City Council - Regular Meeting

questions. No.

Well, it will be just talking to friends. not in camera questions. [Music] No, not when I heard color. [Laughter]

Good evening. Good evening. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Welcome to the city of Whittier's meet the candidates night for this upcoming city election which is being held on October 7th. Uh Tuesday, October 7th. It will be in this room from 700 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. So stop by or absent early absentee inerson voting is happening now. So you can come by the city office anytime during regular business hours 8 am till noon and 1 pm till 5 and uh cast your vote early. This event is designed to give community members a chance to hear directly from the candidates in a fair and respectful setting. So, here's how tonight's going to work. We'll start with short introductions from each candidate. Feel free to take whichever seat you'd like. No one's drunk the water yet, I promise. Then, each candidate will answer a set of well, the candidates will rotate as they answer a set of prepared questions that were shared in advance. After that, we'll move into a brief audience question and answers with time permitting. And finally, each candidate will have a minute for a chance for a one minute closing statement. To keep things fair and hopefully relatively on time, each candidate will have equal speaking time. We'll rotate the order of responses, so no one always goes first or last. And then the audience question and answer session will be based on questions submitted in writing. So, if you'd like to ask a question like about hair color, please write it down. and place it in the box on the table just outside the door. Uh questions will be collected and read aloud by mua uh at the time that we do that. So we're asking everyone to remain respectful, please. No interruptions, no cross talk or personal attacks. Let's just focus on ideas and priorities for Whittier's future. So with that, let's begin with introductions. Each of you will have up to two minutes to share a bit about your background. And would anyone like to go first?

Okay. Good evening. My name is Oh, wait. Hold on. And then make sure that you grab the microphone and that it is not muted. Apologies. I think that one is on. Y.

Good evening. My name is Lori Borg and I'm running for city um council CG. Many of you know me as Miss Lori, the preschool teacher. And before that, I was a dental assistant for 30 years. I moved to Whittier about a year and a half ago and have not regretted a day of it. Um I have two older daughters that live in Juno and I'm just um over the moon excited to see all the things that are coming down the pike for Whittier. Um good evening. My name is Jamie Loan. Um, I my husband and I moved here about six years ago and I am a local business owner and involved in lots of different projects around town and I'm excited to be here.

Hi there. Uh, my name is Dan Blair. Um, I've been here for 30 years. I predated the uh the road. Um, I don't understand why they brought the road. Why why fix a something that's not broken? But, um, anyway, it is what it is. I, uh, I feel that, uh, I'm happy to, uh, represent my community. I've done it for a number of years, long enough to not remember how many years. Uh, we have, uh, lots of, uh, opportunity. that's before us. And I would like to bring to bear the experience that I've accumulated over the years as a council member and as a community member. Uh when I came here, I had a successful um opportunity in my youth to uh have a fantastic entrepreneur experience and it's been one of my passions to allow local community members to also um experience that. It's transformative and I'm excited that we are at this point in which our community is going to have that as a an experience. So, thanks.

Thank you. Okay. Now, on to the prepared questions. Uh each candidate was provided these in advance and we'll have two minutes to respond. So, starting with the first question, and we'll start with Miss Loan for this one, and then just keep going in our same order if that's all right. What inspired you to run for city council and serve our community here in Whittier. So, I have tried to I wrote some notes down just to try to keep my questions short. Um, and in short, I am inspired because I love this place. Um, I've even built a a local business around just sharing the history and what it's like our daily life here and special things about it with visitors. Um, having lived here for a few years now. Um, I care about what happens to this place. Um, whether I'm still here or not, I care about the people that live here. And there's so many unique things about Whittier, our history, our diversity, and we have so much to offer. and I do have the ability to listen to people and I have the energy to take people's ideas and make them a reality. Um, I also feel that I can speak up loudly for residents um in times where our voices get drowned out whether it's by sheer numbers or just a lot of other user groups. And I feel like I can do that with uh while also working together not alienating other entities or user groups. Thanks, Miss Fun. Mr. Blair, would you like to speak next?

