City Council - Regular Meeting

okay thank you before we end tonight's meeting again once again there are digital copies of our meeting agenda and packet available online you can scan the qr code on the door to access the packet madam clerk will you please call the roll

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mrs. Borg? Here. Mr. Wagner?

Here.

Mr. McAuliffe? Absent. Mr. Pincush? Here. Mr. Denmark? Here. Mrs. Lone? Here. Mayor Shen?

Here.

You have a quorum.

Thank you. Any requests for excused absences? Is there a motion and a second to excuse Mr. Renner-Macalteo from tonight's meeting?

I'll second.

Thank you. Is that a roll call?

Voting on the motion to excuse Mr. Macalteo from tonight's meeting. Mr. Denmark?

Yes.

Mrs. Malone? Yes. Mr. Wagner?

Yes.

Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mrs. Borg? Yes. Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The motion passes and Mr. McAuliffe is excused from tonight's meeting.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next, we have citizen comments. Citizen comments on any agenda item except those scheduled for public hearing are welcome at this time. Those who have signed in will be given the first opportunity to speak. And please note, this is not a time for dialogue. It is a time for citizens to speak and the Council to listen. Madam Clerk, has anyone signed in for citizen comments?

Yes. First, we have Representative Kai Holland.

All right. Thank you. Mr. Holland.

Oh, I think I might have grabbed the wrong one. Oh, apology.

Okay.

Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak during this citizens comment period? All right, seeing none, we're going to move on to our next item. We have approval of our agenda and a consent agenda. Is there a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda and consent agenda?

I'll make that motion.

Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, if I may. I would like to make a...

motion to remove resolution 39 off the consent agenda amendment no motion necessary okay all right thank you I don't we all need a motion or second just amendment Okay. Thank you. Any other amendments? Okay. Seeing none. Thank you, madam clerk. Will you please call the roll?

Voting on the motion to approve tonight's agenda and consent agenda. Mrs. Borg. Yes. Mr. Denmark.

Yes.

Mr. Wagner.

Yes.

Mr. Pincush?

Yes.

Mrs. Lone? Yes. Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The motion passes and tonight's agenda and consent agenda are approved. On tonight's consent agenda are the introduction of non-code ordinance 2026-006 authorizing the purchase and installation of chain link fencing surrounding harbor dumpsters from Mazie Fence LLC in an amount not to exceed $9,721.99 and appropriating funds and setting for public hearing at tonight's meeting. Also on the consent agenda are the approval of the July 1st, 2026 special meeting minutes and the approval of the July 21st, 2026 regular meeting minutes.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. At this time, does anyone wish to declare a conflict of interest in the matter appearing on the agenda? Mr. Denmark. And that would be on items. Item seven. And item 11, correct? Any other further discussion?

One comment regarding that, if I may.

Yes.

In a, um, I do understand why I'm not allowed to vote on these issues, but in conversations with, uh, uh, another person who is, uh, offers legal advice, my ability to speak to these issues, I would like to challenge. I believe that my ability to vote can be removed, but my being the only leaseholder on the council offers a perspective that may be helpful to others. Thank you.

Ms. Wells?

Sure. So in every community I represent consistently, the rule is and the way that it is applied that if you have declared a conflict of interest, you do not participate to abstain from the discussions at the diocese as a council member, because that conflict carries over to your role and in your capacity as a council member. So what a lot of individuals will do is they'll step away from the diocese and they'll testify as a member of the public. so that their voice is heard, but they are sort of flagging that the reason why I am not participating in these discussions, that I don't want to be persuasive in these discussions as a council member. I don't hold a weight any larger than another member because I have an interest that arises from my role as a member of the community. And so that is the voice that I will speak in. So I'm not sure what legal individual you spoke in, but I've been practicing municipal law for over 20 years. And this is the practice. This is my advice on this front. I can tell you many of my colleagues agree with me. I don't think this is not one of those points of contention. At least among municipal attorneys. That does not mean, of course, there is that saying, you ask two lawyers an opinion, you get three opinions or something like that. There's some joke.

Yeah, that's where I was going with that.

Yeah. So you never know. But that is my take on the situation.

There's no further discussion. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Voting on the question, does Mr. Denmark have a conflict of interest in items 7 and 11? Voting yes would say yes, you believe that Mr. Denmark does have a conflict of interest, and stating no would be no, you do not believe he has a conflict of interest. Mrs. Sloan? Yes. Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mr. Denmark? Yes.

Yes.

Mr. Wagner?

Yes.

Mrs. Borg? Yes. Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The Council determines that Mr. Denmark does have a conflict of interest in Items 7 and 11.

I would also like to declare a conflict of interest in Items 7 and 11. Any discussion?

With 7 and 11 resolution?

Yes, 7 specifically because it does address a lease that is held by a family member. And then 11, potentially the language is different or it is worded differently, however, I see a potential conflict there.

And I do believe last meeting that that's consistent with the declaration of a conflict of interest last meeting, simply because these instruments that you're putting forward are all to deal with these leasing issues that are here now and involve Victor's father as one of the leaseholders. So that is, I think that's, I'm just sort of reiterating what you're saying, but I'm reminding also the council that last time you voted, you declared the conflict on both and council voted that you had a conflict on both. You abstained from participation in both, if I remember right. Is that correct? I returned to the clerk to make sure that that's correct. Okay.

For both items. All right. Any further discussion?

Okay.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Voting on the question, does Mr. Shen have a conflict of interest in items 7 and 11? Mr. Wagner?

Yes.

Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mrs. Lone? Yes. Mrs. Borg?

Yes.

Mr. Denmark?

No.

Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The council determines that Mr. Shen does have a conflict of interest in items 7 and 11.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next, we have presentations and reports. We have a presentation from NSTAR, our natural gas utility, and that will be broadcasted on the television.

So everyone knows Mr. Sims is going to give us an update about the line break with NSTAR and the partnership in which we're trying to make sure we get heat and water back to everyone in the community. So Mr. Sims, thank you for joining us this evening.

Yes, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today. I just wanted to give a quick update and then an opportunity for any questions that from the members or for anyone else in attendance. But so as everyone's aware, back on August 9th, we received a report from a customer that was actually taking their boat up the 20-mile river that they smelled gas. We immediately responded and determined that there was a break. Uh, in that, um, pipeline, uh, that, uh, was not fractured at that time, but, but was, uh, of cause for concern. And so, uh, we immediately notified the city council, sent out some social media, started the communications and also started, uh, procurement of the LNG supply to try and get that ready and in time for customers prior to what would be a more severe rupture where we would have to replace the system and ultimately shut that pipeline down. Unfortunately, on Sunday in our gas control, we started noticing pressure drops on the Whittier side, sent a service technician out immediately, and that's when we saw the ruptured pipeline. And for safety precautions, as per our procedures, we did have to shut off the line, which impacted service to the community of Whittier. As I mentioned, we started the procurement of LNG back on, what was the 10th? And we've been working really on three parallel projects all at one time. The first is the long kind of replacement of that pipeline. And for those of you that don't know, that pipeline is a leased pipeline. It is what we call the military line. It was an old fuel line that supplied Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson from the town of Whittier. And so that pipeline was converted into a gas pipeline for the benefits of serving Girdwood and Whittier. But so it does have a section now that needs to be replaced. So that's kind of step one. Step two is working on installing a valve that allows us to inject regasified LNG at a different point far away from the rupture so that our teams and crews can work quickly. And the third that we've been working on is the actual procurement of not only the LNG, which is liquefied natural gas that can be shipped on the highways, but also the equipment necessary to regasify it and inject it into the system. So happy to report at this point, we have been able to procure all of the equipment necessary and the LNG. And just want to give a huge kudos to not only the folks that we've been working with with the city, but also the state and federal agencies that have really worked to expedite this project so we would get the required permits in place. And that list is not short.

We'd also like to thank the railroad for working with us very quickly on the right of way.

So that we could do some construction up and over that.

We do have some time still before we can get customers in service.

But we are optimistic that it will not be the September 5th date that we had originally communicated. but sooner than that date. So we're hoping to have another update on the exact timing and specific timing when we can restore service by Friday of this week. Again, we want to have an update on Friday for folks on when service can be restored on a temporary basis with that LNG solution. And then we can communicate on the longer term fix, which at this point we're expecting to be anywhere from 30 to 45 days for the permanent solution there. This isn't a challenging area. I'm sure you all are familiar with the 20 mile river. It is going to require a bore, which is where we go underneath the river. And, you know, make that pipeline safe from, you know, additional challenges that may be experienced from the state of Alaska and our nature here. So anyway, with that, I'm happy to open up for any questions that may be had. And again, thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Any additional questions?

Mike, if you want to come up to the podium and definitely ask Mr. Sims, he should be able to have, or we can.

Yeah, thank you for that opportunity. I'm just curious, is it an erosion or the only thing about the fault of it, is it a fracture or can you...

Yeah, so we can speak a little bit. Until we actually pull that pipeline out of the water, it's going to be tough to say what exactly happened. What we did witness, though, when we went out there on the first response was that pipeline was oscillating back and forth in the water, which means that river changes frequently, as does the bank with that silty condition. So and that's one of the challenges that we deal with as a utility here in Alaska is the changing conditions of streams and rivers. And so the expectation is in that oscillation. It caused a crack. But it could have been that it was damaged by a log coming downstream or something along those lines, but not entirely sure until we can actually pull that section out of the water and have a better chance to review and do some analysis on it.

Right. So and then the fix, you'll be boring underneath the riverbed. That is true. Yes. The pipeline now is suspended in the in the stream flow. It's very deep, but it is.

Yes, it is out of the from underneath the river. Yes. Yeah. OK, thank you. Yes. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions? Thank you for all the information and your efforts to remediating this situation.

Well, thank you very much again for the opportunity. And again, I can't highlight enough the collaboration that we've had, not only with the city of Whittier, but with the federal government and the state government in getting this done expeditiously. Obviously, a sense of urgency here is felt by all parties involved, and that's the only way that something like this can happen. So I really appreciate all the support from folks. And if anyone has any questions, please reach out.

And I'd just like to add that we do, as a city, are at the table with NSTAR and all of the other individuals. But on our Friday meeting, we will try to put out a post on our webpage so that we can give those type of updates to everyone.

Thank you.

All right. Next presentation, we have some, do we want to do Seb? What do we want to do? Okay. Sebastian Kelly. Come on up. And there's that gray button right there at the base. Wait for the light to come on.

You got it.

