City Council - Regular Meeting

Is this like root beer? [Music] I call the order.

Sorry. Hold on one moment. I can't get our video on. There we go.

Okay, Mr. Mayor, thank you for your patience. I call to order the October 21st regular meeting of the Weer City Council at 7:01 p.m. All rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Would Mr. Wagner, Miss Loan, and Miss Borg please come to the front?

It's okay. Which one of you? You're just Hold it for all of you. Come on up here. You got to be in the middle with the microphone. Thank you. Okay, please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I your name I do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend I will support and defend the constitutions of the United States the constitution of the United States and state of Alaska state of Alaska and the law laws and ordinances the laws and ordinances of the city of Whittier

city of Whittier state of Alaska state of Alaska and that I will faithfully and honestly I will faithfully and honestly perform the duties of the office from the duties of the office of Whittier City Council member. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations.

It's muted. So if you want to turn it on, just press button first. Miss Borg, you can come sit at the dis now. Next, I'll do roll call and then we'll do the election of the mayor and vice mayor. Mr. Shen

here. Mr. Wagner here. Mr. McCto here. Mr. Pinkush here. Mr. Denmark here.

Miss Loan here. Miss Borg, here we have a quorum. Okay, so moving on to our annual tradition of electing the mayor and vice mayor. At the beginning of your packet, you'll find the memo that outlines a procedure that we've followed in the past for electing your mayor and vice mayor. Uh, as you know, the mayor of a secondass city is elected by and from the council. This procedure is based on Robert's rules of order, newly revised 12th edition. Um, before we begin, the council must formally adopt this procedure by motion, which will then apply to today's election. So, with that in mind, is there a motion and a second to adopt the procedure as provided?

I'll make the motion. I'll second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, voting on the motion to adopt the procedure for electing the mayor and vice mayor as presented. Mr. Wagner, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Mr. Denmark, yes. Mr. Shen, yes. Mr. McCto, yes. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Miss Borg,

yes. The motion passes and the procedure is adopted. So, at this time, I'll ask for a motion from the council. Oh, sorry. We already did that. Just kidding. Uh, we will now proceed with the election of the mayor. Nominations are open. Each council member may nominate one candidate. I would like to nominate uh Councilman Denmark for mayor. I appreciate that, Mr. Wagner, but I do the nomination. Thank you, Mr. Denmark. Are there any other nominations? I will reciprocate and nominate.

Mr. Wagner, do you accept the nomination? I'll accept. Are there any further nominations? I nominate Council Member Shen. Mr. Shen, do you accept the nomination? Yes, I accept.

Thank you. Are there any further nominations? Seeing none, uh, nominations are closed. And so at this time, um, just as a reminder, uh, I'll distribute the ballots, which are very official pieces of scrap paper. Thank you. Please write the name of the person you wish to elect as mayor. And uh just note you may vote for one of the nominees or you can vote for any council member. You are not restricted to just the nominees. I already did. She told me to mix them up, but I did. Victor Shen. Wagner. Wagner. Shen.

Wagner. Shen. And Shen. The votes are tallied. Mr. Shen received four votes. Mr. Wagner received three. Congratulations, Mr. Shen. You have been you have received the majority of the votes and are elected as mayor. [Applause] We will now proceed with the election of the vice mayor using the same process. Nominations are open for the position of vice mayor.

I'd like to nominate uh Mr. Denmark for vice mayor. And I will again Well, first Mr. Denmark, do you accept the nomination? I do. Okay. Thank you. And Mr. Wagner, do you? Yes.

Are there any further nominations? Seeing none, nominations are closed. We will uh do the same. Miss Wild will distribute the ballots. Please write the name of the person you wish to elect as vice mayor. And again, you may vote for either one of the nominees or any other council member. Peter, Denmark, Denmark, Wagner. Jamie, Denmark, Wagner, Wagner. The votes have been tallied. Mr. Wagner received three votes. Mr. Denmark received three votes and Miss Loan received one vote. As there is no candidate that has received a majority of the votes, we will conduct another round of voting. Nominations

nominations remain the same, but again, you may vote for either one of the nominees or for any other council member, just not Mr. Shen because he is already busy being the mayor.

H Okay, here's from the tie. Here's extras. Are you ready? Did you mix them? Yes.

The ballots have been mixed. Wagner. Denmark. Wagner. Denmark. Jamie. Denmark. Wagner. The votes have been tallied. Mr. Wagner received three votes. Mr. Denmark received three votes. And Miss Loan received one vote. As no one has received a majority votes, we will uh proceed with another round of elections.

There's still Oh, I did have this. I told her she might need more. She laughed at me.