So, um, I actually was approached by another council member, had no, uh, inkling of what I was stepping into. U, but, um, I rapidly, um, learned that, uh, being the voice of the community is extremely important. And uh I have strived to do that. Um and we'll continue to strive to do that. And u that's it. Thank you, Mr. Blair. Miss Borg,

I too wrote down some cards, but those I thought the cards might be for me, but I think they're for you because when I'm passionate about things, I tend to run on a little bit. So So what inspired me to run? When I came here a year and a half ago, the people of Whittier the people of Whittier opened me with I opened their arms to me and made me feel like part of the family. I have a love for Whittier and a belief in its future. This isn't about politics for me. It's about service and respect, helping our city grow in a way that honors the people that call it home. Thank you. Moving on to question number two. Mr. Blair, you'll start us off with this one. Can you briefly outline your relevant experience or background that you believe makes you a strong candidate for city council? Yeah, I may have dipped into this a little early, but um you know, I I have experience in a lot of areas that allow me to uh draw on that experience to uh make decisions and I have a very strong um sense of right and wrong. And to that extent I I think it's valuable to uh to bring that to bear in council because it is very important to do the next right thing. And for me, the next right thing is bringing uh much needed infrastructure and um for our community and allow them to enjoy the same things that we find in

more developed communities. So I do look at things in other communities and try and work out how we can best bring those forward to us. Thank you Mr. Claire. Miss Borg

before teaching I worked in a dental office for 30 years 26 of them in the same office that taught me patience problem solving and how to serve people. I think all three of these make a good council member. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and work with residents, the administration, and the council to get things done and move a year forward. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Borg, Miss Lo.

Um, I do have a background. I have a double major in international relations and political science. So, I've always been interested in um how communities can trickle up and um participate effectively in local government. I do know that um a degree is not everything. You do have to have actual experience. So when I moved to Whittier, I immediately got involved in things like parks and wreck, ports and harbor planning and zoning, um the HOA, chamber of commerce. I substitute teach at the school. And um I'm a business owner and I also help out at a lot of other local businesses, especially in the summer when they need help. And I love to plan community events like some of the things that we've been doing for our holidays. um helping with the wishwash and getting live music here, things for our community to enjoy because it is not I don't think it's all about statutes and laws and everything like we should be able to be successful but also like live together. So I did those things not with the goal of getting on council but with the goal of just truly understanding my community and um the people that live here. So I think I have a pretty well-rounded picture at this point of everybody here. Thank you. Uh before we move on to the next question, since we have new people who have joined us so since the beginning, I just want to remind everyone that the audience Q&A will come after we have the candidates answer these pre-prepared questions and they will be chosen from the box outside the door um of written questions. So if you have questions that you think of as this progresses, please feel free to step out and write that down. Okay, on to the next question. Miss Borg, you are starting with this one. What do you see

as the most significant challenges currently facing our town and how do you plan to address them if elected? I thought on this question a lot over this last week. I thought on this question a lot over the last week. I wanted to say the railroad which is an important challenge as we all know but my answer is the relationship between the council and the administration. We can't move the city forward when we are pulling in two different directions. So if I'm elected I'll do everything in my power to fix that problem with the help of both of them. Thank you Miss Borg. Miss Lone,

I too thought about this a lot and um I think looking around we can all agree like I mean we're all here because we love Liquidier but there are some underutilized spaces and things that we could clean up. Um, I would I would think that, you know, residents need green and safe places to be outside, you know, whether it's parks, trails, pavilions, things like that. Um, to enjoy our own home, as well as eventually having a solid plan for future growth of things like housing. Um, I also believe that a huge hurdle that could become a great asset to us is our variety of user groups. I mentioned before that oftentimes I feel like sometimes residents wants and needs can get drowned out. Um, or they're just often different from a user from another user group and those coming to Whittier. Um, if we can work to work together and elevate what residents want our own town to be, I think that uh that would also help provide adequate resources for other users. I believe we would start to see more overlapping of these groups um such as visitors frequently frequenting more local businesses or local spots and then residents getting to also enjoy more infrastructure. A huge part of making these things successful, I I believe, is continuing to work on zoning and getting our land from the railroad. And I believe that, you know, now we're we're a real community and having the ability to make these necessary decisions starts with owning our own city and we need um involvement and input.