There we go. Yeah, thank you for having me. By way of introduction, I'm Sebastian O'Kelly. My firm represents the city of of Whittier in Washington, and I'm your registered federal lobbyist. I thought I'd talk about a few issues at the federal level, a few projects. We kind of went through the Buckner building beforehand, so I don't want to reiterate all of that. It's just... It's good to see that there's some progress being made. We have a ways to go, but a significant amount of funding has been secured by Senator Murkowski and the former congressionally directed spending, and we're kind of in the early phases of that. We will need some additional funding, I think, down the road, but we need to make some progress on that. starting to do some continued assessment, remediation, and maybe even some removal before we go back and seek some additional funding. So good news. I've been involved with this project for quite some time. It had been on the back burner for a long time, but now it's very good to see that some things are happening. So positive work there. A commendation to Jackie and her team for doing a lot of the legwork associated with filling out the paperwork and everything. doing all the analyses and all the kinds of things that you have to do to to work through the federal bureaucracy so that's great news um on shotgun cove road really nice to come up here and see the uh the continued build out uh towards trinity point um that is um the nice part about that project is it's you know it's an expensive project but we're able to proceed um with chunks of funding um you all did great work in doing the planning, engineering and design and the permitting all the way out to Trinity Point and then therefore we could work kind of back from that to secure a combination of congressionally directed spending, competitive grant applications through the FLAP program that you all have been successful that has received delegation support both from the from congressionally directed standing standpoint as well as supporting the grants so you're able to move forward and do do the project piece by piece and now it's nice to see this significant chunk that's being done I did come out last year when the Sentinel Road was being kind of cut through the woods there. And then now I'm, you know, we're seeing a real road happening. So that's that's great. Great news. The city has put in a application for a larger chunk of money than the flat program through the NSF LT program, which is the nationally significant federal lands transportation program. So it is a mouthful. It's the federal government. What do you want? You're going to get acronyms. So that application is in. The delegation has just submitted a letter of support to the DOT secretary. So we'll be in a waiting mode for that. And that's going to get us closer and closer towards Trinity Point. some good news there um the project's got good support um from from congressman baggage senator sullivan and senator murkowski they've all uh i think they've all both senators for sure have visited the visited the road and um It's been on the city's agenda for many, many years and kind of a key pitch point when the city makes its annual trip to D.C. What else do we have pending? So this year, Senator Murkowski has submitted a congressionally directed spending request of $4 million to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Senate Appropriations Committee has not marked up its appropriations bills yet, so we don't know the fate of it. This is for FY27. But she has submitted. There are three cuts to the congressionally directed spending process. The first cut is the member of Congress has to submit the project. The second cut is the Appropriations Committee has to make a decision on whether to fund it. And the third cut is the Appropriations Bill has to make it into law. So we're kind of through phase one of that. uh other requests that was on the city's priority list federal priority list that senator murkowski has submitted to the appropriations committee is six hundred thousand dollars for a new ambulance so that was one of uh one of your guys requests and um and the way this process works a little bit you know just so you get an understanding of it and the timing of it you know the city develops it's you know i always work i work off of the the federal priorities resolution that you do pretty much every year. There's no freelancing here. I follow what the resolution says in terms of the priorities and projects. Then in the beginning of the year, I work and it's an online process that I submit through Congressman Begich's portal and through Senator Murkowski's portal. And then that goes into kind of a big database and then the process closes and then the the staff and the members review the requests and then they make their decisions on what projects to submit. So inevitably I submit more projects than they decide to forward on to the Appropriations Committee. Senator Sullivan does not do congressionally directed spending, but he is very active in weighing in with the federal agencies in support of grant applications. So he's very assertive and is willing to support that way as opposed to through designated projects and legislation. And then the Appropriations Committee typically in the House marks up in the spring to summer. The Senate usually is a bit later. This year, the Senate has not marked up any appropriations bills yet, which is a bit unusual. The basic issues come down to differences between the Democrats and the Republicans on defense spending and non-defense spending. So the Appropriations Committee has to divide the bigger pot of money, defense and non-defense, and they have to agree on a top line. And once they do that, then they make decisions at the subcommittee level on how to fund all the different agencies and programs. But before they can do that, they have to agree on a top line. It's like they have to agree on a budget, basically. And that hasn't happened. The Democrats want to see a much smaller increase on the defense side and a larger increase on the non-defense side. It's no secret. And the Republicans want to see a larger increase on the defense side. and less of an increase on the non-defense side. So until that agreement is reached in the Senate, the Senate will not move forward on its bills. Congress is in recess at the moment. the House until August 31st and the Senate until September 14th. So things are relatively quiet. The bills will not pass by the October 1 deadline. I think they've passed once by the deadline in 30 years, all of them at least. So we will see a short-term continuing resolution. A bill has passed the House to take us to, I think it's either December 11th or December 14th, and there's a Senate bill under consideration as well. I don't anticipate a government shutdown at this point in time. I think Congress will pass a short-term continuing resolution. They do not want to do a shutdown right before the election. Now, is a government shutdown after the election a possibility? Yes, it is a possibility. So is it a probability? I can't say, but it is a possibility. But I think we will see a CR enacted at least to get us through into December and then further negotiations on the appropriations bills at that point in time, and that will be when sort of the decisions will be made about projects for fiscal year 2027. Other news? You know, I'm happy to answer. I'll just turn it to you guys if you have some specific questions relative to any of these priorities or Any other federal issue you want to ask me about, I can't say I will know the answer, but I might. And, you know, I appreciate the support that you all have lent to these projects over a period of time. It is a long process. It does not happen overnight. It requires consistent effort and leadership and partnership and advocacy at all levels. advocacy at the federal level, state level, and most importantly, where it all starts at the local level. So you all have a good administration and working closely with me and Diane Bloomer at the state level to move forward on these initiatives. And that certainly helps make my work more productive and a little bit easier. So thank you.

Thank you. Questions? Great. Thank you very much. I have a question. So, you know, one question I have is kind of like you have an idea of the fate of like future funding for the Forest Service. The Forest Service is a significant partner to the city here because we're surrounded by Forest Service lands. And the Forest Service also stewards these lands that much of our tourism recreates on.

Yeah, so a couple of thoughts on the Forest Service. So the Forest Service was one of the agencies that at the beginning of the Trump administration that was reviewed by the Doge and faced some significant cuts in personnel, basically folks that were probationary employees. A lot of these were like firefighters. So a probationary employee in the federal government is basically a new employee. So I'm not talking about probationary in the sense of they're they're bad offenders or anything. And so they don't have full civil service protection. So we saw a lot of Forest Service, Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service employees, because some of them are seasonal in nature or like firefighters, that they were let go. It was a bit of shock. There was a lot of concern that we would see Forest Service regional and local Forest Service office closures and consolidation. The partial good news on this is that some of the employees were hired back, and at this point in time, the notion of office closure or consolidation is not on the table. So that is some good news. The budgetary situation is more stable as well. So I would say we took a dip And now we're sort of back to perhaps where we were a couple of years ago with a bit more stability. And there is an effort on the Forest Service side The Trump administration wants to be more assertive on resource development activities. So, you know, we've just seen, you know, a rework of the roadless rule. They're going to redo the Tongass Forest Land Management Plan. And, you know, I've seen that go back and forth over 20 years. So we'll have another back or another fourth. I don't know, whatever your perspective is, is how you would conclude on either one of those two sides. The recreational side is... Um, I, you know, I think it's still, I think it's still good as good support. We've not seen any, any, um, you know, the members, um, uh, on the, and on the Western members continue to press on, on recreational funding. Cause it's, it's viewed as important to their communities. They have, they have tourists, ecotourist based communities. Um, and you know, that, and that includes Alaska's. not just alaska though the west the lower 48 western states as well so i think it's still a still a good priority um and i think the forest service in a better position now than it was you know a year you know 15 months ago that help that was great thank you thank you thank you mr kelly and just to reiterate

Sebastian O'Kelley, as our federal lobbyist, he is our eyes and ears in Washington, D.C., and also our voice. And so he advocates on behalf of Whittier there as a summary of what his role is in here, if you missed that during his introduction. Thank you again. Next on our agenda, we have some more presentations. We like to recognize some... Is this part of your CMR, or do you want to do... Okay, Mr. Board, I'll hand it off to you. Mr. Harbor, Mr. Harbor, sorry.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. Recently received some letters from the state of Alaska, Department of Public Safety, recognizing several of the harbor individuals, folks in the harbor. As you know, we had a situation back in early July with the Mr. Phillips case. who had absconded with sailboat out into Prince William Sound. And we got a letter. I had three individuals in the harbor help, Neva and Matthew Pese and Kyle Lone. The names are a little misspelled in the letters, but I was just going to read one of them as they all kind of cover the same issue. So, On July 6, 2026, Philip T. Phillips dismissed his attorney and elected to represent himself during his jury trial. Prior to trial, Phillips had requested numerous continuances due to an Alaska Supreme Court order requiring older cases to be resolved, and because his case had been pending for approximately six years, the Superior Court denied several of Phillips' requests for continuance. A jury was selected on July 6, and the trial was scheduled to begin on July 7, 2026 at 0830. Before court adjourned on July 6, Phillips advised the court that he intended to deliver his opening statement the following morning. On July 7, 2026, Phillips failed to appear for the start of his jury trial. Personnel from Mat-Su pretrial determined through Phillips' court-ordered electronic monitoring device that after leaving court on July 6, he traveled to Anchorage, making several stops before continuing to Whittier. where he had a sailboat. The last electronic monitoring signal was received from Whittier Harbor. Investigators contacted the locations Phillips had visited, and the court determined that he had voluntarily chosen not to appear for trial. A $50,000 cash arrest warrant was issued for failure to appear. As the investigation continued, assistance was provided by AKCIC, the Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Bureau of Investigations, Department of Corrections, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Judicial Services, and the United States Coast Guard. On July 8, 2026, the jury trial continued in Phillips' absence, while law enforcement agencies continued their efforts to locate him. On July 9, 2026, a Palmer jury found Philip T. Phillips guilty of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree. sexual abuse of a minor in a second degree, and harassment in the first degree. Following the verdict, a no-bail arrest warrant was issued. Investigators obtained a picture, a photograph of sailboat Phillips was believed to be operating and received information indicating he might be armed. Numerous search warrants were written. Alaska Wildlife Troopers located the sailboat, and the Alaska State Troopers Special Emergency Reaction Team responded. Phillips T. Phillips was located. The Alaska State Troopers would like to thank the following personnel and the agencies for outstanding assistance throughout the investigation. So they wanted to recognize Aniva Chiri Chiri, Matt Pese, Kyle Lone, and also Whittier Police Department, Timothy Sampson, Lloyd Willis. And I do know that two people that aren't recognized here, Scott Corby and Ross Carlson, assisted the following morning when the troopers returned back to town with the sailboats. It's a typical for the harbor, you know, cops deal with this stuff quite a bit. EMS deal with this stuff kind of quite a bit. But for the harbor, you just never know what the day is going to bring. So I want to thank my staff for being outstanding. They were subpoenaed the following day. They were standing by 830 the next morning to call into the court. Um, there's just a lot of things that happened like all at once. And thankfully Kyle loan had taken a picture of a boat next to his sailboat, like a couple of days prior to this guy split in town. So he just happened to have it on his phone and he provided that to investigators. So that helped a lot. So just, you know, coincidence and, uh, yeah, it just great job by my crew and, and basically the city of Whittier across the board. So thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ward. Thank you to our staff. Okay, our mayor's report. Just a few things I'd like to announce. So we just had a Brownsfield presentation here, and you'll see a map on our wall. Also on there, there is a link, I believe, on our website, and these folks are looking for other potential contamination sites around Whittier. So please check it out if you're on your walk, you know, if you know things off the top of your head, you know, these are things for them to investigate, and then we can clean up our town that way. PB, Jorge Boone. : Another one, so we have again that and star the gas line breakage the city put out a. Dave Kuntz, survey looking for him to survey people the impacts and potential impacts and that people and hardships that people are experiencing so please. Dave Kuntz, If you got that next alert or if you see it on our website. Dave Kuntz, Please go to that and fill out the survey and it helps the city administration city council with our decision making to help serve the Community better that way. Dave Kuntz, Mr work.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Also, I have not had an opportunity to get it out on the internet yet, but we do have showers in the harbor. And I know like the BTI, we have hot water. So however, the manor does not. So if folks from the manor need a shower, come on down to the harbor. We'll give you a coupon or a token to get in the showers. I have two women's, two men's, and it's only 70 gallons. So spread it out. You got a big family.

