City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

I don't want to have my back to you, but I also want to be able to address these wonderful folks who are here for this. And thank you for so many of Chief Cameron's colleagues being here this evening. So I have a few remarks, and I went ahead and just wrote them down. It's kind of sad when I'm old and I get all teary-eyed and choked up. And just On a personal note, my dad was a career firefighter with the Anchorage Fire Department, so very near and dear to my heart. So, thank you everyone for being here today as we gather to honor our remarkable leader, a dedicated public servant, and a true hero of our Mat-Su community, Chief Chad Cameron of the Palmer Fire and Rescue. Today it is my profound honor as an Alaskan Senator for District M to present this official citation in recognition of Chief Cameron's extraordinary service, unwavering leadership, and lasting impact on the lives of so many Alaskans. Though he is no longer with us physically, his legacy of compassion, professionalism, and selflessness continues to burn bright in the department he strengthens and in the communities we love. Chief Cameron brought more than 25 years of firefighting experience from Juneau's Capital City Fire and Rescue when he answered the call to lead Palmer Fire and Rescue in the late 2020. He stepped into the role with a clear vision to build a stronger, more prepared department focused not just on response but on prevention, training, and community connection. Under his leadership, Palmer Fire and Rescue grew in capability and spirit. He fostered a culture where every firefighter felt valued, every call was met with skill and heart, and every resident knew help was not far away. Those who worked alongside him described a kind, capable leader who inspired others through his genuine care and quiet strength. He had the rare ability to truly listen, to lift people up, and to lead by example. Even though his courageous battle with cancer, even through that,

battle. His impact reached far beyond our valley, drawing respect and support from firefighters across Alaska and beyond.

Chief Cameron embodied the very best of Alaskan values, service, resilience and love for thy neighbor.

He answered the call to protect families, to stand ready in our most difficult moments and to make our communities safer and stronger In an often challenging environment, he brought hope, professionalism, and humanity to every shift. To his fellow firefighters, his family, and all who called and loved on him, please know that your loss is felt deeply across our state. His influence will last forever, as his department so beautifully stated. His dedication has made Palmer and the Mat-Su Valley a better, safer place for all of us. I HAVE A CITATION HERE THAT THIS WENT BEFORE THE ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE SIGNED BY THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE PRESIDENT WHICH HAS SPONSORED BY MYSELF AND BY REPRESENTATIVE DELANA JOHNSON WHO REPRESENTS THIS DISTRICT THAT I WOULD LOVE TO PRESENT TO SHEILA IF SHE COULD PLEASE COME FORWARD. I won't read the citation, but I will say that at the end it says, be it known that the Alaska State Senate hereby and House hereby recognize and honor Chief Chad Cameron for his distinguished service as Fire Chief of Palmer Fire and Rescue. With over 25 years of dedicated firefighting experience, Chief Cameron led with integrity, compassion, and unwavering commitment. to public safety. His leadership strengthened our community's emergency response capabilities, inspired those around him, and left an indelible mark on the lives he touched. Though his earthly service has ended, his legacy of selflessness and excellence endures, presented today with sincere gratitude for a life well lived in the service of others. Chief Chad Cameron, thank you. May God comfort your loved ones and bless the department and the community you serve so faithfully. We will carry your example forward. Thank you.

And I'd like to take a five-minute break, please. Five minute break. Well, we're missing our seventh council member, so we'll wait just another minute or two. In the meantime, I want to thank all the firemen and all the police officers that are here to honor Chief Chad. Thanks for coming. Well, without Mr. Alcantara, we'll get started anyway. And now we need to have Acting Chief Trey come forward, please.

Good evening, council. So tonight, we have the, or I have the honor and privilege to give newly promoted Lieutenant Cable his pins and badge and swear him in with his oath. We've got one more little one that Here he comes. Lieutenant Gable, if you could raise your right hand. I, state your name, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and defend and the Constitution of the State of Alaska and that I will faithfully fulfill the duties of Lieutenant with Palmer Fire and Rescue to the best of my ability. I further swear that I will lead with excellence, professionalism, Integrity, community, and service. The epic values that guide Palmer Fire and Rescue. And that I will serve the citizens of Palmer with honor and compassion. That I will protect life, property, and the environment. And that I will uphold the values, traditions, and standards of this department. As a leader, I will place the welfare of those I serve, the safety of those who serve alongside me, above my own interests. I will mentor those entrusted to my leadership, develop and support my fellow firefighters, and conduct myself in a manner that reflects the highest standards and conduct myself in a manner that reflects the highest standards of this department. With this oath, I accept the responsibilities of Lieutenant and pledge to perform my duties faithfully, honorably, courageously, and to the very best of my ability. So help me God. Sheila, if you wouldn't mind pinning Lieutenant Cable. All right, boys. Push. Push hard. Perfect.

Perfect.

Thank you, Council, and everyone here today to support Lieutenant Brian Cable.

I was going to tell his kids that, you know, you get to tack that on. You know, and Trey, you need to tell them and show them how that's done, right? Yeah, absolutely. So moving on, Commander Zipsky, I guess you're in charge now. Tag, you're it.

Appreciate it. Thank you, council members. Commander Zipsky with the Palmer Police Department. I'd like to invite Corey Brister and Anthony Gadway and Sergeant Clark up. While they're on their way, it's my honor to have them swear their oath tonight. These guys here, it's one thing we get paid to do what we do. We love doing it, but we get paid to do it. These guys take it out of the kindness of their hearts and the service of the community to do it. on their own free will. These guys have been spending the last seven months doing over 200 hours of training to do the same job we do side by side with us. And it's all just because of the love for their community that they're doing it. Officer Brister is going to be serving as a reserve police officer and is proud to serve his community calls home. Inspired by a family deeply rooted in public service, including parents who both worked as paramedics and an uncle who retired as a distinguished career with the Harris County Sheriff's Office, his passion for helping others developed at an early age. That passion first became hands-on in Rangeley, Colorado, where he volunteered as a firefighter with the Rangeley Rural Fire Protection District. That's a lot. serving alongside dedicated firefighters and emergency responders, reinforced his commitment to public service and inspired him to pursue a career in law enforcement. After returning to Alaska in 2016, Corey continued seeking opportunities to serve his community and ultimately found a home with Palmer Police Department. He values the opportunity to build trust through professionalism, integrity, and respectful interactions with the public. Outside of his law enforcement duties, Corey enjoys spending time with his family, four children, fishing, cooking, and exploring Alaska. Officer Anthony Gatway, born and raised in Messina, New York, began his law enforcement career in 2016 with the United States Air Force Security Forces. Stationed in Anchorage, Officer Gatway enlisted in Alaska Air National Guard, and upon his honorable discharge from active duty in 2020, he graduated the 2022 Post Academy in Little Arkansas for the Department of Veterans Affairs Police Services. Officer Gatway looks to continue his public service for the city of Palmer and appreciates the opportunity to work for the Palmer Police Department. So gentlemen, Go ahead and stand over here. And face me and raise your right hand. And then repeat after me. I, state your name. Do solemnly swear to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Alaska. I will enforce these laws with both vigor and compassion. I will maintain the courage to withstand unethical pressure and to face fear and danger. I will hold myself and others accountable for our actions and to answer to the people we serve. I will never betray my badge, my integrity, or my character. I will guide my life, both on and off duty, by the law enforcement code of ethics. Everybody, I present Officer Brewster and Officer Gadway.

Thank you. Moving on to reports, city manager report.

Thank you. I'm just back from attorney leave, so my report will be very brief, but I will bring John Diamante up for an update on the airport appraisal RFP that was successfully completed here this July.

