City Council - Regular Meeting

City council to order. If you could all rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Alright. Madam city clerk, could you take the roll call, please?

Yes, mayor Pro Tem. All members of city council are present this evening with the exception of mayor Fleming who is absent and excused.

Great. So next up is public appearances. And if there's no objections, I'd like to move the both of the office of discharge for officer Hudson option number one, if that's alright. And then we're gonna have, Lynette Oliver from the Valdez alleged Venture Alliance, I think, talk, gives an update on the bike bash after, the UAFT three update if that works for everybody. Alright. Madam City, Burke, you wanna kick off the swearing of it? Officer Hudson?

Officer Hudson, you come forward.

As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental duty is to serve all people, safeguard lives and property, to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder, and to respect the constitutional rights of all people to liberty, equality, and justice. I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all, maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule, develop self restraint, and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought indeed in both my personal and official life, I will be exemplary in obeying the laws of the land and the regulations of my department. Whether I see or hear of a confidential nature whatever I see or hear of a confidential nature or that is confided to me in my official capacity will be kept ever secret unless revelation is necessary in the performance of my duty. I will never act, officiestly or permit personal feelings, prejudices, animosities, or friendships to influence my decisions.

With no compromise for crime and with relentless prosecution of criminals, I will enforce the law courteously and appropriately without fear or favor, malice or will, never employing unnecessary force or violence and never accepting gratuities. I will recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith, and I accept it as a public trust to be held so long as I am true to the ethics of the police service. I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession, law enforcement.

Okay. So this one's a little bit easier. All I'm gonna have to say is I do.

K. I'm have

you raise your right hand just as a sign of oath, please. Do you, Chase Hudson, solemnly swear or affirm that you will support the constitution of The United States and the constitution of the state of Alaska against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will faithfully discharge the duties upon which you are about to enter?

I do.

And do you further swear that you will not advocate nor are nor have ever been a member of any political party or organization that advocates the overflow of the government of the United States or of this state by force or violence, and that during such time as you are member of any organization or civil defense within the state of Alaska, you will not advocate nor become a member of any political party or organization that advocates the overflow overthrow of the government of the United States or of this state by force or violence.

Thank you, officer Hudson, for your service to our community. Appreciate it. Alright. Next up on our public appearances, we have Copper Valley Electric Association. I believe Morgan and Barry are gonna be coming up to give us the update. Come on up.

Well, good evening, city council. My name is Morgan Melton, and I am the chief communications officer over at Copper Valley Electric. So we're here for two things. The first is to give a formal invitation to our annual meeting, and then the second is to introduce our new chief operating officer, Barry Jackman. So Barry recently took over for Wayne McKenzie and is based out of our Valdez office. And before I jump into annual meeting details, I wanna give Barry a chance to introduce himself and share a little about his background coming to CBA. We're super glad to have him on our team.

Thanks, Morgan. We say new, but I've actually been here for seven months now, and I've been very busy learning. My wife and kids are still in Kenai. I'm a lifelong, last resident. I was born and raised in Kenai. I lived there my whole life. I spent the night last nineteen years working for Homer Electric Association. And, this was opportunity came up, and, we came here for a visit and the interview. Just my wife fell in love with the place. So they're not here yet. I'm in the middle of purchasing a house. They will be moving here on June 1. I have three boys, all of them in two of them in high school, one of them in junior high. So two of them will be coming here. My senior is gonna stay in in Kenai and play soccer for Kenai for his last year.

So it'll be a little difficult, but we're looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to be more involved in the in the city council and with the city. I've spent a lot of time traveling back and forth and haven't had the opportunity in the last seven months, but I do hope to be more involved in the near future.

That'd be great.

So Barry's gonna be around. He is just distributing our twenty twenty five annual reports, and this is just a lead up to we do have our twenty twenty six annual meeting on May 5 at the Valley Civic Center, And registration opens at 05:30 p PM, and then the business meeting begins at 06:00PM. Some of the main things that we are looking at is we'll be celebrating the ten year anniversary of the Allison Creek hydroelectric plant. And then, of course, there'll be, there'll be a commemorative gift for all utility members that attend the annual meeting. We'll have catering and dinner provided by the potato.

And then the main business meeting portion that starts at six will be reviewing CVEA's accomplishments and what what has been done both project wise, what has been completed in 2025, and then our upcoming projects for 2026. And then this is just more of something that's really fun, and it's up on the screen as well. We'll have multiple great door prizes available, to win for all members, but the big one is that our grand door prize is a 2011 Ford Expedition feeder vehicle from the CBA fleet. So on the screen, if you attend CBA's annual meeting, you can win that blue Ford Expedition, and that is retiring from our CBA fleet. But we hope to see all of city council at the annual meeting on May 5 and then, of course, everyone in the audience as well at at the annual meeting.

And then if there are any initial questions that you have either about the annual meeting or about anything that's in our annual report or what we'll be discussing, we're here to answer questions. Anything technical and difficult, Barry's got it.

Alright. Well, thanks for that update and that information about the annual meeting. We're gonna appreciate it. Very, very nice to meet you.

I think it's good. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Yeah.

And I think up next, we have UAFT three. UAFT three. And I think mister Lowe, Adam?

Good evening, city council. My name is Adam Lau. I'm the director of the teaching through technology t three Alaska program. And, I'm here with my colleague, PD DeVeer from UAF, and we just had an awesome day filled with field trips and and, and and class activities. We flew a drone and mapped out the three d model of the of the high school there.

Lots more to say, but special today, I invited some of our partners and colleagues from the Science Olympiad who took a journey up to Fairbanks earlier this month and or not earlier this month, I think yeah, last month. And some of those students came here to share a little bit about their experience. So I'm gonna invite Blair and Josh up to come and introduce these guys, and and then prepare yourself for bit of adventure.

Thanks, Adam. My name is Blair Bailey, and I teach at the middle school math specifically, and I see sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Mister Brian here was my partner in crime for our Science Olympiad adventure this year, and I just would like to call in a few of our students. I know they're eager to speak about their experience, and really, they did all the work. We just got

Yeah. Them

We just supported, but it's all of them. So if I could have my eighth graders come up come up, that is Kaiden, Boston, Evan, Kiana, Abby, and Layton First. And maybe a few of you can just share a quick message. Yeah.

It was a super fun experience. My events were solar systems, codebusters, and hovercraft. And I learned a lot of skills in team work and, group cooperation. It was a mess leading up to it because we didn't really have a lot of materials at first. But at the end, we kinda pulled through, and I placed first in solar systems and fifth in the other two. Super fun experience up there.

I'm Boston Tippets. My events were Boomer Lever and Right to Do It. I did not place unlike most people, but we I really had a great time. I learned, a lot about structural integrity and, how to communicate and describe things in more detail to other people.

I am Evan Westerlund. I had the helicopter and scrambler events, both build events. Scrambler just launched

and they got a

wall without breaking it. Voice second in the event with teammate Juliet, which is not here. Learned a lot about, physics during that. A great event. I personally loved being there.

Hi. I'm Keon Wilkinson. I was an alternative, which I switched out for a few people. One of my main events that I helped with was solar systems, which they placed first in, which is super cool. It's a really good thing to learn, and the community was really good.

It's really nice to learn a lot of stuff and work with all my peers. I'm Abby Vandenberg, and I did entomology, mariculture, and disease detectives that I placed first in all of my events. And it was a really cool experience being able to see the college, and I learned a lot about using my notes and making my notes from scratch. It was very cool. And next, we have sixth graders representing our team.

We have Aurora, Griffin, and Caleb. Come on up, please.

So

I was in a circuit lab and codebusters, and my events were really fun. But my favorite part wasn't, like, necessarily the events, but it was, like, all the things that UAF let us do and the fun activities.

Hello. I'm Caleb Gunderson. I did codebusters, circuit lab, and entomology. Got first in entomology and circuit lab. It was really fun building the circuit. I was the only one who did it. I really liked swimming in the pool there and playing games with my friends.

I'm Aurora Chase, and I got first in disease detectives. And I don't really know what I got in Crime Busters, but I didn't place. Our group, we got second overall in this state. And if Mericulture counted, we would have gone to nationals. Thank

you. I

just wanna say thank you to Adam for our connections early in the year, mister Brian for all your help and support, the families, community members. It was definitely all hands on deck, and the work really paid off. So I think next year, we're feeling ambitious and hope to come back with more great news next year. So thank you.

