City Council - Regular Meeting

Second clerk. Any discussion, questions, comments? item. Would you want to amend the agenda to add the legislative priorities to the committee? Sure.

So, in commission, we have committee the whole item end. We're going to add legislative priorities. The council is going to uh the uh Alaskan Municipal League next week and [clears throat] we need to approve the 2026 legislative priority so we can take that down to the so we can take that down to the uh legislature and see if we can get some money from them. So yes. So is there any any objection [clears throat] to be adding legislative priorities to the committee the whole Mayor Cooper? Yes. Council member Carrington, yes. Council member Collins, [clears throat] yes. Council member Graham, yes. Council member Moer, yes.

It is approved and unanimous. Thank you. Moving on. Um I don't see elected officials in the audience, but I do see um some board and commission members. Sarah, are you still on? Are you on the the parks board? And we have Luke Jackson here from planning and zoning, chairman of the planning zoning commission. And I'm not sure if there's anybody else.

Sorry. Oh, yeah. Well, not yet. Not yet. Oh, yeah. I guess he is. So, yes. Welcome. We have We have a new PNG member with us, [clears throat]

Sam Waffy. Thank you. Moving on. Uh [clears throat] we have two proclamations tonight. One recognizing Black History Month. Black History Month is observed each year during the month of February to recognize and honor the achievements, contributions, and resilience of Black Americans throughout United States history. And Black Americans have played a vital role in shaping the nation's history, culture, economy, and democratic institutions, often while overcoming systemic barriers, barriers, and injustice. And the recognition of black history provides an opportunity for all residents to learn from the past, celebrate cultural diversity, and reaffirm a shared commitment to equity, inclusion, and mutual respect. The city of Palmer values diversity and strives to be a welcome, welcoming community where all people are treated with dignity and have the opportunity to thrive. Acknowledging Black History Month encourages reflection, education, and dialogue that strengthens our community and promotes understanding amongst all residents. Therefore, it's proclaimed by the mayor and city council of Palmer that we do hereby recognize February 2026's Black History Mon. Second one. Second one is for recognizing uh President's Day. [clears throat] President Day is observed annually to to honor the leadership [clears throat] excuse me leadership service and enduring contributions of the president of the United States. And the office of the president represents the democratic principles upon which our nation was founded including liberty, justice, and civic responsibility. and presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln whose birthdays are commemorated during this observance exemplified dedication to public service and the preservation of our nation. And

President's Day provides an opportunity for citizens to reflect upon the history of the United States and the individuals whose leadership have shaped the nation's past, present, and future. City of Palmer encourages residents to engage in civic learning and to honor the ideals of democracy and public service. Therefore, it's proclaimed by the mayor and the city council of the city of Palmer that this Monday, February 16th, shall be observed as present day in the city of Palmer and encourages all residents to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that honor the legacy of our nation's president. Thank you. Now, we have a report from Respect. They are online and hopefully they can hear us or we can hear them.

Give us a minute, please. Yeah. Hopefully she's at her computer. [clears throat]

Okay, let's take a break. I'll just shut the computer down and reboot. Okay. All right. Uh hopefully a five minute break, please. Sorry. This is Maya. Are you guys able to hear me? Magic. to turn it off.

All right. Um [clears throat] I Kelsey, are you able to to unmute mute your mic? Uh yeah, absolutely. Hello. Um, great.

Can you hear us at all?

Can you hear us now?

[clears throat]

presentation. [clears throat]

Okay. So I am getting the go ahead um to start the presentation and hopefully we can um get some audio going from the other way so we can have some questions. Otherwise we might just have to utilize the chat function to send questions our way. Um here let me um I'm going to send a request quick to be able to share my screen here. And okay, there we go. Great. All right. And I can see my screen on the TV behind uh you all. So, I think we're good to go. So, my name is Kelsey Anderson. Um, I want to thank you all for having respect here tonight. Um, I'm a senior planner with a company called Respec. Um, and we were hired on to support the city in developing um, a parking and pedestrian access strategic plan. So, we are um, very far along in the process now. So, we just want to make sure that we're here giving you all an update on what we heard from the public comment period um and just kind of an overview of the actual plan itself and then some next steps. So, today I'm going to do a bit of a project overview just to make sure um we all remember what the plan [snorts] is. going to go through the planning process um as well as talk through the public comment period as well as um the other outreach efforts that we um facilitated for this project. Um after that we're

going to go into the recommendation goals from the strategic plan um as well as talking through some action items, going through some examples. Um and then we're going to end on just kind of what you can expect for the final steps for this process. So to begin, uh, we, like I said, were hired on to, um, work on the Palmer central business district parking and pedestrian access strategic plan. Um, I will just be referring to it as the strategic plan from here on out because that's a really long title, but essentially what we are working towards is a comprehensive initiative to improve parking and pedestrian mobility in Palmer's central business district or CBD. So, we're looking at how can we promote economic vitality and support local businesses while also enhancing accessibility for residents and visitors alike. Um, all while preserving Palmer's unique character, which is just so beloved by the region, both by residents and visitors alike. So, we're thinking through, you know, are there improvements that could make uh getting around easier, whether that be like wayfinding or ADA accessibility and really just looking at how are folks getting into the CBD and how are they moving when they're uh when they're there. the planning process. So, we um started working with Nate at the city um in July of 2025. We started with some background and research really just uh getting a solid understanding of your current code, uh things like your comprehensive plan, the um different planning efforts that have already happened within the

CBD, the city of Palmer, and the region. Um looking things like the next two tubes by calling pedestrian plans, safe routes to school, um and your urban revitalization projects, things like that. Um once we kind of completed that background research, we dived into existing conditions. Um really this is looking at what is happening on the landscape right now. So, um, we did some on the ground work as far as counting spaces, looking at striping, um, looking at signage, um, understanding the private lots versus public lots, really just, um, cataloging all of that information into a single report, which is found actually as an appendices to the strategic planning, uh, public comment draft. Um we have been providing outreach and engagement opportunities um really since last summer all the way up until the end of uh January 2026. So this has been a project that is heavily influenced by um public input and I'll go into in the next slide just kind of really what that all looks like. And um so right now we're at the strategic planning uh process or we've kind of gone through that where we've developed the actual strategic plan ready for public comment. And in there we defined five goals and then several strategies and actions underneath each of those goals um that are really aiming at kind of that overall vision of um increasing you know safety and mobility and inviting economic development into the CBD and that has been up for public comment. Um and then the next steps here to kind

of wrap up this project in the next few months is um updating the plan with some administrative changes and things that we heard from the public comment process into the final plan and having that come to um the planning and voting commission and the city council for adoption and then um helping with kind of any [clears throat] initial legislative um actions that would come from for implementation. So, like I mentioned, the public comment period um has just recently closed. It opened December 23rd of 2025 and um it was scheduled to close January 21st. We actually extended it by 10 days just to give folks a few more uh days to get their comments in. Um we received five comments overall via email. We uh shared the um public comment draft on the city website with a big banner up top um as well as on the Facebook page. And so um overall comments were supportive of the planning process. Um people also offered up some really good ideas um that were excited to include things like a public awareness campaign about pedestrian access and safety. um as well as adding some clear signage and striping for emergency responders at the fire station and the CBD station 31. Um in addition to the public comment period, um as I said, we've been um we have had a very robust um and engaging public um outreach process for this plan. Uh we had surveys out to the community. We actually got

339 responses. Um that was open until October 31st. We um attended three Friday flings to get some inperson um some quick surveys. We had 63 responses from those and that was really aimed at looking at um just how people got to Friday fling were moving around within the CBD before and after. Um so those were really helpful for that kind of lived event experience. Uh we also did a direct mailer to the residents of the CBD really trying to understand um their experience of parking of access mobility and we received five responses to that survey. Um we contacted 23 businesses um and owners um property owners within the CBD for stakeholder interviews and we were able to get nine of those. Um we had nine people come back to us and participate in those. So we also have nine stakeholder interviews um on top of then presenting to the city council um and the planning and zoning commission as well. So really the recommendations, the goals, this plan is built on what we've heard um from the public and I think really the overarching message um was that people really want to see a focus on um increasing access during um events. That is like the main pressure point heard throughout the surveys, throughout the interviews, and the um in person Monday through Friday. Folks really don't have too difficult of a time getting in and out of the CBE, finding parking or um finding their way through downtown