Hello? All right, good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. My name is John Dementi. I'm the airport superintendent. An airport appraisal was approved a few months ago to be conducted by BBG appraisal services. You should have a copy of that appraisal sitting in front of you and there's a few copies also sitting on the table in the back of the room for those that are interested. We're also planning on publishing the presentation that I'm speaking to tonight as well as this appraisal to the city website tomorrow. So getting into it, airport appraisal. What I'm gonna cover tonight is basically the five W's about the appraisal. We're gonna cover which parcels were evaluated, the approach that was taken and assumptions, highest and best use of the parcels, land valuation, market rent, and then the following steps that we're going to undertake. First of all, why? Why do we need an airport appraisal? Well, two-thirds of the airport's revenue is derived from land rents. And we haven't had an appraisal conducted since 2010. So we're 16 years overdue for that appraisal. We also have an upcoming master plan, which includes a financial analysis of the airport. So an appraisal is going to be very helpful for that master plan. But one thing to keep in mind is that this is a single data point. This is a piece of fact and it does not determine any policy. And it doesn't change policy and it doesn't set policy. Policy is set by us in this room. It does not determine the future land use. It doesn't require any sales. It doesn't make any determination. And again it doesn't set policy. There are four parcels that were evaluated in this appraisal. I did my best to cover the four corners of the airport. So the first parcel is going to be the, it's an empty lot called Apron D just south of where Forestry sits. It's about an acre and a half and has been determined by a couple of my predecessors for conversion over to a lease lot. The second parcel is off Cope Industrial across from the nutrition center. 13 acres of bare undeveloped land, raw land, has never been touched by any sort of development. The other two parcels constitute the golf course, tracked A1, which is where holes one and two, the driving range, and the clubhouse sits. The other parcel is referred to as track A, which contains the main part of the golf course. It's between the airport and the Matanuska River. So the approach that the appraiser took, they took two different approaches because we're planning on two different uses for these lands. The lands that... that are south of forestry and off of cope industrial way are being considered for future aeronautical development. So they were the approach from the appraisals appraisers perspective from that was comparing different appraisal rates from different airports across the state across mostly south central. The for the golf course the appraiser took into account What what I asked them to do was to come up with both a fair market rental rate and a fair market value of the of the golf course itself for purchase. So what they did for that is they used comparisons for different sales of different tracts of land across the Matanuska Valley basically Palmer and Wasilla. So the highest and best use determination from the from this for for Apron D it's at Apron D lot 2 south of forestry the highest and best use has been aeronautical use the highest and best use determined by the appraiser for the vacant unimproved land is aeronautical use. For tract A, this is the main portion that contains the golf course, highest and best use was determined by the appraiser to be for the golf course and the highest and best use for tract A1 where the parcel of land where the clubhouse sits was to be determined for aeronautical use. This is the appraiser's opinion using accepted appraisal standards. So land valuation and market rent. This is basically the results of the appraisal. I'll run through these and their numbers and they're large, they're hard to comprehend at just this moment here. So, Apron D lot two as well as the vacant unimproved land were determined to be a fair market value rent was determined to be 15 cents a square foot. The current aeronautical rate is nine cents a square foot and we have determined the non-aeronautical rate in the past to be 11 cents a square foot. So this is an appreciable jump. For track A, this is again the main portion of the golf course east of the runways between the runways of the Matanuska River. The appraiser determined the value of that land to be $8.3 million. that that value represents about $70,000 an acre. The fair market value lease rate the appraiser determined was 11 cents a square foot, which comes to $581,000 annually. Track day one, again containing the clubhouse holes one and two in the driving range, was determined to be worth $3.29 million. The lease rate for that piece of land was determined to be $0.23 a square foot or $263,000 annually. So the next steps. Again, this is a data point. It does not make any policy decisions. Again, no policy has been set. Next steps. is to gain the FAA's concurrence on the appraisal. So this will be sent to the FAA and the FAA will concur or they won't. So then we'll go from there. At the FAA's request, we're also seeking concurrence from the FAA for continued non-aeronautical use of that land. And that's tract A and tract A1 that comprises the golf course. Part of that needs to be a lease structure that is acceptable to the FAA and part of that lease structure is going to be market is going to be the rent that's charged to the golf course. The FAA has already brought up what's called community benefit. Community benefit is a way for them to say that maybe we're not going to charge the full market value for a year. That's up to the FAA and that's going to be determined by a negotiation between the city of Palmer and the FAA. Part of this, what they want to see is a quantitative analysis. They want to know what we can afford to pay. So you've already seen from from Miss Davis I think it was about a 10 maybe 15 year snapshot of the golf course budget that's been presented within the last few months. That's going to be the basis of this quantitative analysis with the FAA. So they're going to take a look at this and that it's where we move forward is again going to be deliberations between the city and the FAA. There's some challenges ahead. One of the challenges is that we have no audited data that represents the current structure the current lease structure. Right now our structure is the city of Palmer owns and operates the golf course. We don't have any data to show the financial analysis of what that entails. So that's going to be difficult moving forward with the FAA. Another challenge is going to be a lease structure. So the lease structure that we could potentially negotiate right now would be a lease structure that involves the city operating the golf course and receiving community benefit for operating the golf course. A challenge, If we decide to change that structure for example introducing a private operator to the golf course that changes that changes things. Community benefit and private operators I don't know how they're going to mix. Again that's going to be deliberations between the city and the FAA on how that how that path forward is determined. I don't know what it is at this time. Future steps, I do want to emphasize that this is a data point. That's all it is. And it's something to help guide the way forward for the city. It gives you an approximate budget for the release of obligation. And also for the airport, the airport does plan on continuing to do future appraisals at the rate of about one every five years. Are there any questions?

When you were going through the fair market values for track A and A1 the annual amount for in a lease situation was what reached us?

Okay track A the main body of the golf course annual lease rate was determined to be 11 cents a square foot or five hundred and eighty one thousand dollars annually annually. A one containing the clubhouse of holes one and two in the driving range. Twenty three cents a square foot annually. At two hundred and sixty three thousand two hundred dollars.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Meyer. That's for everybody's, I wrote down the same numbers, but there are on page 38 of the appraisal. Maybe for the city manager, maybe for you, John, you probably handled it. What did we pay for the appraisal?

We paid $30,000 for the appraisal.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

So I know you'd mentioned that one of the challenges going forward is no matter what, we're going to have to renegotiate that lease with the FAA. And right, sorry. So we're gonna have to renegotiate the lease with the FAA no matter what. Right now with the golf course being operated by the city, that lease would include verbiage stating that the golf course is being operated by the city of Palmer. How difficult has it been in the past? Do you have any kind of frame of reference for how difficult it is to change language like that in a lease with the FAA? If slash when we go back to pulling out an RFP for management, when we get to that point?

I have no information to give you there, I have no idea. What we will do is to, at council's request obviously, will be to present both options and see what the FAA's flavor for, again, how they feel about either one.

Do you know about how long it'll take for us to get to the table with the FAA to negotiate that lease so that we can kind of have an idea like okay, if we're gonna, if the council decides that we're gonna put it out to RFP for January but we're not gonna be sitting down with the FAA till December, we don't wanna negotiate something with them that we know is gonna have a different, could potentially have a different operator versus like if we did it today, we would be negotiating with the city with the potential for it later changing.

The sooner the better. We need to hammer this out as soon as we can so we can get you that information as soon as we can.

So you said that I think that possibly they would not charge us fair market value if we're running it for the first year? Is that what you said or did I miss that?

That is what I said. What I expect is kind of a stair step approach to the lease. What I expect is to determine something that is a nebulous maximum value that we're gearing towards and then we stair step up to that value over the years. I don't expect it to go big early. It could be a three year plan a five year plan. I don't know at this time.

Thank you.

And I also don't, just because the FAA brought up community benefit, I don't expect it to go to fair market, but I don't know at this time.

Any other questions? Yes, ma'am.

Do we know who in the FAA we'd be negotiating with exactly? Like is there a specific individual we're working with or is it kind of like we send our proposal into the FAA of this and somebody gets back to us, you know what I mean? Like do we have a relationship with someone there?

Yes, ma'am, we do have a relationship with a couple folks at the FAA. I don't know the answer. I know my initial point of contact, who that's going to be. And then anything that they do is going to be approved by the apparatus itself. Anything any any communications they have with us regarding this are going to be formal and likely approved.

Thank you.

Anything else. Thank you. All right, moving on to my report. Seems how we met a couple weeks ago, three weeks ago. So I met with the Municipal Planning Organization Policy Board, and we discussed all of our projects. Is that better?

Dang.

So I met with the Municipal Planning Organization Policy Board. We discussed our projects. We have four projects that are put on that have been approved by the Municipal Planning Organization to be completed within this next year. And they're four paving streets. And one is Rempel, one is Caribou, one is... and unfortunately I cannot remember the fourth one. And so what's gonna be happening is we will need a resolution, and I'll bring that forth for the next meeting, that we have to approve those four projects, and we also have to approve that we have matching funds. And so the matching funds for the city are 9.03%. And for example, Rempel Street is expected to cost $1.5 million to fix. And so I think total overall of our four projects, we're only talking a few hundred thousand dollars to get mega million dollars worth of work done, which I think is a good thing. So Palmer sponsored the Miners Game. And there were a couple folks that showed up. I don't remember, Alcantara and Graham, which is her absolute first baseball game. And so I think she learned a little bit about it. So that was a good thing. The city did a good thing there. At the visitor center, the Lions had reconstructed the milepost. And so we had a dedication at the visitor center as well to do that. We had a ribbon cutting at the Jewish Center off of Palma-Wasilla Highway on 49th State Street. They had just opened up a new part of their facility and so we had a ribbon cutting there. I met with the Mat-Su Health Foundation Executive Director and I see, I thought I saw, oh there he is. As well, we met and we talked about how can we help with, are there any health issues in and around town and how can they help and want us to kind of get involved with them, kind of hand in hand, which is a good thing. The borough had an introduction on how to form a community council. There's areas around the city that are not represented by a community council, and they want to call it the Greater Palmer Community Council, and literally it surrounds the city. And the bombshell that I dropped on them, I said that we're talking about annexation, which would cover all of their community council area. it still gives them an opportunity to talk about problems and solutions that they see in their area. The Mat-Su Convention Visitor's Bureau had a grand opening that they went to. And if you've not been, you should go to that building. It's absolutely gorgeous. There was also a dedication for the Susitna Animal Care, which is off of Trunk Road. That's another amazing facility that they've got out there, and you should go see that one as well. Today, I met with the Planning Organization Technical Committee And that meeting got over at 415 this afternoon. But they will be coming in front of the council again and giving another update on the project from Arctic to Fish Hook and obviously our section of the road from the Glen Highway to Alaska Street. And I did push forth the wishes of the council on those particular ones. Tomorrow there's a ribbon cutting ceremony at North Rim Bank. And also there's a coffee connection with the chamber at 8.30 in the morning if anybody wants to come and listen to see what's going on within the business community. Think on Thursday the Combs insurance is having an open house. They do that every year hot dogs, etc and planning and zoning has a their meeting on this Thursday as well of which I will be attending that and And don't forget that celebrate Palmer is on the 24th Here at the depot from 3 to 6 p.m You know, there'll be kids games you know, hot dogs, vegetables, the noodle shoot, I'm hoping. And other than that, that's kind of it over the past few weeks. Any questions? Yes, sir.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Very good report, I appreciate it. On the money for paving of streets, on the 9.03%, around 200,000, do we have to have a specific dollar amount in the budget, or do we just have to prove that we have the resources

No, we don't have to have the money. We just have to commit to that. But what happens if you do not commit and send out a resolution, that project gets removed. And if you don't have the monies, the other projects on the list move up. And so I think the advantage for us is the borough has 60 projects. They do not have matching funds. And like I said, all four of our projects will be done this next year.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

What's the time frame on those roads being paved?