Today, I had a chance to work with all these students and hopefully get excited about what coming into t three would look like and some of the opportunities for field trips and and just local community projects. So thank you so much for the support that you guys continue to provide for us. We really see Valdez as one of the lead or lead communities in the state. We are planning a a a a event next fall that brings in students from around the sound, to learn all sorts of tech stuff that you guys have here at Prince William Sound College and just through this really integrated and awesome community. And I can't say enough about the wonderful educators that you have here.

It is it is,

my pleasure to have a chance to work back with you guys. So thank you. If there are any questions, I'm happy to answer. Tommy, is super excited. I'll just just Tommy Sheridan, super excited about moving here and bringing his student his kids to into this community, and, we've got a lot of exciting things cooking for culture and other aspects there.

K. Thanks, Priscilla. Thanks for that update, and thanks for bringing the students in here. It's really great to hear the stories and their experiences. It's incredible. So congratulations. Thank you.

Thanks, Jerry and council member love for putting me after that.

You got you got it, Lynette. Yeah.

That's the boost the self esteem like. I'm Lynette Oliver. I'm the executive director for the Valdez Adventure Alliance, and I'm here to make a little report about the bike bash. I have 15 slides, and then I can answer some questions. And then I will introduce our new, intern, and then we have about a minute and a half for a video.

So, we did our Boundaries Pet Bite Bash, in March, and we I really feel like this is the best overall and in some specifics that we've pulled off since the two years of COVID where we really were just, like, mired down to not be able to do anything. So it took some while to kinda, like, get the groove back, and things have changed after COVID. So but I'm very excited that this went just really, really well. So thank you council members for sponsoring this. This event was sponsored at $5,000, which is $800 less than it was in 2025.

And we had the Friday night fun ride, the cross country races, the Saturday night social, and we had to cancel the Sunday downhill race that that ended up being okay. So cash sponsors, City of LDs, CVA Community Fund. We have two new ones this year, Trek and Pangea. And Alieska is a long term CVA Community Fund, Alieska, Wilson Brothers and Harrison, and Greville's are long term supporters with the city sponsors. These are additional supporters that give in kind things like that of pretty good value high value.

And we had a lot of donors to the silent auction, five new ones. So we're building kind of in every category. 189 people total, an increase of a 129 over the twenty twenty five. I think that was due to, we've really pushed getting spectators, locals out for spectators. Fortunately, the weather was great. So a lot of them came, and then they and they would get on their phone and call their friends. Hey. You gotta come out here. So that was really cool. And then we had the concert Saturday night over at the Eagles and had promoted that.

So we got a lot of that. The increase in the visitors is partly that we're just kinda building up a network, and they're getting the word out. Volunteers, including the outdoor leadership students, which they're required to do ten hours of volunteer work each semester, I think. So several of them volunteered for this. So this event also supplements So five local jobs that were supplemented.

I'm hoping that increases next year because we actually need some more paid help, for the setup and the takedown on Saturday. And we have a new intern that I will introduce right after this. And let's see. So Citi the Citi funded $5,000. This is what it was spent on.

It's pretty much like it was it's pretty close every year. Some things go up and down a little bit. Let's see. And then so all of this was spent the 5,000 was all spent inside of Valdez, and then BAA spent an additional roughly 11,000 and in Valdez and roughly 5,000 outside of Valdez. There were 21 businesses that were confirmed having additional revenue coming directly from bike dash event.

He's 21. So total funds spent inside Valdez, 5,000 for the grant, roughly 11,000 from VAA, roughly 10,000 from the visitors, about 2,400 on tickets and auction, and I ran that through the return on investment formula, which you see there, if I'm not in the way, which came to 480%. So every dollar that the city put in, $4.80 was returned back to the community members or businesses. So summary. Two new sponsors this year, five new donors this year, 189 people served, 34 that were tourists, five students met requirements, one internship started, Five local jobs supported in addition to the internship, and 21 local businesses supported.

No. This city in kind was required other than getting the permit, which we're gonna streamline some and 480% on the return on investment. And then twenty twenty seven goals and strategies kind of have laid out just in short here. Of course, we always want to increase the number served both locals and tourists. We want to continue to serve the students.

And I mentioned we'd like to pull in. We typically have about 15 on our payroll at any time, so that we can pull them. We could say, hey. Can anybody anybody wanna log a few hours that Saturday or whatever? And so we'd like to be able to give a few more people some hours during the bike bash and continue with the local businesses.

We're gonna do a better job on the I'm gonna do a better job on the t love package, increase the return the ROI, which if if we're increasing the other things, that should come up also. And we're gonna continue to work to making it self sustaining through increasing all these other things. And special thanks to city council, Martha Barbario, Nicole Chase, Cole Beck, and Kate

Huber. And that's it.

Any questions? Not so much a question. Just wanted to say thank you for the report. Looked great, and good job on increasing those numbers. It's excellent. Thank you.

I would agree with that. Thank you very much. I appreciate the update. And, you you know, the summary there with your numbers was very helpful.

And it's in the last slide, but I didn't say it out loud. But we think the best way to increase the visitors is we had sent out a survey, and they wanted the last weekend in February, which is one of the things that makes it where we won't do the extreme downhill, but that's okay because it that one doesn't break even. So and then the survey that went out to the ones that we surveyed on the the locals for the Saturday night, they would like beer available. It's just easy enough to do with the Eagles without us having to, you know, do a lot. So I expect the numbers to go up again next year.

So, yep, we're very excited. And with that, I will introduce our new intern. Her name is Imani Meinweiser, and she's just gonna tell you about how she got here.

Hello, everyone. My name is Amani Meinmeuser. I am studying outdoor leadership here at Prince William Sound College, and I just moved here in January from the Great Smoky Mountains. The Fat Bike Bash was a very fun event, and I had so much fun working for Lynette. And I am very excited to continue developing my skills with this internship. So thank you for your support in that.

I forgot. I shut the I shut the computer, and I need to run the video. I'm so sorry. And we have a little, like, a it's only about, like, a minute and a half video or slideshow, I guess. Oh, man. Okay. Why isn't my mouse showing up again? Oh, I got it. Here we go. Slideshow. Okay.

I hope the volume's

not too loud on this. I turned it down, and then we'll see.

Thank you very much.

Alright. Thanks, miss Oliver. Appreciate that update. And, Amani, nice to meet you too.

Good luck

in your internship. Alright. Next on the agenda, we have public business from the floor. This is just an opportunity to speak to non agenda items. So if, anybody wants to come up and speak for five minutes on a non agenda agenda item, now is the time to do so.

Oh, make sure I push the button this time.

It's good. You're red. No. Turn it back on. Push the button, Dave.

Push it? Yeah.

Red is on.

Red is on. There you go.

We're good to go now. My name is Dave. Met with you guys last week about the senior exemption. I thought I

had a

chance to talk to a couple of you here this last week, and think the impression I was getting is and I wanna thank Sherry again for putting up that report that you guys should all have in your file. From what I'm understanding, after talking to a few of you in the past week here that a few of you would like to see what this house bill 13 is gonna look like and so forth and how what that's how that's gonna affect the city exemption and so forth, I guess. But after reading the report and so forth, I don't I don't see why there wouldn't be any reason you couldn't move forward with that exemption anyway, if if I'm right on that. But

the

the other thing I'd like to see is possibly maybe get put on the agenda for public input. So so everybody's got a a chance to talk about it. So, anyway, thank you. Any questions?

Thanks, mister. Appreciate it.

That's it. Thank you. Any

other public business from the floor? Alright. Moving on down the agenda. So next, we have the consent agenda. We have five items.

We have a proclamation, public service recognition month, 2026. We have approval of memorandum of agreement with Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for conducting air quality monitoring. We have approval of MOU between city of LDs and Aliesca Pipeline Service Company for firefighting and emergency response services. We have approval of liquor license renewal Growler Bay Brewing Company. And then the last part, we have approval to go into executive session regarding discussion of implications for city revenues and litigation strategy regarding Trans Alaska pipeline system ad valorem tax issues.

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

It's been moved by council member Lawley, seconded by council member Evans to approve all items on the consent agenda. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries.

Alright. Now I'll read the, proclamation into the record here for public service recognition month. Whereas the city of Valdez is strengthened each day by the dedication, professionalism, and service of its public employees across all departments. Whereas public servants around the clock work around the clock to protect life and property, maintain critical infrastructure, support economic vitality, and deliver essential services that ensure the health, safety, and well-being of our community. And whereas May is recognized nationally as a time to honor public service, including public service recognition week, which celebrates the individuals who serve at the local, state, and federal levels.

