorry. Yes, I, no. I got it. We're good. Ms. Carlson. Yes. Ms. Riley. Yes. Mr. Selene. Yes. Mayor Eisenbeiss. Yes. Mr. Pike. Yes. And Mr. Christensen. Yes. Motion passes 6-0.

Thank you. It is the top of the hour. We'll take a brief recess. Please be seated when you're ready. All right, the assembly is seated. We'll jump back in our agenda this evening with item F, please.

I move to approve the 2026-2029 collective bargaining agreement between the City and Borough of Sitka and the Public Safety Employees Association. Second.

That's been moved and seconded to approve the 26 to 29 PSEA collective bargaining agreement. Josh, I understand you have an introduction for this item.

Good evening, Mayor and Assembly. As you have in this memo before you, we had a really good, union negotiations are rarely a pleasure, but all things considered, it was a very mutually beneficial session with PSEA. And we met over multiple sessions and we reached a tentative agreement on May 15th. and we received notification on May 27th that the PSCA group had ratified. And now it is presented to you for assembly approval as per Sitka General Code. There's a few non-economic changes similar to the ones we went through last year, just trying to standardize some language, move a few things around, added some clarity into different sections. We also clarified performance evaluations and anniversary dates that trigger different evaluation things. As far as economic changes, the new payment matrix is presented in Appendix B of the tentative agreement, and that's going to be effective July 1st. And then there's a 3% increase for July 1st, 2027, July 1st, 2028. For the first time ever that I'm aware of, step movements were added in. existing agreement had some language about if they were implemented or they had previously negotiated for like one step movement within the contract. But this is going to add, you know, evaluation based and time based step movement to with the goal of longevity and rewarding our employees that stay longer. There's also a one-time lump sum payment of $1,000 for employees that have been there for at least a year and passed their probation. Increased the standby pay to $5 per hour. I think it's a nominal increase there. And then we added in some language about being able to recognize our employees for employee of the month, our Sick of Spirit award, if there's any monetary thing related there, or just for an option to make sure that our employees are, we have the option to recognize them for monetary job performance as well. Fiscal note is overall the total estimated increased cost to CBS will be $311,000 over the proposed three-year contract, and this calculation assumes vacant positions are filled and overtime continues at prior levels. And then the table there from the finance director has the cost based upon the year. and we do not think based on current staffing levels that there needs to be any change to the current FY27 budget and we'll continue to monitor that throughout the year and recommend assembly approval. That's all I have pending any questions.

Thank you, appreciate it. Is there any public comment on the PSCA collective bargaining agreement? Assembly deliberation? Katie?

I have a question just about what we've heard about sign-on bonuses. I didn't see anything in here, and from what I understand, that was like a temporary measure to staff up, which we have accomplished. Is that a discretionary employer decision, basically, that wouldn't belong in here, or...

Correct, that is outside of the CBA. Those are like pre-employment type stuff. Those expire across the organization. They expire on June 30th of the fiscal year and it's up to the department head knowing that whatever situation or like a shortage or whatever, they do a memo to the administrator and it's up to the administrator to make the best decision on whether to carry those forward or not my goal is that after june 30th they're not going to be needed based on what is implemented here if we notice that they are then that'll be up to the police chief to come back and discuss okay fantastic thank you questions for josh no thank you

I just wanted to relay, I think he had to leave, but Lance was here, and he was going to come up and talk about how professional everybody was and how smoothly this operation went. From Josh and the attorney, it didn't sound like they agreed on everything, but they said, again, everybody was really professional and made the process go well. So just passing that on.

I don't know if this is a Josh or a Sarah or both, but just wanted to say thank you in the memo. You can click on each article and jump straight to it as opposed to cycling all the way through. That's really cool. I hope that doesn't take much time because I'd like to see that a lot, right? Makes it super easy for me to fully understand what I'm looking at and be able to jump around without taking a lot of time in a... in an ipad version so thank you for that a lot to do with the bargaining agreement but had to say it because it was that cool right anything else on the bargaining agreement sarah all right on the motion to approve the 2026 uh 2029 psca collective bargaining agreement mr pike

Yes. Yes. Mr. Selene, Ms. Carlson. Yes. Mr. Christensen and Ms. Riley. Yes. Motion passes six zero.