Well, the comment today from DOT is that it will be going to be done as a package, and it will all be done within this next calendar year. Anything else? Madam Attorney. I'm sorry we'll go with you first okay

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Anna Crary from Landy Bennett Blumstein presenting the city attorney's report. So since, I guess, June, which is when the last regular meeting was, here's an itemized list of things we have been working on for the city. We have been coordinating with the city clerk to plan and prepare for the June 20, 2026 special meeting. We also attended that meeting. We've also been coordinating with the city clerk to plan and prepare for the work session that also occurred on that same day, June 20th, 2026. In relation to that work session, we developed training materials that addressed certain municipal issues like parliamentary procedure and OMA best practices. Most recently, we were coordinating with the city clerk to plan and prepare for last week's special meeting on July 9th, 2026. We obviously attended that meeting. We have reviewed and revised Ordinance 26-004, which is introduced this evening, which proposes to amend the Palmer Municipal Code remote sales tax provisions. We've also been working to revise Resolution 26-017, which is on the agenda tonight under the Committee of the Whole with respect to creating a golf course advisory committee. We've been working closely with the Palmer Police Department and the Palmer Fire Department on Alaska Public Records Act-related issues arising as the city receives and responds to public records requests. We are continuing to advise the city on the lawsuit filed by Mr. Borgford. including researching, analyzing, and developing certain arguments and response strategies with respect to that lawsuit. We have continued to review and offer revisions to contracts for services that have been forwarded our way from the city manager. And we've reviewed and certified grant awards and disbursements for both Public Works and the airport. I'm happy to answer any questions.

I almost hate to bring this up again because I know it's been addressed but it's been brought up at our last couple meetings and I've seen gaining traction online so just to put the information out there again is it correct that our city manager lives within five miles of the city of Palmer it is correct that your city manager resides within five miles of the city of Palmer And it sounds like one of the concerns was a tax filing that was filed in 2026 that listed Anchorage as a primary residence. To your understanding, is that filing similar to federal filings in that when we file in 2026, the information we're reporting is actually from the year prior. That is 2025.

That is correct. Under Anchorage Municipal Code, and I don't know the exact code provision off the top of my head, I believe it's in Chapter 12, but the specific residency tax exemptions that would be awarded in 2026 would be backwards looking to where somebody lived in 2025. So like, for example, I'm an Anchorage resident, much to the displeasure of Council Member Alcantara, as he has let me know. And my eligibility for next year's 2027 primary residence exemption would be predicated upon what I did, where I lived in 2026.

Now, Madam Clerk.

I'll become a broken record talking about elections for the next few months. So on Monday, the candidate filing period opens for our October 6th, 2026 regular city election. We have three seats available. We have two three-year seats and we have one one-year seat available. I would encourage everybody to at least maybe look at the packet and see if you might be interested. And if you have any questions for me, feel free to reach out. If you have any doubt as to if you live in the city of Palmer or not, I encourage everybody to vote, always vote. We will let you know if you live within the city of Palmer and the city limits. And if you don't, we'll have you vote a question ballot. We do not turn our voters away. So please, please, please, please vote.

Moving on, audience participation. Three minutes per person, limited total time of 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 the civility and dignity of the legislative process. Please be respectful during audience participation. No disruptions to city business or threats of any kind will be allowed. Individuals who cannot follow these guidelines will be removed. Any threats against others could result in criminal prosecution. Again, sign in, state your name. Tom, three minutes per person.

Hi, my name's Tom Robertson. I live down at the end of Marsh Road, and I'm going to ask for a letter of support from the city of Palmer to the DOT, the state of Alaska, asking for a driveway to be put in from the Glen Highway to the new fire station at Marsh Road. I've been working with the borough, and the borough originally requested that. there would be a driveway for fire trucks and stuff to exit the new fire station directly onto the highway. Right now, there's only one access in, and it's off Marsh Road. Marsh Road is a blind intersection. For most people driving cars, it's not a big deal. When you're driving trucks, it's a much bigger deal. I used to teach CDL not only to the fire department, but in the Army. It's much harder to see. You can't just jump out in traffic when you're driving a big truck. You get caught in a bind. Sometimes you pull out and I get halfway out and here comes somebody over the hill that I couldn't see until they're there. So anyways, we need that. We need a letter of support as soon as possible. And this is what the borough is asking for too. DOT does not own the borough and they don't own the city of Palmer or their fire department. They can't keep ramming their ideas down our throat. They contest, they said, someday they're going to widen that road, the Glen Highway, and they'll worry about that driveway then. Fire departments can't do business like that. They can't bank on someday they'll get around to maybe putting in another road or another access. That's it. Fire departments want things done right the first time. And they want it done right now. They don't want to wait for some maybes. And so the sooner I can get a letter of support to the DOT, the sooner I can get work on that with the borough. Last week there was a truck accident where a pickup truck had attracted a trailer going to turn into Marsh Road and had that intersection blocked. Well, the fire station's not built now, but that would greatly reduce the traffic going in and out of Marsh Road fire station. And you and I know we could have sneaked around through the subdivision and gone out the other way, but that's not how fire departments do business. They want to do it right now, right up front, and they need this second access. Let me give you an example. Say there was a fire explosion at the hospital. Fire trucks here wouldn't all go the same way. Some would go down the Glenna Highway and go to the Parks Highway. Others would be diverted to go down to Palmerville-Siloh Highway and come the trunk road in. That way you have two different vehicles coming in different directions. So if there's construction or an accident or whatever, one of the trucks is bound to get there. I guess I'm done. Just send a letter, thank you.

David Wilson. Some days. Okay, time's up. All right, good evening, council and mayor. For the record, this is David Wilson. I'm a city resident of the city of Wasilla representing the Mat-Su Health Foundation tonight. Before you guys is our annual report that just came out from our annual meeting. I think those are in attendance here. And for those in the audience that also want to follow along, this is also online at HealthyMatSu.org. First couple of items here, I'm just going to walk through this report and let you guys breeze through and let just more informational is that we have our first message from our CEO, Esther Pitts, gives us pretty much an overview of the year's experience. Next, we come to our support in the Mat-Su. It talks about our mission, vision. Our mission is to improve the health and wellness of Alaskans living in the Mat-Su. Our vision is that community where all persons have the opportunity to for healthy life and it talks about our values and the last value is transparency and this is what this annual report is. It's a little bit about transparency and showing how we're stewarding the community's funding. The ways that we are working in this world is our funding, our investments, our organization, our grants, our research and evaluation, our measures, our community health and ease assessment, policy and advocacy, and our community engagement. Going on we talked about a little bit about our grant making philanthropy so in the last year we gave out 21.7 million to 238 organizations out of that 294 folks that applications that received there's more on page 20 that give out the entire list of those our scholarships and vocational and professional development is over 500 something folks. We have 489 academic scholarships 184 vocational scholarships and 74 77 professional development and that's 3.1 in scholarships and 80 percent of those folks that were awarded stayed in the state meaning those funds go directly into our local institutions. We highlight a couple of our entities here. I think you guys are grantee spotlights are on page eight, reconstruction of the Palmer Library. So you guys made the cut. We also talk about our sponsorship impact, 115 organizations at 82, sorry, 115 sponsorships at 82 organizations, over $250,000. We talk about supporting our first responders day here at the fair. We're hoping to do that next year again. I think that's Labor Day. We talked about two of our programs, Connect Mat-Su and Rock Mat-Su. Connect Mat-Su supports local community needs and it provides a referral hub that helps residents access services they need so they can live and work and play here in the Mat-Su. And Rock Mat-Su stands for Raising Our Kids With Kindness. It's a collaborative system levels impact work. I think we go on to our policy and advocacy and that's a wonderful bald head on page 16, if you may recognize that. It talks about how we do what we do in terms of advocacy. And, of course, our evaluation and learning, which we have our community health needs assessment that came out this year, which we shared with you guys as well. That's also on our website. And with our MATSU measures, it's our digital dashboard. And with that, you guys know how to find me. I'm here all the time for you guys. So thank you.

Delaney and Mary Jo.