Thank you. And that's all I have, Mr. Vice Mayor.

Yeah. On the same note, I would like to offer my thanks to those who do have hot water for offering their homes and facilities to those who do not. It's great to see a community come together and offer a helping hand. So thanks to all of you.

Ms. Wilde. Ms.

I'm going to start on one more note regarding the NSTAR issue. We did have a meeting today with them prior to this meeting, and one of the things that they have asked us for is to reach out to the community, especially the businesses that have meters, for when they're ready to regasify us, There needs to be somebody on the premise in order for them to turn your meter back on. So we have placed on our website, the minute you pull it up, there is a link that you can click on. There's a phone number there, and there's an email address. So any of the businesses that have meters, when they're ready to get them back on, please contact. Please go on to there and let them know who they can contact because what they're looking for is contact information. And when they're ready to get things going, they can contact you. And with that, I also, on my city manager's report, I do would like to see if finance can give us a brief about her report. And then I have the assistant city manager has some things that they'd like to add.

Chris. Thank you, Jackie. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

So I don't have a lot to add at this meeting, but I just wanted to let the council know that we've made some good progress. We're getting ready for the budget season and our department heads are currently working on the capital improvement plan updates. um we'll be trying to nail down better numbers for our capital improvement plan as well as prioritizing uh the items that are in the the capital improvement plan we will be sending out a calendar to the council uh shortly where we'll be trying to gather information from council members about the best time for us to be holding budget workshops. So if you can kind of look at your calendars and determine what timeframe looks best for you, we'll Usually we need three consecutive nights. We try to do three consecutive nights of budget meetings. So if you can, you know, look at a period, hopefully towards maybe the end of September when that'll work for you, that would be great. Just want to continue to give kudos to the Fire and EMS Department. They're doing a great job working with our third party vendor to bring in ambulance service revenues. So we'll be talking to the council during the upcoming budget cycle about whether we should be doing something special to earmark those funds. And then one of the things in my report this month is to discuss with the council about how we plan to handle our permanent fund going forward. Council may recall that we had proposed to set aside 100% of the lease revenues that the city collects from the cruise ship industry. and establish a permanent fund that was budgeted in our current two-year budget cycle. And I think I'll be proposing to council prior to the budget probably a resolution where we will still... plan to do the same thing but in the short term rather than transfer the money into a permanent fund which we've not yet established we would just assign fund balance in the general fund to set aside for that purpose the reason for that has to do primarily with just making sure that until we have a permanent fund in place and council has deliberated on the rules of um of how we will distribute funds out of that fund, that those monies are captured and held in the general fund, but assigned for that specific purpose. So you'll see a resolution coming forward from me on that issue probably next month. I think that was the main highlights that I wanted to point out. Thank you.

And then from the acting city clerk seat, I just wanted to announce, since the candidate nomination period closed before this council packet was put together, or after this council packet was put together, I could not announce the candidates, but I can now. So for council seat E, no candidates were certified. So that one will have to be filled by a write-in candidate. And then city council seat F, the candidate is Mr. Peter Denmark. If you would like to file as a write-in candidate, the forms are online or you can stop by the office and we will print those for you. And then just to follow up on the natural gas outage, if you aren't subscribed to Nixle Alerts, I highly recommend that you are. It is the way that we primarily communicate about emergencies and things like the natural gas outage with our community members. So if you're not yet subscribed, I would encourage you to open up your phone, open up a new text message. You're going to write 8888. That's who you're texting. That's Nixle. Then you're going to type your zip code into the message and send that. So 888-777 and then our zip code, which is 99693. Thank you.

Chris, I have to ask, can you give an update on the information that we've received regarding the ground fee and the letters?

Yes, thank you. Yes, the city of Whittier did receive a, we did forward on through our attorney's office, a letter to the state of Alaska acting attorney general with respect to the ordinance that council passed amending our ground transportation fee to explicitly note that the fee is not intended to be a toll and that proceeds from the fee will not be used on state and federal roads. And as a result of that, we sent the letter to the state. We received a response back from the state attorney general's office, acknowledging that they were satisfied with the changes that the city made to our ordinance. And we submitted that same information to Federal Highways, director of the state of Alaska, and got the same response from them. So as far as the state's earlier letter stating their concern about the ground fee, we believe that that's been fully resolved and want to thank the council for all their work to get that taken care of.

That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you, Ms. Wilde. Does anyone have any questions? I have a question for the police chief. I was looking at the call types by jurisdiction chart there, and it has a section that says foot patrol. Do you guys conduct foot patrols in Girdwood?

The foot patrol was conducted during the forest fair events. So we had officers walking basically a beat. So that's why that section was in there.

Okay. And I noticed that in Whittier we have zero foot patrols.

Normally in Whittier, the officers patrol, when they do security checks, they do it by areas like a slow walking through, driving through the harbor area. Occasionally the officers will get out and walk the ramps and stuff like that. It generally happens when we have certain types of calls, a bear in the area, ODARC during the morning, they'll walk the ramps and stuff, look for the bears or anything. um, individuals if they need to. So that's, there is, they normally just call it a security check, but for Girdwood, since we had a lot of people there, we had pairs of officers going out to do the foot patrol during that weekend only.

Oh, of course. I just heard things about how like, um, getting officers out on foot and interact with the public is generally, um, good policing, um, practice. And I was just curious how we can get more foot patrols

In our community. During the summertime, it's probably easy because I'm walking out there usually during the areas. But usually the officers, if they don't have a call, they'll do normal security checks. And if they're not busy, they'll just log it as a security check. They'll actually walk those areas. Like we usually, a couple of times a year, we'll walk that area, Lujan Park. Officers will get out, walk the areas, have contact with the general public, a lot of tourist aspects, and also letting them know you can't harass certain types of game in the water. and especially educating the kids on that. We have a couple officers that specifically like to do those.

Well, outstanding. Thank you. Good night. No more questions. Let's go to the next. Ms. Wells, we have you next. Our city attorney report.

the written attorney report is in your packet i believe it starts on page 22. i'm available to answer any questions i don't have anything else to add but for anything you may have questions about of course any questions any questions okay

I got a question. So I'm looking at your staff hours, um, for this quarter, you know, general, general business, we have 206 hours and then we have the Fleming injunction at 91 hours. And then the third one is the ground passenger fee implementation at 39 hours. And I'm just watching, you know, the second item, the hours crank up like, and how do we, is there any, any positive progress?

Yes. So with regard to the Fleming injunction, is that the one that you are? So I will say I am not the lead attorney on that case. That is a Brian Gerd, who I don't know if he's had an opportunity to speak to city council. I do think that would be helpful. Something we can get on the record in executive session is probably the most appropriate. But this has been, there have been many filings by Mr. Fleming after the courts issued its decisions and there has been an appeal. And so really it's been the city going through the responses to those pleadings. But I'm not sure if the administration has anything else to add, especially because they're dealing directly with Attorney Gerd on this. Okay.

Yeah. Your administration will be asking for an executive session tonight to go over a memo that was given to us by our attorneys.

Excellent. Thank you.

All right.

No questions. We'll move on to public hearings. So item seven, non-code ordinance 2026-004. A non-code ordinance exempting incumbent leaseholders and subleases of city property interest from the Wheeler Municipal Code 3.38.480 in adopting an application process that allows such leases and subleases to apply for direct negotiation of a new lease with the city on the same property leased or subleased by applicants so long as the lease or sublease expired or will expire in 2026. and the application is received within 14 days of the effective date of this ordinance i'm opening this public opening the public hearing of non-code ordinance 2026-004 at 8 pm madam clerk has anyone signed in to speak at this time yes miss kelly bender miss bender

Bringing in my Zen. Members of the council, I'm asking you tonight to pass this non-code ordinance 2026-004. We sense there is a temptation tonight to reject this ordinance and instead fall back on resolution 26038. But unless you have another applicant waiting in the wings right this second, all this does is kick the can down the road and makes the process longer, more burdensome, more confusing, and more unpredictable. Mike and I are sitting here tonight and we're wondering and waiting to hear if we need to prepare to close our business on September 30th and make plans to remove our building. This delay has real and immediate consequences. Today alone, we had to turn away five different phone calls from people trying to book Avis rentals for 2027 because we can't commit. That isn't just the loss to our business, but it's loss in sales tax revenue for the city. To July 31st, Avis collected over $20,000 in sales tax to the city. I don't know how else to make you folks understand the real impact other than seeing the faces and hearing the numbers. We are out of time. We have employees who need answers. We have a commitment to remain open for a major public event at the end of the month. If some of you are holding out for the resolution simply to avoid the appearance of preferential treatment, please remember the testimony of your own attorney at the last special meeting. She stated clearly that allowing an incumbent proven businesses to secure leases is in the city's best interest and that it is fully acceptable and legal conduct. I know this has been heavily debated Please listen to my words tonight. Remember the overwhelming public testimony from other leaseholders who are just as concerned for their futures. We have dedicated decades to this community. Please do what is right for these three businesses and Whittier's Economic Foundation and pass this ordinance. We have a complete application ready to turn in the moment that you take this right decision. and conscientious, ethical decision. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bender.

We have others signed in?

No others are signed in.

Okay.

Is there anybody in the audience who would wish to speak on this ordinance at this time, this non-code ordinance at this time? Okay. If there is no further public comment, the public hearing for non-code ordinance 2026-004 is closed at 8.05 p.m. Is there a motion and a second to adopt non-code ordinance 2026-004? I move to adopt non-code ordinance 2026-004. Okay. Seeing no second. Is there a second?

I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, this is Tom Wagner. My reception is going in and out, but I will second.

Okay. Is there a staff report?

Mayor, I will let the legal and Mr. Penkush, they are the writers of this non-code. You're not the writer of this one?

I was the author of 005. I don't believe I was the author of 004.

I have you as the sponsor of this one, Mr. Penkush.

I may have sponsored it, but I didn't write it.

