City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order at 7 p.m. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, can I get a roll call?

All council members are present, with the exception of Council Member Stites, who is absent and excused. Council Member Foster is attending online. All right.

And then we'll start with public business from the floor. At this time, I think Mr. Rauscher has joined us and would like to say something.

Yeah, how you guys doing? Can you hear me?

Yeah, sure can, George.

Hey, I appreciate it. So thank you for... calling on me uh first off we're going to be going to uh the lio tomorrow and this is going to be a joint resource meeting between the senate and the house we uh i thought it was originally going to be a discussion on the governor's new gas line bill which he has put out apparently it's it's basically going to be a discussion on what's going on as far as the uh availability of gas out in the inlet. There's going to be two meetings. There's going to be another one in September on the 5th, if I remember right, the date. And they're going to be interviewing the producers. They're going to be interviewing the utility companies. They're going to be interviewing the basically NSTAR and how everything affects the I guess the rail belt as it is. I know that doesn't really affect Valdez at this point. I wish the discussion would center more around the gas line because I think the state could utilize the volume of gas up north for things like manufacturing and other things. But apparently that's what it's going to be about. So if there was any conception that people thought it was going to be about the gas line uh i don't think it's going to be i think it's just because uh trying to understand what the rail bill is going to look forward to this winter when we run out of gas and what we could do about it in the meantime so i guess that's the uh that's the wrap up for a quick update on what's going to happen this week and as you know we just went through the election so not a whole lot went on last week but uh If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. And if not, that's fine.

Do you have any questions for George? Looks like you're off the hook there, George. And congratulations on getting on into the primary.

Yeah, and I guess I needed one more thing. We did. I was talking to Nathan Duvall and We had asked the governor about a process because of the fish, because of the pinks. The run is almost nonexistent. So the governor, I guess, he's aware of it. We're looking at some sort of a declaration there on that. I think that's important. There's also discussion going on and it's not happening fast enough with the DOT and the ferry dock. I wish that was moving along faster. We get a lot of promises, but we don't get what we're looking for. If you have an update on that, I'd appreciate it. But so far, I'm not getting a whole lot. But I do want to know that it's out in the forefront. It's in the discussion. These two items, they're very important for Valdez. So I just thought I'd make mention.

Yeah, thank you very much for that, George. And we'll keep working the ferry dock with you and exploring the other avenues we got with trying to get some stuff done. The declaration, the last time we did this, we actually wrote you something asking for a declaration to be handed to the governor. And I think if we need to do that process, we'll do that just so that you can get something in your hands first.

Yeah, I appreciate that. And I'm just wondering where the governor may have sat, whether he might have gave you a letter back or not. Apparently there has none, according to what you have explained just now. I will talk again to the governor tomorrow and ask him what his intentions are.

All right. Thank you very much.

You bet. Thank you.

All right, moving on to public business from the floor, if there's anybody that would like to speak. Yeah, go ahead. Just clearly state your name, and you've got three minutes.

Nope, just go ahead and push the button. There you go. Thanks. My name is Steven Piper. I'm the CEO of Juice Robotics from Rhode Island, and I'm here with another colleague of mine, Katie Burrows from Ocean State Sensing, also out of Rhode Island. We are startups that are partly funded by a grant from Ocean of Naval Research that is given to the University of Rhode Island, the University of Alaska, and the University of Hawaii. And we're here in Alaska. We've been in Valdez for about the last two weeks with our tireless host, Tommy Sheridan of ABEC. Looking for opportunities, but also getting a better understanding of what the blue economy means here in Alaska. And it's been an incredible value to us. In the two weeks that we've been here, I already recognize people in the room. Councilman Lally, and of course, Elise, thank you very much. We've had an amazing time working in the state, but also in Valdez, looking for opportunities, understanding what the blue economy is, and how it sort of mirrors the blue economy in Rhode Island. We were delighted to meet with Alyeska, Silver Bay, the Ports, the Harbors, RCAC, VFDA, and attend the Citizens Academy. And this evening, we're very honored to be here with the town council. As we come back and as we sort of nurture these relationships, what we're really looking for as startups and as part of the ABEC and partnering with the Rhode Island blue economy is really three things, partnerships, opportunities, and then understanding the overlaps of our different blue economies. In terms of the partnerships, I'm really delighted to say that AK Drone has agreed to be a partner with us as we expand our business into Alaska and look for opportunities around the region. In terms of opportunities, I look forward to working with Tommy and others in Valdez to see how innovation, how we can explore problems in ocean technology and how we can be a part of that. And then in terms of looking at the blue economy of Rhode Island and Alaska, I look forward to coming back and sharing what we've learned in about a year and understand with your help how we can be of greater value to you. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. All right. Anybody else? Public business from the floor on a non-agenda item. Seeing none, we'll head on to city boards and commissions reports and referrals. Number one is a recommendation to city council to include replacement of decorative lights on Egan Drive in the 2027 budget and maintenance plan. Sure.