My name is Delaney Nathlich and I'm a resident of the City of Palmer. Good evening Mayor Cooper, council members and community members. I'm here tonight to provide an update on a few exciting things that are happening at the Palmer Museum of History and Art this summer. Despite a few rainy days and the wind, it's been a beautiful summer in Palmer and visitor numbers continue to be strong regardless of the statewide tourism numbers being lower than average this year. So far we've welcomed about 8,000 in-state visitors and 5,000 out-of-state visitors through the Visitor Information Center. We've also welcomed about 260 tour buses, which has already exceeded last year's total by more than 26%. On Mondays in particular, you may have noticed six or seven buses lined up in front of the visitor center during the lunch hour to help our local businesses prepare for this rush. We distribute bus schedules to our business members provided by Premier and Princess so they know when to expect the larger groups. This Saturday, we're excited to host the annual Arts in the Garden event in partnership with the Palmer Arts Council. The event will feature 56 local vendors, gardeners, and craftsmen, and celebrate the incredible creativity of our community while giving residents and visitors the opportunity to connect with local makers, enjoy live demonstrations, workshops, music, and experience downtown Palmer. Last year we welcomed approximately 1,000 attendees and we're hoping for another great turnout this Saturday from 10 to 4. We'll have two food trucks on site and of course Palmer's downtown restaurants are just a short walk away. Next weekend we're thrilled to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Summer Wine Walk on July 24th. This event started as a small museum fundraiser in 2016 and has grown into one of Palmer's signature summer events. This year's Wine Walk will feature seven tasting locations throughout downtown Palmer and at the Palmer Showcase Garden, along with two exciting prize giveaways this year. One lucky participant will win a Kinnick Glacier helicopter tour for two with Outbound Heli, and another will receive a unique food and wine adventure valued at $500 from Adventurous Winos Tours. Tickets are still available, and I encourage anyone interested to visit palmermuseum.org and learn more on how to purchase the tickets. I'd also like to provide a brief update on our permanent exhibit renovation. On Monday, we'll be meeting with our exhibit fabricators to officially begin the research and design phase of the project. As a part of that process, we'll be hosting a community conversation funded by the Community Council Grant. Thank you. and that will likely be in September, to gather public feedback and hear the stories, perspectives, and ideas that will help shape this next exhibit at the Palmer Museum of History and Art. We hope to see community members participate in the conversation, so anyone is welcome. To receive updates on how, when, and where this community conversation will take place, it's best to sign up for our monthly newsletter. Please email me at director at palmermuseum.org for more information. Thank you for your continued support of us and Tourism and Palmer. We look forward to a successful remainder of the season and sharing another update with you this fall.

She turned me off. Hi I'm Mary Jo Parks. I am the board president for the Palmer Museum of History and Art. And again we are a nonprofit that oversees the visitor information center and the museum for the city of Palmer. So, and Delaney's a hard act to follow because she came on board about a year ago, a little over a year ago, and the amount of things that have been happening at the museum since she arrived are incredible. And I encourage all of you to come take time to walk through the museum and see the exhibit that's there at this time. It's, again, one more incredible one. You know, we also have a very unique gift shop that we are proud of because it's mainly Matsu Valley artists and vendors. And there's now ice cream, so that's an important one to know about. We have amazing books for sale that you can get for both your grandkids, your children, and for adults. As Delaney mentioned, the Wine Walk is happening. There are seven businesses participating again this year, and then we have the Showcase Garden. Over 350 people will be coming, and these people come from actually around the state. We've had people from Valdez, Anchorage and parts beyond so it's a really fun busy night downtown it's also when you're having celebrate Palmer but we'll still work around you I do want to mention as Jim did the Lions redoing the milepost, I'm a lion, and watching the work they did this past winter to bring that, the milepost back to life is incredible. So I encourage you to go again, take time to really look at it. And look at the globe that's on top. It's been done with a lot more color and it's a great tribute to Palmer and visitors from city around the world have really enjoyed getting their picture in front of it. We enjoyed having Juneteenth this year and it was well attended. Lots of people really appreciated working to celebrate Juneteenth. Art in the Garden, as Delaney mentioned, is near and dear to my heart now because Back when we started Midsummer Garden and Art Fair, that started with lots of enthusiasm and things, and then it went through some rough years, and then it was shut down, unfortunately. So when the museum decided to start Arts in the Garden, and now having the partnership with the Palmer Arts Council, it has really come back to life. And part of what I think is really great, it's not just music and vendors, but there's kids events and there's lots of community opportunities for people to participate as well as nonprofits being able to talk about themselves. We continue to have Artists of the Week. Again, if you can come down on a Friday and meet our artists, it's incredible. I had no idea we had such talent in our community, but it's really amazing to be a part of it. The museum has really enjoyed evaluating and increasing the amount of history that we share. Please visit our website. Be sure and look at the photo that we have on the website. We try to represent you well, and we especially are trying to get the message out that Palmer is an amazing place. So thank you.

Dan Gorman.

My name is Dan Gorman. I spoke a few times here. I recently gave an interview. Towards the end of the interview, I was asked a question by the person interviewing me. If I could ask the council one question that they had to answer, what would it be? So here's the question. Why, after we provided evidence that disproves many if not all of your assertions, mostly coming from the mayor and the city manager, won't you acknowledge that you misspoke, publicly apologize, and correct the record? I'll give you some examples. Early on, last probably October or November, it was stated that George who ran the golf course had made millions of dollars from his managing of the course. I taught here at Palmer for a long time. I made two and a half times his salary that he took from the money that he took from you. or the fact, also coming from the same person, that George had stole thousands of dollars from the city by allowing his employees free golf. Despite the fact that any city employee gets free golf free carts free range balls and That this is the standard in the golf community Employees get free golf at the place that they work another is that Georgia's company violated AMCO because the alcohol license has always been seasonal, you said, which has been reported to you many times that it has been annual for all of the years except for last year. I was with George on two occasions when he asked the city for copies of the 2025 license, and it was never given to us. We're supposed to present it, but I was in his office twice when he asked for copies of that license, and this council never gave it to him. So we were operating for 30 years or more on the fact that it was an annual license. And we proved that to you. But you won't acknowledge it. And by the way, the report to AMCO was from this body. So you reported to AMCO on yourself. We deserve answers, but we get nothing. If we continue to get nothing our only recourse is to recall elected officials and formally vote a vote of no confidence for the city manager which is coming. The last I'd like to say is that you have a department head that micromanages the golf course. You hired a manager. Let the manager manage the golf course. This department had even reported to you that the superintendent was doing a fine job even though he had quit two weeks before that time.

Your three minutes are up, sir. Thank you.

John Sherrock from Palmer. I'll try and be quick here. I came in because I was also interested in where you all were at with the release of obligation, the RFP, the golf course advisory board, which I think would be awesome, and the golf course land appraisal, which I saw, which is cool. But I want to point out something here to you on page 19, Palmer Municipal Airport, track A. There are no known easements, encroachments, or land use restrictions that would adversely affect the subject. No other legal restrictions have been defined that would further limit the development of the property consistent with the highest and best use of the site. There's all kinds of easements, encroachments, land use restrictions. It's next to the airport. That's why the fence is there. You can't put anything there but grass. And then the same, the paragraph below that, a soils report was not provided. You have a soil report from 2016 in the master plan. I think both those things would greatly affect all the numbers that were provided to us tonight. But anyways, moving forward, what I wanted to say was that, you know, last year I kind of did some rough math and I figured out that, you know, you had somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% return on investment from the golf course last year, which is pretty good. and i'm assuming you want to improve on those numbers you're gonna have to start doing some golf course stuff there you know stuff that attracts golfers you know so far you've had no tournaments there's no special deals i haven't seen any advertising other than from you know people like me there online like trying to get people please come out support the course uh... you know the golf course is starting to get busy when you're charging forty one dollars around

I heard it got raised to $50, and it's kind of a ghost town.

Do you want a whole bunch of $41 rounds, or do you want a few $50 rounds? I think lowering the prices to fit the conditions and also keeping the snack shack open, and then have some fun, affordable tournaments, things that bring golfers back. Let them see the course conditions. They're not that bad. I also think that the RFP should be done as soon as possible so that the people turning the course off this fall will be the same ones turning it back on in the spring. And finally, Mr. Alcantara, we're looking for a fourth player for the Chamber of Commerce tournament if you want to join us. Let me know.

Chris Lithgow.

Good evening, I'm Chris Lithgow. I guess if I could get some clarity on your expertise on the municipal tax codes. According to Ms. Zirkle's tax paperwork, her tax exemption is filed for tax year 2026, and on the municipal website for Anchorage, an owner-occupied residential property may be partially exempt for 40% of assessed value up to $75,000 maximum. The application deadline is March 15th of the applicable year. And to me, that 2026 is the year she filed on her paperwork. She filed by March 15th of 2026. This would be the applicable year. So if we could get some clarification on that. Also, her donations to political campaigns were filed in December and I believe she gave reports saying that she had lived out here by then, or that she hadn't lived out here by then when she was still in Anchorage and her address was listed as in Anchorage. But that's the main thing for me is the applicable year. And why would somebody file for something in any applicable year if they didn't live there?

Cindy Hill-Harsh.