And whereas the city of Valdez proudly recognizes the many additional observances in May that highlight the depth and diversity of public service, including National First Responders Month, honoring the police, fire, and EMS personnel who respond with courage, skill, and compassion in times of need. And Building Safety Month, recognizing community development professionals who ensure safe, resilient, and sustainable building practices. And maritime industry month, recognizing the vital work of our ports and harbors crew in supporting safe navigation, commerce, and our working waterfront. And national boat safety week, promoting safe and responsible recreation on water and recognizing the role of our ports and harbors team in keeping mariners safe. And national police week, paying tribute to law enforcement officers and respond for their commitment to public safety and remembering those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

And National EMS Week, honoring emergency medical services professionals for their life saving care and critical role in emergency response. And National Firefighters Day, recognizing firefighters for their bravery, service, and unwavering commitment protect to protecting our community. And whereas these observances collectively reflect the teamwork, coordination, and shared mission across all city departments, public works, police, fire and EMS, ports and harbors, community development, capital facilities, parks and recreation, IT, city clerks, human resources, economic development, finance and administration working together to serve Valdez. And whereas the city of Valdez is deeply deeply grateful for the employees who demonstrate daily commitment to service to the community through integrity, innovation, stewardship, and celebration, often behind the scenes and always with purpose. Now, therefore, I, Austin Love, mayor pro tem of the City Of Valdes, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as public service recognition month and encourage all residents to recognize, thank, and celebrate the public servants who help make Valleys a safe, resilient, and thriving community.

I like that you guys made it as long as possible. Alright. I'll drink this out. Thank you all.

Alright. Moving on to new business. The first item for new business, we have approval of the twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven Valdez City Schools budget.

Move to approve. Second.

Moved by council member Foster. Second by council member with Devon. Yeah. To approve the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven Southeast City Schools budget.

Superintendent Weber, did you have any opening remarks?

We've got a slideshow presentation here, but, I guess my my opening remarks are probably twofold. One, I mean, if you've looked at the budget, I I guess, here last year, and the changes are to transportation. This is also a hot topic in Juneau right now. The state has not increased transportation funding forever. And busing contracts last year put it to a point where, we're gonna have to cancel routes or ask for more money.

That's kind of where we're at with transportation. I think I talked to you guys about that when I was here in February. Since then, we got our insurance quotes back again and again, and every single time they went up, they went up. You know, we initially, had forecasted our budget with a 4.9% increase to insurance. And when the dust settled, we were at 20% increase to insurance.

I have asked around, and we're not the only ones in that boat. I've had a chance to, AASB, Alaska Association School Boards recently sent out their data from across the state, and I was able to kinda compare a little bit with other districts. Our plan is really good. It's a great plan just like the city's plan. It it's it's sort of in line with a number of other districts with plans, and there's other districts with plans that are kind of bare bones.

Our insurance plan is part of our negotiated agreement with the teachers union. So it's, even if I wanted to change it, it's it's not something that's in my purview at the moment, and that's really up to a bargaining agreement. So, I just wanna kind of share that because, we've seen over the last two years of a million dollar increase to insurance for the school district, after we had seen a few years of actually small small declines. Looking at it, it's it's a usage issue. I've been in a number of meetings and listened.

I mean, there's a there's a lot of other factors out there, whether it be, you know, government regulations at the state or federal level that require all these different things be required in a plan, or the there's a lot of new drugs out there on the market, and a lot of health benefits, and they're becoming accessible, across public sector, but they're they're expensive. And all those all those things add up, and so we don't see it as maybe, you know, just a bunch of big things. It's it's a lot of usage. And so I've had the pleasure working with Nate and talking with him and kinda brainstorming what's going on here. So we're taking a proactive approach to try and see what we can do, with our with with the resources we have.

That being said, we can go through the slides, but we did we were able to, fill the gap in our budget, a little bit through additional revenue that we had seen a little bit from we hadn't taken out the fuel energy costs by handing over the district office to the city for the childcare facility. And then, we had some other, cuts that we're optimistic that may maybe there'll be somebody from the state, and maybe we can backfill. So we're gonna use a little bit of our reserves, basically, to to cover, which will amount to about 9% of our reserves that we're able to carry forward. In the current state of education in Alaska, we're very fortunate because we have reserves. Even school districts, if you were to look at a map and say what our sister school districts would be, I think some of you have cities in mind, most of them are are running with zero reserves.

Right now, zero. And they're going through massive cuts. I know there was an addition of $700 to the BSA. That was basically equivalent to what they gave in one time funding the year before. When you run it through the equation, it does make for, more of that funding coming from municipalities.

There's been more talk about that as municipalities are realizing that, oh, there should be more money than coming from the state than there actually actually is. I I looked at the last I mean, you can go back to, like, 1988 on the state site, but the actual dollars that we received from the state haven't significantly changed in the last twenty years. I mean, it's if you look at that number, and I I do recognize the city's contribution has increased. And if it weren't for the city of Valdes, our school systems would look dramatically different than they are right now, and the opportunities for kids would be dramatically different. So I I thank you, for all the work you guys have done to keep it that way.

But not every municipality in the state's been able to do the things that Valdez has. I think it's why sometimes we don't always understand exactly what's going on at the state level because the the city has done such a good job of, insulating us, from some of the things going on beyond. So it it is kind of stark out there in the state, and, I've been monitoring what's going on. I, I don't anticipate, too much making it across the governor's desk or, additional funds from the state, possibly some energy assistance money, as well as, possibly some transportation maybe. And then, the CIP list.

Right now, I'm a little frustrated because the senate just passed theirs with us at number 16. It looks like they're under the first 15, so I gotta push them harder. They they they they can fund the elementary school project there. They're right at we're at the cusp. So, but anyway, I think it's we just gotta keep working, to push the state to do the right thing.

And I

I think there's a lot of people wanting them to do the right thing. So, but anyway, that's more of my frustrations with the broader, economics of what's going on in the state. But we like, as a school district, we really appreciate the work that, the city council has done to support the the school district, not just this year, but in all of the years leading up to now.

But

I can go over the slideshow if if that's what you guys want.

Did anybody have any questions before the slideshow? No. Please go ahead.

Okay. No slideshow?

No slideshow? There's, a

budget adoption packet.

Okay. Told me there's

gonna be

a slide show. So it's it's all ready for other Do you have one

in your email?

That's why.

Can you email

it to me, Susan?

Oh. You didn't have to out yourself, Susan. I was just gonna go over kinda what I shared with the school board when we did our our, presentation there. But, as we're waiting

Yes. I just had I had one question just in regards to what you're saying with the the health care insurance in terms of, you're saying, you know, in some ways, hands are tied right now with the negotiated agreement. When does that come back up for

We just negotiated our our agreement, and, that was done last spring. So we have three years. Normally, our contract's for three years. So that, you know,

we're we're

this is what we're gonna do for the foreseeable future.

It'd be 2028 would be the next go around?

Yeah. Next year will be year two, and the following year will be year three when we negotiate.

Okay.

Next. And and so, I mean, that's negotiations are what they are. So but, yeah, I mean, this I don't know that I've seen really a perfect answer out there. I mean, it's you get what you pay for sometimes with insurance, and I think we're part of what's going on around it. I talked with other organizations, and we're seeing, like, like, size jumps in insurance as well.

I wish I had an answer to it.

I mean,

there are

others than being proactive.

The city's seeing the same issue. I mean, double digit increases year over year, and so it's something that

we're all

trying to deal with. So we understand where you're at.

Yeah. And we're we wanna keep keep working with the city to, you know, come up with and and see what we can do because we're part of that same pool.

Yeah. So to add to that, the schools in the city are part of the same pool. They are separate policies, if you will. They have a little bit different coverage than we do, but, we are looking into working with the broker to see what what other options are available. Obviously, there's a cost benefit analysis of maintaining what you have versus exploring other options or or opting into.

The the biggest challenge is with a small pool, it's not that difficult to make major swings in one way or the other. So while, you know, the district and the city have on occasion have the opportunity to have zero increase or slight negative increases, when you're in a larger pool, it's always an increase. But the way it works out for us is we don't get the obviously, you get the advantage of amortizing over time. You either see zero or zero to 60, I guess, is kind of the way works with us. But we are looking to other options. And like I said, the schools will obviously be a part of that conversation. Museum is also part of our insurance, so that'll be part of the conversation as well.

The other side, good news too. I were waiting too as, we found out our furniture arrived this morning for our offices at the elementary school. So, we'll be out in the next few weeks here. So kind of exciting kinda to see that project come come full circle and and and finished. So, that was a a bit of good news we were expecting two weeks from now.