Thank you, Council. And most of the information is in your agenda packet. I've just been encouraging the Beautification Commission that I provide staff support to use this place on the agenda a little bit more to make their, because, you know, they're an advisory body to you all, and to make their desires known. This is a project that they've talked about for a number of years. They've had a stand for it who's our maintenance supervisor come speak with them about it. It sounds like the maintenance crew has some good ideas on how to do it. So it's just something that the commission was hoping would be in your old, and we'll make sure it gets into the new cleargov software as well, but just wanted that to be on your minds as you're planning for the budget process. And it's a small project, but one that they care about and would like to be invited to participate in so yeah all right at least with that would there be a work session that we would need to establish for that hopefully not okay it's not a huge project and hopefully it could just be um throughout the beautification commission meeting process um but

Okay, then moving to our consent agenda. There are four items on the consent agenda today. Please note if you'd like anything moved off the consent agenda. Number one is approval of renewal of standard marijuana cultivation facility license, DKW Farms, LLC. Acceptance of resignation of BMHA board member, Rich Duncan. An appointment to the Valdez Consortium Library Board application, Leo Russell Carson. And proclamation commending Dennis Williamson and Timothy Nicodemus for a life-saving emergency response. Anybody wish to make a motion?

Move to approve.

Second.

OK. Call for the vote.

Move by Council Member Lowley, seconded by Council Member Witte, approve all items on the consent agenda. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? With a vote of six yays, one absent. Council Member Stites, motion carries.

Okay, and so the proclamation that I'm going to read tonight is, whereas sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death and immediate intervention with CARDIOPULMINARY RECITATION GREATLY INCREASES THE CHANCE OF SURVIVAL, AND WHEREAS ON AUGUST 13, Two visiting contractors working on a city project, Dennis Williamson and Timothy Nicodemus, were faced with a critical medical emergency on the job site when a local bystander experienced a sudden life-threatening cardiac event. And whereas displayed remarkable composure, Nicodemus stepped into an immediate assessed situation and called 911 and Williamson, without hesitation, began to perform life-saving CPR, and whereas their swift actions, calm resolve, and application of emergency skills sustained the victim until professional first responders arrived on scene, and whereas the heroic effort of both Dennis Williamson and Timothy Nicodemus directly contributed to the preservation of a human life and are in inspiration to our entire community. Now, therefore, I, Dennis Fleming, Mayor of the City of Valdez, along with all members of the Valdez City Council, do hereby recognize and commend Dennis Williamson and Timothy Nicodemus for their extraordinary act of compassion and expression, our deepest gratitude for the vital role these individuals played in the life-saving, the 19th day of August, 2026. We can have you guys come here.

Great job.

Moving on to new business. We have approval of contract amendment with Alaska Scrap and Recycling LLC for nuisance abatement, scrap metal collection and processing, and upcoming scrap barge preparation in the amount of $75,000. Do I have a motion? Move to approve.

Second.

Moved by Council Member Green, seconded by Council Member Lally, to approve the contract amendment with Alaska Scrap and Recycling LLC in the amount of $75,000.

Is there any council discussion on this? Seeing none, is there any public discussion on this? Seeing none, call for the vote.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed? With a vote of six yays, one absent. Council Member Stites, motion carries.

OKAY, MOVING ON TO REPORTS. THERE ARE FOUR REPORTS, TWO WRITTEN AND TWO VERBAL. WHICH TWO ARE VERBAL?

CASEY AND CASEY WALKER AND BERT HINKEL.

OKAY. START WITH CASEY.