Okay, I'm going to assume you guys can hear me. Hopefully, hopefully. The airport report gave me a little bit of surprise because I generally don't expect someone who's giving a formal report to include their personal ideas and guesses so hello everyone thanks to mayor cooper and the council for having us here but more importantly thanks for asking each council member at the close to the end of the june twentieth meeting what everybody wanted to accomplish for the rest of the year it was a long meeting but over the course of four or five days i listened to the whole thing That was the most exciting part for me. Some of you guys are really thinking, and thank you for that. I also realized some people didn't really know what to say because the subject had already been spoken about. In particular, I heard council members Alcantara, Graham, Allen, and Carrington identify the golf course RFP and or developing a timeline for the release of obligation as priorities. Councilwoman Collins said the word golf, but the rest was kind of muted. I think she was away from the microphone, but I'm gonna guess it was golf something that was good. Mr. Diamante just really, scared the out of you guys i'm guessing the faa has been well aware that this has been a contract run golf course for many many years i'm not going to read the rest of this but um it's time to issue that rfp if you think about it last october was when things started going a little bit sideways with the contract that was previously in place. I don't think that you guys should allow his own personal ideas about what will happen to interfere with something that has been happening for 30 years. There are some facts and figures about the golf course that I'd like to read to you guys. They're kind of a different topic so I'm going to do that with the next round if that's okay. But do still go forward with the RFP. I'm really glad that you guys had good stuff to say and I hope to see it come forth here.

Yeah, my name's Joel Stefanski. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council, manager. Been coming here since July of last year, whole year. First one was the airport advisory. I still want to save the golf course. We have a lot of things going against us here, a lot of special interest. lot of misinformation you know it's like us trying to close ski talk or government hill or the museum you know why why why do we even think about paving over the the uh golf course why do we even have this discussion you know how would you like to put a building on top of the museum a city office and and get rid of the museum how would you like to pave the ski talk i'd like to pave the nordic trails there that people spent thousands of hours of volunteering. I don't even know why we even have this discussion. You know, you council members are either going to have a wall of shame or something good. I hope it's not the wall of shame that's going to come down here, the direction we're going. John Dementi gives a report, $30,000 study, but none of it tells us what it's actually going to cost to develop over there. The $50 million environmental impact study, where's that money coming from? All environmental issues, once you cross that chain link fence, it separates the golf course. Any of you councils ask that question? Have you done your research? To pave over that, Palmer Airport's a plane destroyer. Everything is, I went to the airport advisory. They don't even know there are a million dollars in the hole. They think they're making money for the city. You need to tell the airport advisory there are a million dollars in the hole. And why would we even wanna cross on the other side of that fence and pave it over? I don't know why we keep having these discussions, but I will promise you if that golf course gets paved over. I will let this community know, every single one of you, what you did to this community. I promise you. And I will succeed at that. You know, most of you council members talk about all the time is, oh, have a nice day. But why don't we do some critical thinking sometime and ask the tough questions? It's more than have a merry Christmas, happy Valentine's Day. It's more than that, the job that you guys have for this community. The community has overwhelmingly, hundreds and hundreds of times said, protect the golf course. I don't know what it is, why this keeps coming up. But I still have faith in you folks that we go the right direction here. And your legacy lives on something positive, not negative. Thank you very much.

I wasn't on the list you have time for one more.

OK.

Thank you. Michelle Grimes and I was listening closely to Mr. Diamante's report describing the appraisal and if I heard it correctly it sounded like that if the city maintained the lease for the golf course it is possible that the FAA has already brought up the reduced lease rate under the community use guideline. or provision excuse me which of course would keep the golf course affordable. Now of course if a private company leases the golf course then that community use designation would go away and eventually the lease would be stepped up to this 700-ish thousand dollar a year lease rate. And as I was sitting there listening I thought that this sounded very familiar to me. This sounded like Perhaps this was a demonstration for why the last 20 plus years the city maintained an interdepartmental lease with the airport for the golf course land. And it was I believe if my reading of the master plan and such are correct it was because that allowed you to have a nominal lease rate for community use. The FAA approved that nominal lease rate. You can look back in volume two of your 2016 airport master plan and it reviews that. So this perhaps was like a proof of concept exercise and you might want to consider maintaining the golf course as an interdepartmental lease and going back to a structure where you contract out purely for the operations. And perhaps that's why it was set up this way 25 plus years ago. It did work for a very long time. It was highly profitable for everyone. It also kept the golf course affordable. The one thing I wanted to mention in addition to that is that right now you know I know that the golf course is struggling. I appreciate the employees who are working very hard there. They really are. I have no criticism of the folks who are working hard to make that golf course workable and improve conditions but it is very quiet there. I think price is a major factor. One thing I want to bring to your attention is that right now Palmer is the most expensive golf course for youth. So Wasilla families they pay less to play at Settlers Bay. Anchorage South Anchorage families pay less to play at O'Malley. Palmer families pay more than anybody else to use their municipal golf course. And you know I don't need to tell you that the demographics of Palmer and South Anchorage they are not comparable. Right. And so if it is possible you know if I hope you would consider a modest reduction in greens fees. Honestly I believe it would be meaningful to the community. I think that it would definitely encourage more people to use the golf course and I think that would be good for all of us. Right. That would be good for the city. That would be good for the golf community. It would help us move forward. Thank you.

Moving on to new business. Our proceedings follow Robert's Rules of Orders as set forth in Palmer Municipal Code 2.06.010 to promote an orderly and respectful meeting. I respectfully ask the council to observe the following rules. Please seek recognition before speaking. No member shall speak more than twice or for more than 10 minutes to any one question. These guidelines help ensure fairness, efficiency, and mutual respect during our discussions. So we're at new business resolution number 26018, authorizing the city manager to accept and appropriate grant 3-02-0211-038-2026 in the amount of $1,069,997 from the Federal Aviation Administration and an expenditure in the amount of $56,316 from the capital projects fund for the purpose of updating the airport master plan at the Warren Budd Woods Palmer Municipal Airport. Which is the council.

Make a motion that we approve. Second.

Madam Clerk.

I have that the motion was moved by Carrington and seconded by Graham to approve. Deputy Merrill Cantra.

I need to ask a question first.

Oh, okay. That's good, too.

Thank you. Thank you for moving and seconding that. For the city manager or for John, if he needs to come up here. But my recollection is that the cost share was 93.75% and 6.25%. These numbers are changed a little. It looks like 95.5, and I'm just wondering, has that always been the case, 95.5, or is that the new case? The simple math tells me we should be over 60 grand, but it's less than 60, so kind of clue me in on what I'm missing here.

You are correct sir and you're in your recollection of the split for the grants the in the it's normally six and a quarter percent for the city match and my math is great ninety three point seven five percent for that for the FAA in that there was an in 2024 there was an FAA reauthorization act and in that act They said in fiscal years 25 and 26, there would be a 95-5 split. So it's, we're paying less for grants that were issued last year and this year. Thank you.

Thanks, John.

Okay, now I guess we're ready to vote. Council Member Carrington?

Yes.

Council Member Allen?

Yes.

Council Member Mosier? Council Member Collins? Yes. Deputy Mayor Alcantara?

Yes.

Council Member Graham? Yes. Mayor Cooper? Yes. It is approved and unanimous.

Thank you. Resolution number 260 19 authorized in city manner to accept an appropriate grant 3-0 2-0 2 1 1-0 3 9-2 0 2 6 in the amount of thirty eight thousand two hundred forty four dollars from the Federal Aviation Administration and an expenditure in the amount of 2013 dollars from the capital projects fund for the purpose of updating the airport master plan at the Warren Bud Bud Woods Palmer Municipal Airport

Move to approve. Second.

I have that it was moved by Graham and seconded by Mosier. Any?

We're good?

OK. Councilmember Allen.

Yes.

Councilmember Carrington. Yes. Councilmember Mosier. Yes. Councilmember Collins. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alcantara.

Yes.

Councilmember Graham. Yes. And Mayor Cooper. Yes.

It is unanimous and approved.

Next one is information memorandum 26-001 reporting on city council ordinance number 26-002 referral to planning and zoning commission. I'll turn this over to the clerk.

So there's nothing, this is just an informational memorandum to let us know that Planning and Zoning looked at it and sent it back to us. So now the city attorney and I will get together to work on that ordinance and get it back to you guys to vote with their recommended changes. It is, I'm sorry, it is ordinance 26-002. And that has to do with the animal care and reworking title six.

I have a quick question.

Sure.

So one of the recommendations from, sorry. So one of the recommendations from planning and zoning was to add a definition to a section that we aren't touching otherwise really. Does that have to be another, like another new resolution or is that gonna be wrapped into the same resolution 26-002?

We should be able, from my understanding, we should be able to do it all in the same ordinance because it's the same subject. Okay, cool.

Thank you.

Record of items placed on the table.

I have the 2025 annual report from the Matsu Health Foundation.

That's it. Moving on, again, audience participation.

Same comments apply.