So but it worked out really nice, and the elementary office has been really nice. I was able to sub over there last Friday, and it's just it's really nice to be able to work and be able to see, people come and go and interact with people, differently than we did in the old office. Maybe they saw us in there, maybe they just walked right by. So, it is a it is a much better setup. So I appreciate you guys, putting the effort into the building.

Another question I had, and I think you might have, we might have talked to you about this in February too, is, is there any murmurings in terms of, you know, coming with the local contribution from the state again? Is that kinda bubbled back up, or is that

I'm always worried that it will. I even testified on a bill the other day just because it had a little inkling of of local control issues within it. And then maybe there's some good stuff in the bill. Think it needs to be talked about a lot more, but, I am really leery, that that it comes back to get us again someday. The bill that I'm I can't think of the number off of the senate bill, but I can't think of the number.

But they wanted to do is make a floor for what, you know, municipalities had it it, could contribute. And so and then that floor can only go up by 2% per year. But on the flip side, the top can ceiling can keep going. Right? So then what happens is the difference between the floor and the ceiling gets larger and larger.

So before you know it, we're right back to having a talk about disparity again. And the state, for whatever reason, won't let it go. And, I think if the disparity test, would help a lot of districts out that are hurting right now, they would just do away with it. It does come with a cost, but the bill I was advocating against would have come with a larger price tag than this walking away from the disparity test, altogether. We're the only state in America that still uses it. New Mexico is the last state to finally do away with it. So hopefully hopefully, they,

you know,

don't mess with it again. I think we're pretty secure right now. I think we proved our argument, from day one. In the way that those community ad funds and stuff like that were set up, I talked with mister Sidor, and that was set up. Valdez was the original ones who set that up because of our swimming pool and how to maintain those those projects. We're doing exactly the running we're running those those pools exactly the way they're supposed to be run. So feel good about them right now.

Yeah. Thanks for that update.

Alright. Well, I've got the presentation on. Thank you, Luis. So, going over kind of the plan, when we're putting the budget together, it it starts in the fall, and a lot of that stuff isn't seen as much because we're we're pulling pulling the pieces together, building our plan with the administrative team in the middle of the year, and then bringing starting to bring that to the board and then to the public. So we ran, a couple of meetings with the school board.

We did a budget work session with them, all open to the public. And then we also had, time set up where, me and miss, or me and Amber, probably, were available if people came in and wanted to ask questions about the budgets. So we provided opportunities for public input. And then we had additional conversations because of the 20% increase for insurance. So we we actually spent more time on the calendar budget calendar, this year than we normally do.

So right now, we're obviously at April 21, bringing it to the city, hoping for approval. And then over the summer because, obviously, if you approve it, the the state budget cycle isn't finished yet. They haven't approved their capital budget. We normally build our budget off of, the most conservative projection we possibly can make. And so we use the BSA because the state's always funded to the BSA.

We don't make any guesses as to what they may, contribute later. So in it does make for sometimes in the summer where we might have to make a budget revision to accommodate for any funds that that do come in that way. Last last summer, we didn't find out till August. So I was very late in the game. So next year, our projected enrollment is five fifty nine.

You know, my like, I guess my biggest worry long term for the district is to ensure that we have a growing student population within the district. And I I know population wise in Valdez, that's another concern is, you know, making sure that we can sustain that growth. Because if you have a slightly you know, if we're growing by 3%, per year student wise, you're always gonna see more things growing and adding into your school system, versus losing 3% of your kids each year. The BSA, currently, we're we're projecting that at $66,660. I've already talked about insurance.

We have three different salary schedules, administrators, certified, which are teachers, and classified, which are our our our hourly employees. And all three receive the same benefit package with the exception that our classified folks are on PERS retirement system versus TERS retirement system. And then we run three academic programs within elementary, middle, and high school. Our projected enrollment, one of the ways you can kinda track these classes is kinda diagonally across the chart. And you can see generally those class sizes stay pretty close to the same, size.

There's a few or things that must have happened demographically over, you know, ten or twelve year period where sometimes they've dropped in population. But it's a it's it's the best projection model that that we have available. When I worked in small communities and all the babies were born in the community, you could just check the birth rates. None of no one ever left. So that was easier.

So preschool is really important, and it but it's really hard. We don't we don't know. We we had we had, close to 50 kids show up for preschool this year, and we had projected, I I think, like, 38 or 40. So, which is a really good surprise. And so, should more kids show up, we project we we're not projecting as as many next year, we put in 32 because we're putting in a conservative number.

But if 48 show up again, we'll accommodate and make sure they're taken care of. The following sheet's more of just kind of a fun facts. It allows you to kinda track our enrollment back a long way. You can look at, you know, what our enrollment numbers were, you know, back in the nineteen sixties when we had two hundred two zero seven kids, and our peak, was, 888 kids, back in 1997. So and currently, we're projecting out, like I said, five fifty eight.

Our budget revenues, Citi is the main contributor to our funds with the state now, you know, down, you know, in a 25 to 30% range, I would say. And, you're starting to see more of that disparity. If you look at the charts, there are some some bar graphs and stuff that are available out there, where they track all the municipal or all the school districts, really. But you can see how the municipal funding breaks down, and you're seeing more and more districts starting to really look more and more like Valdez. And so there's more and more conversations with municipalities and the state government as to, you know, the state's paying their their fair share as

well.

And then the next slide, this is just the basic or or the the way the, state funding formula works. And, we we we fall under the 45% of basic, previous, need. It's a little different. Actually, only two school districts that that fall there. But if you have any questions on it, it's a long formula.

And then the next bar graph, shows you the the same thing. It's just a nicer way of looking at kinda how the the funding has increased for, from the city versus how it's it's moved from the state. And if you notice the the number's pretty flat from the state, that's right now looking at that's a sixteen year bar graph right there. It's it's a long way. And then another one with the city, city funding.

This one shows our special the special revenue funds that, we talked so much about last summer, with the deed regulations. And you'll notice the the one that does change is student transportation. That's the one we've requested additional funds to make sure that we can maintain the same services we we always have. Other than that, those special revenue funds have have remained flat. And so that gives you an idea of where all the all the money is going.

And then other funding, we have the state transportation funds $454,000 after their current formula. The federal ear rate monies, we get we get money from them. USDA, that funds our what kind of funds our student lunch program? Our student lunch program, does run at a deficit. It's, like many do across the state.

And then impact aid, this goes back to the severity test. Because we received so little in impact aid, it's the state just they allow us to keep it. As far as, you know, you have other districts, so we're talking millions and millions of dollars that should be going to them or maybe they're getting a couple million of that. And then grants, 662,000, and then that helps kinda explain kinda where all that revenue sources are coming from. This is the the next slide shows the how the state runs their cost factors.

And so not every kid, you know, like, every kid might have a little different not every kid. Some of our kids might have a different cost factor. If they're coming as an intensive education student, there's a cost factor of 13. So they they multiply that student by 13 because of the additional resources, and the idea being that, yeah, it's more, but then that helps fund the other special education programs. We don't necessarily get more for every special education kid.

That's just the way they figure. There's one intensive for however however many other kids. So you should be able to hire and and work with that. CTE factor, CTE factor, this is because running a a shop class is always gonna be more expensive than than than running a a math class. You need more than just textbooks.

You gotta need equipment. You need and you can you can only have so many kids in the class. So the state recognizes that with that additional cost factor in there. You're you're gonna probably continue to hear more conversation about preschool cost factors because preschool is inherently more costly to run because there's more regulations around that student to teacher or adult ratio in there. You'll see more of that, but that'll give you how we got to the exact number

right there.

And then our insurance increases, this is the hot topic here. Well, that's you can look over there, and see how quickly the numbers over the last two years have have quickly climbed. And any additional funds that we've come in have you know, last year, we made several cuts, without those, we would be in pretty tough shape right now. We've held those cuts through. Because the BSA came in so late last year, we we decided that it was more prudent to leave those cuts.

Right now, those cuts are keeping us from making more difficult decisions. And then, if you wanna go to the last slide there, this is the updated, there's one more.

There you go.

This is the update dated changes that we made at the end of, March when we got the final numbers in for insurance. We're projecting two more intensive students. You know, there's from the time we started the budget till then, paperwork had been done. Anticipated changes in personnel and some people, you know, exiting, and so we could anticipate that there would be some cost savings there. With our preschool program, we have a half time pair in there right now that we had calculated in for next year.

And so we removed that, with the assumption that we're gonna budget for 32 kids, not for 48. And if we get 48, we're we're gonna have to put a halftime position back, which there should be funding available at least from the state for that. District office utilities, $40,000 conservatively. $15,000 out of technology subscriptions. Maintenance and operations, $10,000.