Palmer. Um so we developed these goals and strategies to really refine um the city's role in accessibility and mobility um as well as thinking through some different ways to approach parking management um that we'll go through here in just a little bit. So the planning recommendation goals um there's five of them. They are to ensure accessible, reliable and safe parking year round. This is really focused on ADA accessibility and just reliable and transparent winter maintenance. Um improving downtown bicycle and pedestrian safety and connectivity is goal two. Um this is looking at once people park, how are they getting from A to B safely or how are people walking, biking um within the CBD. So, there's a lot of recommendations about crosswalks, sidewalks, pathways. That's where you're really going to see those safety features um as the action items. Adapt parking policies to support downtown business growth. This is looking at rightsiz and code to accommodate growth. So, what can the city do to incentivize, not penalize, um businesses as they're looking to invest in uh the downtown core CBD? Uh number four is optimize parking supply through management, not construction. So we're really looking at efficiency versus expenditures. So not like leaning on things like parking police and um and and pay to park, but really looking at like just increasing the usability of what we have. How can we stripe better? How can we use signage to be more efficient? Things like that. And then finally, build a comprehensive event

parking and mobility program. So, we put a lot of thought into how can we really fix the major parking and circulation issue, which is the parking and mobility um when it comes to events like colony days, Friday flings, um things like that. Okay. So, um just kind of a general um overview of the action items. Um these are all very clearly defined and uh represented in the actual strategic plan document. Um for bike and pedestrians, we were looking at ADA accessibility, like I said, winter maintenance, safety features, um you know, things like curb ramps, crosswalks, improved lighting. Um and then also looking at uh other action items kind of outside the non-motorized um actions include things like pilot programs um for like different ways to collect data about the type of movement that's happening. One thing we realized with the existing conditions report is um Palmer doesn't really have kind of a baseline of uh travelers in and out and through the CBD. So, what can we do to kind of gather some of that information so the city council and planning and zoning commission can um really kind of have these data driven decisions when they're thinking about um how to move some of these strategies forward. So, the next couple slides I'm going to walk through um a couple of examples of goal three strategy one. So, our our recommendation for the um modernizing parking policies to support business growth is really around this idea of

menu-based reduction systems. So, um we obviously heard a lot of feedback about um people who um you know either want to get rid of parking minimums or don't want to get rid of parking minimums. And so really there's definitely a balance that can be struck here. um that's going to be looking at public private partnerships as far as like shared use parking agreements um to just make sure that we're really we want to focus on incentivizing right we want to focus on the carrot and not the stick here so um I just wanted to go through a couple of examples because just reading menu based production system in a strategic plan is um some for it can be hard to visualize what that means So um the first example that I wanted to share with you um would be an example for menu based parking reduction strategy um [clears throat] with a maximum decrease of 30%. So, what we did is we looked at the existing uh code for the central business district for um your parking requirements and um are just offering some ways to incentivize people to essentially invest in the community, invest in community infrastructure or invest in community partnerships to be able to decrease the required parking spaces for them. So this first uh example is for a restaurant or bar with a maximum capacity of 50 seats with 50 feet of furnish. So there's kind of two caveats here too. One, we are recommending a small business development supplemental reduction of 10%. Um that would be clearly defined in code if this was uh

chosen to be enacted into legislation. And that also goes with definitions for things like vicinity to, right? Vicinity to public parking or vicinity to on street parking um is very subjective without a very clear definition. So um for us in this example, we're really thinking of vicinity to on street parking as something that would be defined in code as like a sub zone within the CBD. So you're thinking really where your centralized economic hub already is. Um so as it is right there would be 10 required parking spaces um with 50 ft of frontage. So, if the business owner decides to enter into a shared use parking agreement voluntarily with another local business owner that's nearby um and then they decide to do something that is uh improving community infrastructure like providing bike parking, which is making it easier for people to use alternative transportation to their business. Then the city council can would be able to then say, "Okay, you've met these different requirements through this menu." You can have a 30% reduction in your parking requirement. Meaning that instead of needing 10 parking spaces, you're going to need six parking spaces. just neighbors try and find parking agreements as well as just um like I said, we really just want to incentivize how people are investing in Palmer and in the infrastructure doing things like um upgrading, you know, sidewalks and things like that to get to their business. So, the second example would be um going up to a maximum decrease of 50%. So part of our um planning part of our like kind

of phase one that plan review was also uh shape and size to Palmer that have recently kind of gone through different parking updates. And so one thing that we're seeing is it's it's quite subjective for city councils to choose what the maximum decrease for a parking reduction strategy would look like. um 50% is pretty liberal whereas 30% seem to be um more of the standard that we saw between kind of the case studies that we used in developing this. So with this example um we're looking at a max capacity restaurant or bar with 100 as the max capacity with again 50 ft of front range. So you're looking at 20 parking spaces and two are on street um spaces. So once again looking at a person going out getting that kind of shared use parking agreement having vicinity to on street parking. So really uh focusing on infilling the um economic center of Palmer rather than spreading out into the neighborhoods of CBD um by competit improvement something like improving um you know curb ramps and parking and then adaptive reuse. This one is really um focused on like we said preserving the character of Palmer. So giving people a little bit of an incentive um through a parking reduction to maintain the quality and the character of like historic buildings within the CBD. Um so having all of those things together, somebody could come to the city council and say, "I've done my homework. I've done all these things. Here's how I'm looking to invest in my community. And then you could based on this type of recommended strategy um provide a 50% reduction,

meaning that they would only require nine parking spaces versus the 20 spaces of that were required and are currently required through code. Know that was a lot. Kind of a lot, but um It is something that um like I said the the real meat of it is going to be thought through through uh writing the actual legislation where planners and community development, public works, city council members, planning and zoning can really think through what they mean for like these definitions and what it means to have a difference between a 30% um you know maximum decrease or a 50%. So, um the strategic plan in many ways is meant to be a guiding post and a starting point for some really good conversations around um coming to these problems with inventive solutions, things that aren't going to penalize existing uh parking owners while also providing just more opportunity for folks to invest in Palmer. So, where we're at now is we closed our public comment period. Um, so right now we're updating that draft plan with um some things from public comment, some administrative changes that we've talked through with public works and community development staff. Um, and we'll have that final plan wrapped up and ready here by the end of next week. Um and that will be brought to the planning and zoning commission and then back to you all in its final form for review and adoption and then respect will stick

around for a while to see how we can support any sort of enacting legislation that would come. So um with that I would be happy to take any questions. Um I don't know where we're at on the audio situation for us. Um,

yes, ma'am. You have a question for We have a question. We're going to test my typing speed, guys. Okay. So, some current business owners have expressed concern about potential liability with the shared agreement. Looks like we're using chat. Um, wonder if that's something they looked into. What is the question? Some business owners have expressed concern about liability issues with the shared use parking agreement. Shared

right? As long as we don't expect everything to be spelled perfectly,

right? Okay. Some business owners express concern about liability issues with shared use parking agreement. Um yeah, I mean I think that that's a valid concern. Um, you know, one thing to just be explicit about, right, is that, um, any sort of shared use parking agreement is going to be voluntarily entered into by two private entities. So, I mean, I think it would absolutely be in the best interest of both to have a contract written out that's explicit about liability and about maintenance requirements, about all those different things. um that could be something that the city kind of helps facilitate in a way of uh using their legal services to draft up an example contract that people could use. Um but it is, you know, it is a contract between two private entities and it will absolutely be up to them to make sure that um they feel comfortable with uh all of the terms negotiated with what that looks like. Thank you. Uh my question is so as I'm reading through this halfway talking out loud, if we are offering shared use parking agreements for a potential 10% reduction, does the strategic plan also include guidance for the city via legislation or policy on how the city would keep track of that on our end? Because if sorry

no we're okay if we are offering shared use parking agreements does the strategic plan also allow for for uh I'm trying to think the best way to Yeah. Is there a way for the city through legislation or proposed legislation to keep track of who's still in agreement with who in case a business leaves for legislation? So that if we've got two businesses who say, "Okay, we're in an agreement together." Yeah. Do you want that? So if one business leaves,

who is I'm just going to Yeah. Okay. So, the question is, if we are offering shared use parking agreements, does the strategic plan also allow for the city to propose legislation for documentation? So, if one business leaves, who is in contract with who?