Thank you. That'll bring us to persons to be heard. This is public participation for any item on or off tonight's agenda. Not to exceed three minutes for any individual. I see none, we'll move on to reports. Starting with my report, I wanted to thank Tim Pike for standing in for me last week. So I had the opportunity to attend the first annual, I believe they're gonna try and make it an annual event. It was a conference sponsored by SEGO, the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization. And what they wanted to do is get industry decision makers and leaders in the same room so that they could talk about conservation and sport fishing the really nice thing and this conversation actually started a while ago with kim who's the co-director is you know sitka's been uh the largest charter port in southeast alaska for quite some time we recently became number two due to day charters in ketchikan but we'd never really interacted with the charter organizations, right? So if we had any questions, didn't know who to call, right? So started the conversation with Kim quite some time ago, got an invite to this conference, which was actually really, really informative. We had Israel Payton, the director of Sport Fish there. Merritt, the chair of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, representative Rebecca Hemshoot was there speaking on different issues. I think one of, and I think, and also the Doug Vincent Lang, the commissioner for Department of Fish and Game. I think one of the issues that resonated most amongst the sport fish decision makers is the limits when you go down to one king salmon daily. Doesn't, and when you go even less than that to two or one annually, that hurts charter lodges, but doesn't hurt day charters, which actually take more fish from the ocean per boat than do multiple day charters. So they wanna find a line, and I don't remember the math, but it was substantially more like a day charter boat would actually take a third more fish than a guided three-day excursion, right? And so I think that resonated well with those policy makers there when they're looking at the overall catch rate of sport because resident catch has remained very, very stable throughout the years while non-resident catch definitely fluctuates. So I think as they go forward using their management tools, that that is gonna be a big part. It was also very reassuring to hear, not only is it a Board of Fish recommendation, but the Charter Guides Association has indicated that no way, no how should residents ever be shut down again for fishing king salmon. So that's gonna be their goal to help push that along, even though that is the operating standard right now. Really informative, it was a good time. Glad I was able to attend and I'm glad that now we have a direct line to the charter guides if we do have issues that come up, like if we're building a fish box holding room in our airport, does it work for that organization? Be good to know, right? Scotty, you had a question on that or?

Yeah. God, I just spaced now thinking about something else. Oh, well, on the charter thing, that's not unguided bare boat charters, right? Because they're taking 9% of the total halibut catch.

Correct. Unguided bare boats were a massive point of contention and talk while we were there as well because they can fish under different regulations for halibut than someone on a guided boat. Weirdly enough, I also learned that if you are resident on a guided boat, you have to fish under unguided regulations, which means you have to kill halibut that are embarrassing to kill, right? So they're looking at that, they're working on that, but with halibut being federally controlled, there's an extra layer in there.

Because I know that they can fish inside the lamp so you can set inside of Vitzcary, you know, to catch. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Yeah, and the other thing, I might also be submitting something to Board of Fish now, because there's a regulation that I've always thought was kind of weird, specifically to do with crab. If you go out crabbing with more than one person on a boat and I catch some and JJ catches some, we can't put them in the same cooler. That's illegal. But if we go out salmon fishing, we can both catch our kings and put them in the same cooler, and that's legal. It's called pooling of bag limits, which is illegal. I'm not exactly sure why, but I was encouraged to submit something to board of fish to change that so that if you have one live well on your boat, you can keep all your crab alive as opposed to two.

So more work to do, right? Just another note, your honor, like all the money spent on the salmon treaty is three times and all the salmon landed at the dock. Yeah.

Thank you. John, administrator's report.

Thanks, Mayor. With the passage of the FY27 budget, we'll have a lot of cleanup and administrative work to do. That specifically includes things like progress payments, renewing contracts, everything for the fiscal year, personnel orders for employees that get CPI increases in their wages, bargaining unit contracts. So we'll see a lot of, you won't see them, I'll see a lot of large-scale personnel order changes to make those adjustments, but a lot of just paperwork cleanup that's going to be over the next few weeks to get us ready for that next year. We had some discussions I believe two weeks ago around the parks and rec MOU with the school district. In that MOU we talk about meeting annually to find out where we can improve. We've got another meeting this week to hopefully get finalized on some of the concerns and reach an agreement there and we'll continue to move ahead with that one. And last, I had a meeting invited by STA. Mary Peltola had made a visit through Sitka and asked to meet with certain leadership in the community before a public event that night and just had an opportunity to kind of express some of what Sitka's needs and challenges are here from a city's perspective. Thanks.

rachel attorney's report uh sarah covered everything i had to say just that we're getting the public records request system up and going we've attended some training for making sure we understand how to do that and get things debugged it's going really well and then working on the recodification project also elise on representatives so this isn't mine uh this is kevin's he asked me that he texted me his report from uh parks and rec

But so I think he said about 20 people were speaking in persons to be heard the Parks and Rec Committee meeting regarding the sports fields and people not picking up after their dogs. which creates very unpleasant and unhealthy situation. It was acknowledged by several people in the public and the committee as well that this situation has been happening for many decades, if not longer. Anyway, after discussion, the Parks and Rec made a motion to the administrator and Kevin Knox to have Kim Sham and Keith Fields be no dogs allowed and look for alternate dog areas in the meantime. And he said there were some other things, but that was the gist of it and that and I think we all saw the email about a week ago that we got about that. So he asked me to pass that along. I don't have anybody else personally.