Yes, I believe Council Member Pinchas sponsored it, but I think I wrote it. So this is, I mean, I don't know what report we need. I think we've talked about it and what it does. And we've talked about the resolution and what that does and the options before council. This is an application for direct negotiation to be clear. And this is important. An application for direct negotiation is not a, is not a permission for direct negotiation necessarily. So it allows for an application for direct negotiation to be submitted and to be considered. And it may or may not be approved. First city manager makes a recommendation. Then council will weigh the criteria accordingly. for the application which mirrors the criteria in your current code for an application for an exemption from competition so it is very closely mirroring your current code and what you can do if a person is approved for direct negotiation at that point then they will directly negotiate with the And that means without, you know, without any other or alternative options for a court that no other applicants will be no other lease applications would be accepted that direct negotiation would go forward. And that does not necessarily mean that Council would approve a ultimately approve the lease either that's important to note the terms and conditions of the lease would still come before Council for approval. But what this basically does is take the application for the exemption from competitive bidding and it allows for a very similar process mirroring the criteria. But it does so by non-code ordinance because that application period has already passed as to other leases. Does anybody have any questions? yeah what is the difference in the in the outcome of non-coordinate this ordinance versus resolution 038 what is what is the benefit of one or the other so if and it really depends on your point of view regarding the benefit but the way this works it's an application for direct negotiation so fit grant if it's granted it means that the city will be negotiating and going through that process with a single incumbent leaseholder or subleaseholder. The resolution, all that really does is it replaces your land allocation plan to specify that you will not be using competitive bidding. You will be using the lease application process. And then it falls under your regular code. What that means is if you have an applicant who has a lease application ready to go and the resolution passes tonight, they would presumably submit that lease application, and it would go through the review process with the administration. They will bring recommendations to council. The risk, so when we talk about benefits, you know, the risk is that somebody else will submit a lease application. You'll get more than one lease application. for that property and one might see that as a risk one might see that as a benefit right but those applications will be when you have two lease applications your code already anticipates the process so when you have two lease applications the city manager will consider both lease applications based on the criteria in the code and determine which one is most advantageous to the city If both lease applications appear to be equally advantageous to the city, then the lease application submitted first will be recommended for approval. So that's sort of the different process so in reality, the least application process under the resolution could actually be a lot faster than the order the. Application for direct negotiation under the ornaments so you know that's that timing really is dependent upon the submission of the least applications.

Can I ask a question?

No. And Councilmember Pinchot, one thing I want to say, because I did realize it's probably best to ground my answer in your own code. Under Whittier Municipal Code 210-040C, it says, if the Council determines that a Councilmember, I'm sorry, if the Council determines that a Councilmember has a substantial financial interest, the Councilmember shall not participate in the discussion of the matter. or vote on the matter. So it's expressly in the language of your code. I do think you can absolutely participate as a member of the public despite this comment regarding your role as council member. It is not for this council to limit you as a member of the public.

Ms. Wilden, yes.

I just want to add on to one of Holly's explanations. when you're talking about the different processes. I would just like to say that the way that I read the code as it sits right now, I would bring whatever application came. And yes, the first one that would come in, you know, if there's one turned in and then an hour later, they would still, the thing that your administration would do is just make sure that everything is in there, right? You meet all the criteria. And if you didn't meet the criteria, we as administration will reach out to you and say, we're missing this piece. But at the same time, it's rolling. It's going and it's moving from the minute that it gets dropped off to make it to the next council meeting. But it's been my, me in general, I bring it all forward. And I know that that's something like the council, You know, that's just why we brought all the resolutions as separate. So in my mind, it would be how they come in. If they came in on the same day at the same time, you know, turned in, we would still, it wouldn't, for me, I would say, okay, these all meet the criteria. You as a council need to determine. Who do you want to do the lease for if it was for one? That's how I would review that aspect of things because I have a worry that there are leaseholders that not even in this situation, there are leaseholders that believe that You know, the final say falls onto administration. We're only reviewing to make sure that you meet those criteria. And then, yes, I can make a recommendation on every single one. I can bring them all to the council. But just know that I'm only looking at making sure you meet the criteria.

Yes, but if there are two, your city manager is obligated under your code to say which one is most, make a recommendation based on the one that's most advantageous, which may not be a comfortable situation, but it won't be one that city manager Wilde will have to weather. But I do think city manager Wilde makes an excellent point, which is just remembering your lease application process is a rolling one. That's what was intended with the land allocation plan, meaning A lease application process is not a competitive bidding process. Even though we have a scenario of how to compare or how to make a decision when you have two lease applications, there will often be situations where you just have one lease application. And your city manager will not be holding that lease application back for a period of time your code wouldn't have, for example, and this is under your land allocation plan once you go through that process. This is also under the resolution, you know, but what you wouldn't what you don't have is we are accepting applications up until October 1st every and we will you know this is an open and this is what we expect that's an RFP process so this is just there'll be a notice saying that we are accepting lease applications on these parcels and then these applications will be received and processed you know and that just and I just want to emphasize that really actually for going forward once we get through this you know and when and when the reasons for suspending the land allocation plan have been resolved council will be going through that process again so it's important to start thinking about that process but as far as this ordinance goes this and again this is just an application for direct negotiation which allows for Council to decide with recommendations by the city manager regarding whether or not the criteria is in place that justify direct negotiation because. Under the Equal Protection Clause of the Alaska and the US Constitution, but predominantly the Alaska Constitution, which is more protective, we have to have, councils have to have a reason, they have to have a legitimate government purpose to treat different businesses differently. As I stated in the last meeting, a long-standing business that is operating an incumbent leaseholder that meets certain criteria, that's in compliance, that does all of those things, council may favor that leaseholder. They may decide that direct negotiations is warranted. That is legal. they will find that that serves a legitimate government purpose. But to do that, counsel must absolutely go through a consideration of criteria. That's what the courts are looking for, a process, so that they know that you made that decision consciously and it was in furtherance of a legitimate government purpose. And so this ordinance ensures that if counsel does want to do that and create that application for direct negotiation, it does it lawfully.

Thank you, Miss Wells. Is there any further discussion? Miss Long.

Thank you. I'm going to try to say this as clearly as I possibly can. So I have a few notes. I'm going to try not to read them verbatim. But obviously, this has been you know, many months and lots of conversations and lots of back and forth. And it was actually something that Mr. Denmark said a few meetings ago that has really stuck out to me. He said that no one could have known what Whittier would become. And I really believe that. And I think that it's wild and crazy and amazing that so many people came here before the guarantee that there would be success. So obviously, we really want to make this equitable and fair for everybody. I feel like I've done my best this busy summer to try to talk to as many people or at least listen to as many people as possible. And I'm actually wondering, I'm thinking back to some of the edits to the code that Mr. Pankush had worked with and that a lot of businesses were on board with some of those edits. But I'm just thinking, is there any way that anyone would want to consider... Having the, if the resolution passed that those businesses, these leases that are up now, those business owners, obviously they could put in their application tomorrow, but we could revisit some of those edits after the first of the year.

I will have to say that I did have a conversation with Ms. Sloan yesterday. I do with most of the council members. And so she brought this question to me. I... said that I did not see a reason why administration couldn't bring back a form of that or that ordinance to change the code that had failed at the last meeting and you know the ability to make sure that it would go into effect by January 1. I mean, we would be able to do that and still use the code that Mr. Pencush and work off of that one. And I, you know, I wasn't able to talk to you, Holly, but that was, you know, I told her to go ahead and ask because we should be able to get some type of answer from you if we are able to do that or they're able to help direct us to do that type of thing.

The easiest thing would be just to put a different number on it. Same sponsor. If Council Member Penkush is okay with that, you could co-sponsor it to create. But you would want a different ordinance number. I don't think you'd need legal review unless you're changing anything from what was already proposed. And then I think it would be ready to go. So it's a pretty easy thing to do. Or you could have administration sponsor it or, you know, but I basically, yes, that's fine to do. And you can do it when and whenever you deem appropriate. The one thing we watch for and we'll talk about if this ever happens is where you have an ordinance just getting recreated and put back over and over and over again and council rejecting it. But that's not the case that that's before council. So it's your legislation as council members. You can certainly bring it again.

Thank you. I was just trying to find an answer that's best for everybody and fair for everybody. And yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Sloan. Any other questions or discussion? Can... Questions? Can we relax the rules to allow the public to ask a question? Any objection? Miss Bender?

Thank you. Holly, you said that actually by accepting the resolution, it would go faster. And can you just explain that? I mean, as the leaseholders, the people that need to be ready to give this, I don't know, can you explain that?

Mayor? may i address the go ahead okay um because the the ordinance is an application for direct negotiation in order to determine if direct negotiation is appropriate each parcel applying for direct negotiation has to go through criteria consideration and then council a recommendation by the city manager one way or the other and then council's consideration of that criteria regarding whether or not it's appropriate to directly negotiate that's the same model as the application for exemption from competition currently in the code. And that model is required by law because we need process before we allow for direct negotiation. The resolution just says we're not doing competitive bid, we're doing lease applications. And then I believe it requires a notice to be placed on the website by the city manager, by the city, which says these applications are being accepted on these properties, which creates the land allocation plan piece, meaning anybody can submit an application tomorrow and the city manager would consider that application and be coming to council and i you know i don't know that there's a direct but it's rolling so it's not they're not waiting for additional applications they're making consideration on the applications in front of them so that's why i say it's faster i think because it's one less criteria procedure so you don't have to wait 20 days to get all the applications in yeah and and and as holly had said i'm sorry mary am i allowed to

As Holly, Ms. Wells had just said, that rolling process, it gets us at a faster pace to the next meeting when the negotiation side of things, we could miss like one or two meetings in the process of us doing the reviewing, coming back and forth, making sure. And so it is a much faster process. It's turned in, we're doing the criteria and we're getting it ready for the next council meeting.

Thank you very much for this explanation. I really appreciate it. It has cleared things up a lot. And this is what we've been saying all along. If we could have been sitting down at a table and talking about this, the angst, the anxiety, the tempers, the pure anger, we could have resolved this. We could have been sitting at a table and talking about this and getting these answers face to face. Can we please start working that way? Can we please? I am asking, really seriously asking, thank you very much for this clarification and I feel much better.

All right. Seeing no further discussion, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll on this non-code ordinance?

Putting on the motion to adopt non-code ordinance 2026-004 exempting incumbent leaseholders and sub-lessees of city property interests from Whittier Municipal Code 3.38.480 and adopting an application process that allows such lessees and sub-lessees to apply for direct negotiation of a lease of a new lease with the city on the same property leased or subleased by applicants so long as the lease or sublease expired or will expire in 2026 and the application is received within 14 days of the effective date of this ordinance. Mr. Pincush.

Yes.

Mr. Wagner.

Yes.

Mrs. Loan. No. Mrs. Borg. No. Mr. Denmark abstains. Mayor Shen abstains. The motion fails two to two. And non-code ordinance 2026-004 is not adopted.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Okay, next we are moving into our resolutions. Madam Clerk, can you clarify? Was item 8 on the consent agenda? I don't have it on my agenda.

Yes. The introduction of non-code ordinance 2026-006 was part of the consent agenda. And then there's also the public hearing for it as it is an emergency ordinance or an ordinance of an emergency nature.

So we need to open up a public hearing even though it's on the consent agenda?

Yes, the only thing that was on consent was the introduction part. Okay. And then because it's an emergency ordinance, we are able to have the introduction and the public hearing in the same meeting.

Okay, thank you for that clarification. So Okay, so Sorry, this is new for me. I'm opening up public hearing for Ordinance 2026006 at 830. Madam Clerk, has anyone signed in at this time?

No one has signed in.

Okay, thank you. Is anyone in the audience who cares to speak on Ordinance 2026-006? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to close public hearing at 831 for ordinance 2026-006 at 831. Okay, if it's on the consent agenda, we're done.

Only the introduction was on the consent agenda, but the actual adoption of the ordinance is still on the table. Because normally, we'd have a meeting where we introduce it, and then at a following meeting, we'd do the public hearing. But in this case, because it's an emergency ordinance, we can do both. So you've done the first step by consent, and now we're on to the public hearing. Apologies.

It's my first time. Okay, so we have ordinance for adoption non code ordinance 2026 dash 006 non code ordinance authorizing the purchase and installation of a chain link fence surrounding Harvard dumpsters from Maseley fence LLC in an amount not to exceed $9,721 and 99 cents and appropriating funds. Is there a motion and second to pass ordinance 2026 dash 006?