Um, so I mean that would depend. So like I said the any sort of shared use agreement would be [clears throat] um between like two parties. So if one business, if it's just between two private um two private entities, if somebody wanted if there was an option to um get into like a public private agreement where um somebody wanted to secure a few more public spaces and Palmer decided that was an opportunity where they would enter into that sort of agreement, then that would end up being between the city and a private business and would have its own implications. there

and what happens with the parking agreement and the spaces. Yeah. So, once again, that's all going to be decided between two private entities. Um, something that we've really heard from folks was um wanting to like have the opportunity to figure out uh parking requirements and things kind of between themselves, not always needing the government, not always needing um the city to be kind of in the middle of that. So, this is really an opportunity to allow just for people to work with people rather than uh people, government people. So, and try to take out the middleman there.

So the agreement though is also with the city to agree to allow them to have that reduction space and that would have to be tracked somehow on the city side if we've got two businesses who enter only if they come to the city and we offer a waiver for that. Right. But and then that's when we get involved. And that's what I'm saying is if we offer that waiver

and it is a thing that we do. We do it just like they've got outlined here and you've got two businesses who enter in into an agreement. Now between the two of them, they've got 50% reduction in parking space. one business leaves, that business is still only has to have six parking spaces, but the next person that comes in, I mean, what I want to make sure is that if they are going to be presenting this to us as a whole with the final plan adoption and the draft and acting of legislation that that is covered in what they're saying, do you know what I mean for that particular situation?

I I I do understand. Nate, you want to talk about that a little bit? fix this. So, so

this program, I understand what you're saying, but but again, you know, [laughter] then what will happen is and one business leaves for both businesses, right? So have to be like I'm on my phone for Zoom. That way when she unmutes it, she can hear what the questions are so we can preserve her fingers. But I don't know how that works with feedback. So my my question then is

so when we ask for more money in the budget for a a sound system, please don't get upset. [laughter] Okay. Okay. Okay. that. [clears throat] Okay, can we just take a break? I will log off and log back on and we'll see if we can fix it because I'm about to lose the money. Hopefully five

But she can zoom up if I change the zoom out. It should work.

We'll call the meeting back to order. We kind of have a little bit of volume somewhere, but um is there any other questions of respect? I I don't know if they can hear us, but if not, they thank you so much for your presentation and we'll let you sign off. Uh moving moving on to reports. Uh city manager report, please.

Thank you. This week, I'll be meeting with our IT vendor who's new. [laughter] Yeah, he's done an excellent job of supporting the city over the uh several months and I will be adding this to our list for our meeting tomorrow. Um, but the overall intent of tomorrow's meeting is to go over all of our current infrastructure and existing contracts to identify any cost savings we can have. We've got several internet lines and if we can reduce those and streamline that would be great. Um this will still meet our technology lead our technology needs but also um increase our operational efficiency and we expect to have overall performance and service delivery from vicinity with these um these changes. And this week I met with several local nonprofits and I'm excited to learn more about how we can support these community events and partnerships as we prepare for the upcoming summer event season. Um this past Two weeks ago, uh staff and I attended the Chamber of Commerce state of the city event, which was an excellent opportunity for each department director to share what we how we currently stand in the organization and where our goals are going forward. And as an update, the city anticipates an issue issuing, which is a necessary step for compliance. And additionally, I also want to remind any event coordinators out there that construction on Evergreen Cedar Avenue and near the library may affect traffic flow access and organizers to reach out to our community development well in advance so we can collaborate on solutions on how we can change some of that um event flow and how it looks. And also I want to thank our finance department for their hard work and dedication to the city. I know that we're in a very busy season and coming into audit season and I understand how tiresome and tedious some of this work can be and I just want to thank everyone that they are ensuring

our debits and credits reconcile and our financial records remain accurate. Thank you. Any questions? Um yes, ma'am. Uh thank you. Um, so I've heard, but not confirmed, [clears throat] um, that season passes at the golf course are not being offered and there's been some community questions about whether that is a result of anything the city is or is not doing. Wonder if you could comment on that.

Um, the city did not shut down golf course or season pass sales um, after the city inquired on February 2nd about season pass rates with the current contractor using unapproved 2020 season rates. The operator confirmed in writing that he had already voluntarily done that the day before on February 1st. And so we are going to continue that suspension until the city and the contractor uh come to terms on 2026 rates. But I also would like to note that we did send a proposed contract about two weeks ago and it's in their legal team review and it is going to be going back and forth between the legal review and process.

Thank you. Any other questions of the manager? Moving on to my report. Uh, last week I met with a a group uh that was concerned about energy and different costs of of energy and the expanding costs of energy and looking at different forms and how to reduce costs, you know, and obviously they're looking at alternative measures. Uh everybody knows that gas has become a shortage in the state and it's becoming more and more expensive and um so they're looking at you know they were trying to discuss and you know and look at you know solar and wind and potentially thermo um so that I mean it was it was a pretty good meeting you know and they are going to come up with some solutions and pass them on to me here in the next couple weeks or so. Um I also met with uh uh members from Matsu Health Foundation um and they were doing a study on economic mobility study. Um everybody uh wants the next generation to be better than our generation, to be smarter, to be have more money. Um and they're looking at how do we how do how do we how do they do that? You know, go to better schools and you know and all that kind of stuff. and you know what can the city do to help you know get involved and you know and my immediate answer was annexation because for us to provide more businesses you have to have more land you know um so um so they're looking at the community health needs um and they also are going to they're actually getting going around to other people talk about that and they will provide me a report as well uh yesterday I met with the museum board and to discuss address um issues surrounding museum and and what they're going to be doing to the current museum and uh and different uh alternatives on

how how do we make it better signage on the roads, how do we get people more people in the town know that we have actually have a museum and and that was that was a good thing as well. Um, tomorrow the chamber uh the the um main speakers are the friends of the Palmer Public Library and uh they are going to kick off their fundraiser. Um and it's from obviously longer then but it's going from February 14th to March 15 and you know and I don't know

I'm right here you'll come up in a bit and talk about that. Um, Friday is u it's called the 907 gala. It's a nonprofit uh the nonprofit their mission is to restore empower and strengthen the at youth risks. That's Friday uh from 6:00 to 8:30 at the Wasilla Baptist Church and it's a fundraiser to to help support those. That's what I have. Any questions of me? Thank you, madam clerk. Um, I don't have very much in my report. Just to remind [clears throat] everybody that AML is next week, so I gave you guys paper copies of your travel information and I also emailed it to you. And then just an update, we got eight applicants for the vacant council seat. We'll be sending out supplemental questions tomorrow, tomorrow, Wednesday. And um, that's what I got. Any questions?

And those will be due in a week. A week after that. Thank you. Any questions? The court. Amen. Our attorney.

Thank you. Um, you know, our firm just started in January, so we don't have a ton to report yet. Up [clears throat] to speed. Um, getting to know the council, getting to know the city. Um, so this will be pretty brief. Um we're working closely with the city manager um on a day in dayout basis on document review, RFP drafts, um preparing for council meetings, um responding to discrete policy and contract questions as they come up. Um we are working on the some of those golf course related issues and contract negotiations there as well. We're reviewing and advising on a final airport PAQ uh lighting project contract. um and preparing to assist public works and the manager with some FAA discussions. We are also working uh with public safety on some um responses to public records requests. We're reviewing and advising on contract negotiations for dispatch contract. Uh and then just working on other policy and contract questions as they come up. Any questions of And before we move on, I there's one thing I I forgot which is probably the most important of the whole my whole comment. Councilwoman Moer was um named citizen of the U civilian of the quarter at her at her work place this last this for this last quarter. So congratulations ma'am on that.