And then curriculum online subscriptions, $30,000. And then we project to pull $153,000 from our undesignated reserves, for next year. And then, on a side note since we're talking all numbers here, with the ReEDS Act, our we we get 0.5 funding for every preschooler. Theoretically, when they made the Reeds Act, it was our preschooler is there for half the day, so we'll give you half the BSA, which was fantastic, until they looked at our scores, and they didn't have enough money. So then Matsu, Valdez, Petersburg, and Skagway had, their state portion of the preschool funding without.

So, that was the, $51,000 for Valdez that they're they didn't send us. So I've I've brought it up with our representatives, and, I think they were trying to maintain costs when they made the Reeds Act, and only set aside so much money. So, all the good news when but, because we're considered high performing school, they they took the high performing schools districts, and then they pulled their preschool fund from the state. So and that's the way the law is written. It's legal, but it doesn't make it right.

And so I've I've talked with, Rauscher, and mister Nelson about, our concerns with that. So I'm hoping that, in the future, they can remedy that situation. And there there are some bills out there that we're working on it. I don't know that they're I don't see them getting past the finish line this year. That's another risk we have laying out there.

Thank you. Are there any further questions from council on the school budget? Great. Thanks for bringing all that forward. I really appreciate it.

Yeah. Alright.

Well, I think we're ready to call for the vote, madam city clerk.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

All

those opposed? We have six yeas, one absent. Mayor Fleming, motion carries.

Thank you. Alright. Next up on, new business, we have approval of memorandum of agreement between City of Valdez and Silver Linings Management LLC for the operation and maintenance of Allison Pointe Campground. Do I have a motion?

Move to approve.

Second.

Council member Foster moves, second by council member Volle to Approve the MOU between the city of Valdes and Silver Linings Management LLC for operation of Allison Pointe Campground.

Any council discussion on this MOA? Seeing none. Sorry. Go ahead, council member Woodie.

Sorry. Thank you so much. I just was curious on page thirteen, thirteen, it said compensation to the city was 5% net revenue. Does that 5% help the city recoup costs for maintenance needs?

I need the policy manager. Yes is the short answer. It's it's never really what has happened is our campgrounds have kind of aged out, so it's never really a true offset, but it but it contributes and helps. Go ahead, counselor Foster.

I was curious about Silver Linings LLC, so I looked it up today. And I was pleased to see that it's a local resident who's gonna be running that, endeavor. So, yeah, I think it's exciting that we're gonna have someone overseeing that for us. I know in the years past, we talked about out at the Valdez Glacier and the campsite that's out there and kind of the mismanagement. I mean, we've heard from community members about the mismanagement of that campground. So I always think it's good when we have management of our prized campgrounds around town, and someone's gonna be there to look after it. So thanks.

Thanks, council member Foster. And just to clarify, the the Valdes Glacier Campground is still gonna be managed by MWR is that through the army corps is that right? Yeah. So the Fort Greeley Morale Recreation and Wellness or Wellness and Recreation MWR had both contracts just to provide a little context and history Part of our most recent conversations with them and trying to adjust their contract in order for them to focus more on that campground, we said, let's pull let's let's have you not do Allison Point. They agreed.

So we put Allison Point out for for our queue. So the hope is that their resources can focus on that campground and someone else's resources can focus on Allison Point. Again, we we put forth a little bit of effort last fall to clean some things up and kinda spruce some some of the sites up, but, it's an ever evolving situation with the campgrounds. They're they're great places for people to come, but we certainly want them to be fully utilized. City manager of all, just one question.

I know that near the Allison Point Campground, there was that failure of the bike paths, kind of close there with the and I think that's state responsibility. Do are you aware of anything the state's planning to do to try to address that? It's kind of like a small landslide that wiped out part of the bike path. Yeah. So most recent conversations with DOT haven't well, put it this way.

I haven't had any conversations exceptionally recently with them. But the last conversation I had with them, they were looking at potentially putting some fill in and come up with a temporary solution. It's it's a sticky situation. The the state it's theirs, but they say it's ours, and there's there's some ownership questions. It's unfortunate that it got, you know, the erosion has kinda washed it out.

By the same token, it it is fortunate because now they have to do something about it. If there is no response from DOT, we may act ourselves and do something. Well, I hope I hope DOT could help partner with us on that one. That would be wonderful. Any further counsel discussion on the silver linings MOA? Thanks for grabbing me before I moved along. Any public discussion on the MOA with silver linings?

Alright.

I'll I'll for the vote, please.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? We have six yeas, one absent. Mayor Thwemming. Motion carries.

Alright. Moving along. Item number three, approval of city of Valdes public art policy. Do I have a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

Moved by council member Witty, second by council member Foster to approve the city of Valdez public art policy.

Council discussion or questions in the public art policy? Council member Foster?

Just gonna give a shout out to the beautification commission for putting this all together. I think it makes total sense, and I appreciate the work. Thank you.

Ditto to that. Agreed. Any further council discussion? Any public discussion on the ARC policy? Alright. Seeing none.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed? Six yays. One absent. Mayor Fleming. Motion carries.

Alright moving on to item number four approval of contract award with New Horizons Incorporated for the Valdes radio infrastructure upgrade project in the amount of $1,000,000.145001 35

Move to approve. Second.

Moved by council member Foster, second by council member Green to approve the contract with New Horizons for the radio infrastructure upgrade project in the amount of $1,000,145.01 32 and 20¢.

I

missed the 20¢.

Thank you. Just added it for you.

Appreciate that. Council discussion on the contract for the radio project? Just city manager of all, what's kind of the status for the funding right now? I know you've mentioned in the legislative text for the next kind of bucket of discretionary grant funding. Where are we at with the next funding piece? Yeah. So at present, it's through the Department of Justice. We got notification that they were we've been awarded, so to speak. They still have to put the notice of funding opportunity into grants.gov. We still have to technically fill out the paperwork and apply.

They said soon. That was, like, two, three months ago. So I'm not entirely sure what soon means in federal lingo. I would anticipate we likely wouldn't see any money until my guess is sometime in 2027, likely late fall, early twenty twenty eight, just based off of what we've been going through with the money for the child care center. Would that mean we delay that next stage in potentially until then, or does that Potentially.

It's depending how we phase the project. There may be some some advantages if if there are excess funds or appropriations in this next budget cycle like we did this last time. If there's if there's a desire, to appropriate some money for an additional tower or some other tower works in one of the other two remaining sites, may be worthwhile to continue process, and then use those funds for equipment that could be installed once those piece of infrastructure are are complete. We'll have a better again, we'll have better graphs. My hope is by late budget season this year, we'll have an idea of what's the timing on on receiving those grant funds.

Just remind me. So this is this is the fire station. What's the two other sites? It's Out of the Ski Hill. It's another one and then doing some work, at the Grain Silos on the inner terminal. Got it. So Ski Hill and Grain Silos, and those will be the three locations. Yes. Great. Any public comment on the radio tower project? All for the vote?

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye. All

those opposed? We have six yeas, one absent. Mayor Fleming. Motion carries.

Alright. Next, fifth item for new business was discussion item, annual operations reports. And I don't know if the manager wanted to kick anything off, or is it what you're looking for? I'll go down here and plug in real quick. So to provide some background, what we've we've done various things over the past, as it relates to informing council of what goes on with the city and how budgets are built for each department.

And way back, we used to have, like, 42 budget work sessions. Each department gate stood up and gave their dog and pony show, and everybody was good and tired by 11:00 at night. And, so we've opted not to do that. And instead, we've most recently, we've given you all a department report that kinda outlines, here's what the department does. Here's what's, kind of on the horizon for the budget season and down the road.

It's fairly new, and so what we wanted to do is wanna get some feedback from council from what you saw last year and what we're gonna put together for you here this year. What the timing of it is, you all will have your strategic planning in June, and we're gonna shortly thereafter start pumping you in July with the department reports. So in anticipation of strategic planning and getting these prepared, again, we want to ask if there are any modifications to what you're seeing, if there's additional information that you'd like to like to have. Just as a general example, kinda through a couple in here, so, like, administration department. Again, it it's it's intended for you all, but it's also a public document.

So if somebody wanted to be educated on what the city does and and why. So we have the mission. Again, the overview of what's going on. Highlights, what we've tried to do with the highlights is focus on what this budget year is pertaining to, any accomplishments that it may have been in the year prior. And then, specifically, we've got the budget request so that when you see them, it's not a surprise.