I'll make the motion. Mayor Mrakas, i'll second it.

Mayor Mrakas, staff report. Mayor Mrakas, or additional discussion.

City Council Chambers, Mayor i'd like the harbor master to go ahead and give the staff report and then before you go into discussion, we would like to add some amendments to this.

Pretty much speaks for itself. We're trying to clean up the harbor area, one. Two, try to limit access to the bears getting into the larger dumpster that we're using. This is just around. This is going to be located to the east of the harbor store where the cardboard and the large 15-yard dumpster are currently located. Due to some dig-safe conditions, issues. We can't go. I wanted to make it the entire space so we could get the cardboard and the trash dumpster in there, but we just don't have the space for it. So we pared it down a little bit. That's why you see a lower cost over what I had spoke about during the last meeting. So we're looking at a 16 foot wide by 30 foot deep space that will have privacy fence slats in it that you just, you know, you won't see it and we can keep the bears out. Now that's the plan.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Board. And these amendments that you're offering?

Yes. So this is a long one, so everyone buckle up. The motion would be to amend non-code ordinance 2026-000 as follows. Number one, add the word emergency before ordinance on line seven. Number two, amend the title of the ordinance to A, add an N after A. And add the word emergency after an and before the word ordinance on line nine. B, add the words to address an emergency public hazard created by increased Bayer presence in Whittier after the word funds on line 12. Number three, remove the fourth whereas clause and add two whereas clauses that read as follows.

Not this part.

Is there a motion in second? No, not done.

Not even close. Whereas the city manager has declared and city council confirms that an emergency exists regarding the increase of bear presence in the city, necessitating the approval of emergency purchase of fencing. And whereas steps have been taken by harbor staff to solicit competing quotes from three reputable companies with a recommendation to award the contract to the lowest bidder. Number four, amend section one to add an N after A and to the word emergency before the word non-code on line 37 and five to amend section four to add the words and shall be effective for 60 days after the word adoption on line 49. That concludes the proposed amendment.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Is there a motion and a second? that question or emotion.

I think I think Mr. Pinker made the most and I'll second it.

Motion. Motion. Yeah.

Yes.

Okay. Mr. Pinker makes the motion. Mr. Wagner seconds the motion.

Any further discussion? Questions? Mr. Denmark?

Yeah, from discussing last meeting, I thought that this is the large dumpster next to the harbor store that we're talking about fencing in.

Correct.

What I got from the last discussion was a hard top on that dumpster took care of the problem.

That has, Alaska Waste cannot guarantee a hardtop dumpster every time they take that one out. They've only got a handful of them, so I can't always guarantee. And I've told them that if you can't bring me back a hardtop, don't bring me one. And we got lucky this last week. So we literally wait for the guy to show up Friday morning and we make sure he's bringing that one back. So if we had this enclosure, we would be able to be a little more flexible in our trash removal.

Yeah, Mr. Pincush.

How is, describe this fence, how it's going to keep a bear out. Is it going to have a top on it? I mean, bears climb all over everything. I'm not a bear.

You know, I mean, I just, I'm trying to do the best we can with what we got.

Did we not also discuss about us acquiring a hard top? We need two of them, right?

I have reached out to several companies. We're going to have to do an RFP. So I have reached out to two different companies. Um, and, uh, just with our, with our procedures that we do our procurement, I'll have to do an RFP. So we probably won't see our top dumpsters till next year. It'll take that long.

I guess with a fence, give us the option to like electrify the top edge, take care of the climbing part. I saw it in Kodiak.

I'm doing the best I can with what we got. I mean, I'm not a trash guy, right? I'm a harbor master trying to make the waterfront a little safer. I'm open to suggestions. Let's talk about it. I mean, I'm open to suggestions.

I guess another, is this the answer? I mean, will a chain link fence preclude a black bear from from getting to that dumpster with a soft top on it?

I can't give you an affirmative 100% answer, no. I mean, it's...

I think there's, I can see it's like, it's really hard to make any guarantees when it come into wildlife, but it is, I feel like I've seen it, this practice, this technique of fencing things in to keep wildlife out, like used in other places like landfills and, um,

dumpsters I've seen in my travels around Alaska but again I don't know I might add that it all relies on people actually closing the gate after they use it closing the lid after they use it I mean people are leaving the hard tops open it's the people is the problem so

I guess I just say it does. I don't think it'll stop bear. I'll give you examples. Two, two years ago, there was, there were two bears down on the, on the docks about 11 o'clock at night. One of them was about at the, almost at the very top of a sailboat's mast just for something to do. So that's the first came to mind. So I understand that it's short term fix, but, um, and it's not a lot of money, but I don't, I don't think it'll be. If bears want in there, they're going to get in there. It's that simple.

All right. Let's put to a vote here, unless there's other questions or comments.

Madam Clerk, would you?

We're still on amendments.

Still on the amendment, correct. Ready to vote on the amendment? Okay.

Please call the roll for the amendments.

Voting on the motion to amend non-code ordinance 2026-006, as previously stated, Mr. Pincush.

Yes.

Mr. Wagner.

Yes.

Mrs. Lone. Yes. Mrs. Borg.

Yes.

Mr. Denmark.

Yes.

Mayor Shen.

Yes.

The motion passes and ordinance 2026-006 is so amended. Returning again to the discussion of non-code ordinance 2026-006 as amended.

Any additional discussion or questions?

I have a comment.

Yeah, go ahead, Mr. Wagner.

So maybe it would behoove somebody to give a call to the conservation center. They have a lot of experience with electrified fences and what would work. And I can't remember who brought it up, but yeah, just to run at least just one view. I think it was you, Mr. Mayor, um, to run a wire around the top, um, just to keep it from climbing over. Um, it's a fairly simple setup. I worked on a farm as a kid, but anyway, I also want to point out what Dave said. Uh, you can't fix stupid. So, they're not going to close the door, nothing's going to work.

That's a really good point. I guess they do keep their bears in with a fence. All right. Seeing no further discussion, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes. Apologies, just transcribing the new title so that I don't say it wrong. Voting on the motion to adopt Emergency Ordinance 2026-006, authorizing the purchase and installation of chain link fencing surrounding harbor dumpsters from Mazie Fence LLC in an amount not to exceed $9,721.99 and appropriating funds to address an emergency public hazard created by increased bear presence in Whittier. As amended. Mrs. Lone. Yes. Mrs. Borg.

Yes.

Mr. Pincush.

No.

Mr. Denmark.

A reluctant yes based on inadequate information.

Mr. Wagner.

I concur, yes.

Ninger Shen.

Yes.

The motion passes 5-1. And emergency ordinance 2026-006 is adopted. As amended.

Up next, we have resolutions.

Mr. Mayor, may I make one statement because I failed to read out this first resolution that was approved by consent agenda.

Of course, go ahead.

So also on the consent agenda was resolution that was approved on consent agenda was resolution 2026-037 appointing the city election officials for the October 6, 2026 general election, setting the date for counting absentee ballots and establishing election official compensation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. We have resolution 2026-038, declaring certain city property interests available for lease, rejecting competitive bidding for those property interests, adopting the lease application process for those property interests, and establishing criteria for review of lease applications on these properties. Is there a motion and a second to approve resolution 2026?

I'll make that motion. I will second.

And thank you. Is there a staff report?

Mayor, this resolution was created by Council Member Borg and legal. I think that they would be the best to give the agenda or the staff report.

Go ahead, Ms. Borg.

So I want to say something before we vote tonight. This has never been personal for me. It's been about fairness, consistency, and whether the rules of the city apply equally to everyone. Over the last few weeks, I've watched this issue become much bigger than a disagreement over leases. I've watched members of council be summoned from their seats from members of the audience with a snap of a finger. I've had fellow council members suggest that if I supported one measure, they could help me secure votes for another measure I supported. And I watched the conversation move further and further away from the simple question we should have been asking from the beginning. Are we treating everyone fairly? We were not elected to make deals with one another. We were not elected to count votes in hallways, trade support for one another's issues in exchange for another. And we certainly were not elected to take the direction from the audience based on who can snap their fingers the loudest. We were elected to sit in these seats, read the information in front of us, listen to our administration and legal counsel, follow our code, and make decisions that are in the best interest of the entire city of Whittier. There are people in this community who may never come to a council meeting. They may never stand at this podium. They may never call us, corner us in a hallway, or demand our attention. They still deserve exactly the same consideration as the people who do. This is what fairness means. If our rules need to be changed, then let's change them thoughtfully and transparently for everyone going forward. But I will not support changing the rules simply because the existing rules became inconvenient or for a particular situation or particular people. And I will not trade my vote. My seat is not controlled by the loudest voice in this room. I was elected to exercise my own judgment and that is exactly what I intend to do. people may disagree with me they may be angry with me they may even take my refusal refusal to go along personally but disagreement does not change my responsibility when this vote is over every one of us should be able to explain our decision to any resident in whittier not just the people who benefit from it for me the question is very simple if we cannot defend a decision as fair when the names are removed from it then we should not be making that decision This is the standard I am holding myself to tonight. And that is why I will vote the way I believe fairness, integrity, and my responsibility to this entire community require. I'm done.

Is there an attorney report to for further clarification on this resolution?

No, I mean, I would just say that we talked a lot about the resolution earlier and you're just looking at two procedures and two different options. Both of which are lawful and appropriate. It really depends on what works for the city council and this resolution provides. And I think we went through unless council needs me to go through sort of what that process looks like under the resolution. Again, I can definitely do that, but This serves to stand up the land allocation plan. It basically stands in the place of the land allocation plan by rejecting competitive bidding, selecting lease application process, and then providing for that process and updating that process a little bit in the terms just to ensure that the city manager's goal of bringing in and engaging with council on the lease applications is met. So that would get you all of those lease applications, which were comments I think that Council Member Borg wanted incorporated, as well as I think some comments from Council Member Wagner previously. Are there any questions on the warehouse clauses or any of the components of the resolution? Of course, I'm here to answer those.

Thank you, Holly. Ms. Long?

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify, because looking at this current lease application, this does not get rid of the scoring criteria, especially for existing businesses, right? That was in the code before? Okay, thank you.

And I just want to add, not only would we use those type of criteria, but I want everyone to know that if this resolution passes this evening, tomorrow morning, you can go right onto the website, get the application, fill it out, and get moving into the direction for us to help you with that rolling process. If anybody is interested or would like to reach out to administration, we'd happily help you and walk you through that process if it is passed this evening.

Seeing no further discussion, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Voting on the motion to approve Resolution 2026-038, declaring certain city property interests available for lease, rejecting competitive bidding for those property interests, adopting the lease application process for those property interests, and establishing criteria for review of lease applications on those properties. Mrs. Borg.

Yes.

Mrs. Sloan? Yes. Mr. Wagner?

Yes.

Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mr. Denmark abstains. Mayor Shen abstains. The motion passes 4-0. And Resolution 2026-038 is approved.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next resolution we have... Taking off consent agenda is Resolution 2026-039, authorizing up to $150,000 in city in-kind support and a $100,000 financial contribution to the nonprofit USS Ted Stevens Commissioning Committee to support commissioning events, the ship's crew and their families, public safety, community readiness, and community-wide activities associated with the commissioning. Is there a motion and a second to approve Resolution 2026-039? I'll make the motion.