ALL RIGHT. MY NAME IS CASEY WALKER, CAPITAL FACILITIES DIRECTOR. NICE TO BE WITH YOU ALL THIS MORNING OR THIS EVENING. SORRY. WE'LL JUMP RIGHT INTO IT. This is our project status update, August 19th, 2026. We'll start with Meals Avenue and Robe River Drive. We're sitting at about 50% completion as of now. We've picked up a substantial pace on this project and so traffic control currently is underway for the school season. Currently we're working on storm drains near the parking lot in front of Safeway and demo is taking place on Meals Avenue, the street at And so things are moving along nicely now. Well house number five. Over by the elementary school we're sitting at about 35% completion. We have stripped the forms for the foundation walls and plumbers are waiting on materials to arrive so that we can set the floor for that building. CHILDCARE FACILITY, THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS WAS POSTED ON JULY 23 AND WILL CLOSE FOR SUBMISSION TOMORROW. SO WE'LL BE COMING TO YOU SOON WITH A CONTRACT FOR EXCEPTION. OR FOR ACCEPTANCE. The hospital generation, generator replacement. The generator has been set. Fuel lines and electrical hookups are installed. The final completion was delayed slightly due to some commissioning needs. The final changeover should take place in the next two weeks. For the radio tower, sitting currently at about 35% completion. The city hall directional drilling has been completed. Copper Valley should be running the fiber here soon. The comm shack is nearing its completion. That's being constructed off of site and will be delivered here to the site for installation. And then as well, the tower should be delivered sometime near the end of September. That's what we're anticipating. Another exciting one to have on this list is the skate park replacement. Currently sitting at 0% because we're awaiting the final materials to arrive. I don't know if anybody's driven by there recently, but they just recently removed all of the old equipment off up, getting it ready for the new equipment to arrive next week for install. They're anticipating around, I believe it was September 19th, to have a final event where we might have some pro skateboarders, things like that. It should be a really fun event for everybody to come and attend. So exciting news there. No new news on the Kelsey Duck dolphin replacement at the moment. So we'll move on to design status update, unless anybody has any comments or questions on the projects. All right, perfect. The Rural Roads Project, currently Dowell is working on designs and estimates for future work. Big movement in the Valdez High School Remodel Renovation Project. Architects had their site visits over the last few weeks where they performed various investigative measures in order to confirm what's in the field as of now, comparing it to the old as-builts and just working up a much more up-to-date as-built of that building. Initial programming and design stakeholder meetings. We should start getting people involved in this. REACHING OUT TO ANYBODY WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING THESE MEETINGS, BUT THOSE WILL BE TAKING PLACE, THE PRELIMINARY AND FIRST MEETINGS SHOULD BE TAKING PLACE ON SEPTEMBER 10TH AND 11TH. AND THERE WILL BE MORE INFORMATION BEING PUT OUT TO THE CITY AS WELL, BOTH VIA THE CITY WEBSITE AS WELL AS THE SCHOOLS WILL BE ADVERTISING AS WELL FOR THAT. SO WE'LL BE LOOKING FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THAT HERE TO COME. THE BAYLOR REPLACEMENT. The design contract was approved last month and work on the design has begun. VCT water line replacement. No new updates on that one. Still sitting at 95% design complete and currently exploring funding options for that work. Roof replacements for the well houses and lift stations. The architect did make a site visit and they sent over their fee proposal. It's currently under review. So hopefully we should have some more information on that for you soon. The animal shelter fuel lines, the contract has been approved and signed and scheduling for work is currently underway for that. For the museum annex lighting, the bid open is tomorrow, so it will be closing that out tomorrow and should have some more information on who we would like to have doing that work very soon. No major updates on the hospital projects from last time. Storm drain repairs are still underway. Hospital generator, we touched on that earlier. And then the long-term care unit is still working through some final punch list items. And then lastly, some other projects of note. We've seen a lot of rain over the past couple months. It's caused some concerns for erosion around some of the rivers. So currently monitoring erosion near Blueberry Hill on Mineral Creek, Glacier Stream, and Low River. Preventative measures are underway and there's been some work done over near the gold fields and Old Town Cemetery to prevent additional erosion over there. That, I believe, is all I've got for you tonight, unless you have any additional questions.

Just real quick, if I could add to the last point. So part of the reason the work at the hospital didn't get done is because we're doing some emergency reinforcement along Glacier Stream at the C&D pit. So you may have seen the trucks over there losing some ground, so we dumped some equipment. concrete debris to help reinforce that bank and so if as it erodes it'll fall in and shore up that that area but that was gonna have those two projects coincide as one couldn't be done because we were doing the other

I JUST WANTED TO KNOW, SORRY, THE CEMETERY AREA, HOW IS THAT WORKING OUT? I WENT OVER AND CHECKED IT OUT AND SAW HOW BAD THE EROSION HAD GOTTEN AND I WAS CURIOUS WITH THE REINFORCEMENT THAT WAS DONE, IS IT LOOKING PROMISING OVER THERE?

FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND, THE REINFORCEMENT HAS HELPED. WE'RE STILL MONITORING IT. IT STILL LOOKS LIKE THERE'S SOME ADDITIONAL EROSION HAPPENING IN THE AREA. about. And so we're trying to stay on top of it at the moment. So we should have some additional information on that hopefully soon.

Thank you.

Of course.

It's one of those where We're likely to lose some more land over in that area. Fortunately, we have a fair amount of a buffer before we get into significant infrastructure and existing amenities. But it's one of those where we're kind of weighing the cost-benefit ratio of building dikes is costly, especially on the low, versus what are you gaining and what are you saving? A lot of it lands in the floodplain, but, you know, A lot of the work that we put in as it relates to the Old Town Cemetery was critical because we don't want to lose the Old Town Cemetery. But when it comes to losing a little bit of riverfront property behind the ball fields there, I don't want to say it's sacrificial, but the cost-benefit on this point is going to be somewhat sacrificial.

Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Bart.

ALL RIGHT. GOOD EVENING. I WANT TO BE PRETTY BRIEF HERE THIS EVENING. MR. MAYOR, I WANT TO COMMEND YOU ON YOUR AVOIDANCE OF THE PREVIOUS TITLE. THAT'S PRETTY IMPRESSIVE. NATE AND I WERE TAKING BETS. I WAS GIVING HER A BRIEF ABOUT IT. SO I JUST CAME UP HERE TODAY BECAUSE I IMAGINE AS YOU'RE TALKING TO PEOPLE ABOUT SOME OF THE don't have all the information for you here today the plan is I'm working with communications manager to tell the story so to speak for both the citizens and then for you folks the next meeting but so it's a pretty brief one today as you're probably aware the scrap barge did arrive right August 9th around noon shoved off around August 11th around noon so they hit their 48-hour window it was 47 And that involved 19 people with elastic scrap just during the loading. That doesn't include North Star and those individuals. And so they ran nonstop there. It was one of those events in which everything aligned. The weather was nice. There was no conflict with the cruise ships. There were no breakdowns. They had one flat, which look at the amount of metal they're driving around and stuff. That's pretty impressive. One flat. And at the very last hour, they had a truck that overheated slightly. those rare events. We don't know the exact total yet. Another rare event, actually, we talked about it. We got down to Tacoma five days early. So offload has basically concluded about earlier today. And so it'll be a few days before we know the total tonnage. Based on a lot of the experts that were there watching, they think between 38 and 4,000. So that's the tonnage there. Using some of those numbers, they trucked 80.85 tons an hour back and forth for 47 hours. So it was a pretty neat operation. I will have a lot more detail next time. I'm happy to answer any questions. I do want to just say that the individuals that we worked with, including those from SeaTac, those from Alaska Scrap, they'd been doing this for decades. ME THAT THIS WAS ONE OF THEIR MORE FUN PROJECTS IN A LONG TIME AND THAT EVERYBODY IN THE CITY WAS VERY SUPPORTIVE AND APPRECIATED FROM THE HELP FROM THE HARBOR TO THE NORTH STAR AND ON. AND I'LL RECAP THAT IN THE NEXT ONE IN MORE DETAIL. AND THEN OF COURSE TO YOU FOLKS TOO AND COUNCILS BEFORE YOU FOR YOUR COMMITMENT TO SEEING THIS THROUGH. HAPPY TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS THERE SO YOU CAN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS YOU'RE ASKED PROBABLY OUT IN THE PUBLIC FOR A LITTLE BIT.

All right. Did anybody want to go over the written reports? Okay. Moving on then to city manager, city clerk, city attorney, mayor's report. We'll start with city manager report.