Also, when you're reviewing the budget reports, if there's anything comes out, you can say, hey. See, manager, we'd like to have a discussion item or a work session on this thing or more information on on what we're expecting to see in next year's budget. There's always a personnel component to it that just kind of shows how the personnel has changed over time being the personnel is one of our more significant budget costs. And then just a year over year budget with the kind of the summary categories. Again, just kinda showing changes over time and what that looks like.

So having said all that, we've also targeted, like I said, kind of a one page summary and then one page financials. So it's two pages per department. Not to say that it can't be longer, but for the sake of I think the last time it was 78 pages, 52 pages. So in an effort to keep you from reading war and peace, we'd like to be succinct and keep it as simple as possible. But if there's information you want, we need to get it for you.

So having set the stage, if there's any commentary on on kind of the format and the content of budget reports or the department reports, we're open to hearing any suggestions or modifications that you'd like to see. Thank you. Councilmember Green?

Yeah. I'm wondering if it might be helpful to have a section in here that would highlight or along with your highlights, like issues, concerns, challenges, something like that.

I guess to add to that, one of the topics that was brought up for for consideration with the strategic planning was, you know, what are paraphrasing you all had asked, what are the concerns that we're seeing from the community or needs, operational needs? And so today, met with Karen and kind of outlined where we're looking as far as timeline and availability for that strategic planning. That might be better suited for these documents instead of strategic planning. And so that was that was the thought we're having is perhaps we can put in, like I some of the issues, concerns operationally or from the community that are relevant to the department. We could could certainly find a a place to plug those in here if that's something you're interested in.

Any other feedback for the city manager on the reports?

I I like the report the way you have put it together with, director Nelson. I think it's concise. It's succinct. It gives us an overall view. I like the comparison between the year prior and the percentages and the little red flags. Like, I just it makes it easier for me to know what to look for. So, but also your computer isn't on. But I love that you brought your computer up

there. Wow. Well, it's in the pack it's it is in

the pack account. So I'm sure.

I did already. I was I was through slides. Like, they look great on my screen. Wow. Leave it to the IT guy. Leave me hanging. Come on, Matt. Want a friend.

We were all just impressed with your identity memory.

Probably did text me, but sorry about that. No. So here's what they look like now that I've described them for you in vivid detail. One of these council members read the packet all every page. So they they have it in their mind. I believe. I believe. So, again, there's there's enough space on the page. We could certainly include the as councilmember Green had had asked. To to highlight this, it's not intended to be we want it to be thorough and and all encompassing, but it it's also if you have questions, please come reach out to us and get specifics.

We don't we don't wanna have the level of detail where we wanna be succinct. We wanna make it worth your time, but, also, we wanna hit the important highlights. Councilmember Rudy?

I I completely agree with council member Foster. It it's really readable. As someone who went into this as my first year, it gave me a great overall view of each of the departments, and it was easy to read just like she had said. So I like it. I say we keep it and just keep moving forward with that.

I guess one one piece of consistency, there was some, probably poor direction from above. But, in the overview section, I think it was it wasn't as consistent. Some people talked about what the department does. And so I I guess a question for you all is is that is that background beneficial as, you know, what does the department do? Or would you rather be from an overview, like,

here's

the work plan for the for the future? I guess it's kind of the question that I had. So is is the background and kind of what we the day to day, is that interesting, beneficial or useful? Or would you rather us focus as this is the 2027 budget year picture and focus on kind of current events and the work plan? Well, I mean, I I think, like, what you said before, in terms of it being an educational document, it is important to have the, you know, what does this department do piece, but I do think from the at least, like, more from the council perspective, having that here's what the work plan for this year is, having that in there is beneficial to help us understand, you know, what's driving the numbers for this year.

And I guess, you get to to further that point, like, I I noticed kind of the same thing that you you pointed out, just differences in in that overview. And I thought it would be good to know what the meat and potatoes for every department is, like, clearly and succinctly somewhere, and then get into the, you know, the budget for that year. Because, you know, obviously, we have new council members too, but for the public as well. And I my one of my, I guess, comments for, or two comments for the the the overview information was, one, I really liked, you know, what what you did with it this year and having those highlights and things like that, those big drivers and changes and, you know, the budget request, bullets and all that. Just the two things that would be helpful for me is just in that the slide with the, five years of budget look back, it might be nice to see what actuals are in the last the very last year that was completed, just that year, to see how that compares to what the proposed budget is.

So, like, in this example, it'd be, you know, the 2024 actuals compared to the budget and then show the 2025 so we can kinda see, you know, what what deltas might have occurred based on those actuals, budget versus actuals. And then the only other comment I had was, and I forget maybe we see this somewhere else, but we just seen those department kind of key performance inter you know, indicators. You know? What information do we need to know as, like, driving, say, you know, the fire department's here? You know?

How many calls per year are they responding to? You know? Or or the streets department, how many inches of snow do they clear? Because, you know, what's you know, what are those key, indicators for each department? You know, there's just one slide, like, you know, what the directors think, you know, really tells the story of what their departments or, you know, baseline or what changes in those indicators are driving what we're seeing in a budget ask.

So service levels is, I guess, what I'm looking for in the chart. Yeah. I think the AGFOA budget award is they evolved and included these KPIs, and I think we're still refining them. I think I don't think it's a heavy lift to put put a few in there. And then maybe, again, one of these things as we evolve, we figure out what's what's best and what's most appropriate to include, but I don't see a reason why we couldn't include something.

Yeah. I think it makes sense to look at the justification for the ask for the monies that are in the budget. I think it does make sense to kind of back that up with the data that each department has, you know, the the need for justifying roles in departments and, operationally different equipment that's needed, different circumstances that come up. And I think you covered that very well earlier when you're highlighting all of the program details. So I I agree, though.

I do like to see what the departments are doing. I think the public likes to see that too. So thanks.

Any more any more feedback from the city manager on those? K. I think we've got enough to get closer to what you're looking for. And, again, it's a living process, we can adjust as we need to. Thank you.

Alright. Next step, we have ordinances. We have one ordinance on the docket tonight. We have ordinance 26 dash zero zero zero two, amending title two by creating chapter 2.96 titled firefighter collective bargaining second reading adoption do I have a motion

move to approve second

I'll let you have it. You

move. Give me just a second. Okay. Council member Lowen moved. Second by council member Demons to move to adopt ordinance number twenty six zero two, and this is at second reading. Public hearing was conducted at the last prior city council meeting.

So with with that, any further council discussion on the motion for the ordinance? Seeing none, and I can go for public comment here. Mhmm. Any public comments on the second reading of the ordinance? Seeing none, call for the vote.

All those in favor, please say

aye. Aye.

All those opposed? We have six yeas, one absent. Mayor Fleming. Motion carries. Ordinance is adopted.

Alright. Moving on to resolutions. We have resolution 26 dash 24 authorizing the city clerk to dispose of certain city records. Do have a motion?

Move to approve. Second.

Was that council member Foster. Foster. Council member Foster moved. Second by council member Witty to approve resolution number twenty six twenty four.

Council discussion. Madam City Clerk, could you just give an overview of the kind of records we're getting rid of here?

Yeah. And there's an attachment also. It's with the resolution, and there is a list. If you scroll up.

There it is.

There you go. Oh,

that's where it was. I missed that. Is it Page two.

Yeah. Is everyone able to see page two of your resolution that has the attachment? Attachment? Okay.

Okay. This is animal control with departmental files. Gotcha.

Yeah.

So all of these records have reached their retention, and we also check with the notify the departments as well whose records those might be before they go to destruction. We give them a chance to argue why we should keep them, and we argue why they should be disposed of. So no. We're all in till we're all in agreement. So and any destruction of city records final must go to you for final approval.

Great. Thank you, madam city clerk. Alright. Any public discussion on the destruction of records? Seeing none.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed? You have six yeas, one absent. Mayor Fleming, motion carries.

Alright. Item number two for resolutions. We have resolution twenty six twenty five appointing the judges and clerks for the regular municipal election to be held 05/05/2026 and setting the hourly rate of compensation.

Move to approve.

Second. Council member Lauley moved, second by council member Foster to approve resolution twenty six twenty five.

Council discussion on the resolution? Looking

forward to seeing all of these lovely folks out of the polls.

Vote.

Yes. They do an excellent job. We appreciate them very, very much.

Alright. Seeing no further council discussion, I'll for the vote.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? We have six yeas. One absent, mayor Fleming. Motion carries.

Third resolution for the evening is twenty six twenty six, waiving solid waste fees for the twenty twenty six community cleanup event.

Move to approve. Second, I'll let you have this one.

So generous.

So who moved? I'm sorry.

Oh, council member Foster.

Council member Foster moved. Second.