I'll second it.

Can we get a staff report?

Yeah, Mayor, if I can, Mr. Denmark, are you okay with giving, let me say how we got here? Sure. Okay. I have been part of the Ted Stevens commissioning process since they came to visit Whittier. During that entire time, I as a city manager have tried to get additional funds to help the process. I really believe that this is a huge honor. And no point in time has the commissioning asked us for a donation, but I believe that as a city, being able to help possibly even with the local aspect of things. We do have a short window with businesses that may or may not be able to stay open, and we could possibly help with that. Or being able to support this community honor in Whittier I had attended some multiple meetings and while sitting in the back I heard a couple of things that made me question and was a little concerned, and that was one of them, and the biggest one was that I had heard that they might have to cancel or cut back some of the options that went to accrue to crew members. And and then for me and what I had said to Mr. Denmark when I called him and spoke to him about it is, you know, I think that this is a time for Whittier to put their best foot forward. We were chosen to because the fact that we do work together and we do these great things. And I just felt that if there was a way that we could help. make sure that the crew was able to move forward and have every event that they could possibly be and we could help. The in-kind donations gives us the ability to also help lessen the burden to the commission. But again, at no time was I ever asked by them to do this. I spoke to Mr. Denmark and asked him if he would be willing to help sponsor this after we had a long conversation about his business as well and the request that had gone out from the chamber earlier. seeing if businesses were going to stay open for the event. So that is why this resolution got brought forward.

Mayor, if I may. So, yes, as sponsor, after the aforementioned conversation with the city manager, I do think that this is a extremely positive event for Whittier. It is an honor for the city to be hosting this event. We have committed six figures into in-kind donations for support for this. And as for the considering a cash donation as well. My initial response to the city manager was in for a dime in for a dollar and I am for supporting this to some degree, not only with the in kind but a cash donation, but I do feel $100,000 is beyond the scope of the city to be able to support. I would support a smaller dollar amount, maybe 15,000-ish in the spirit of in for a dime, in for a dollar, but especially given our budget is falling behind in our reserve fund expectations, I would like to limit our cash exposure here to not the full extent of this resolution. Thank you.

Mr. Pincush.

I totally agree with Mr. Denmark. Looking at our finance report, it looks like right now our reserve goal, we are $2.6 million short out of a potential 3.8. So we're like 30% of what we have tried to do in $100,000. $100,000 plus 150 in kind, that's basically everybody's dividend check in this city. I'm willing to give up my dividend check, but I don't think everybody in the city is. And I think it's definitely excessive. And a question, and then how much do we do for fireworks? It used to be $10,000. Is it still?

It's $15,000.

Perfect amount. You came up with that? Yeah. So if you want to make that motion, I'll second it.

I would make a motion to amend this resolution. to limit the cash exposure to $15,000.

And I second that.

Do we have, can we have our finance director chime in on this, on the discussion?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't really think I have anything to add to the conversation. I think there are many reasons that your support for the military pays dividends to us, not the least of which is the discussions we've had about the potential for a future military museum. You know, just the exposure Whittier gets to having this many people come to our community and support the community. I do think it will generate additional revenues, not to the extent of $100,000, surely, but it's really a judgment call on the part of the council, but I think, for me, it really reflects Whittier's commitment to our military history and acknowledging that we are the community we are largely because of our military history and our support for the military. So it's a judgment call on the council's part. As far as the finances go, I've talked to council before about developing our plan for replenishing our fund balance. I'm not concerned about that. We'll be discussing that in upcoming budget meetings. And I think you will be less concerned about the situation with our fund balance after our budget discussions, but I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.

Ms. Sloan.

I was wondering if we could maybe relax the rules since we do have members of the committee here. I guess I was kind of wondering with this amount, like what you guys would do with it specifically if you had anything itemized out or anything like that.

Is there any objections to relaxing the rules? Any objections? Okay. Ms. Craig. Okay.

Thank you, Council. Very gracious of you to consider a donation. You have already donated quite a bit in kind with Harbormaster Borg, City Manager Wild, Fire Chief, and Andre on several of our meetings and a lot more to come in the next four weeks. It is an honor to... the Ted Stevens, we worked really, really hard to get the ship to come to Whittier, and we're very proud and excited. You know, we wear several hats around here, and we're just very i can speak for rep cop too we're very very excited to be bringing it to whittier as far as any any cash donation on top of the in-kind that you've been so graciously donating i would say definitely focus on events that we're having here the state of alaska has donated 100 000 to to put on post-commissioning reception, which is a unique reception. I've been to a couple commissionings in the last few years, and it was like, here's the commissioning. We were on base, usually hand you a box lunch and get you back on the bus. here we're going to stay after have tours and have a huge reception in the uh in the terminal that the state has put on that that reception is about 120 000 and we are um the state brought in a hundred so that could be you could sponsor with the state you know uh the post commissioning reception state of alaska and city of whittier you know um there was the commanding officers luncheon that's going to happen on tuesday at the terminal and that's for the crew uh uh that your vets here in whittier will be invited to that specifically um and of course some of our donors will be um able to come out and tour the ship that day. That reception, that's about 30,000. So you can kind of see, you know, and we would definitely be able to put your names on both of those. I mean, welcoming everyone to the city. Those are two things that are happening here that could be, you know, sponsored by you. And, um, anything else you know we've got some events in anchorage um i think uh tor wallen maybe you know at the the terminal i know that they've donated the uh so far uh we're working with them on the buses they're gonna be running the crew back and forth there will be You know, they have partners with that, so we're working on a price for that, running the crews in and out of here on a regular basis. So there's just a lot of expense. When we're all said and done, it's about $1.4 million that we've raised to put on the best commissioning the Navy's ever seen. So if you have any other questions.

You mentioned $100,000 from the state for the one event, but it's going to cost $120,000. Are you still short that $20,000?

The cash in the bank, but I just have a sponsor for that. Yeah. I think it's a perfect fit. The state of Alaska and the city of Whittier hosting that reception. Yeah.

Ms. Lund.

If say like the state of Alaska, you get a lot more donors and you end up with extra money, would the city get that back?

So apparently any additional money is going to go into an endowment for the life of the ship. That helps sailors when maybe they have family issues, they've got to get home. The Morale Welfare and Recreation Fund for the ship that throws their holiday parties or um and they'll actually be here the chiefs association takes care of that and they'll anything that um for them to raise money that day they'll be selling items they're the only ones on the dock that day selling items prior to the commissioning but um the plan would be for that if you felt like you needed to have that in an agreement with us we could do that but otherwise the additional money was going to go to the crew endowment thank you so much thank you

just in response to what you had to say here i would amend the previous motion to twenty thousand dollars if that would offer the city a privilege of being a co-sponsor with the state of with the state of alaska

Thank you. A second?

I already made eye contact with Chef. But I think that's very appropriate for the city and the state's budget versus our budget. We're still outdoing the state by a hundred times.

Actually, I just got on the usstedstevens.org committee. There is a website, usstedstevens.org. You have a very impressive list of supporters that you've gathered on here. Yes, there are already 11 supporters in the 100 plus. Yes. I might have maybe 12. I can count. Supporters in excess, who have supported in excess of $100,000. So that's very impressive. And thank you for bringing this ship to our town.

Yes, it's taken all of us. It's taken the whole state. It's taken the federal delegation to help us too. They wanted to do this in Norfolk. And we were like, we were all, you know, our motto was what would Ted do? And he won his ship here. So thank you. We'll see you all very soon.

Thank you. Other comments or discussion? Seeing no further discussion, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Voting on the motion to amend Resolution 2026-039 to limit the financial contribution to $20,000. Mr. Denmark?

Yes.

Mr. Pincush?

Yes.

Mr. Wagner?

No.

Mrs. Borg? Yes. Mrs. Lohn? No. No. Mayor Shen.

Yes.

The motion passes 4-2 and Resolution 2026-039 is so amended. Returning again to the motion to approve Resolution 2026-039 as amended.

Are we going to take any further comments?

Yes, we're going to have further comments and discussion and questions. Do you have questions, comments, Mr. Wagner?

Yes, I'm sorry. I'm having a problem unmuting. That was very confusing because it's not that I necessarily disagreed with um the previous motion it's that i don't know what the right number is this is a very strange situation when we're debating on how much money to give someone that's not asking for it this has got to be a first so i thought maybe the discussion should have been basically from all the council members based on discussion a report from jackie or cherie what the appropriate number may be. Again, I do not disagree so much with the 20,000. I don't know if that's the right number. I think we just should have discussed it more.

Mr. Pincush?

Here's something for you to consider, Tom. The state put in $100,000. We're putting $100,000 in cash and up to $150,000 of in-kind. And think about the budget, the city's budget versus the state's budget.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Any further questions or comments from the Council. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Muslim PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Right. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Seeing no further discussion. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Voting on the motion to approve Resolution 2026-039, authorizing up to $150,000 in in-kind support and a $20,000 financial contribution to the nonprofit USS Ted Stevens Commissioning Committee to support commissioning events, the ship's crew and their families, public safety, community readiness, and community-wide activities associated with the commissioning as amended. Mrs. Lone. Yes. Mrs. Borg?

Yes.

Mr. Wagner?

No.

Mr. Denmark?

Yes.

Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The motion passes 5-1 and Resolution 2026-039 is approved as amended. Mr. Mayor, could I request a five-minute recess?

Yes, let's have a recess. 10 minutes, please. 10 minutes.

10 minute recess, you say? Five minutes? Which one? Sorry.

10.

10 minute recess.

You can be in at 9.20. I'm going to resume our meeting here.

Got these guys.

Okay, everyone, we're going to start our meeting back up here. Up next, we have some resolutions. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Item 13 resolution 2026 dash 040 awarding a professional services contract for land appraisal services and appropriating funds. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Is there a motion and second. HAB-Jacques Juilland, Is that on consent. HAB-Masyn Moyer, I'll make that motion. And then we have a second resolution 2026 zero four zero four zero awarding professional services contract for land appraisal services and appropriating funds. We have a staff report.

Yes, mayor. The city issued a request for proposals to obtain professional real property appraisal services for city owned and city managed properties in Whittier. The procurement supports the city's ongoing efforts to administer the lease, the municipal lease profile and obtain current valuations information needed for lease administration activities, including lease renewals, assignments, transfers, rent revenues, amendments, and other related actions. The following city procurement process, Blacksmith, Berthard and Carlson LLC was selected to provide the requested appraisal services. The proposed contract includes appraisal services of the parcels identified in the RFP and established in pricing for additional appraisals, assignments and may be requested by the city in the future. We did have two applicants that did put in for the RFP, and Blacksmith, Benthard, and Carlson scored the highest.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, in this case, we also need to propose an amendment as we did not specify the amount in the title of the resolution. So this amendment would read, amend resolution 2026-040, to insert in an amount not to exceed $89,900 in line nine after the word services.

Is there a motion for that?

I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

Any further discussion on that amendment? I'm saying there was an engine 89,000 89,900. Okay. So we just need it. We have in session two there. But so we also need it in the course. Oh, no further discussion. Let's Madam clerk, please call the roll.

Voting on the motion to amend Resolution 2026-040 to insert in an amount not to exceed $89,900 in line 9 after the word services. Mr. Pincush.

Yes.

Mrs. Lone. Yes. Mr. Denmark. Mr. Wagner. Mr. Wagner. Mr. Wagner.