Thank you, Mayor. I guess I wanted to... I had a couple of things from my written report. We've had some communication with Head Start as to what's going on, what's the future look like. We got a little more to the story. While they were out of the space, there was a water leak in an adjoining property, one of the other units not in the daycare that caused some damage into the daycare site. And so they've been working to get that fixed up. They're still having challenges with the staffing of the Head Start classroom. They do have sufficient staff returning at the end of September, so their plan is to be open on the 29th of September with the early Head Start. That's the 18 months to 3-year-olds, if I remember correctly. But that's not the full complement of what they could have over there. Positive news, end of September, they may be back up and running with early head start. The negatives, they're still trying to find people to work for them so they can be fully operational. We've been reaching out and communicating with them. We've got to meet with them tomorrow to talk about what, if anything, we can do to assist with the staffing challenges and also to talk about what just some preliminary conversation of what it would look like for them to occupy the other facility and what that means. We've had a number of conversations about Head Start versus all-day daycare, infant care, and so just kind of working out some of the details of what that means. They've been amenable to providing child care in these other various forms. Right now their funding is for Head Start specifically, but that's not to say that with additional or other funding sources that they couldn't provide child care like I said, the infant care or the after-school care, kind of the full-day spectrum, if you will. And so those conversations will be ongoing, but I did want to point out the current status of when they look to be operational again is end of September at this point. We had the meeting with the race back after the Coast Guard dinner to meet with the Commandant of the Coast Guard and Senator Sullivan. I think that was a positive experience. I'll be brutally honest, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I don't know that I knew what to expect. But it was a good opportunity for us to say what we think Valdez could benefit from working with the Coast Guard on. Mayor pointed out some needs that the Coast Guard locally has. We'll be following up with our points of contact from those meetings. But again, it was in talking to Commander Mecham, I believe he said it's been 14 years since the Commandant has come to Valdez. So it's been a while. Any interaction is a positive interaction as far as I can tell. But it was a good meeting. Hopefully it leads to a positive outcome in that regard. A highlight that I wanted to Point out, Senator Rauscher brought up the disaster declaration. Because it would be an economic disaster, that's through the state's economic development agency. And therefore, it requires some data to go with it for the economic impacts. So we're still waiting on the final numbers. And so I appreciate Senator Rauscher hearing us out. And I tipped him off that, hey, we're going to be looking for this. THE FINAL SUBMISSION TO THE STATE WILL COME ONCE WE'VE GOT THAT FINAL DATA AS TO WHAT IS THE ACTUAL ECONOMIC IMPACT. AND THEN FROM THERE THEY'LL FORWARD IT ON TO THE GOVERNOR, ET CETERA, TO GET THAT PROCESS ROLLING. SO I DON'T WANT TO IT'S A PROCESS AND IT'S IN MOTION IS THE SHORT ANSWER. And lastly, and certainly not least, I do want to point out that our master mechanic and fleet manager, Joe Russell, is retiring. So next week will be his last week on the job, and so I want to give a shout-out to Joe. He didn't quite meet the 15 years for a proclamation to require him to show up to a council meeting, and he was quite appreciative of that, but... It will be nowhere near the appreciation we have for him for what he's done for the city. He's saved us millions of dollars when it comes to equipment repairs and fleet management and just his wealth of knowledge and, frankly, just being an all-around good guy and great attitude and pleasure to be around. So we're going to miss Joe quite a bit. We have hired a new mechanic, Jacob, who will be working. He's got good experience. There's only one Joe, only one Joe Russell, and so we're grateful for Joe, and I just wanted to acknowledge him and his retirement as he moves on with what he's got going on. With that, I'll stand for any questions you may have for me.

Any questions for the city manager? I just have one that we may want to look at, and that would be maybe a potential work session for daycare. I'VE GOTTEN A LOT OF CONVERSATIONS THAT HAVE COME TO ME ABOUT A DAY CARE VERSUS HEAD START TYPE OF THING AND WHAT REALLY WOULD BENEFIT A LOT OF PEOPLE AND THEY'RE THINKING THE DAY CARE WOULD BE A LOT MORE BENEFICIAL. SO I'D LIKE TO GET COUNCIL INVOLVED AND TRY TO WORK THAT SITUATION.

NEW SPEAKER If I could ask. Is your thought or vision on that would be just something internal with council, or would you like us to have Head Start Chugach be present?

I think having them present would help, you know, because they can tell us what they can do and what they can't do. Because, you know, when we were at the dinner for the Coast Guard, the commander's wife talked to me about daycare for the Coast Guard, and what they're having a problem with right now is newborns. coming in, and right now Head Start can't take the new barns. And so they were kind of really in a pinch there. So I think we should invite the community and just kind of have a conversation with them. And whatever works date-wise would be great.

Okay, can do.

Okay, we'll go to city clerk report.