Second by council member Devins to approve resolution number twenty six twenty six.

Council discussion on the resolution. Council member Devins? I think

this is one of the really great traditions that we've developed in our community. I think it's very important to keeping our town beautiful, and, I'm glad that we're still doing it all these years later even though I do believe the cost of doing this has increased somewhat. I think it's still well worth it for our community.

Nothing really loud.

Also, same. I think it's a great, thing to do, waiving the solid waste fees for, you know, cleaning up the town.

I think it's a great thing. Thank you. Well yeah. And, also, just, make sure everybody knows, 05/16/2026 is cleanup day. So everybody, your calisthenics and warm up before picking up all the trash everywhere. I don't want any pulled hamstrings or biceps.

Yep. Follow the OSHA two person lift rules.

That's right. Yep. And, yeah, please get out there and, have a good day picking up our community and around around the town. I think it's a great event too. Alright. Seeing no further council discussion, call for the vote.

All those in favor, please say

aye. Aye.

All those opposed? We have six yeas.

Aye.

One absent, council member Fleming or mayor Fleming. Motion carries.

Alright. So the last resolution we have on deck this evening is twenty six twenty seven, authorizing the city manager to execute a lease for the visitor center located at 309 Fairbanks Avenue.

Move to approve. Second.

Council member Foster moved. Second by council member Wally to approve resolution twenty six twenty seven.

Council discussion. Seeing none and no members of the public present, call for the vote.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye. All

those opposed? Six yays, one absent. Mayor Fleming? Motion carries.

Alright. Next up, we have reports. We have two reports on the list this evening. We have the senior citizen and disabled veterans property tax exemption. Anybody wanna discuss this report?

I'm gonna pause here for a sec. Yeah. I appreciate the the information that we got from finance on the report. It's good to see that information. Good to hear that public testimony from mister Tuzanot as well.

Just looking at the information that we have right now, you know, as mister Chuzadot mentioned and talking with the city manager, we're still looking at that state bill on where that's gonna land for overall tax assessment and see how that's going. And, you know, in my mind, having this information in hand is great going into our strategic planning. You know, this is something kinda to add to the list of things to consider in the bigger picture in my mind is, before we move on this, you know, kinda with the the museum kinda gathering all the information we have before we start making moves on revenue changes, I think, is kind of in the best interest of our strategic planning session. You know, that coupled not only with the current, you know, state bills, but also just coupled with our own financial position this year, which is unknown going forward. So, you know, I I'm I'm glad to see that this has been brought forward, but I think this is just kind of adds to our list of things that we need to tackle during, you know, the June strategic planning session.

So that way, we can kinda look at everything before we make any action on on things like this. So that's kind of my thought on where we're at with this. But

I I would agree, and I definitely appreciate Dave bringing this forward. I've heard from a couple of other members of the community, about this and and seeing what other communities do within this state as well as outside of this state too. And I appreciate, Sherry, you and your team putting this information together. We definitely need to, you know, learn more about the upcoming house bills. And, also, I think it might be worthwhile looking back at the earlier report that talked about the aging of our population and the housing and so forth like that to kinda get a a bigger picture, and it can definitely tie into our strategic planning. So I would agree with you,

Thank you. Council member Love.

I would also agree and thank, Sherry and and staff for putting all this information together, allowing us to make, an informed decision and, consider all the options and comparables, know, comparisons to other cities that have made, I guess, similar increases. So thank you.

Casper, ready?

I completely agree with everyone that's spoken so far. I'm definitely interested in seeing where things progress with h p 13 in the house, before we consider any other options. Thank you.

Great. Thanks for that discussion. Alright. So next on the reports list, we have community service organization grant program progress report. Anybody have anything on that? Catherine or Foster?

I just wanted to say it looks like our community service organizations are doing some really good work for our community. I specifically wanna call out the food bank. Looks like they're getting a lot more benefit from the federal government, but also sounds like they're frozen food boxes that they're getting. And so they're relying on Kurt Davis. Sorry.

Kurt Wilson. I don't know why I always wanna say Davis, but Kurt Wilson for providing refrigeration and freezing for those boxes. So just wanna give a shout out to him as well for, you know, collaborating with our community service organizations to serve the many families in our community that do rely on these resources, and I'm really grateful that they exist for our community. So thanks for all you do out there at the food bank. I know they're looking for volunteers all the time. So if you have time, they said in the report, go out there Saturdays. Thank you.

Alright. Well, that's it for reports. Next, we have city manager, city clerk, city attorney, and mayor's reports. So first up is the city manager. Thank you, mayor Potembalogue. Again, written port stands. Just a couple of edits. Superintendent Weber pointed out that, initially, it appeared that the school roof project was on the was on the list to be funded, with the senate finance. What they actually passed is through project 15, and we are number 16. So we do not make the cut based on what they proposed, but I haven't seen if there's been any traction in the last couple of days.

But I have reached out to senator Rauscher and representative Nelson to just let him know kind of where we're at. They're looking at the other line items on the capital budget. There's I mean, just, you know, honestly, really nothing for Valdez. And so I kinda point out if if if the legislature's interested in spending capital money, we'd we'd love to see some come come this side of, Glen Allen. A couple of other pieces, we did have what I'm calling the omnibus municipal proclamation.

We did that in lieu of reading 15 different proclamations, over the course of May. The one I do wanna point out is this week is library appreciation week, and today is library worker appreciation day. Since that's in April, it didn't make the cut for the May ordinance, I didn't wanna point them out. We're grateful for them what they do. We met with the tourism task force, discussed the what the next steps look look like as it relates to getting articles of incorporation for for a new corporation?

It sounds like there's some interest in in folks joining the the future board of that new organization. So that process is still ongoing. You know, with the approval of the the lease, we'll start getting getting things finalized so that we can have a place for visitors to stop and ask questions and get some answers at the visitor center. Again, I can't touch on we have insurance conversations that are ongoing, evaluating options. And then as many of you probably saw in the news, they did announce that two icebreakers will be home ported in Alaska.

When I asked the question where, I don't get an answer. And the best answer I've gotten is if the coast guard knows they're holding a really good secret. So it sounds like they're still evaluating locations. Until they don't say Valdez, I'm gonna consider Valdez in the running as as a home port for an icebreaker or two. But we haven't had any further conversations with anybody specifically on that topic.

But it is good to hear that two will be home ported here. There's still a slate of 11 that they claim that they're gonna construct. And so if we, for some reason, don't don't make the first cut, there's likely more down the pipe. So I think it's prudent for us to be continue to promote Valdez as a as a potential destination. I was asked recently what's the value of having a federal government piece of infrastructure in town.

They don't pay property taxes, which is a fair question. But I do think as you look at the school district declining enrollment, there's more jobs than there are people around town, retail. I think just having more people in town is certainly gonna be beneficial. And so if if an icebreaker can bring a couple 100 folks to town, I think that'd be wonderful. If two icebreakers could come to town and bring a couple 100 more, that'd be even better.

That's just my personal opinion. And we we do have that parcel of property on Sea Otter that I think would be prime for development and opportunities for public private partnerships would be well received. So, anyhow, having said all that, I'll stand for any questions on on what you said or what anything from my written report as well. One thing just wanted to shout out from the written report was the financial audit was complete with no findings. So just shout out to team finance, Bart Rushing team, getting us through that crucible every year.

Really appreciate all the hard work there to get through that, so that was awesome to see. And then one thing couple things that were in the report too we have, I think it was lighthouse project, the hospital advisory committee, and the FDA are all looking for potential work sessions with the council. They have some things they wanna bring to our attention. I talked to city manager Devall about it, and this is based on whatever work session, you know, the advisory committee wants to make sure they're on the same page or to propose things for us in the future. The FDA is, probably asking for some kind of support with with the Silver Coho Building, and then the Lighthouse project, would be, potentially, providing some mental health services potentially in the community in the future and wanted to meet with us.

So I guess I'm just looking for is is everybody, you know, supportive of potentially having those work sessions prior to strategic planning if those entities can, you know, come and do that for us so that we can get that information and, again, kinda build that into the strategic planning. Does that work for everybody? Thank you. Alright. Anything else for Nate? Alright. Thank thank you, senior manager Duvall. Alright. Next, we have city clerk report.

I just have a few things this evening. Some announcements. Absentee voting for the upcoming municipal election, that started on Monday at, City Hall. So, that is available for anyone in the public, who wants to, vote absentee prior to the election. Our office hours for absentee voting is Monday through Friday, 08:30AM until 5PM, and that will happen up to the day up until the day of election.