[applause]

Moving on to Oh, moving on to audience participation. Three minutes per person, limited total time not more than 30 minutes. Please sign in, state your name, three minutes per person. Council meeting rules protect your right to testify and be heard even if others in the room disagree with you. Council meeting rules also ensure that those attending can express their views if they do not interfere with the rights of others to see and hear the proceedings. At all times, order and decorum will be maintained in keeping with civility and dignity of the legislative process. Please be respectful during audience participation. No disruptions to city business or threats of any kind will be allowed. Individuals who do not follow these guidelines will be removed. Any threats against others could result in criminal prosecution. Again, please sign in. State your name. Three minutes per person. And um Josh bring the list first. Jackie, go for it. [clears throat]

Good evening, Mayor Cooper. Thank goodness Josh. [clears throat] That's our system. I'm so surprised. [laughter] go on Zoom. There you go.

Thank you, sir. The obscene nature of books that are in our public libraries and they are in the Palmer Library also. Now, obscenity is not what I define and it's not what anyone defines. It's defined in case law and it's also called the Miller tests. It's in USC 18 chapter 71 and it's also Alaska statute 11.6128. It has very specific structures of what what what obscinity is and how unique it is. There is I gave the book to the board members at the assembly last week and I see that pictures of it are going online. Now I and I tend to agree with that because they are and yet this is still in the young adult section at the Palmer Library and available for children to check out ages 12 years old and older. this book meets the billet test and I can define that and I can go through and show it and I will be doing that at the uh assembly meetings over the next few months because they all took copies of the book. Now I also want everyone to know that in this book they have the transgender agenda in there and they tell you that if you go through um puberty and you have testosterone you will you will not have any lower parts and if you go through it with estrogen with a female you'll have a hermaphrodite. This is not correct. It's unscientific and it's not correct. And I want everyone to remember the name Varian Fox or Fox Varian. Fox Variian is a distr person who just won a court settlement from a jury in New York last Tuesday. I think it was Tuesday, could be Wednesday, of $2 million. And that was against the two medical professionals, the surgeon who mutilated her body and the doctor who ruined her health by prescribing the drugs that now have her into menopause and have made her in in uh sexually incompetent in not not able to perform. And so she just won $2 million and the very next day you saw the American

Academy of Surgeons and the American Medical Association come out with statements saying they would no longer perform gender reassignment surgeries on minors. And it is for this reason there are 26 more of these cases in the pipeline. And this book that's in the Palmer Library has that in it. Now, I think it's only a matter of time before the the people who are suing start saying that the idea came from books that they got in the library. And I would like to bring that out, please, because there are reasons why I say this. It's not because it's my opinion. It's because it's law. It's in the law what a cinity is. And so, thank you so much for your time. Tom Roersonson. Robertson.

I'm coming. [laughter]

I have to talk to my legs. Okay, legs. You can go now. [snorts] There you go. [clears throat] Lean forward and hold my breath. All right. Thank you, Jackie. You all right? Thank you. [snorts] My name is Tom Robertson. I live on Marsh Road here in Palmer. And there two things tonight that I'd like to do like you to be aware of. I've been working for some time and to put a memorial right outside this building. There's a flag pole and I want to put the memorial which is a rock about maybe three feet wide and two and a half ft tall and it has a plaque on it dedicating to the police officer that was shot and killed in 1999. His name is Jim Roland. And I think the least that any city can do is recognize their peace officers for sacrificing their life for our safety. That's one thing I'm still trying to do. The second thing is I still believe an emergency fill station at mile 37 on the Glenn Highway. There was a fire hydrant there [snorts] and I wanted to uh put gravel out there, probably about 2,000 square feet of gravel to make a pad where fire trucks could come off the highway, fill up there, the hydrant and go. One fireman could do it with one fire truck and the state and the city or the state and federal government were willing to pay for it. I've been working on this for three years and instead what happened there the hydrant there but the city pulled the hydrant out of the ground. I've never in my life heard of hydrants being pulled out in the 45 50 years I've been involved with the fire department. We've never taken hydrants out. I mean there aren't enough hydrants in the whole world and you sure don't want to go taking them out and just saying well it wasn't being used. Well, there's a fire extinguisher on the wall

there and it could be sitting there for 50 years and never used. But you can't just say, "Well, we don't need it because it hadn't been used. It's taken away." There's no insurance company in the world that's going to cover you and do something dumb like that. Or same with the police department. You can't just give them a service weapon and say, "Well, you haven't used the bullets in years, so we're taking your bullets back." You can have the gun, but we're taking the bullets. Now, come on. Let's get real here. The fire department needs that hydrant back in the ground where it belongs. And mile 37, it's where the city has a hydrant that goes underneath the highway and it goes over to the hospital. It's about a 20 inch water line there. And it's where the new construction's been on the Glenn Highway. Need to hydrate back. I need about 2,000 maybe 2,000 feet of gravel to make a gravel path. We had too many people hurt alongside the way beside the road like on the shoulder of the road where people run into the the vehicles. Nowadays in the Chugatak when I was with Chugat Fire Department we had a we couldn't just send the ambulance out by itself. You had to have the tanker truck to block interference behind it on the highway. So because the ambulance kept getting hit on the shoulder. So you bring the fire truck in to protect the ambulance. So now the chain of drug gets in and anyways that's what we doing. Oh I guess I need to say I have a shelfish selfish motive. My son was a volunteer with Palmer and he's a missionary right now but someday you'll come back. So I do have a selfish motive for what it was worth. All right. Thank you,

David Wilson. [clears throat]

Thanks. [laughter]

There'll be a quiz next week. Good evening, uh, mayor and city council members. For the record, my name is Dan Wilson. I'm a resident of city of Moscilla, but tonight I'm here to represent my employer, Matthew Hill Foundation. Uh, handed to the clerk was our community uh, health needs assessment. Uh, Matthew Hill Foundation is a co-owner of the Metsu Medical Regional Center and due to that makes a nonprofit hospital. So by RS standards, we have to release this wonderful community health needs assessment, but this year it's a every three years and this year it's over a 350 page book so I did not carry they like me so I don't have to carry as many and we have a total printer issues so if you like neural copy please reach out and contact me and we can try to set one up for you but for now we just give one to each of the municipal governments until we get our uh printing uh thing all worked out and established um but this community health needs assessment is like I said put on every three years with our co- with the Matthew Medical Regional Center Um it is partnered with community members over 24 members steering committee uh many residents survey interviewed uh listening sessions compiles of data and with that they have the three focus I'm sorry the uh six health priorities which is safe and stable housing access to affordable uh child care health services for all residents safe and reliable transportation nutritious food and community uh places and spaces. And with sort of identifying some of those needs, then we go to the second step of this process, which is we'll work again with Mass residents and with our uh partners at the Matsu Medical Regional Center, Matsuh Regional Medical Center to collaboratively adopt our community health improvement plan, also known as the CHIP, which the mayor was

talking upon. So the next steps is meeting with again community leaders and developing how we're going to put this into action. And the idea is that you know this our chana has helped ensures our work is grounded in data, community voice and accountability. And with this we will continue to continue hopefully that this shared with the community. You have a QR code here. Please pass it out. Use that. Look at it. look at some of the data that's there and it's can be used to help strengthening some of your community grants some of your stats plans uh works for nonprofits for grant planning uh cross sector collaboration partnerships and planning help inform your policy decisions so please this justation learning uh program folks we be more than happy to even give you guys your own private little uh information they're doing their cha learning chapters right now and don't forget if if you have a student because I won't be back for the deadline of March 5th of your next meetings. Our scholarship programs are deadlines on March 5th. So if you have students that are looking for that opportunity programs, please feel free to reach out. Thanks