Sorry, yes. My phone froze.

Thank you. Mrs. Borg? Yes. Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The motion passes and Resolution 2026-040 is amended. Returning again to the motion to approve Resolution 2026-040 as amended.

Is there any further discussion on this resolution? These land appraisal services, this is an every year thing, or is this going to be additional lands that we're looking at appraising here?

This will be based on what the leases say. Many of the leases are on a five-year cycle. Some are on a three-year cycle. It varies widely. This would be the initial... um appraisal would be for all of the leases to begin and then from there on out we would follow what whatever the lease says so yes this contract is for additional years but the amount will be different because it won't be every lease all at the same time thank you all right seeing no further discussion madam quickly please call the roll Voting on the motion to approve Resolution 2026-040, awarding a professional services contract for land appraisal services in an amount not to exceed $89,900 and appropriating funds as amended. Mrs. Borg?

Yes.

Mr. Denmark? Yes. Mr. Wagner?

Yes.

Mrs. Lohn? Yes. Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The motion passes and Resolution 2026-040 is approved.

Next resolution. Resolution 2026-041. Authorizing the City Manager to execute a contract to engineer and install playground equipment at Whittier Falls Park in an amount not to exceed $80,000 and appropriating funds. We have a motion and a second.

I will make that motion. I'll second it.

Thank you. Do we have a staff report?

Yes, Mayor. As you know, for over 15 years, a priority for the council has been the 35% design of the Whittier Falls Park. Over the last couple of years, we have purchased by the request of council playground equipment, and we have not been able to place that playground equipment. This is for the engineering and the placement, which has to be certified to be covered by our city's insurance. This will put in the three pieces that we have as one is a slide, a climbing aspect, and two swings that are attached to it. It will be placed up at the Whittier Falls Park. where we're clearing and hydro seeding it that it will be placed as in the same location that was in the 35 percent design the thought process behind moving forward and making sure we start building your park as as you've asked for for many years we're just laying out the footprint but we do need to get the playground equipment into the ground the longer we wait we lose the ability to have it still covered because there's a certain time frame For inspections and everything.

OK, any questions or discussion items?

Mr Mayor, this is Tom. I have a question.

Go ahead Mr Wagner.

This may have been discussed in prior meetings, but could we get a brief outline on what? The equipment is exactly what's what's what do we have?

So four years ago, the previous administration had directed me to go down and teach a class to the school about planning. At that point, we had thought that it would be really great because we knew that you had this plan of 35% for this design. So we picked about, 10 different types of playground equipment and at that event at the school we gave every kid stickers to pick which one to your bounce two years forward we were directed to buy playground equipment and We were able to purchase the exact playground equipment that the kids had put the stickers on and that playground equipment Um, pardon it, but it, the playground equipment is called the tsunami slide and it has a large slide on it with two swing sets and a climbing aspect in a little overlook. And then I, the, you have a two seater additional swing set that has to be placed by engineer.

Okay, thanks for that. I'm sorry, this is so hard for me to swallow, spending $80,000 to put in a playground. I grew up in the 70s. We built it out of cardboard and boxes. The more dangerous it was, the better.

Well Mister Wagner I totally agree with you and I I like that aspect you are not covered as a kid that's playing in the 70's and this $80,000 not only does the engineering it it creates the you know you have to first slide a slide you have to have a 3 inch fall radius which means you have to have 3 inches of stuff underneath them when the kid falls for a swing set It's four and a half to six inches. So it's not just the engineering. It's the materials that have to go around this play equipment that keeps us into and staying out of the liability and allows us to have even our parks included in insurance.

No, I know. Thanks, Jackie. I understand. It's just, God, that's a lot of money.

Any further questions?

Mr. Denmark. I'm going to avoid the question and just make a comment. This from where this conversation started three years ago, which was basically a swing set at the existing city park. And the number being bandied about at that time was $30,000, which seemed excessive for a swing set then. And there was significant conversation about, amongst current members of this council, not only about the dollar amount, but about where the swing set would go. The conversations then morphed to, well, we would put a swing set up at the new park and also make improvements at the existing park where the kids are playing. And rather than opening up any old cans of worms here i'm just going to offer i'm glad to see that we are doing something for the children in whittier now thank you any further discussion seeing none madam clerk will you please call the roll

Voting on the motion to approve Resolution 2026-041, authorizing the City Manager to execute a contract to engineer and install playground equipment at Whittier Falls Park in an amount not to exceed $80,000 and appropriating funds. Mrs. Loan? Yes. Mrs. Borg? Yes. Mr. Wagner?

Yes, and thank you.

Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mr. Denmark?

Yes.

Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The motion passes and resolution 2026-041 is approved.

Okay.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Up next, we have other new business. We have the upcoming Alaska Municipal League Annual Conference on December 7th to the 11th. Fellow councillors, be there or be square. I highly encourage going to this conference. That's a great place to network, meet people from other communities and see what they're doing and I guess share your successes and your challenges and strategize and come up with explosive new ideas and stuff.

Ms. Weil, is there anything?

want to add for the annual conference i know that we have long-standing council members and new council members and i can't stress enough uh how important it is to be able to attend these type of conferences uh you'll get to sit with a bunch of your peers as well as um have a lot of very interested as interesting speakers that um vary from anywhere from taxes to you know code and different things. The last couple of times I've gone, I've been happy enough to have Victor come and you can ask him. I do ask that we all attend different classes and then we come back together and talk about those classes. But it is a really good opportunity, especially for the newer council members. They have a new council member training that is extremely helpful. It's a two-day class, and then you go into the rest of the conference. But I believe, Victor, you attended your first year, the newly elected official training?

Yes.

Mr. Mayor, can I add one thing?

Go ahead.

It would be amazing if council members could let us know by the end of early bird registration, which is September 1st, so we could register you for the conference. If not, absolutely understandable, but we just would like to take advantage of the discounted pricing and knowing by September 1st if you'd like to attend and if it would be for both days of the regular conference and or the...

uh new or returning um elected official training that would be great okay thank you any questions all right next item we have is the oscar marine highway system winter ferry schedule letter of support Do we have a staff report on this?

I'm sorry, Mayor. Did you just want me to go over what this letter entails?

I think just a synopsis. I think just so that people know what is potentially going to be happening with our ferry schedule and its potential impacts.

Okay. We received a letter. Under this proposed schedule, Prince William Sound would be without ferry service from October 1st to March 6th. leaving the region without Alaska Marine Highway services for virtually the entire winter. This proposal once again places a disproportionate share of the statewide service reductions in a single region. Um, we've been asked as well as, um, multiple agencies to possibly even write a letter of concern, but, um, recognize that the impact is also would affect us. And they're wondering if we, um, if they're the, um, Prince William sound is wondering if we could deploy the LeConte or the Tessamina for three months of service in Prince William Sound for twice weekly service to Whittier. Eliminating services for the villages, place an undue burden on the communities that the system has designed to service. I think that we as a city should try to do everything that we can, write a letter of support, do a resolution in support. so that we can get those out. I would gladly help write the letter if approval for the mayor to sign the letter in honor of the council, whichever you seem, if you do agree for us to be able to support getting it back here.

Would a resolution be more powerful than a letter?

I honestly think you should do both. You should write a letter and slap a resolution into it.

I would make a motion for that. Or recommendation or whatever. We'll basically get it done. Okay.

She's writing it.

So how does this sound motion to direct the city manager to draft a resolution and letter in support of winter fairy services.

That work. Excellent.

Any further questions or discussion on this. Okay. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Voting on the motion to direct the city manager to draft a resolution and letter in support of winter ferry services. Mr. Denmark. Mrs. Lone. Yes. Mr. Pinkish.

Yes.

Mr. Wagner.

Yes.

Mrs. Borg. Yes. Mayor Shen.

Yes.

The motion passes and the city manager is so directed.

all right thank you madam clerk next we have council comments mr pincush actually rather than comments i got a couple questions for the shelby the city clerk so the if you're applying for a commission seat your application has a financial disclosure attached to you print it out you get all of it And today I looked up and it looked like it was posted yesterday. If you're doing a write-in you have a write-in application and the financial disclosure. Prior to that, if you were applying for the seat before the deadline, where did you, was the financial disclosure right there with the application or was it separate?

No, it was not. Most years, the clerk ensures that the disclosure of financial interest is included in the packet for the nominations. The cover letter does outline what's required in code to be submitted. The cover letter still said that the disclosure was required, but I, the city clerk, failed to attach the disclosure to the form to make it easy for everyone to complete both forms.

Okay. And the second question is, my understanding is that if you want to appeal the decision made to not approve a packet, that the appeal process takes longer. The appeal process is longer than the answer of the appeal would be after the election is over. Is that correct?

Could not guarantee what the timeline would be, but based on other independent hearing officer procedures that I've been a party to in the past, yeah, it would take several weeks, if not a couple of months to get through the appeal process. And I'm not sure how you could expedite that to be before the printing of the ballots, which would be next week.

City Council Chambers, Council Member pincush I think it's also worth noting, though, rather or not an appeal process plies when there's an express requirement in the code regarding what must be completed. City Council Chambers, or not completed, and that is not completed, that is different than say an assessment of qualifications or meaning qualification so it's just something to. note it's a different you know if we have something that says you must be a us citizen or you must be a resident and that that is not met then an appeal doesn't help you get somewhere if we have a deadline for a form and it must be completed by a deadline and then that deadline is not a met that is not met the appeal process doesn't afford a discretionary answer to that process so

To answer your question.

Okay.

Other council comments, Mr. Wagner. Oh, go ahead. Mr. Mr. Denmark.

Is there any recourse for that person who filed that position at this time?

Yes, they can apply to be a write-in candidate.

that's it yes thank you all right other council comments from online

Okay.

I have a council council comments, um, regarding our resolution to supporting the USS Ted Stevens commissioning committee. Um, you know, we, as the city council of, um, in a resolution to commit in kind, donate resources and, uh, financial contribution to the commissioning. However, um, I guess our community, you know, I'm calling upon the community that it doesn't have to stop there. Community members are welcome to and the community members already are contributing to the commissioning of the USS Ted Stevens in Whittier. And if you are curious how to do that and don't know how to do it, I encourage you to go to usstedstevens.org. and in there is all the information about the commissioning that shows your current supporters the news and contact information for the committee and people are as an ordinary citizen you are welcome to contact them quick search ways that ordinary citizens can help out is uh to join the committee. You can make a donation, however small. It all counts. It all helps. You can host the sailors. You can volunteer locally for the event and then attending the event as well, showing your support there. We have The crew is going to be here, and with our world, these young men and women, they sign up to crew these ships for the Navy and potentially be going into very dangerous situations on our nation's behalf. And we owe it to them to find whatever way in our own way to support them. So I want to put that out there. Thank you.

I was at a racetrack once and you could buy tickets to drive that race car. If they would have sold tickets to drive that ship, I would have spent a lot of money.

Okay. Thank you. If there are no further council comments, I'm going to open up for a citizen's discussion. And time is limited to five minutes per speaker on any subject over which the Council has control. Again, this is not a time for dialogue. Rather, it is a time for citizens to speak and the Council to listen. Madam Clerk, do you have anybody signed up for citizen comments?

Yes. First, we have Cly Holland.

Mr. Holland. Thanks for being here. I know there's a lot of stuff going on.