Thank you, Miss Sloan. Mr. there.

Um, well, by far the most important thing I think for our community is a successful negotiation with Alaska Railroad in which we convert the master lease u into fe simple land for the community. Um, it allows us to exercise the control necessary to provide um a lot of the infrastructure needed to deal with the influx of more cruise ships and um also provide our community with homefield advantage that uh we currently don't have. Um, you know, one of the things that people are always amazed when they come here is the lack of residential housing. I think, um, how we go about that. I I know there's several communities that have been, um, much much more successful than us at creating housing that is specifically targeted for local residents. And so there's areas where we can look at that for our success. Getting the land from the railroad allows us the space and land necessary in which we can plan and create opportunities for local residents and for uh you know um employees for other businesses to make us a more desirable u location for um our visitors. We have 700,000 approximately a year and it'd be great to uh be able to offer them more

diversity and services than we currently offer. Um that's it.

You have excellent timing. That was exactly two minutes. Okay. Question number four. And Miss Loan, you'll be starting this one. In your opinion, what are the top priorities for promoting economic growth and sustainable development in our small town? Um, in one one word I would say balance. Um, but I have a small bullet uh list. Um, first would be zoning and owning our land and having the ability to lease space for uh local businesses. Um, the second would be managing our infrastructure and that would I know that sounds broad, but that means to me that means taking care of what we already have and while also making necessary upgrades and fixing and adequately caring for spaces in our community without duplicating them because I think even if we grow, we still are li we still have limited space. Um, I'd love to have like getting more people involved in special projects and commissions about, you know, things that they're passionate about as um, individuals. Uh, diversifying our upgrades. Um, so finding specific grants for even things that we deem small, um, like bike racks, kayak racks, signage, artwork, things like that. And, uh, preserving our culture and history so that we keep Whittier's heart. I think Whittier is already special and people will see that. Um, and I think we can implement good ideas and growth without becoming unrecognizable.

Thank you, Miss Loan. Mr. Blair.

So, this is a super important topic. Um, I'm constantly looking at other communities in ways that they provide opportunities for uh locals that don't have a lot of capital, but they have an enormous amount of experience and talent. And towards that end, that's why I mentioned uh food courts. It's a way to lower the cost of getting into business. I know that uh there are uh a lot of operating costs that uh the current harbor uh district has to incur. Um if we can reduce that and make it so that more people can participate, whatever their skill is, arts and craft, food, a particular service, it would it would benefit us all. You know, having you know we we lost our Chinese food. old uh restaurant. It'd be nice to have two or three different types of of food when we uh decide to go out on the town and uh you know, it's another opportunity for us to socialize. So, uh, getting that cost down. And I know that Jackie is looking at, uh, ways to provide, uh, educational experiences to make sure that their first experience in in entrepreneurship is a positive one. So, it's it's a huge deal and I'm looking forward to uh participating in solving that and making it happen.

Thank you, Mr. Blair. Miss Bork, I think the top priority is resolving the railroad.

The priority um is resolving the railroad land deal so we have local control to plan growth, attract business, and improve our waterfront with strong public private partnerships supporting tourism and keeping our town safe and welcoming. If we don't do this, our hands are going to be kind of tied. So, I think that's the number one priority for me. Thank you. Last prepared question. We are going to have lots of time for question and answers from the audience. So, transparency and accountability build trust in local government. How do you plan to ensure openness and decision-making processes and communicate effectively with residents? Mr. Blair, this you start this one. So, um, every year I ask the same question and for whatever reason the result isn't exactly what I'd like. And that question is, when are we going to do a comprehensive plan? I know when council voted to bring in the uh second cruise ship terminal at that time, we committed as a council to allow a comprehensive plan so that the public, the local residents of Whittier could bring forward their ideas and their wants and to deal with the significant changes that we are currently seeing. that hasn't happened yet. But as far as transparency, I, you know, being on the council, one of the things I'm wrestling with is that we're moving through so many decisions so quickly. Some of those decisions um involve going into executive session. Well, when we come out of executive session, it'd be really nice to have something in writing on to explain to us when that information no longer needs to be in, you know, exclusive to council. It's