Mark. Um there's multiple things I want to talk about. Um the parking uh a lot of this I want to kind of put it all forward first. Seems like a lot of what you guys have been doing the parking issue. Um yet you don't want to spread it out. Most businesses right now our costs have gone up considerably in the last few years. Especially this year, it's gotten really, really bad. A 1% sales tax is going to crush us. Um, many of us are barely able to get a float. In Alaska right now, we're losing about one restaurant and bar a week. Um, the industry is becoming really, really tight. Um, you just can't make money. Our insurance has skyrocketed. Uh, there's a lot of stuff going up. Um, am I going to make it? Yeah, but other businesses are going to be having trouble. The city has to take some of the responsibility it seems with the parking issue. The city is trying to get out from having to spend any money on it. Um same sales tax, you're putting it on us instead of trying to find a way. Annexation would help a lot with this because it increases how much money you have coming in. um the fees at the airport, make the raise the fees at the airport, make the airport pay for itself. Um we have to look at what little things I know like city works, their equipment needs to be upgraded. It's it's there's a lot of stuff and you guys have to look at what you're going to do to collect money. I've been saying this ever since I started coming to city council meetings four years ago. You guys have to figure out how to make money. Um, one

of the simple issues with the parking, if you're at the limit to two-hour parking on Main Street and did some sort of enforcement on it, yes, it's going to make you be some of the bad guys, but right now you're putting in the small businesses that we're going to be the bad guys because I can't share my parking lot. Now, what happens if I sign a sharement agreement with another business and then all of a sudden I have to sell my business? Okay, that other business is going to be out of code. You guys are setting this up, trying to look for ways of not spending money that is just going to create chaos. Um, you guys got to try to figure this out inside. whole shared parking thing is not work going to work. That's going to be off the table. Do we kind of share right now? Yes, we do. We don't have agreements on it, but we do try to share because we want businesses in this town to grow even if they're are competitors. So, thank you Martine Collins.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. Uh I'm here representing the Friends of the Palmer Library and uh Mayor Cooper already alluded to the fact that we have a fundraising campaign that we're starting tomorrow with the Palmer Chamber. And uh I won't give too much away yet uh other than our theme will be love to luck which will go from February 14th to March 15th. Uh and February 14th is our kickoff with the chamber tomorrow. Uh businesses uh can participate in various ways and we'll give more details there tomorrow. Um and then on the 15th we will have a dash for the gold which is a run that active souls uh will be uh partnering with us and we'll be in charge of if you want to run a marathon or half marathon or just come for fun. We're going to have a parade uh to start this. And I understand the mayor is going to dress up like a leprechaun. And we also have um someone working on a cauldron for our pot of gold. Uh so we have an Irish theme. We'll have music uh entertainment in the depot uh on that day. Uh include this particular fundraising event. Uh we will have more fundraising events um as we go on through the summer and fall, but this will be our our kickoff event. But uh as a side note, one of the things we sponsor are uh community events and concerts. We have one of those on Sunday, this coming Sunday, February 15th at 3 p.m. at the depot. and it's the annual uh Valentine concert we call it the Matsu Orchestra has done for us

for several years now and we appreciate them doing that. So uh we'd like to invite everyone to come to that also and we appreciate your support. Thank you. Anybody else wish we can come before the council?

Good [snorts] evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. My name is George Colum. I'm the manager of the golf course, and I just wanted to clarify a little bit about the um season pass sales. Um, I stopped all sales um at the golf course on February 1st, not because I felt I was doing anything wrong, but I had not received a contract, had not received a check, and [clears throat] I was under the impression from the council's last vote that you were uh unassive voting to extend the prior contract with with three changes. So, that's how I I was operating in good faith with the golf course on selling in the month of January. But then I felt like, okay, I probably need to stop at this point. Um, so I wanted to clarify that I am more than willing to operate at the golf course and sell passes and product for the city. Um, but it has been brought to my attention that I'm not allowed to access the point of sale or operate the golf course until the contract is complete. So I guess I would be looking for some clarification. city council of what I should do moving forward. Thank you. Anybody else? Sam Olson, Alaska. Um, I'm reading in your RFP for this fair market value appraisal that you put out for this golf course land that you have some reserved rights to withdraw or cancel this RFP in whole or in part at any time prior to the full execution of the contract without penalty and without obligation to any proposal. So, I think I remember I told you guys in the first week of January that your proposal didn't have anything about a fair market value purchase rate. And then I listened to the last council

meeting where the city manager said that this is only for a fair market value lease rate. And we would have to go get another separate independent proposal and then another one on top of that. I'm begging you guys to please do something about this before you spend excess money for no reason when you still have time to change this. A contract hasn't been awarded yet to an appraiser. You can ask them to do both and then you can get a second one without having to do two more of them and then you'll have the numbers you need. Um, Councilwoman Carrington, I heard some comments like the last time first week of January about how you didn't understand how it went from save the golf course to save the contract. Well, I represent the Alaska Golf Association and one of the reasons that the the course makes money is because of how well the is it's a really big deal. I'm holding the state at Palmer and four national qualifying events. I'm not afraid to pull them if I don't have faith in who's going to be running the golf course. But I trust George. He's been there for 20 years. I'm able to do things with that course that most people can't. And I'm fearful that if somebody shows up that doesn't know what they're doing, all that revenue is going to be gone and then the course goes away for no reason. So there's a lot at play there. a lot of aronomy, a lot of issues from soil to grass to everything. It's much more than that. And George is a woman that has all that knowledge. That's all I wanted to say.

My name is Joel Stfansky. Thank you council members and mayor [clears throat] manager attorney. Um just keep beating this dead horse on the golf course and uh you know there was a statement that was made here months ago. Why are we looking for trouble? We're still looking for trouble. We're basically killing the golden goose. It's the only city energy that brings money into the city. And I don't know who or what is against the golf course, but it's real obvious that someone's against the golf course. And why are we trying to we're trying to bring business into the area, yet we're trying to tear down the only thing that break brings money into the city. And I just don't get it how we divided and we purposely try to pit aviation community against recreation community. And that's just tip of the iceberg. It's purposely been done and it shouldn't be that way. The records will show for the last four or five months how that division has been manifested. But getting back to the release of the obligation, the golf course is city of Palmer property that resides on airport land and FAA release of obligation exactly as it sounds. It releases the golf course from the airport boundaries and gives the city Palmer full control. Palmer successfully completed the FAA release of obligation before. Palmer is experienced in the process and can make it happen again. We all know who the players were 10, 15 years ago, who was on the city council,

what attorneys we had. We don't have to reinvent the wheel, folks. It's right there in front of us. Do it do your homework. And we It can be done. And please think about the longevity of that beautiful piece of property out there and to continue it in the in the u decency of the generations coming after us. It worked fine for 35 years. Nothing's perfect, but it worked fine for 35 years. Why can't we make it happen again? And I know you council members are going to make this happen. I know the attorney is going to make it happen. You know, I've been dealing with contracts for 28 years. I worked for a company here locally for 200 people and I wrote a lot of the contracts. It's not a very difficult thing, folks. To write a decent contract. There was nothing wrong with the old contract, number one. Anyways, thank you very much for your time and let's keep trying to make it positive for the community in the greater Palmer area. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak under audience participation?

Seeing no one, I'll close it and bring it back to the council. Item H is public hearing resolution 260002B, a resolution of the Palmer City Council amending the 2026 fee schedule to increase the rate of the sales tax by 1% beginning on April 1st, 2026 and expiring October 31st, 2027 to finance the construction of new Palmer Public Library. I will open up the public hearing. I'm wishing to come forward and speak on that, please. State [clears throat] your name.

My name is uh Josh Shooter. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor and the city council. Just want to say thank you for your service up here. I know it's a stressful [clears throat] job. I gain like 20 pounds being up there, so I still don't lost it. So, I appreciate what you guys are doing. So, I'm coming today as a small business owner. I own a service based business, uh kind of like Turkey Red, and uh and you know, I understand the city finance. I understand the position you guys are in, but um you know because most of the income for the city comes from locally owned small businesses. One of the great things about Palmer is we don't have those big box stores. My fear is that by doing this we're going to scare away investment into Palmer. Um you know because think about this way like if I move my business out to Anchorage I have zero sales tax. If I move it just a mile up the road zero sales tax. by moving to Wasilla. They have a 2.5% sales tax and a lower maximum amount of taxable sales. So, it literally cost money to be here. I'm here because I love Palmer. That's why most of the business are here. We just really love Palmer. But I want to make sure that Palmer continues to grow because I don't want us to have a situation where we're taxing at 4% significantly higher than the rest of the areas around us because Palmer is not an island, right? We're competing for other businesses to be here because a business can choose to go anywhere around us and we want them to choose Palmer. And the other issue too is that you know for especially for service based businesses it's more difficult because we can't just pass that on like when you go to Fred Myers you don't really see the sales tax till the very end right for service based business is a little bit different uh you know I have clients some of them are are exempt some of them are different areas and in in in the meantime like for example if I order something for my vendors I have to pay sales tax on that and then I also pay sales tax on the services I provide on top of that. This is going to negatively impact both of those. And so

really what it does is it gives a competitive advantage to those businesses that choose to locate themselves outside of city limits. It makes it so that way it doesn't make financial sense to be here inside the city of Palmer. And I really want to make sure that as that as you know as a community that we are attracting businesses that we're looking to grow and looking to have a positive impact with our small businesses and not seeing them as as something to take money from because my concern is that you know sales tax is beautiful because the percentage right I mean as the cost of goods go up the sales tax revenue goes up and I want to make sure that that you know we're checking our spending to make sure that we're not just relying on the tax that we can you move up and down on a whim that we're making a a good economic place for our community. Thank you very much.