Yeah, good evening. Very recently. Good to see you. I tried sneaking in early on the agenda. The clerk and I had something going on where I almost got lucky, but I am always appreciative of being here and learning about what's going on in the community. I am Kai Holland. I'm a House District 9 rep for this area in the state legislature. I had just a couple things I wanted to update you on tonight. First off, just touching on the ferry schedule a moment ago, I want to come back to some work that I did earlier in the session amending our transit, the transportation planning statutes to include the ferry system as a part of the transit system in this state. It was not included in transit, and that bill was vetoed, so it remains still an issue that I think is important for our state to recognize that the ferry system is essential transit infrastructure for our state. So I do intend to continue to advocate for that change to the transit and transportation planning statutes in the next legislature, assuming we come up with the same or similar bill to try again with that one, which that was sponsored last time by Representative Mina, and I'm expecting she's going to bring it back. So we'll continue to try and advocate for a higher level of priority and awareness of how important the ferry system is to this area. On the election side of things, I won't belabor that other than to say that if there are folks that are experiencing trouble with elections, with getting their names back on the active voter roll or any of the other issues that we've been going through in the last month, I know a number of people have reached out to our office. I just would encourage people to contact our office or me if there's any problems that people are having and doing that. did not imagine when I started this role I was going to be one of the election folks doing this work, but it's become necessary to ensure that our access to elections is preserved for everybody, and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to do that. On the energy front, I just want to note that the situation in Whittier has brought a really fine of the discussion going on in the Cook Inlet region that we've been talking about last two or three weeks about do we have enough gas? Are we going to run out in the wintertime? What's going to happen? And what's happened here, I think, has really brought to a keen point of awareness of just how critical and how relatively fragile our gas infrastructure capability is. that as it turns out, we were planning and we'll have a hearing tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Legislative Information Office. It's a joint hearing by House resources and Senate resources to talk about the Cook Inlet supply, and in particular to talk about, you know, do we have enough gas? Are we at risk of running out of gas and all of a sudden finding us without gas. I think what's happened here is bringing a level of importance to that discussion and a level of attention to ensuring that there's greater work done to look at this issue long term because of, unfortunately, what you're having to work through now, where you're seeing in a very real sense what has been talked about hypothetically as this could happen and In Anchorage, we've kind of talked about it as, you know, is this just scare tactics or is this, you know, something that could really happen someday? Well, someday, unfortunately, here has happened. And so I do appreciate we've been able to work with the Forest Service and coordinating with Senator Giesel and others and including NSTAR on the current situation. So if there is anything we can do, please let me know. So again, the resources meeting, you can... Also, attend in person if you'd like to tomorrow at 2 p.m. If you'd like to hear more, this will have the RCA, the Alaska Energy Authority. It'll have DNR. It'll be a very interesting meeting, I think, if you're interested in gas supply issues, and obviously now you are living it. You can also, though, watch it remotely on K2OO on the Gavel Alaska. It'll be on two. It'll be streamed live, and it'll be recorded there if you want to come back later and look at it. So I would encourage you to consider that tomorrow on gas-related issues. And then the last thing, I guess, for the moment that I just want to highlight is I've, you know, become more aware of the portage landslide issue with the lake and some events that were being planned in the baggage pod visitor center that are now being questioned because of that. So, you know, certainly the Barry Arm situation you've already been kind of living with on this side. is now complicated by what's going on the backside of the tunnel and whatnot. So as you learn more about that, I am going to be doing some more work on looking at the environmental hazards that our communities are exposed to, and what are we doing to not only be ready to respond after they happen, as we've had to do with some of the major storms, but I really want to learn more about what are we doing to look at these hazards as they begin, are identified, and taking some action to try and mitigate the impact of that. So we're not just sitting around here wondering when, um, but maybe we're taking some action to protect our community. So, um, we've done what we can to protect, because in this case, if that did come down and interrupted access to the tunnel, uh, obviously that would be another level of challenge that we wouldn't want to have go through. So anyway, thanks for a couple of minutes of your time and, uh, Look forward to being back here next month. If anyone's looking for me, you can get a hold of me, you know, through the office at rep.kyholland. Or akleg.gov. But thanks for the time tonight.

Thank you for all the time you spend here, Kai. And also, I guess you got President Trump on our team for getting away at daylight savings time now.

Adam Clerks. Is there anyone else on the citizen comments?

Yes. Next on the list is Deaconess Jen Miller.

Yep. Come on up, ma'am.

He was kind of tall. I had to lower that a lot. Good evening, members of the council. I'm Deaconess Jen Miller, and as Deaconess of United Methodist Church, I'm a consecrated... I am consecrated. created, never mind, lay member, lay woman with a lifetime calling to a full-time vocation ministry focused on love, justice, and service. I'm here because I want to help in one way that I know that I can make a difference by providing showers to the people of Whittier. I'm here to offer help. I'm not here to claim that I can provide a permanent solution, nor I'm here to speak to justice of the circumstances surrounding what has been happening in your community. I leave those matters to the people who live here and those who entrust with addressing them. What I can offer is support, kindness, and grace. I believe that when we come together as a community and extend grace and practical support to one another, we become stronger. Sometimes helping does not mean solving an entire problem. Sometimes it means meeting an immediate need and reminding people that they are not alone. I have access to a resource through Alaska United Methodist Conference that is used for disaster relief and for serving people who simply need access to showers. And I would like to make these resources available to the people of Whittier. I understand that this is not a long-term solution. It's not a permanent one. It's simply something that I can offer and something that we can do together. I can provide showers to support people in short term while the people responsible for addressing large issues have the time and the space to do the work. My hope is that this can be one small way to demonstrate that Whittier is strong, that people care for one another, and that when a community faces its difficulties, we can come together to meet immediate needs while others work towards solving solutions for the future. So I'm here to offer, by providing this use of the shower trailer, which is actually outside, and shower supplies, and I hope that you allow me to serve your community. Thank you for your time.

And that's really amazing. Ma'am, is there a way for these people to contact you or where do they meet you at?

I'm actually going to leave the shower trailer here. Contact Jason Cates. Talk to him. So if you are wanting me to leave it here to have access, let me know. I will stay when you need me. I can leave my phone number and supplies and we'll work on a schedule and I can work on getting volunteers out here to help at work if it is something you want to have available. I brought it out to have you guys look at it and want it because I can provide shower supplies and soap and what you need. I just want to be able to help the community and not have you guys have to fill any bill except for, you know, charge and start for the water that has to be used for the water. It has an onboard hot water heater. I didn't say that out loud. You didn't hear me. I am coming as my own self. I'm not coming representing anybody but me because I'm a deaconess. But the water, it has an onboard hot water heater. On-demand hot water heater. That's the word I couldn't think of. And anyone who wants to come look at it afterwards, welcome to come out and look.

Amazing. So, yeah, I think we have a, we know the local water supplier.

Might. There might be water around here somewhere. But yeah, fresh water. Yeah, has propane tanks for heating and so yeah.

Thank you so much. I would say that I would like to speak to you after the meeting. I'm Jackie, the city manager. I'm going to grab some of my staff that will most likely be here. Unfortunately, we will have to go into an executive session, so it might be a little bit longer for you to have to wait.

That's fine. I would just like to be able to make the last tunnel so I can get to work in the morning in Anchorage. I'm just saying. Thank you so much. This is a place for me to sleep. I can sleep in the Tahoe. It's just not comfortable. Yeah. I don't care. I don't have hot water in my house right now either.

You want to delay a meeting for people to look at the trailers so this lady can make it out the tunnel to go to work tomorrow? Any objections to taking a five to ten minute break before...

Mr. Fleming.

Yeah. Fleming injunction. Let's take a five. 10 minutes. 1015 here back here, please. Sorry. Is there anyone else in citizens comment? Okay, we'll ask for one when I get back. All right. Right. Up next, we have executive session. Oh, sorry.

Finish the Council on administration responses.

Yes, Council administration response to citizen comments. Thank you so much for the shower trailer. That's amazing.

And as I stated, when I walk through the door, we will work at getting it moved up to the manor and getting it all set up and show anybody that's there how to use it. And I'll talk to the building manager in the morning before we do that. I was given another of the property manager's information, so I'll call her too. Okay, thank you. All right, thanks, Peter.

any other uh administrative administration or council responses okay all right next we have executive session is there a motion and second to enter into a executive executive session to discuss enforcement actions regarding eric fleming as per with your municipal code eight or two dash zero eight dash zero four zero c make the motion

I'll second it.

Any discussion?

Don't we have to post notice of an executive session of the subject that we are going to be discussing?

Mr. Mayor, if I may, in this case, because we're discussing litigation, when we're using the provision for discussing litigation, then no, this is not about personal integrity, reputation or integrity of the individual. This is about the litigation itself.

Second component that we have to, is that a different executive session we go into? So we'll have to come out and then go back in. Madam Clerk, I'm seeing no further discussion. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Voting on the motion to enter into executive session to discuss enforcement actions regarding Eric Fleming as per Whittier Municipal Code 2.08.040C. Mrs. Loan? Yes. Mrs. Borg? Yes. Mr. Pinkush?

Yes.

Mr. Denmark? Mr. Wagner? Yes. Mr. Wagner has left the meeting. Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

The motion passes. Who did you want to stay?

I think it was our city attorney.

She's gone.

Oh, right. Sorry. No, I meant our city manager. Our assistant city manager.

and you guys thank you uh the motion passes and council enters into executive session at 10 17 p.m A motion has been made by Council Member Lohn and seconded by Council Member Borg to exit executive session. Voting on the motion to exit executive session, Mrs. Lohn. Yes. Mrs. Borg.

Yes.

Mr. Pinkush. Yes. Mr. Denmark.

I think so.

I will mark that as a yes. Mayor Shen?

Yes.

The motion passes and council exits executive session at 10.36 p.m.

yes is there a motion and second to enter into the executive session to discuss enforcement actions regarding rc con as per whittier municipal code 2-08-040c i'll make a vote i'll second it is there a any additional discussion um

as far as entering could i recommend that um we postpone this to your next meeting so that council member wagner could be here since he is the one who had originally requested it is that okay to counsel that was kind of where i was going you had dropped a tidbit on me yesterday jackie that i don't know is relevant salient or

Worthy of conversation here?

That would all have to be done in executive session.

All right. I think it would be most appropriate that this conversation waits for Councilor Wagner, who called for the meeting in the first place.

Does the motion maker and the second want to withdraw the motion to enter into executive session in that case? You do not need to postpone it as you would have resolution or ordinance.

You just bring it back. Which is fine. It's just us giving you an update and we'll have confirmation at that point.

If that's the case, we have a motion. I'll be happy to have the update. don't know what do you what do you guys think here i i'm interested in the update i'm also interested in having counselor wagner here who has a vested interest here who can be brought up to speed after the fact awesome no it's up to you they'll do whatever it's like

So are you taking it away?

Are you backing out your motion?

I am not removing the motion.

Mr. Mayor, did you want to vote on that motion?

OK. OK. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll?

Voting on the motion to enter into executive session to discuss enforcement actions regarding RC Collin as per Whittier Municipal Code 2.08.040C. Mr. Denmark?

Yes.

Mrs. Borg? No. Mrs. Lone? No. Mr. Pinkush? No. Mayor Shen?

Yes. motion fails three to two okay is there any further business okay there being no further business