really important to bring that out as soon as possible. One, so the community can realize the decisions we made and agree with or don't agree with us. and two, it needs to be out there because there may be business opportunities that the community is missing out on. So that I'd like to bring that um forward and have uh a better mechanism in which we share information as soon as possible once it's no longer needed to be an executive session. And then um as far as trust in the local government um my ideas on that are we need to uh encourage the administration to uh update their um we have um how how um HR works and to that end Jackie did hire an indep independent HR which is a great first step.

Mr. player, if you could, you reached your two minutes. If you could wrap up your comments. Okay. Thank you. You can finish that sentence. Oh, that's what I meant by wrap up. Apologies. I'm fine. Okay. Thank you, Miss Borg. I think transparency and accountability mean that the residents, the council, and administration have the same information and have a chance to be heard. I'll push for clear communication and teamwork so that our decisions are consistent, accessible, and rooted in trust. Thank you. And Miss Loan,

so I try my best to operate openly. Um, I recognize that as a council member, my constituents are the entire community, not just a certain group of you. Um, I do love to have one-on-one talks and hear people out and hear their stories and their opinions. Um, but I'm also committed to making sure that I use the proper channels to ask questions, submit my intentions, and share my thoughts. And I'm committed to being honest and recusing myself from a topic if there's a chance for it to even appear that I have a special interest.

Thank you, Miss Sun. Uh, could we pause for just a moment and give our candidates a round of applause because without the candidates being here, it would not be a meet your candidate tonight. And let's since we have so much time, let's take a five-minute break. We'll reconvene at 6:30. Um, put in your last thoughts for questions and I'll gather those and organize them for our next session.

She's so I don't know. I've heard like

Welcome back. Welcome back. Thank you for taking a break for me. Okay, we received many many questions and I really appreciate everyone for contributing questions because like not having council me uh council candidates for a council discussion. Audience Q&A is nothing without audience questions. So, um, we won't be able to get through all of these. I apologize, but um, we will try to make it through some of them. Don't feel rushed though. You don't need to rush your answers. We will still do two minutes per response just to keep things succinct. And, um, okay, this one seemed fun. So, we'll start with this one as a, you know, icebreaker. As we move into as we hope to move into the future, describe a technology that you use in your daily life that was invented in the last 10 years. And let me know if you need me to reread it.

Describe a what? Des describe a technology that you use in your daily life that was invented in the last 10 years. Wow.

I'll let whoever wants to go first go first on this one. Um, I guess this is I mean I think it's the last 10 years. This isn't um super crazy, but I would say like QR codes and things like that, being able to share information. Um, what I envision something like that people could scan at the tunnel while they're waiting when we eventually get service out there and you know businesses or the city could list events or what's happening or things like that. Um, or even like on some of the artwork I know the artists that painted our barriers put a QR code in the corner where you can look at her other art projects and things like that and just share information. So that would be my my first thought. I know the last two weeks I've used chat G chat chat cheat GPT chat a lot. I'm a little bit of AI. So I think those two things um I've used in the last two weeks a lot. So those are my answers. So I I will say QR codes are much more prevalent. They have been around for a while. Um but um I I also am am finding some uses for AI. I have to do a lot of cross-checking for me to convince myself that uh they're not sending me down the the wrong path. Um, some of these uh technologies I haven't uh they may have been around for uh more than 10 years, but I'm just

starting to use them. Um some of these uh like uh LEDs are much more uh useful and um solar panels have been uh way useful. Um and I know they've been around, but they're much more functional now. Um uh electric fences are marvelous for keeping bears away. Um otherwise I wouldn't be able to have my ducks and geese. So, uh, I I don't know. Google's been around too long.