Anybody else wishing to come forward and speak on this public hearing? [clears throat]

West Palmer. Um I can't move. Uh that's not an option for my business straight out. It's the Palmer Bar. Um, it's one of the longest buildings in this whole town. I mean, longest running business in this whole town. Um, I'm worried about the other businesses. Uh, you got to figure something out. I'm very pro museum. I mean, pro library. Uh, I'm pro community. We have to look at how we can do this. Um the whole I've had other business owners come to me and are worried about the sales tax. Uh I do not when I have a price of a bit a beer or a burger, I do not charge extra for sales tax. It's included in the price. Um but when is that going to change if the sales tax goes in where people know actually and when I go it's the city they're doing this So, please think about this and you guys have to figure something out and look for other means of income. Um, I know that you guys don't have all the income you need for what we have happening, but this is major concern for all of us. I think if some people had to pay 1% right now, it would probably shut down their business because they're running at those final acts. I'm not talking about me personally, but cuz I'll work for free to keep bar open and so will my partner, but it's other businesses don't have that option.

So, think about this. Pull the businesses and what they think of the sales tax. We're probably your biggest source of income is the for is the sales tax um that we pay. And if all of a sudden we start closing down, then where's your income coming from? You're going to have to raise property taxes. Then then people will move away. Uh you have to think of some solution that doesn't hurt the community. Thank you. Good evening again. My name is Jackie. I live on the edge of Palmer. I don't live in Palmer and I can make a decision when I leave my house which direction to go to buy something. And I didn't notice until the new Napa store went in that's right there by Three Bears on Palmer. I didn't realize tax because it was close and it was convenient. But if Napa says we have no sales tax and they're in competition with Napa in Palmer, how much more people might be buying their stuff in Napa at two miles down the road rather than paying extra at Palmer having a sales tax going when you you need three million, four million, $5 million, you got a $10 million bond and that was uh voted for by the community. You know that I I heard that for years how the community had voted for for a bond. So I don't understand why you would put it on a figure that you can't even assure is going to be there because if you chase businesses out and you replace them with nonprofits and with medical ones that don't pay taxes, how is your tax going to be the same that you're expecting it to be now? And when you make your when

you make your commitments to construction companies, do they need money up front? Don't you need the money up front and you can't wait for it to come in from taxes? I don't I don't know the ins and outs of this. I'm just a person who at when I get to the end of my drive and I go to the Palmer Highway, I can turn left and go to Palmer or I can turn right and head to the no no tax area. And it's an open world out there. you're you're up against me girl which is 0% sales tax and they have a huge option of everything too. The only the only bad problem is the traffic but you know starting to build it that too. So please if you can think of any other way to do this I would highly suggest you do. Thank you. Anyone else listening to come forward? [clears throat]

Yeah, my name's uh Joel Stansky. Um got briefly touched on. I worked for a local company of 200 employees for 28 years. And a large part of my thing was um keeping the power on in area the size of West Virginia and also running a crew of 10 people in six million dollar budget. It's also ordering equipment and putting out contracts for clearing contractors. Now, one of the things you always look for is things like conflict of interest, inclusion in your contractors. And you also never ever reveal that there's going to be change orders and cost overruns to your contractors and that those terms have come up back in November and council meetings. We have to be very prudent on taxpayers money and sometimes we have to downsize. While I was working for this company, we'd have to readjust the equipment we're buying and not always getting the what we want. Sometimes I'm thinking about the rateayer in this case the taxpayer those things need to be thought about why why do we have to build a Taj Mahal for books sir are you going to get to the the uh resolution that's on the table are you kind of just skirting tax issue or or would you like

I'm talking about the library one descent You know, why are we going down that route? You know, there's a famous guy that we all know that made a famous quote and see if you guys can identify it. You can't tax your way into prosperity. Ronald Reagan, thank you very much for your time. Anyone else wishing to come forward to speak on this resolution?

If nothing else, just stand up for a moment. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Mike Mleski. I live in downtown Palmer. I have a slightly different t that I've learned over the last 25 years in marriage with my wife. And the way I have learned to do things is usually not to say let's do this. I know what the question will be why. And so I've learned to provide information ahead of time. I was struck when I initially saw the agenda for tonight's meeting. I said, "Okay, wait a second. Sales tax, that's an option. It could be discussed. it may prove not to be the best option for funding. But what I wanted to see was a discussion of the variety of methods for potentially adding to the monies that were already available for the library which would be you know we've already talked about it use of some of the bonding money various other ways of doing it. So, I'm going to stress that this evening in a bit you're going to be talking about aspects of this whole proposal that are not available as I looked at in the packet that that discussion about why we would do something and this particular this one choice of 1% it's in the wrong place my opinion I think it it's a valid discussion but not before you do the broader discussion to say okay now that we've looked at a

variety of things here's the rationale the reason why we want to go and propose this one to happen I think I think people would appreciate that because I and others who come up here have to anticip anticipate what might be said and you're going to say it all, but it's in the wrong order. My opinion. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak to this resolution? Seeing no one, we'll close public hearing, bring it back to the council. And uh be before we get on that, I'm going to relax the rules so it will be sim similar to the committee the whole and so that you may speak kind of freely on the on this issue. Um and so um anybody and I and I I will bring it back to the maker of the resolution. Let her speak first.

Great. Thank you. Um well I know tax is a fourletter word [laughter] despite um [clears throat] it not being but um so uh I am the responsible for the proposal of the sales tax um and it is based on um comparing it to the bonding issues library funding scenarios comparison which was presented by the city manager uh several months ago I think now um where it lays out different uh scenarios that would be possible with the bonding. Um, and I hoped that would be in the packet, but I expressed what I wanted in the packet inaccurately. So, I apologize if that was not um in there. But one of the things that struck me during that discussion that was during a city council meeting was um it looked at several uh different amounts we could take out as far as the bond. 10 million was approved by um members of the city of Palmer or residents of the city of Palmer, but we could take out less than that, etc. But looking at the scenario that would be uh result in the best long-term financial outcome for the city of Palmer, looking at a home, so the bond would be paid by um property taxes, right? So if you have a home valued at 400,000, which is roughly a medium um size home or average value home here in the city currently, um your monthly tax rate will go up by $139. Uh and that would be for 20 years. So for an annual increase of someone living in an average home, we're looking at $1,700 over 20 years, $17,000 that would be paid in additional

[clears throat] tax. Um that's significant. This is at a time where housing prices and interest rates are higher than they've ever been. And so we have an issue with folks um being able to get into a home and having the difference um that additional u moneyies owed for property tax if we went the bond route could um not only hurt those that currently own homes, but those who are trying to get into homes. it can make the difference between qualifying um for a loan or not. Um we also have a lot of renters in the area. Those costs are always passed down to renters. Um particularly if you have this increased cost over the span of 20 years u landlords aren't uh aren't in the landlord business um for fun. They're in it to make money. Those costs will be passed down to renters. um that in addition to the fact that um only 18% of library users live inside Palmer city limits. So we have residents of Palmer bearing the entire cost of this bond. Um even though only 18% um or I'm sorry only even though only they only make up 18% of library users. So 82% of users of the Palmer Public Library live outside of Palmer city limits and if we went the bond route would not be responsible for those costs at all. So to make it a more equitable um distribution as far as bearing the costs um of what we're short as far as financing the new um Palmer Public Library. Um, I propose this 1% increase uh in the cost in sales tax. Um, another thing that appeals to me with the increase in sales tax is that it

would be approximately a year and a half of this 1% increase and we would have what we need. Of course, we don't have exact numbers. you know, we don't know exactly what the library is going to ultimately be cost and we don't know exactly how much is going to come in from um from sales tax, but um as best as we can figure things now, it would be about a year and a half, so through October of next year that there would be this increased sales tax. There is a sunset provision written directly in to the proposed ordinance. So, um there wouldn't it would not require a vote by the council to end the sales tax. the sales tax will end in October of 2027 unless some action is taken by the city council. Um, in addition, the city count or I'm sorry, the uh sales tax spans two summers. So, it would begin in April this year, go to fall next year. Um, so there's to our peak tourist season time. So, um, in an effort to bring in some of what we need from those outside the community, those that are visiting our community, um, again, instead of just the residents of the city of Palmer bearing that cost, um, the city of Palmer has been cons extremely conservative in resisting an increase in sales tax over the years. Um, I didn't confirm this, but I understand the sales tax increase um, or hasn't increased in like 30 years or something. I might have been longer. 96