Our election will take place on Tuesday, May 5. The polls open at 7AM at all three of our precincts. And anyone needing help locating their precinct can contact the city clerk's office. If you don't don't know where to vote, we can provide you with that information. We have three precincts.

One, of course, in Robe River Fire Station, one here at City Hall, and then one at the Recreation Center, which is formerly the teen center. Our new I voted stickers will be at the precinct, so we're really excited about that. So, I mean, that should bring you to the polls itself just to come and get one of our new high voted stickers to this evening. I know that Copper Valley Electric announced that their annual meeting is the same evening as elections, it looks like. So I would encourage people to vote and then go to the CBA meeting.

So please come and vote, and then go, try to win a truck. We we also have the the day following election will be our city council meeting. So elections on Tuesday and then, of course, council meets on Wednesday that week. That is also the RCAC reception is that evening. And so we encourage you to go before.

Hopefully, you can go and do that and then come to your meeting. I know that RCAC was a little concerned. The council members weren't gonna be able to get there, but you can. Just you need to be here when the meeting starts,

so encourage

you to do that prior to the meeting. We also need three volunteers from council for the All America City scholarship committee. We have received at least put that out, and we've received applications for those grants. So who is interested? Lester, Jimmy, and

I mean, you can pick.

No. I

I've done it the last few years. It's it's enjoyable. So if Joe would like to do it, I'm I'm definitely willing to share.

Okay. So we've got Joe, Lester, and Jimmy. That? Okay. You got that, Elise?

And you'll get the scholarship applications and rubric tomorrow afternoon. I have to see if any came in hard copy over the front desk. So Yeah.

So look for those in your email. Okay? Check your email because Elise will send those out to

you. And

I think that that I think that's it. Oh, one more thing. I am out next week. I'm attending the California, municipal clerk's con conference. I was invited to, come and attend their conference this year. I'm just doing a really short presentation, for them. So they're actually,

I

think, that they're comping my room, but I know that they're, they've asked me to come, so I think that, they're they're hosting me as far as at least a a room comp or a very reduced rate in order for me to do that there. So, anyway, I will just be out next week, and I'll be back in the office, on Monday, the right before the fourth.

That's all I have.

Any questions for the city clerk? Thank you, madam city clerk. Next up, we have the city attorney, mister Staser.

Thank you, mayor pro tem love. Just a very brief update in public session this evening, so I won't go stand at the podium for it. Regarding the BMTC plan, we did file our opening brief on the nonsecondary containment related issues last Friday, the seventeenth. The state and Alyeska have thirty days to file their responsive brief, and then we have twenty days to file a reply. After which, there will be oral argument before the administrative law judge.

And, ultimately, ALJ works with the commissioner of ADC to make a decision on those appeals. In addition, last Friday, we filed our appeals with SARB. SARB has been, currently scheduled for May, and, we'll discuss further tax related issues in the executive session. At that, I'll stand for any questions and, let you know how it's going with TAP stuff in the executive session.

Any questions for our city attorney? Thank you, mister Staser.

My pleasure. Thank you.

Alright. Next up, city of airport. I'll just take this one. The only thing I wanted to bring up was, I know we discussed, it was probably a couple months ago now, the public accommodation tax ordinance changing that to include the, recreational vehicles for the nightly, rate. And we heard we heard some feedback regarding that too from some of the the park owners.

The biggest one I heard was, you know, not you're gonna do it, not to impose it for this upcoming year. That made a lot of sense to me. And now that we've got the, task force, I think, coming along pretty well with the tourism task force and kind of have a good plan going forward, I think now is the time to, bring that ordinance forward. I know there was a good discussion about it. So I'd like to see at our next meeting have that ordinance with the recreational vehicles added to, be paying the public accommodation tax. And then, number two, not having that, you know, come online until January 2027 for the next task tax year, and that's we can we can write that into the ordinance. So just wanted to see if there's support with for that so we'd see that on our next agenda.

Yeah. I support that. Nate and I were just sidebar in here. We just wanna make sure that we have enough time to, notify the RV park owners, of this as well, so that they have that all interested parties have the information. First reading of that ordinance would be public hearing, and Nate just said he can send out a email to them tomorrow. So just wanna make sure they have enough time.

Great. Thank you for that. That's perfect. That's all I had for my report. So moving on, we have council business from the floor, and we'll start at the end of the table with council member Foster.

Oh, thank you so much. All this voting, this talk of voting, I'm excited to vote. But I'm also I would be remiss not to say how much this council is gonna miss mayor Pro Tem Love's presence. And I'm gonna beat this horse again, so that's as much as I'm gonna beat it right now. But thank you for all your leadership and all you've done for this council. And May is nurses week too. So if you know a nurse, make sure to give them a high five and a shout out. Alright. I'm a nurse.

Alright. City manager Nival, thank you for mentioning library appreciation. I'd like to say that we have a fantastic library right here in this in our hometown and incredible staff. And last, Thursday, I had the opportunity to, participate, my granddaughter and I, in ABC one two three story time. And we had, I think, six grandparents, had kids from under six months to grandparents over 60 and a full house downstairs there.

So, take advantage of that. They have a number of wonderful programs for kids, youth of all ages, but also for students and, other members in our community. And they also serve as a warm welcoming committee to all the tourists that come here, whether they come here by road, ship, etcetera. So my hats off to them, and I thank them very much. And then, get out and vote so you can get your I voted stickers right here. Well done

to that group,

and thank you.

I just wanna give two big shout outs. One to the kids with the

t three program that were here tonight. Yeah.

They got up to the

mic and spoke so great,

and we're less nervous than most adults that come up and speak to us. So I just wanna give them a big shout out. That was really awesome. Second big shout out is to Harbor staff. The boardwalk looks amazing. They've done so much snow clearing and power washing. It looks great. It's spectacular for the season. And the boat launch was great. We got our boat in, so very big shout out to them.

Well, since nobody brought it up yet, I did think that it was of note that the students of the Kimball's connection at, Urbandale High School did a very thorough investigation of all of the towns and cities of Alaska and voted correctly that Valdes is the prettiest. I am consistently reassured by how great the upcoming generation has turned out to be, and I'm very proud to see that they're good at doing research coming to factual conclusions.

Joy beat me to the punch, but I also wanted to thank the, students from the t t three program and Adam Lowe for coming in and and, you know, providing us information on that program as well as, you know, seeing the excitement of the kids and and where they, where they ranked and, you know, all the different programs that they participated in. So that was, seemed really excited for what they were doing there. So wanted to thank them for that. And, also wanted to say, yeah, please get out and vote on May 5.

Do over.

Alright. City city clerk needs a do over.

Just real quickly. I just wanted to let council know that tomorrow, the sixth grade class is coming over to the council chambers, and we're doing the meet with the mayor with them. So they will meet with the mayor, and Ruthie Knight is gonna be our our mayor for that. And we're also Elise has prepared an agenda for the kids, and they're gonna do a mock meeting with the mayor as well. So

What

What time? So

I don't know. I have first group and second group is 01:30. Yeah.

Two different periods, but the the larger group is gonna be in the morning. So if you wanna come and observe that, probably that 11:11 o'clock one would be the one to come to. But, anyway, that'll be fun. We enjoy doing that. This is, our second year. Executive it's Second year of doing this. Yeah.

It's a great program. It's awesome that you bring your students in here. Okay. Any more do overs?

I'm back to one.

Oh. This is what happens when you open the gates. You asked. So I do want to highlight that it's in my written report, but I just want to put it out there is I know officer Bezos has been working with the state to get ICS credentialing done on a statewide level. Chief Raynor was the first person, input into that system as operation section chief. And so, we felt he's once again leading the way as far as emergency management. So I just want to give shout out to Aaron, but also to to chief Raynor for getting those requisites and credentialing done. So, again, there's no one else in the system other than Valdez, so kind of a neat accomplishment. Thanks for that.

And one more thing. Gibson asked me to hand out the that letter from Valdez pioneers to you tonight. So he brought that in this week, and so he just wanted to bring that to your attention. So

I

was saying if I can hop in, I'll just share this really important agenda that the middle schoolers are gonna have tomorrow. So

let me go to

You scroll up, please.

Yes. Yeah.

There it is.

So they're gonna meet us with vegetable council and have some big decisions to make.

Right. There we go. Hundred

twenty three thousand. Rabbit sanctuary update.

Yeah. Last year

Oh, I I'll do that report.

Yeah. Last year, we we we the rabbits was the on the agenda. So they're just gonna get an update on the action they took last year.

Alright. Well, with that, thank you very much. This ends our regular meeting for now. We're gonna go into the executive session, and then we'll get done done after the executive session. So thank you.