Thank you for that. Okay, into some tougher stuff. Uh, let's go with what have you championed personally as a council member that helped the community? And if you haven't yet been on council, what is your single most important thing to accomplish for Whittier? again. I will happily reread it if you want me to reread it even before you speak. One more time. Yeah. No, I'm good. You're good. Okay, I'll reread it when in a minute. Go ahead.

So, I have championed uh listening to my community. Um I have multiple times uh advocated for comprehensive plan updates. Um I have look tried to look at transparency and make sure that it's provided to the community as well as um you know call call things out when I don't feel that we have enough um public posting or or whatever. I mean, it's it's really important to get feedback from the community and um you know, some of it may be that I'm technologically challenged, but um uh the uh you know, just simple posting on bulletin boards as as many places as we can in town to to give everybody the opportunity to uh bring their voice and their ideas forward. It's it's really important. Um, I've been, you know, a couple of times I've I've been uh talked to by uh someone that's frustrated and they didn't feel they had the opportunity to give out their ideas. So, rightly or wrongly, I really champion the uh ability to uh make sure people are given the opportunity to bring their voice forward.

Thank you, Mr. Blair. Anyone want to volunteer to go next? Yes, I will. Thank you.

What have you championed personally as a council member that helped the community? And if you haven't yet been on council, what is your single most important thing to accomplish for Whittier? I think my single most accomp I mean accomplishment would be I want to be a council member that people can come to that know they're going to be heard. I want people to know what I say. I mean I'll show up. I want to make sure that people know that I've read my packet and I know what I'm talking about after I read my packet. I mean, I haven't been here very long, but I have gone through a bunch of packets lately. But I just wanted to I just want to be a council member that always has our residents in mind, our council in mind, and our administration in mind. And I'd love to see all three of those working together while I'm on council. So, I've only been on council, I think, for two meetings, but um as far as the community goes, I think that my biggest hope is that no matter what we're doing, whether it's, you know, acquiring land or um making new opportunities or new infrastructure or whatever that is that uh it's all driving towards our quality of life. Um I think I at least hope that um being involved and and talking with people that I've hopefully driven more community involvement for people that maybe did not think that they were like

fit or able to participate. Um, I've worked really hard since we moved here on diversifying our recreation. Um again like whether that's bike riding or hiking or kayaking or just spending time with each other like events like wishwash and music and um also health week trying to educate um not just adults but kids on you know how to live a healthy life and how to be involved in their community. So that's important. Thank you. Okay, next question. What's your plan for Whittier's land and housing needs? Whoever wants to start, feel free.

So, um, regardless of how much land we're able to purchase from the railroad, we will never have enough land. I mean, that's part of the consequences of living in a fjord. So, um to be able to make sure to maximize the uh the number of housing opportunities for locals, I will be looking at other communities that have successfully deployed uh various multiple Juno has deployed multiple avenues to provide local housing and employee housing. uh due to their their challenges. Uh some of them worked out better than others. Um, also, you know, any type of uh federal or state agencies that would be able to assist us either um through grants or uh maybe provide us uh different ideas on how to uh allow local community members to get their first house or uh anyway, it's it's a challenge. It's it's a challenge all over the state of Alaska and it's it's got to be uh second only to buying that land from the railroad. So, uh it's uh h how we go about and accomplish that in a in a fair and transparent way is super important and um I'm looking forward to uh helping the community tackle that. If we're able to get our la the land

from the railroad, I'll be looking at public and private public and private partnerships to come in and help us. Getting rid of um the Buckner building is going to free up a lot of land up there. That'd be nice to put housing up there. um maybe on the side of the um BTI building, but we need to get that land land from the railroad and keeping that conversation and that relationship going in a positive direction is what we need to do. And then bringing in the public and private um people to help us and that's what I would do. I would say my my answer is also pertains or like is a mix of both of those that went before me. Um I think that obviously we need the land first. Um, secondly, careful zoning and planning because we could have all the land we want, but if we mess up our our zoning and our future plans, then we'll have a lot of spaces that won't be used to their best to their best um, usage, I guess. Um, one way to do that is to do I don't know if mixed use is the right word, but um, Mr. Blair mentioned Juno. I I grew up in Juno and especially downtown is small and tight, but you see businesses downstairs and apartments upstairs, things like that. Um, and we uh can get some of those developments by getting developer partnerships, you know, like Miss Borg mentioned, um, partnering with different developers to make sure that we're using our space um for as many things as possible.