96. Um, so and I expect that the city's approach will continue to be very conservative as far as when it comes to sales tax. Um, but we've also heard over the last two and a half, three years now how important the library is to the community of Palmer, both those living inside city limits and those living outside. Um and so this is a situation where having um increasing that sales tax in order to fund this important project would be appropriate. Um I also work for a small business right here in Palmer. Um and so I'm not going to be immune to the uh consequences of this. Um and so I understand uh concerns there. Um, and we do have a higher sales tax than some of the surrounding areas, but we also have a unique community. And if we want to live in a community where we don't have big box stores and those things that bring in that additional revenue, um, we have to figure out some way uh to bring in funding. And uh for this particular project, when looking at your average homeowner paying $17,000 over the next 20 years and all of us chipping in and paying 1% over the next year and a half, um I would suggest that the sales tax um is preferable. Um also this is if uh you know when we ran the numbers um which are included we ran like a a half a percent and 1% sales tax to see those scenarios to see what outcomes might be um [snorts] that uh so that would be cover the entire cost of what we now know to be the cost of the building. Like I said, of course, if people find out that

could change um somewhat, but um so if uh as we've heard, the friends of the Palmer Public Library continues to solicit donations for the library. Um so if they're successful in continuing to bring in some of those donations, which they've brought on several large grants, Mass Health Foundation being one, which we appreciate um Mr. here representing them and um and some other efforts as you as you've heard today so that if we bring in the money that's needed before that October 20 27 date um we could always terminate the sales tax earlier. Um so that was my thoughts. I don't know if there's any um questions or anything from the council that I could help with. this.

Uh, so I have a question. Um, so at this point with the library, we have through through the state, how much had we get five from the state and then in donations already that have come in about another five about 9.2. We have 9.2 total. Yeah, we have 9.2 total. That's that's state money and insurance money and Okay. And so other donations.

So, the rest would be either the bond or other funding that comes in or uh and it's 12 million, right? Is that is that where I mean that's what they have for the for the RFP for the construction? Yes. And then we still have to fill it up with shelves and books and tables and and so so what I'm understanding is that this will will lower the amount of what we need for the bond or to eliminate what we need for the bond. Is that my understanding? This would eliminate the need for the bond.

Okay. And so that so that tax would be would go for everybody who spins in Palmer instead of just the homeowners. Okay, that's what I I was wanting to just make sure I understood all the pieces and parts any other ma I've heard a mixed bag of the community. Some are supportive of it and some are not. Mainly the the portion that is not supported with this is because of the tax rate on property taxes that have just increased 8%. Many of us have gotten our little notices in the mail. Um I know mine significantly just 3,000 in property taxes alone that doesn't include building. So, I think personally speaking, I I'd rather be the one, but I'd like to hear more more from our public on this just to just to see what they have to say.

Yes, ma'am. Um, I would definitely echo what Council Member Moer said about hearing more from our local business owners. I was unaware that there were so many businesses in Palmer that ate the sales tax. Um, I know that the small business that we have, we don't pass that along. And I know anytime I've ever shopped in Palmer for physical items, not necessarily service based items, that I've always seen that sales tax on my receipt. It's just a standard. You see it on there. It's transparent pricing. Um where you know what you're spending, what it's coming from kind of thing. So just like all businesses, as the cost of business continues going up, I think that um I was unaware that it was not being shown on a lot of receipts that what was coming out of sales tax or that businesses were just eating it. So I would definitely agree that it would be nice to know how many business businesses are going to be directly impacted by this um and hear more from them on that for sure. But I also agree that I also got my assessment from the bureau this week which was humbling. Um I guess is the best way I can put it. I didn't realize how we lucky I was. Um so making it more equitable with a very with a short term of a taxes that is for 1% knowing how that forward funding works. It's I know we hate to draw comparisons to Wasill because their tax base is so significantly different as far as what can come in for sales tax. Um I know that this seems well scaled for what Palmer needs. Um and I think that it would be good to hear from other business owners to see what the the

financial impact of that that would be. So thank you. putting this together. I I agree with what's been [clears throat] said. I would make a motion that we postpone. I'd like to speak to that first. Okay, I'll hold that. Thank you.

I I too owned a small business in Palmer and I I was uh owned it when we went from two to three%. Um and yeah, we pass it on to the consumer and and I would venture to say, you know, along with what Councilwoman Graham was saying, there are some businesses, service business, other businesses that do not pass that they absorb the tax. My guess is the majority of the business do not. You look at our main contributors to the sales tax, it's Fred, Meyer, and cars are the huge ones. Um, and you know, and I will also bring out that even though sales tax is 2 and a half%, they raised it years years ago by 5%. And that's how they built their parks and that's how they built their library and it was a seasonal sales tax. And you go to Kenai, they did the same thing. And the city of Juno did the same thing and that's how they build a number of their parks down there by raising it by one penny and have a sunset clause. Um, I am concerned as Councilman Collins mentioned that I I don't want as me as a property owner in town to pay 20 years a sales a tax that um is put on us and and I don't use a library. I mean, it's a good thing that the libraries are great, but I don't want to pay $17,000 over the course of 20 years when in reality, we can get it done in a year and a half. Considering that majority of the people, the tax monies that we get um in the city uh are not paid for by all the 6,000 residents that live here. We service, you know, 15 20,000 people around the area that live in the but and and come through Palmer and they shop and they get gas and they get food and they get, you know, goods and stuff from Palmer. And yeah, you know, if you're willing to drive

another 15 miles, 30 mile round trip and spend $4 on gas, then you know, I guess you can do that. Um, but to me it only makes sense that, you know, we we get the people that live outside um the city and get their tax dollars and not tax our our people. Um, you know, I'm I'm I want to make it the best and the quickest and the easiest way that we can do that. I do not want to take Yeah, we have the money in the bank that we could actually pay for this, but if you pull pull $9 million out of our bank account, that takes a long time to recover. and um and and and and if we go with the $10 million bond and allow the public to pay for it, that cost the city $740,000 a year, that takes away from other services that we can be providing to the the people who live here, whether it's new roads, new streets, new, you know, sidewalk, crosswalks, street lights, whatever. What bike paths, whatever it is, that means that that takes away money. And West brought up a good point. Where else are we going to get that money? you know, it's going to be difficult. Um, so the the the lower that you bring that, even if you bring it down to a $2 million bond, it it it takes our cost down to like $200,000, which is doable, but not 700,000. And the other thing is, like I say, I'll go back to the citizens. I do not want to tax our people that when 12% of the people who live in Palmer uh are using the library and the rest of the people are actually paying for it all. Ma'am, please. Uh I I want to hear more from businesses and I uh look at a closer look at this because this it's kind of new information and a way to look at this. And so I make a motion that we postpone

this until um until two weeks the next meeting. Yeah, the next meeting. I support that. So that's a second. All right. Any discussion on that? Madam clerk, so the motion is to postpone this until uh February 24th meeting. Council member Carrington, yes. Council member Graham, yes. Council member Collins, yes. Council member Moer, yes. Mayor Cooper, yes. It is unanimous and approved.

Thank you. Moving on. Uh no ask your number no unfinished business of the new business items placed on the table. Madam clerk I just have the documents from Matsu Health Foundation. Thank you.