Thank you. John? I just want to jump on in there real quick. I learned that as well today. I've got some more research to do, obviously, because a committee made a recommendation to the administrator, and some of those recommendations may fall under code, and code does say that certain things need to be approved by the assembly. it says that rules can be set by the administrator from the parks and rec committee but i have to evaluate on whether or not these are rules or code changes because code does specifically state where the off-leash areas are where dog parks are and what those um what specifies those locations so still more research to do there oh yeah thank you for working your way through that when i when i heard them say that as well as i don't know that a commission recommends to the administrator they

recommend to the assembly. So thank you for working your way through that one. JJ?

Ports and Harbor is on break for the summer. They'll be coming back in September. And if anyone wants to come to health needs, that is next Wednesday at noon.

Katie? Katie?

yeah the uh planning commission heard um some conditional use permits i just wanted to highlight that one of them was for uh an accessory dwelling unit um that was the first building that will be put on this um property so it's currently vacant and uh this gentleman wanted to put an affordable home on their small home before building a dream house saving up for that and so that is one of the adjustments that the planning commission Recommended for the adu code change and they approved that um without any issue Uh in this conditional lease permit process that that can currently happen So just want to flag that as a successful example of something that we'll be hearing more about later this fall That's there a clerk's report All right, um, i'll go through our list of vacancies for boards and commissions, um, we have the health needs and human services

Commission the investment committee library commission parks and rec police and fire and then tree and landscape committee and we also we have an application online otherwise folks can stop by our office and We'll help them through that process. I just wanted to remind folks that I mentioned it earlier in the meeting but our candidate filing for the municipal election is coming up it opens on July 20th and closes on August 7th at 5 p.m. We have a number of vacancies to be filled at the election. So we have one mayor seat. That's a two-year term, two assembly member seats. Those are three-year terms. And then we have three school board member seats, two three-year terms, and then one one-year term. Um, and then I'll just briefly mention qualifications for candidacy. So for assembly member and mayor, um, to be qualified, um, the individual needs to be a qualified voter who has resided continuously in the municipality during the 12 months immediately before the election. And then for school board, Applicants must be qualified voters in the municipality for 30 days immediately before the election. So again, the candidate filing dates are July 20th through August 7th.

Thank you, Sarah. Any other reports this evening? JJ?

This is the Walkability Advocacy Group that we put me on pretty much a year and a half ago at this point. We're getting to the point where we're doing something. So right now, we're kind of asking the community for some engagement around submitting ideas about what we could do with the space between the white lines and crosswalks on Lincoln Street. We figured out with Public Works on the rules there to keep the engineering parameters in place. We're looking for earth tone repeating geometric patterns, ideas of that, to be submitted within the next two weeks. There's an entry form to kind of Keep all the ideas on the same page like literally and we're just hoping that people can share some ideas will the group will refine them, and then we have a painting kind of planned for the end of July and August so it's a summer DEMO you know short term project. to encourage crosswalk use. And we're trying to emphasize existing crosswalks in downtown Sitka to improve pedestrian safety. So you can pick up entry sheets at the public library, city hall, or email PIO, that's publicinformationofficer at cityofsitka.org. And please return those entry sheets by Wednesday, June 24th to the library, to City Hall or to that email address. And then the following day on Thursday, June 25th at 6 p.m. here at Harrigan's Tenniel Hall, we'll have a community showcase with all those entries and a juried selection and just kind of do what we can to promote and improve pedestrian safety here on Lincoln Street.

Thank you.

Any other, Scott? You guys, you taste the water tonight? You got a little taste in the water at all? No? It didn't taste like this last week. I think just running it is there, but I can taste it. Yeah, well I don't know if it's ice or the water, but last week it wasn't in there.

Brand new building, bad pipes already. Seeing nothing else, that'll bring us to adjournment.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you, everyone. We are adjourned.