Thank you. Next question. Should the costs of running and growing the city be jointly paid by all? Currently, the businesses pay the lion's share of the expense, will you investigate spreading the costs, such as increasing sales tax or property tax? Go ahead.

So, yep. Go ahead. Yeah. Um um I'm a little don't really understand how businesses feel they carry the lion share. I mean uh all of our taxes are set up for collect and remit. All of the fees are collect and remit. The people that are carrying that load are the tourists, the 700,000 visitors. So um you know, I'd like to invite those people who feel that they're carrying something to maybe take a step back. you're in Whittier, you're given the opportunity to collect that by having se a successful business. So, um I I I operate a business. I don't feel that collecting and remitting is is a burden. I think it's an opportunity to be able to operate a business in our community. And it would be lovely if uh businesses would share their experiences with new uh potential business owners so that they too can participate in a living wage. I'm not as well verssed on this one as maybe Jamie and Mayor Blair, but maybe the transportation um fee and the ground tax fee or the the ground fee um maybe we can do a special tax with those. Take a little bit out of those one or two% to to cover that. Um, I do feel that everybody living here should pay their share. Um, but I to answer this question, I would have to just delve a little deeper into it because I haven't really

I really haven't um investigated too much into this. But I think my my answer would be that if you live in Whittier that you need to pay your fair share.

Yeah. Again, a little bit a little bit of along the same lines. I do believe um that living in a place like this or or running a business inherently has some extra costs, but I also don't think that we need to be suffocating those that are operating a business and bringing, you know, bringing the chance for visitors to spend money here to our town. Um, I do think that, you know, re the recently implemented sales tax is important because that does allow uh hopefully visitors to pay a little bit more of that than just a business. So hopefully they're able to recoup some of that as as prices of operating are higher. Um, and I do think also that the sales tax, um, I believe just in the recent data that we hadn't seen a huge impact on residential spending, but, um, I do believe that that is a start for having residents also have the share of of paying taxes to the community. Um, I I too would like to be be more educated on the topic. Um, but I am also willing to listen because I know that there's there's multiple user groups that we're talking about here sometimes. Um, like business, resident, you know, things like that. So, I'm I'd be very open to listening to people's experiences with that. Thank you. Change is about the only constant in life. With that in mind, how do you feel about term limits for council members?

Well, u that's interesting because uh um a former council member mentioned that um I would say 15 years ago and I was a little perplexed because of the number of council members that run unopposed. Okay. And so um if those who desire term limits, they really need to like put their name on the hat. So uh that we have uh more variety. I mean, I I definitely uh would love to see uh more people get involved in uh all of our uh organizations, be it council or uh various committees. uh you know there's there's great opportunities to get involved and uh it I don't understand how if you get rid of the people that have run unopposed for nine years how that promotes diversity. But uh those who uh are on council can make those decisions. I do think that we have just because we're a small community, we have a smaller number of people that are able to run or want to run or or feel they're qualified or, you know, there's many reasons why someone would or would not run. But I also do think that a term limit would not be a negative thing and it might encourage other people to toss their name in the hat without feeling like oh I'm running against someone

that's done this for longer than I've been alive or you know things like that and maybe not as intimidated. And that was not a dig at anybody in person. I see some laughs. That was not okay. Anyway, you took my answer. I'm for ter term limits. I think that it will bring people out of the community to run for different for the different seats. Um we could be on council for 10, 15 years and stories get tired. you know, it's time that you know, when you're done, you're done. And then let's get some new people in here. Fresh blood, um, fresh ideas. So, yeah, unfortunate months. Okay. And I think this will probably be our last question. There seems to be some animosity between some of the council and administration. What would you do to pre to repair that and prevent future negative council and administration relations in the future? As a preschool teacher, when they're three and four, we start teaching them respect. We hope they have it when they come to us. But I've watched these um meetings for three years now. If I'm not here, I'm watching it on TV. The lack of respect that I watch over and over has to stop. And if I'm on counsel, I will stop it. If I hear it, I'll stop it. We cannot be up here acting like children. We have to act like adults. we