Okay. Uh next item is audience participation. Again three minutes per person. If you want to come up and testify please. Three minutes. West again. Um, some of the stuff that I was curious, uh, I'm just curious, how do property taxes compared to surrounding areas? Um, some of the other questions, what are the areas that get the most city services that are outside of the city? Um, because we need to look at annexing first on this uh, to help pay for this. Um, it's very important. Um then also when we're looking at the property taxes, what special groups are getting deductions? What special groups are getting some sort of help with their property taxes? Um it's we need to figure out is everyone paying their fair share? is some people getting special deductions, a higher percentage of the population getting deductions. Um, nationwide, the only reason why I'm saying this and and no way do I want to be targeting different groups, but across the country there is they are noticing that there's a consolidation of money in the older generations. And so the youngers and the the younger people and the renters, they don't have the money. They don't have the income. Um there's a lot of people in this community that are going around, they they can't go over to eat. Um so it's going to affect the

people in Palm. Um, and so and if we don't keep the younger generations here in the community, um, it Palmer will die. Um, and I say that and probably the average age of my customers are in their 50s in my bar, but the younger people struggle more and the older people. Um, so yeah, look at annexing first. see who's getting the city services, what areas are get the most city services that are outside of the thing. And I would like you guys to really look and have a disc open discussion next meeting talking about annexation among yourselves to start looking down that road. Um because I think in a few years we're all of a sudden going to be fourth largest community the way Houston and Wig Lake are growing. Um they're going to bypass us here real soon if they haven't already on population size. So that means we have less say in the burrow. Um just things to think about. We have to grow and if we don't grow will we get a suburb of Wasilla kind of like wherever it is of Anchorage. I heard what it is of Anchorage. Something to think about though. Thank you. Mr. Tud.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, Wes said it very well and I I definitely have the same concerns. You know, when I look at the growth in the in the Matsu burrow, it is going north. I mean, I think that's why we lost the troopers, right? Because they're seeing more of a demand toward Wasilla. And I've seen that here. I I've had clients that were a small business here in Palmer leave because Palmer can be difficult because we're a small city, right? There's just less resources, less people, less customers, and a lot of them they're moving to Anchorage or or moving to Wasilla. And so my concern is that if we do this, we're going to be hurting the source of revenue the city has, which is also going to in turn make the figures of how much sales tax revenue we're generating go down. And oftentimes this will be a slow effect because it takes time to move, but I'm worried that businesses are going to start moving out of Palmer because they're going to be looking and going, "Well, why would I be here and pay a 4% sales tax when I can be over there where there's more customers, there's more land, there's, you know, more uh choice of employees, all that sort of thing just right over there either in the burrow where again zero sales tax or in 2.5%. And a lot of them I I'm worried are going to go, well, I'm going to move myself out to somewhere else. And so I I understand, you know, the the I'm glad we're having this this conversation. I understand the concern about, you know, property tax versus sales tax, but this will have a very distinct negative impact on the economy of

anyone else. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council members, my name is Cashe Garrett. I'm curious if anyone has looked at the governor's proposal for his taxes coming up here and how that would impact or change um a vote in either direction. Can you speak to that? Thank you. Anyone else? We're at council comments. Councilwoman Grant. Oh, yes. Sorry.

Do we have a list legislative priority? I can have it printed out. I wasn't sure. I forgot. Supposed to do legislative priorities for us to go to uh misal next week. And we need to we have a 2024 2025 approved list. We need to approve a 2026 list which is very similar to the 2025. Let's take a five minute please.

to bring a council meeting back to order. We almost had a new council member. Okay. So, so we're here to talk about the uh 2026 capital projects and legislative priorities. Now, we did discuss this when we were doing the budget. Um, and you you now have uh documentation on on in front of you that talks about 2024, 2025, and 2026 uh capital projects. And 2024, and 25 are what we brought forth to the legislature. And, uh, on 26, um, if you go down and you look at the fourth item down, it's Palmer Public Library. And I'm gonna ask that we remove that from our ask to the legislature. Um, you know, we already got $5 million from the state. I do not want to go back and ask them for this $2 million. Um, and you can see what what all the others are. And like I said, we've already talked about this. Um, does anybody have any questions or concerns? Mad man.

Yeah. I would like to um at the request of the fire chief remove the rescue vehicle and replace it with fire department radios for $250,000. Sorry. Bring that over on the on the 2026 capital list the very bottom rescue vehicle 400,000. The chief has requested that instead of asking for a rescue vehicle that we ask for uh radios. Is that the same audio that's on 25? Yeah. Is that in addition to what was in 25 for radios or is that just not it's different um because

hold on I have a at the end of 2026 the Alaska land mobile radio system will no longer support the radios that are not um time division multiple access compliant as the city of Palmer rescue must replace existing non-compliant radios to maintain the ability to communicate with dispatch and operate safely within our fire service area 250 50 250,000 and it would require 40 of these radios is what we need to be complaining.

Any other questions of city manager discussing together? Like I say, we discussed this during um our budget season back in October, November time frame. Anybody have the rescue being 400,000? Is that something that we can talk about on the FY27 capital improvement. Sure, we can um we'll we'll discuss that with the chief during the budget process. Is that something that the department still needs? We absolutely will discuss it.

Any other questions, concerns? Is everybody happy with what we have on as a list? All right. So, we we will take this forward to the um legislature next week. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Moving on to council comments again. Councilwoman Graham, we'll let you go first. Did I do you first last time? No. Okay. Okay. No.

Um, so real quick, uh, just full transparency, I am the only member who's not going to AML next week. Um, going to be in town. So, there will at least be somebody here. Um, I hope that all of you guys have a great time at AML. I've heard really, really good things from many people who have gone. Um, I I think that it's going to be very valuable for how many people that we've got going. It's going to be a really benefit to the city. Um, I want to thank the city manager and staff for the work that they put in between the last meeting and now getting us some answers from the FAA regarding um, next steps. Um, along with some of the uh, processes that have been going on behind the scenes uh, regarding the alcohol permitting situation. Um, I know that was a lot of work and that's a lot of different government agencies that you guys have been balancing. So, I really appreciate that work. Um, real quick, I just want to touch on the there was a comment from a citizen regarding the police memorial that they were trying to act out front. There is a police memorial for officer Roland that is at former police department. Um, it's out front between like the two sections of the building. So, if anybody's interested, you can go there. You can pay your respects. You can see the beautiful memorial that this uh that has been put up there. Um, front in honor of him and other fallen officers. And I think that is it. And thank you to everybody else who's come out and good luck to the mayor picking another city council member.

Thank you, Councilwoman Moer.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just like to thank everyone for coming out tonight and just sharing your your thoughts on the 1% increase in tax. Great conversation starter. Again, I'd like to hear more from our community on that. Um, going back to the um golf course, I think we will find a way forward. We just have to have patience and allow the city staff and team to work together through those issues. I know it's it's taking a lot of patience and a lot of time and But I believe [snorts] we will eventually move forward with that. Um, thank you to respect for their thoughts and their process for the parking and pedestrian study tonight. I know that the planning and zoning commission will have a lot of work to do in checking their code and seeing what can be adjusted and what can't. So, I can't wait to hear from the commission. And uh, I'd just like to say too, happy Valentine's Day early. and I have a great

and it's it's to you now.

Uh I I just wanted to say again uh I think one will talk about being the dead force. We I I want to hear from you guys and I'm glad you guys come and again and again and and keep us, you know, your passion is is observed and it's seen and and it's it makes a difference. And so, uh, and same thing with the taxes and whatever issue we have coming coming in, uh, we do want to hear from you guys. And so I just appreciate those that are involved in the process of of what we do and I just just keep it up and we'll keep trying to do our homework. That's all.

Thank you. Um I also appreciate everyone coming out uh this evening and sharing their thoughts. Um I will uh see if we can get the library funding scenarios comparison put in um the agenda or the packet for next meeting. Um and I think you guys find that you guys and anyone interested in this issue um would find this really um interesting as far as comparing u what our options are uh for funding the library. It's really clearly written and I appreciate madam manager and I think Miss Davis as well worked on that and so it's a good document. Um and that's all I've got this evening. Thank you.

Thank you again to everybody. Thanks for coming out and expressing your beliefs and concerns and comments. Um as long along with council woman moer Valentine's Day is Saturday. Hope everybody has a good day and respect all the all the people out there um with with flowers or whatever. And city hall is u closed Monday for President's Day. So um with that I have nothing else. We are adjourned.