Thank you, Mayor Fleming and Council. City Clerk Sherry Pierce will be returning tomorrow. She is currently on personal leave. Coast Guard welcome event is happening this week on Friday. There'll be a good city presence of that.

Hopefully the mayor will be there to say a few words.

We are putting welcome bags together for that event like we do every year, so thanks to all the city departments that are helping me pull those together. I do want to announce for the community as well that that same day, Friday the 21st, there is a military appreciation cruise being sponsored by the city. It is a free event. We have put it out to who we know to put it out to, but if anyone is listening or knows anyone who is either active duty or a veteran, it is open to those folks and their families. boards at Stan Stevens at 5.30 p.m. on Friday the 21st. You do need to register ahead of time. It's by noon on Friday, and the registration is on the City of Valdez website. If you go to the Residence tab, it's under City Events. So please, if you know anyone who would like to attend, let them know about that and get them to sign up. It's just a two and a half hour port cruise, just a appreciation for military folks and what they do. And I'm not the one doing that. Bridget Rich with Parks and Rec is the one organizing that, but we've just been trying to help get the word out. So shout out to Bridget for putting that together. Destination Valdez held their pre-incorporation meeting on Monday. It was brief, but productive. They have elected officers. So their officers are the president is Colleen Stevens, vice president is Alan Sorum, secretary is Tommy Sheridan, and treasurer is Kathy Nielsen. A couple other board members have volunteered to do specific things, like serving on bylaws committee or helping with website needs. So I think there's some good momentum there. So now that officers are named, we can go ahead and file the articles of incorporation with the state. and they can be a real organization. And their next meeting will be on Thursday, the 27th in the evening. And that will be to talk about the process for adopting bylaws and what forming the bylaws committee looks like. So keep an eye out for that. We're in a little bit of a weird gray area with that as well right now where clerks and Martha are providing the organization with and the staffing support in its creation because, of course, they're a new organization and don't have any administrative staff of their own. So sometime in the future, they will hire administrative staff and we'll pass that on to them. But for now, we just want to set them up for success. Elections, state primary elections were yesterday. Thank you to Katie Carr for running around and supporting all of our state election workers and helping coordinate the precincts, as she always does. And thank you to maintenance staff as well for doing their set up and tear down. They are elections run by the state of Alaska, but there's a lot of local people and a lot of city folks who really make that process happen. So thank you to everybody. We do have some staffing changes in the city clerk's office that you'll be seeing here in the very soon future. Mason Fleming has left us for the police department, so we will be having a new Mason. We actually just hired a different person named Mason as a temp physician at the customer service uh rep um his name is mason leonard roberts so uh um and then uh reggie will be going on parental leave here soon so we'll be a little bit spotty on coverage at the front desk for the next couple weeks uh but we'll be doing our best and luckily the deadline for the first half of taxes has passed so um and then we also are bringing on a that temporary position for records digitization as well so we've hired And one for that as well. And they'll both be starting Monday of next week. So exciting. And congratulations to Reggie for soon to be in addition to the family. And then Citizens Academy is almost done. One more session this week. And then next week is the facilities tour. We've gotten a lot of good feedback on it. It's pretty fun. Their graduation ceremony will be at your next council meeting. We'll recognize everyone who's participated in that program. And then the only other thing is in front of you, there is the, I say draft, but this is really the final version of your budget work sessions. Casey DeShuck has put a lot of work into this. He's dealt with me on this for a long time. And so please look this over. Let us know if there's days you aren't here. I believe we have a quorum for most everything. I know Lester's traveling. But please, if there's dates you know you'll be gone, let us know sooner rather than later so we can adjust as needed. And that's all I got. I'm sorry.

Okay, and do we have... Anybody? Jake.

Thank you, Mayor Fleming, and good evening, everybody. I have a very brief update for you this evening. I guess no news is good news from your attorney sometimes, or very little news at least. In sum, everything is moving along as planned. We have a status conference set in the ad valorem tax matters for September 2nd. That'll be our first opportunity to get before Judge McKay. We'll discuss expectations for the forthcoming trial and scheduling primarily at that status hearing. Robin and Jack are presently down in Houston with our expert witness team. So we're in the process of defining rules for them and making sure everybody's on the same page with that team. So cases moving along as planned, as are all other matters. So not much of an update, but I'd be happy to answer any questions about the ad valorem matter or any other matters.

Any questions for Jake? All right, Jake, you're off the hook.

All righty. Thank you.

Okay, moving on. I'll go last. Let's go to business council members from the floor. Kimmy.