have to all of these problems that we have for this city are way more important than the animosity that's happening right now. So, I'm just saying that um I'm if I'm elected as a city council member that will stop in my seat and I will promote I mean ask that it stops on all the other seats. Yep. And I would um I would add that we don't all have to be friends outside of this room or working you know on council but we are at the end of the day all in this together. So, I would just work really hard to keep that in the forefront of my mind and make sure that no matter what anyone's feelings are about each other personally, that we just do the right thing and the legal thing and what's before us, the what's the best thing for all of us. So,

well, if you think that we have animosity now, you should have been here before the road came through. Um, anyway, there's I think there is probably a misconception that there's animosity. I think there's people that are uh passionate about their ideas and about their community and sometimes there's, you know, frustration at not being able to to bring things forward. Um, I definitely have uh gotten much better at uh working through these things calmly and uh Jackie's been really helpful. She's uh we we meet as frequently as possible. um when we're both feeling healthy and um our significant others are healthy, we generally meet every Monday. So, uh that has greatly helped reduce the frustration. I can see the direction administration's going and encourage um them uh to uh you know bring forward other ideas as well as I'm better prepared to bring forward resolutions so that uh council can participate in giving direction.

Thank you. Council members council member candidates I apologize I can't take off my other hat. Okay. So, we'll close we'll finish with brief closing remarks. So, um I know you guys have spoken a lot already this uh this event, but this is your opportunity to just wrap up and give some closing thoughts if you would like to limited to a minute. So, brief closing thoughts. I would just like to say thank you and um I have the the energy to listen and and do what's right and I will do what's right for the community. I have to say thank you to everyone that supports me right now and is supporting me before this even I have I have not been in city government ever. Um I did not take this um lightly when I decided to do this, but people came to me and said, "You seem like you know what you're doing in a classroom." So, how hard could this be? Um sitting up here in front of adults and not three and four year olds is very hard. But um again, thank you so much for the support. Um, if I'm elected, um, I will do everything for the city I can. If I don't know something, I don't have an ego. I'll go I'll ask I'll ask questions. If I don't, um, if I if you don't feel like I'm listening, shake my hand. Shake my shake me because I I think I'm a pretty good listener and I want to listen to our residents. Um, I just care about Whittier. I've only been here a short time, but boy, when I

came through that tunnel, everybody just greeted me with open arms, and I feel like I want to do this service to them, give it to them, back to the community. So, if I stay any longer, I'll start cing. So, here.

Well, thanks everyone for showing up. Um, I really appreciate your time to listen and um, I'm looking forward to helping our community get more uh, infrastructure and ways to u enjoy our little community. You know, one of the one of the passions is I see uh our school and fellow community uh community members, they go out and they work in all kinds of weather, you know, everything from shoveling 20 ft of snow to uh just trying to ride a bicycle through some of this stuff. And the way I see it, if you uh you put up with what Whittier can throw at you, I think you're somewhat entitled to some of the uh the wealth that is coming to Whittier and um an opportunity to participate in business and experience some of the variety that will be coming down our way. Can we just give our candidates one more round of applause for their bravery for being here tonight? And I want to thank all of you for coming because like I said, this this wouldn't be an event without you and I wasn't sure if people were going to come, but I'm really glad that you all came and that you contributed so many questions. Apologies that we did not get through all of them. Uh I just want to remind everyone election day is Tuesday, October 7th. Polls will be open here in this room from 7:00 a.m. till 8:00 PM. And um from now until then, you can stop by the city offices and come in and do your absentee voting anytime that the the office is open, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. closed for 1 hour at lunch. So, uh thank you for coming.

[Music] Thank you.

I just felt like I mean I was appointed. I mean, I know I ran I was appointed, so I wanted to like have people be able to ask questions very No.