Council meeting rules protect your right to testify and be heard even if others in the room disagree with you. Council meeting rules also ensure that those attending can express their views if they do not interfere with the rights of others to see and hear the proceedings. At all times, order and decorum will be maintained in keeping with the civility and dignity of the legislative process. Please be respectful during audit participation. No disruptions to city business or threats of any kind will be allowed. Individuals who cannot follow these guidelines will be removed. Any threats against others could result in criminal prosecution. And if anybody would like to speak, please come forward, sign in, state your name, and you have three minutes.

it was turned off sorry about that so this is harder than sitting at the desk so the Palmer Golf Course provided activity in this community for about 400 golfers per day in the past the current lack of business at the golf course today speaks for itself with regard to a city managed course I looked up all this stuff last Tuesday was gonna look it up again tonight but it was more miserable because it's gonna be a rainy week The course currently has available with hours that are not quite as long as in the past, 90 tee times each day. At four golfers a tee time, that's the capacity for 360 golfers. Nearly $20,000 in potential daily revenue on an average of $55 for a round for a golfer with a cart. One year ago, those tee times were routinely filled a week in advance, sometimes even longer. we don't have tournament monies coming in either today that demand has sharply declined last week at three o'clock in the afternoon on Tuesday there were 14 tee times reserved for the following Saturday just 56 golfers out of a possible 360 which is 15% of capacity that used to be at 100% every day. This week at the same point, there are six golfers signed up to golf. I realize we've not been receiving reports from the golf course. I think it would be nice if we had some idea. whether or not they do math the way I do because I'm pretty particular about things this doesn't include walk-on traffic because there didn't in my mind there never was walk-on traffic no one showed up at the golf course to play golf I don't know how many people are showing up now the demographic is a little bit different than it used to be the third of July we had one employee working and one golf cart kid He was super nice, but that's not okay. On the 4th of July, from 11 to three, there were about 30 cars in the parking lot. If people come separately, that's not very many golfers. This represents a drop from almost full utilization. I calculated, so the day when there were 12 people reserved, the golf course would have had $750 in income. With a full tally sheet, that'd be 20 grand a day. to not think about the RFP moving forward with a contractor with Michelle's ideas in mind this has worked seamlessly I realize times change but there is a way to update this information based on what we've done in the past it's not a waste of everybody's time but this has just been kind of a disaster I think the golf course is looking better. That's good. We didn't necessarily need to be three or four months behind. But I just really want you guys to think about the financial implications of these things. We've talked ad nauseum about airport versus golf course money. You need to really keep that in mind as you work your way through things. And thanks.

And I have the math if anybody wants it.

Wes Hartz, one of the things that one of the other people were talking about earlier is why doesn't the airport make money? Most urban airports make money. Why isn't it making money for the city? Why is it costing, I've heard multiple of you guys complain about how your property values and your tax money, yet you guys are just throwing money at the airport. Make the airport pay for itself. It's just something to think about, thank you.

I promise to be brief. Recently you allowed the city manager to live within five miles of the city. I think that you should make some kind of resolution or whatever for people who live five miles outside of the city to be able to run for city council and to be able to vote for members of the city council. Thank you.

Back to the council. I need a motion to go into Committee of the Whole, please.

I move to enter Committee of the Whole.

And that's to discuss draft resolution number 26.017, a resolution of the Palmer City Council Creating Golf Course Advisory Committee. Do I have a second on that?

Second.

Thank you. Madam Clerk?

I have the motion made by Council Member Graham and seconded by Council Member Collins to go into Committee of the Whole. Council Member Allen. Yes. Council Member Carrington.

Yes.

Deputy Mayor Alcantara.

Yes.

Council Member Collins.

Yes.

Council Member Graham. Yes. Council Member Moser. Yes. And Mayor Cooper. Yes. It's unanimous and approved. We're in Committee of the Whole at 737.

So in your packet, you'll notice that there are two resolutions, and I believe that one is the original and the other is some corrections. Madam Attorney, would you like to speak to that, please?

I also gave each of you the red line corrections that she provided to me, and I forgot.

So thank you, Mr. Mayor. So in the packet that is online contains duplicate draft resolutions the red line which is shorthand for just the revisions that were made following the prior committee of the whole based on comments made by council members was handed out to you today in paper form so if you're looking in your packet on your iPad for the red line and you think you're insane you're not it's not there it's here in front of you

I did email it to all council members.

Okay, perfect. Excellent. And I also believe, too, that for members of the public, similarly, I think there are paper copies of it on the table in the back of the room if people want to look. Yeah I'm here to answer questions as best as I can to these proposed revisions. I think after the prior committee of the whole discussions the goal was to really just tighten up some of the language to clarify and to reiterate that the committee is advisory and DOES NOT HAVE AUTHORITY TO DIRECT SPECIFIC CITY ACTION OR REALLY DO ANY SPECIFIC THING FOR THE CITY EXCEPT TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COUNCIL WITH RESPECT TO OPERATION OF THE GOLF We can walk, it's really up to, you know, I take my direction from you, so if you would like to walk through this resolution, I'm happy to do that. If you have questions about some of the proposed revisions, like I said, I'm happy to answer that. But, you know, this is your resolution, this is your committee of the whole, and I'm here to just help facilitate and advise however you want me to.

Ma'am, I would like you to go through it line by line, please.

Okay. This is very strange because this is much shorter than I am. I will try to make this work. Okay. So the resolution starts out with a few whereas clauses, every attorney's favorite. They just sort of set the premise and the situation for why the resolution is being offered. And this sets forth that whereas the City of Palmer maintains the Palmer Municipal Golf Course, and whereas in 2026 the city assumed responsibility for managing all golf course operations and whereas the palmer city council believes that creating a committee of citizens who have expressed interest in and concern about the operation of the golf course would assist the city's management of the golf course and whereas the council now wishes to create a special advisory committee pursuant to palmer municipal code section 2.09 THAT SECTION OF THE CODE IS THE SECTION OF THE CODE THAT ESTABLISHES THE AUTHORITY OF THE COUNCIL TO MAKE THESE ADVISORY COMMITTEES. SO THE RESOLUTION STARTS OFF BY ARTICULATING THE CREATION AND THE PURPOSE OF THE GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND STATES THAT THERE IS CREATED A GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, THE APPOINTED MEMBERS OF WHICH SHALL SERVE WITHOUT COMPENSATION. IT'S A VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE. The purpose of the committee is to advise the city on matters relating to golf course operations. It goes on to talk about committee membership. It states that the membership of the committee shall be comprised of three city residents, two at-large members. The at-large members, it's not clarified here in the resolution, but they do not need to be residents of the city of Palmer. the director of community development and the golf course superintendent. It goes on to talk about the appointment of the committee members. The city resident and at-large members will be appointed by the mayor, subject to confirmation by the council. The at-large members may, but do not have to be city residents. None of the appointed members may be employees of the city. The director of community development and golf course superintendent are ex officio members of the committee. They will not serve as committee officers or count towards a quorum. When one serves as an ex officio member of the committee, it's really just an opportunity for a person from outside of that particular body to attend and offer their advice, their guidance, their counsel, their input, and have an exchange of ideas on that committee. So that's why those two particular agency or department heads are proposed to be members of the committee. The resolution goes on to talk about terms, everybody's favorite. The terms of the appointed members shall be for two years, ending December 31 of each year. For the initial city resident members, the term for one resident member shall end on December 31, 2026, and the terms for two resident members shall end on December 31, 2027. For the initial appointed at-large members, terms shall end on December 31, 2026 and December 31, 2027. Members will serve until resignation or appointment of a successor or until the dissolution of the committee. ONLY THE APPOINTED MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE MAY VOTE. VACANCIES ARE FILLED BY THE MAYOR WITH COUNCIL CONFIRMATION FOR THE REMAINDER OF ANY MEMBERS UNEXPIRED TERM. MEMBERS MAY BE REMOVED BY THE MAYOR WITH COUNCIL CONSENT AFTER THREE UNEXCUSED ABSENCES FROM SCHEDULED MEETINGS. IF YOU HAVE A COMMITTEE AND YOU HAVE PEOPLE WHO HAVE VOLUNTEERED AND BEEN ASKED TO BE PUT ON THE COMMITTEE, NOT SHOWING UP FOR THE COMMITTEE, YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO REPLACE THEM WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO ATTENDING AND PARTICIPATING, HENCE THE ABILITY TO REMOVE FOR UNEXCUSED ABSENCES. THE RESOLUTION GOES ON TO TALK ABOUT OFFICERS, MEETINGS, AND QUORUM REQUIREMENTS. IT STATES THAT APPOINTED MEMBERS WILL SELECT A CHAIR OR VICE CHAIR AND A SECRETARY. THE CHAIR PRESIDES AT ALL MEETINGS, MAY PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSION AND DEBATE, AND MAY VOTE. In the absence of the chair, the vice chair does all of those things. And the secretary gets to take minutes of each meeting. The committee will hold regular monthly meetings from March through November and also in January. The date and time of regular meetings shall be set by the committee. Notice of those meetings will be given at least five days before the meeting and the city clerk will post those notices of the meeting and publish the notice along with the agenda and meeting documents if any. So committee is part of the public body that is Well, it's part of the city of Palmer, so it's going to be subject to Open Meetings Act requirements, which means that you have to notice a meeting properly. All the notice provisions that are set forth in this resolution are consistent with the notice provisions that apply to the council through the Palmer City Code. And things like minutes, notes, proceedings, those are all public records. The committee doesn't operate in secret. The committee will operate as a public committee. uh... any three committee members may call a special meeting a notice of special meeting shall be given at least three days before that meeting the clerk posts the notice of that special meeting and publishes the notice of the meeting along with the agenda and meeting documents if there are any all regular and special committee meetings will be open to the public and conducted in accordance with applicable law that applicable law is your palmer municipal code and open meetings act provisions specified in alaska statute ALL COMMITTEE MEETINGS REQUIRE QUORUM. THREE APPOINTED MEMBERS WILL CONSTITUTE A QUORUM. MAJORITY OF AFFIRMATIVE VOTES OF THE APPOINTED MEMBERS ARE NECESSARY TO CARRY ANY MOTION. AND IT STATES THEN THAT THE SECRETARY WILL KEEP IN FILE PROMPTLY WITH THE CITY CLERK MINUTES OF EACH REGULAR AND SPECIAL COMMITTEE MEETING AND THAT MINUTES ARE OPEN FOR INSPECTION BY THE PUBLIC. So the resolution goes on to talk about duties and limitations. And I think this is the section of the resolution that generated the most discussion and also the most suggested revisions previously, which are very helpful. It starts off by saying that as an advisory committee, the committee may make recommendations to the council on matters relating to the operation of the golf course, including but not limited to the golf course's annual budget, green fees, rental rates, and other charges associated with the public's use of the golf course. The golf course's operational policies, use of the golf course, reservation systems, seasonal operating hours, and pace of play standards, and the golf course's response to public feedback regarding appearance and maintenance of the clubhouse and grounds. At the invitation of the council, the committee may submit monthly reports and an annual report detailing its activities and recommendations. And the final provision of this section establishes that this committee shall have no authority to direct any city employee TO TAKE SPECIFIC ACTION IN RESPONSE TO ITS RECOMMENDATIONS NOR SHALL THE COMMITTEE HAVE ANY AUTHORITY TO RECOMMEND OR DIRECT CITY ACTION WITH RESPECT TO PERSONNEL MATTERS RELATED TO OR ARISING OUT OF THE CITY'S OPERATION OF THE GOLF COURSE. AGAIN, THIS IS PROPOSED TO BE AN ADVISORY COMMITTEE WITH THE IDEA BEING THAT THEY GIVE SUGGESTIONS AND OFFER ADVICE BUT ARE NOT ACTUALLY TASKED OR GIVEN THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE DETERMINATIONS OR TAKE DECISIVE ACTION ON BEHALF OF THE CITY. Finally, the resolution speaks to the duration of the committee. It states that the committee will dissolve on December 31 of each calendar year unless the committee's duration is extended by resolution of the council for an additional one-year term. Any then serving members of the committee shall continue service pursuant to the terms and conditions of committee membership set forth in this resolution. So that is the proposed revised resolution. A little different from what was presented last time, but happy to answer any questions, accept feedback, positive or negative, and support the conversation that you may wish to have.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for this, and good job kind of encapsulating the thoughts. The couple things that I... have thoughts about, which probably are not deal breakers for me, but I don't like the idea of sitting here on July 14th and possibly dissolving a committee on December 31st of this year, especially if we're appointing people to serve until December 31st of 2027. I would suggest that we could say keep that same language, but save each calendar year beginning December 31st, 2027. So at least this advisory committee stays in place as long as the first appointed members as they come forward to us. The other part, I don't know the rules and ramifications, but I know This is an advisory committee I know it's different than a planning commission or economic development or parks and rec but I'm pretty sure those groups receive some nominal stipend of like fifty dollars a meeting or something of that nature. Please either. City Manager Regina can correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe they don't receive anything, but I thought they received about a $50 stipend. I'd suggest we have the same thing. If this committee's gonna meet 10 times a year, I would suggest that a stipend similar to what we give to the other committees might be something we wanna consider. Other than that, I appreciate everything that you put forth.