Well, firstly, I'd like to thank the members of the Destination Marketing team for all their hard work. And I would also like to thank all of the election workers and volunteers. It was a big, big-time election just yesterday, and they all did a very wonderful job. I'm always impressed by the number of people locally that it takes to do, especially the state elections. Seems like it's even harder somehow. So it's great to see how many people continue to sign up to do that. And also congratulations to Joe Russell and a condolences to everybody that has to fill his giant shoes.

Yeah, same thing here. Thank you to all the poll workers. I went and voted, and it was flawless as usual. They do a great job, and I appreciate every one of them. And Joe, I know Joe. He's a great guy. He's a hard worker for the city. He will be truly missed around here. He has always gone above and beyond, and yeah, he's going to be missed greatly. Thank you.

I just have a lot of thank yous, I guess. Thank you for the opportunity to attend the Coast Guard Foundation dinner. I had great interactions with the Alaska delegation members. The Secretary of DHS, you don't get to do that every day. And then to immediately jump in the car and head down and be a part of the town hall with Senator Sullivan, the Commandant, and the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard. Being a member of the Coast Guard, you don't get to do that every day either. I WANTED TO THANK STAFF FOR ALL THE WORK THAT WENT INTO THE EXEMPTION CODE THAT WE HEARD TONIGHT DURING THE WORK SESSION. I WANT TO THANK EVERYONE THAT WAS INVOLVED, ALL THE POLL WORKERS AND EVERYBODY INVOLVED IN THE ELECTIONS. THE NEW POLLING LOCATION AT THE AIRPORT, AWESOME. LOOKED GREAT. I WANT TO CONGRATULATE JOE RUSSELL ON HIS RETIREMENT AND THANK HIM FOR ALL OF HIS YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE CITY AND THANKS TO BRIDGET RICH FOR ORGANIZING THE MILITARY AND VETERANS CREWS ON FRIDAY.

I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THE ELECTION VOLUNTEERS, VERY FLAWLESS AND VERY NICE TO SEE YOU STILL HAVE THE STICKERS OUT THERE TOO. I'D ALSO LIKE TO THANK RICH DUNCAN FOR HIS TIME AND SERVICE TO A LOT OF YEARS AND A LOT OF HISTORY AND KNOWLEDGE THERE THAT HE'S PROVIDED TO OUR COMMUNITY. SO THANK YOU, RICH. AND THEN JUST A WORD, WE GOT SCHOOL BACK IN SESSION THERE. PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE KIDS OUT AND ABOUT, BUSES, MODIFIED TRAFFIC PATTERNS ARE IN PLACE THERE. SO WE WANT EVERYBODY BACK IN SCHOOL SAFE AND SOUND. THANK YOU.

Thank you, Mayor Fleming. I would agree with your comment about the work session for child care, and I would add on to that. It would be nice to see some stakeholders present as well, like Coast Guard, Alyeska, Providence, Valdez City Schools, Prince William Sound College, the Valdez Native Tribe, just to extend an invitation out to them to have this discussion as this impacts all of those workforces. And I, too, am super grateful for Joe Russell just walking around town and knowing his face around town, always friendly. And I hear he's a phenomenal mechanic. So huge loss for us, but I wish him well in his future endeavors. Thank you.

All right. And then I'll go with the same amount of thank yous that everybody else did. I really want to recognize Dennis Williamson and Timothy Nicodemus for the life-saving effort they did. And, you know, that's really great. You know, not really from our community, but reached out and helped. And I thought that was pretty incredible. So hats off to those guys. Really good job. And then We did meet with the Coast Guard, the Commandant, and it wasn't quite what I thought it was. I was more of the chauffeur, ran them down, but I was told at the beginning when we met with the security team that I couldn't go in front of the chase car, don't block them off, you know, so it was kind of exciting in one way. You know, I don't know how well that passenger van of the city does, but I was going to test it out if they let me. But it went pretty good. It went really smooth and dropped him off, got to talk to him for a little bit. But, yeah, it was really a good opportunity for us to express to the Coast Guard. And just to let you guys know, I kind of really pumped up the housing for the Coast Guard, new housing for them. And, you know, just overall conditions for living here. I think it was even brought up that one of the other suggestions was maybe a possible commissary for him, you know, just talking to him. So it was pretty good to be able to do that and meet with those guys. It was really nice. Other than that, that's all I got. So meeting adjourned.