I am in agreement with Mr. Alcantara regarding the stipend because that's a lot of work. It's hard work. Sometimes you're there two, three hours a night. You're taken away from your family. An incentive would be nice to see. the second page item C I don't like the idea of the year listed in there I would like to see the current year because this to me when I read this I'm looking at it is this committee a two-year committee or is it going to be ongoing or until dissolved So that's my thought process. And then the other thing that I have is on the duties and limitations. Number C is corrected. Can I ask staff to follow up with city council or get a recommendation to us? I would like them to be able to get that if they can. the need arises for new equipment or something, can they ask staff to speak on their behalf or put in an RFP or something along that nature. That's all I have.

I like everything the way that it can't hear me again because I'm bad at this thing the lab mic okay um I like everything about this I don't have any questions or concerns on it other than just being really appreciative of how much work you guys have put into this I guess my question is Once we end this Committee of the Whole after everybody's spoken and we've gone through and we've given further direction, at what point does this go to public hearing? Because I'm assuming it's gotta go public hearing and then we vote on it, is that correct? I guess I'm wondering what the step is once we get past tonight so that we can give folks kind of an idea of what our timeline looks like because I know stuff has to go for a public hearing and all that kind of information.

So it's a resolution. It does not need to have a public hearing. It's not an ordinance. The options, I feel like I'm looming over you and you too. The options that you have are, there are a few. You can come out of committee of the whole. Somebody can move to adopt as presented. You could come out of committee of the whole and somebody could move to table to the next meeting, pending additional revisions. It's up to you.

This mic thing is crazy.

So I appreciate their work that you guys have put into this. I would support this as is. The way it's written up is really well done and I would support it as is.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I also appreciate the work that you've done. I think it's a fine resolution. I would agree with Mr. Alcantara, though, that I think that if we're going to appoint a group now, I'd like to see them be able to stay on for the next calendar year. I think that would just be much more efficient, so if there's a way we can uh... we could do that i think that makes a lot of sense and then with regard to uh... competition for uh... folks who who step up to serve uh... it occurs me it occurs to me that that that fifty dollar uh... number is pretty similar to around the call and i wonder if Rather than working through the budget process, we could compensate them with a golf punch card, something like that, because I would anticipate the people that are going to step up to serve in this are going to be serious golfers and would really appreciate that. So that's just a thought, but I do appreciate the document. Thank you.

I also, this revised version of the resolution addresses some of the concerns that I had previously, so I appreciate the amendments that have been made. I like it as is. If there is support for wanting to have it continue, that we not have to vote on it this December, but it would be next, I would be fine with that. But that was the only comments I had. Thanks.

Anything else? All right, motion.

I move to exit Committee of the Whole.

I second.

Motion to come out of Committee of the Whole was made by Councilmember Graham and seconded by Councilmember Carrington. Mayor Cooper. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alcantara.

Yes.

Council Member Allen. Yes. Council Member Carrington. Yes. Council Member Collins. Yes. Council Member Graham. Yes. Council Member Mosher.

Yes.

We are out of Committee of the Whole at 7.54.

Mr. Mayor.

Yes.

I would like to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number 26-017 as written.

Is there a second?

I second.

Any discussion?

Yes, sir. Move an amendment, sir.

Yes. OK.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move an amendment under duration that the committee will dissolve under December 31 of each calendar year beginning December 31, 2027, unless the committee's duration is extended by resolution. I look for a second.

I second that.

Madam Clerk, we'll be voting on the amendment.

All right, so what I have is moved by Alcantara, seconded by Moser, is that we would change the duration to December 31st, 2027, and then vote on it each year. Yes, okay. So Council Member Allen. Yes. Council Member Carrington.

Yes.

Council Member Moser.

Yes.

Council Member Collins.

Yes.

Council Member Graham. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alcantara. Yes. And Mayor Cooper. Yes. It is unanimous and approved.

Seeing none, now we're gonna be voting on the motion as amended. I was gonna make a note.

There's a lot to keep track of up here. Okay. Council Member Carrington.

Yes.

Council Member Allen. Yes. Council Member Collins. Yes. Council Member Moser.

Yes.

Council Member Graham. Yes. Deputy Mayor Alcantara. Yes. Mayor Cooper. Yes. It is unanimous and approved.

Thank you. We have no executive session. Council Member comments, and we'll start with Council Member Allen, please.

Thank you. I just wanted to thank everyone who presented today and everyone who spoke today. We can maybe not agree on everything, but I do appreciate folks taking time out of their day to participate in this process. inform this council, so thank you for that. I was also very encouraged to hear about the tourist numbers, that although statewide the numbers are down a bit, they remain robust in the Valley and in Palmer in particular, and I think that's very encouraging, and I hope that our small businesses are seeing that impact, so thank you very much.

Council Member Moser.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, too, thank everyone for coming out tonight. And more importantly, congratulations to our reserve officers for the police and the fire department. It's always nice to hear from our state senator as well. And I'm glad we could come together with the resolution for the advisory committee. One of my questions, I guess, too, is when will the applications be ready for those who would like to participate with that?

So we have a pretty generic application, so you'll, not like there's one catered for each board and commission, so if you're interested, they are on our website, and when you fill it out, you just pick which, you just write in what board or commission you're applying for.

thank you benji all right the other thing that i i wanted to mention too was i did go over the fourth of july weekend to the golf course i did the staff was very nice they were very polite the greens look great as well as i went to the senior citizen palmer senior citizen center and i actually joined and so and i I will be putting forth my comments to them through a system. But I also joined the Palmer Arts. And last year, I really had a great time in the garden. Many old friends that I hadn't seen in probably months and years. And it was just a great thing. So if you can get out and exercise a little bit, get in your steps, I strongly encourage you to go.

Thank you. Councilman Collins.

Thank you. Yeah, there's a lot of neat things we were able to hear about again today as far as things that people are doing in our community, both as paid employees and as volunteers. So that's always neat to hear. I thought I noticed more buses in Palmer. It's good to know it wasn't just my imagination. So that's great to see. Council member Allen said I hope that's translating into more business for businesses in Palmer. One other thing I did notice over the last week or two that I think is a positive improvement is a lot of cutting of trees between Arctic and Eagle. There have been some big overgrown cottonwoods that were affecting ability to see around corners and leaning precipitously over the roadways, perhaps. And so I've seen the city's been busy on getting a lot of those cut down. I think that's been a big improvement for those neighborhoods. And that's all I've got. Thank you. Thank you. You're up.

I'll fight with a microphone.

just like everybody else has said i just want to thank everybody for coming out i'm glad that we were able to get resolution 26-17 done and we can start getting uh going with what you guys had asked for as far as the golf course advisory committee i think that's going to help out a lot it'll be nice to hear from people within and from without the city on the golf course and i think that it'll open a lot more doors of communication. And anytime there can be more community involvement, it's a good time. It is kind of the goal. I do want to address something that came up during the audience comments. So back God, I don't even remember when I had stated in either my comments or somewhere that the city had had a seasonal license for, or not a non-seasonal license, I'm sorry, a year-long license. Nope, stop, start. That we had had a seasonal license and then suddenly we were out of that with the new one. As I had stated following that meeting, I was incorrect. What had happened was AMCO had Title 24 rewritten last year, two years ago. I'm starting to lose track of time, but they had rewritten it that year. So the city had a new type of license that had never actually been issued before that Title 24 rewrite. So like I had said then, I was incorrect. Like I'm saying now, I was incorrect. So other than that, I appreciate all the work that the mayor is putting in for the MPO stuff. I really look forward to hearing from... them again regarding the Arctic Fish Hook project and our section of it because some of the stuff that they had brought up previously was interesting in concept for some changes in downtown. And I really appreciate that we are continuing to move forward with this airport appraisal so that we can get that into the airport master plan so that we can finally get some real world information from the FAA as far as pursuing that release of obligation. It'd be nice if we could just cut the court immediately. Unfortunately, that is just not how the federal government works. And until that land is no longer part of the airport and no longer beholden to the FAA, essentially, it has to be included in all these documents, which is extremely frustrating, because I think we would all like to see it just off of anything that has to do with the airport. But yeah, I appreciate you guys coming out. And we'll see you guys. The next meeting is on the 28th? 28th. Thank you, guys.

Deputy Mayor. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. First off, thank you everybody for taking the time out of your evenings to come out to the city council meeting. I want to congratulate Lieutenant Cable and officers Brister and Gadway. Nothing more impressive than folks willing to serve the public and when you make those phone calls at you know 2 a.m. To get an ambulance or midnight to get a police officer nice nice to know that we're Still growing some of our own and and I know though they're gonna be a big help here in the city I want to thank Senator Kathy Tilton for coming out the citation for chief Chad Cameron Thought that was very nice very well done appreciate that I I appreciate the executive director and the president of the board of the museum being here and presenting us with some facts and figures and hopefully improving weather will lead to even more folks showing up there. I want to thank the attorneys and the clerk for the good work on the advisory resolution. And I hope and I implore on the rest of our council members that we, you know, please listen to these folks and listen to the citizens that come out time and time again. Dan, Cindy, Michelle, Joel, John, Chris, many, many others. The list goes on and on. I remember when we were here on December 16th. in this building and this is just a fraction of the folks that used to show up and talk about golf course and the fact the matter is these folks that testify know the ins and outs of the golf course far better than we do up here at the dais so i hope we'll i hope they'll consider serving and i hope we will listen to them and i do think that the advisory committee will help so I hope that it brings forth some good things. I did really appreciate the suggestion of maybe lowering youth rates for golf course and doing some things to try to make it better. And one of the things we lost was 20 plus years of relationships that George column had with golfers across Alaska. So I mean that that's just difficult to replace I know no offense to anybody who's working hard sitting employees working hard I've known a lot of them for a long time. So I know they're doing the best they can but when you lose a Really kind of a golfing icon In mr. Column. It's just natural. You're gonna have some some bleed off where where folks Are gonna come out because it it is if it is a family atmosphere at Palmer Golf Course I hope it's gonna stay that way and I hope I think this what we did tonight is one good first step in making that happen. So other than that Mr. Mayor appreciate your efforts on the municipal planning organization and I do look forward to making sure those four streets get paved and appreciate you bird dogging that for us and the work that you do as mayor. So thanks everybody. Have a great evening. See you next time around.

Councilwoman Carrington.

First of all, I want to congratulate the officers that were sworn in and congratulate Lieutenant Cable. I appreciate the work that they do So I've been on this council for about a year and since in that year, the topic that has been presented by the community, discussed by the council, highlighted in social media, like any topic before the city council, there are many opinions and sides. There's biased and unbiased perceptions depending on how you see it and what lens you're looking through. This is about the Palmer Airport and golf course, right? That's what we've been talking about for a year. There are many narratives that have been heard coming from all different directions because this is a very, there's just a lot of moving parts in this thing. But I'd like to speak to one of those narratives. And this is my opinion and my perception, perspective. And so I'm not a golfer. I don't particularly like flying. But I live in Alaska. So sometimes if I want to get out of the state, I'm going to have to. So I'm not opposed to either one. In the 70s, the Palmer purchased land for the airport. They got a grant from FAA to purchase the land and FAA has invested millions of dollars in development and ongoing improvements of our airport. And if you've dealt with grants at all, then you know that the grants come with addendums, requirements, restrictions, and FAA is by no means an exception. There are requirements for planned use, for instance, the requirement for a master plan on a regular basis, requirements about use, they approve leases and the like. The City of Palmer owns the airport with federally mandated obligations. Now somewhere in the 90s, there was a decision to use some of the undeveloped airport land for golfing. Now I'm not privy how that started. I heard it was a mayor and a councilman that decided it was a good idea. But I have heard stories about how the management of the golf course has morphed over the years. But it was consistent on every airport master plan how all the land could be utilized for possible growth, including the land that was on the golf course. Never has a master plan been to open up the tarmac and drop in luxury airliners. That's never been part of the plan. But every master plan, since it was purchased, has looked at all the land to see how it could be utilized for expansion and growth. Now I've heard some people comment even today to refer to the airport not making money and the golf course making money. Comparing the airport function and the golf course is not an apples to apples comparison. It's rather more like a carrot and a basket of fruit. The golf course provides our community and all those who would come to the Valley with a wonderful place for recreational golfing. We are community. We are very blessed to have a great community asset along with our Palmer Ice Arena, our ball fields, our soccer fields. We are really blessed. We have beautiful country and great things to do. The airport, on the other hand, it operates year round. There's 19 businesses operate from our airport, including the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the Division of Forestry and Fire Protection, and it's wildlife fire and aviation program. They're training and they're staging firefighting support for our region there. There are businesses like New Horizon Telcom, Northern Aviation, Kingdom Air Corps, Fly Around Alaska, Glenair Inc, Blue Air Aviation, Meekins Air Service, Cruise. There's three maintenance facilities. Medlife is the primary support for the Mat-Su regional flies out of there. Guardian Air. FEMA has identified Palmer Airport as the primary disaster relief airport for the Valley. So all of these business and others that are represented at the airport reflect more employees than the whole city of Palmer has hired. So to say this, that the, I'm saying all that to say this, that to have our, make our decisions based on the golf court community about the airport seems very inadvisable and it doesn't, it's against common sense. It's kind of like having the cart leading an entire team of horses. I personally hope to see that there would be a shift in the future that we would, I would love to see our community appreciate the wonderful golf course that we have and enjoy it. I would love to see the community enjoy the opportunity of playing golf in this beautiful space and continue to to grow and support it, but it's sad to see this, what I've seen in this last year, and we have a golf course because we have an airport, and I hope that it does work out, that we have it long term, but it still belongs to the city and FAA, and they have a say, and that's all.

Thank you. On a higher note, I want to thank the, the Convention and Visitor Bureau, the Arts Council, for all the amazing work that you've done having 60 plus vendors in the garden. That's just absolutely gonna be phenomenal. And the number of buses that we've had come in despite road construction is amazing. And I think the Matu Convention and Visitor Bureau is actually probably gonna help that. They're gonna stop there and their job is to direct the traffic and we know that they're gonna direct them towards Palmer. I think you guys are doing a wonderful job. Speaking of the road construction, the road construction at Evergreen is approximately two weeks. ahead of schedule. They were supposed to be pouring concrete today. I don't know if that ever happened, but it'll be asphalt next week. And so that project is coming along really well. And then if you notice, Cedar Street has started its construction. The tracks are out, and we're starting to move dirt there as well. So that project is also ahead of schedule, and I'm looking forward to the completion of those. And that's all I have. 8 to 13, we're adjourned.