Challenge accepted. Appreciate the effort. Next fruit makes a difference. Are you ready? They want to know if the coin chen [Music] Denmark Denmark Denmark Wagner Wagner Wagner The votes are tallied. Mr. Wagner received three votes and Mr. Denmark received four votes. Mr. Mr. Denmark, as you have received the majority of the votes, you are elected as vice mayor. Congratulations. But no, because you adopted this procedure, there is no coin toss. It would have continued on into eternity.

So, next item we have on our agenda, comments. Citizen comments on any agenda except those scheduled for public hearing are welcome at this time. Those who have signed in will be given the first opportunity to speak. Please note, this is not a time for dialogue. It is your time to speak and the council to listen. Madame Clark, is anyone signed in for citizen comments? No one is signed in.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone present here in the room who would like to speak on any on an agenda item at this time? Mr. Bender. come on up to the podium and just please state your name and thank you.

Hi, I'm Mike Bender, Lazy Otter Charters. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Um, I just saw the agenda today and was concerned about number 14 on the agenda, which is uh somehow objection to the Outpost liquor door liquor. I would think it would say store alcohol license renewal. uh known RC Collins for decades and uh I'm not sure what that's about, but I hope we um treat him. You know, he's battling Parkinson's has been for uh most of half a decade now. So, if we've afforded I hope we've afforded him every opportunity to uh address whatever concerns that you you may have and uh show some compassion in your decisions. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is there anybody else in the room? Okay. Next item is approval of agenda and consent. Agenda. Is there a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda and consent agenda?

I'll make a motion. Second discussion hearing none. Will the clerk please call the role? Thank you. Voting on the motion to approve the agenda and consent agenda. Mr. Wagner, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Mr. Shen, uh, sorry, uh, not Mr. Shen, not yet. Mr. McCalto, yes. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Mr. Denmark, yes. Miss Borg,

yes. Mr. Mayor, that's you, Mr. Shin. Yes.

Thank you. Uh the motion passes and the agenda and consent agenda are approved. On tonight's consent agenda are resolution 2025-036 supporting the development of of a safety action plan and committing to the goal of zero roadway fatalities and serious injuries. Approval of the September 23rd, 2025 rescheduled regular meeting minutes and the commissioner appointment of Aubrey Jurgerson to planning and zoning commission seat C. Thank you. Um at this time um at this time does anyone wish to declare a substantial conflict of interest um in a matter appearing on the agenda? Okay, next item we have presentations and reports. Um, first item we have a years of service award. So tonight we are giving honor to Timothy as actually you should come right up here so everybody can see you for your years of service. Um I'm going to let the chief say more. Um I'm just really proud of our police department and it's really a great honor to have you on our police department. So that's what I'm going to say.

Uh Tim comes to us uh with prior military and law enforcement experience. He's um was active duty army, got out in Alaska, joined uh Anchorage Police Department for a number of years and then decided to come to a good down home community like Whittier. He's been with Whittier Police Department for over uh five years. He's a great asset not only to the community but to the department. Uh, as of a couple weeks ago, this whole building has been wired with CCTV thanks to the effort of Tim and several other people, saving some monies and also maintaining security for not only our employees, but the citizens we serve around here. Uh, Tim is always been there to volunteer or being volunttoled to come forward and doing other tasks and assignment with very little arguments about it. So yeah, I'd like to thank him for his presence here and serving this community and um being one of the force members here in Whittier. Thank you, Tim.

Thank you, Chief. [Applause] A couple other things. If I could have uh Jerry Herod come up here. Uh we've had a vacancy with the police department for our lieutenants position which is the second in command of the police department. Uh Lieutenant Joe Corbett retired after 20 years of service in May of this year. It took a while but we um we had very good uh applicants, two in-house applicants, both with over 10 years of experience. Jerry was selected and it wasn't easy process. I kept out of the process. Um the three individuals were ex for police chiefs from small communities with a combined total of probably over 50 years of law enforcement experience. Jerry was selected. Jerry comes to us to Whittier. He worked various large Bush agencies in the West Coast uh and then came to Whittier after coaxing him uh for a little bit of a while. But uh Jerry's our new lieutenant with over 10 years of experience. He has approximately six years with the Whittier Police Department. Thank you, Jerry. And Lieutenant Jerry Corb Jerry Herid. And and one final thing, Colin, if you want to come up here. Uh we've had several vacancies. We've been really fortunate because we've been ahead of the national average because nationally it's hard to find police officers. We've been extremely fortunate that we haven't had a vacancy more than six months. Uh Colin Nie comes to us. who was hired in December of last year as a temporary police officer backfilling one of our police officer position who got activated in the military. Uh so Colin's been with us going on nine months or so uh with the vacancy of Jerry's promotion that opened up a police officer slot. We've already seen how Collins police work is in

Whittier as well as in Girdwood. uh and effective today. He was uh he's a full-time permanent police officer on probation of course, but um he also lives in one of the communities we serve. He lives in Gerwood. He has over six years of experience including time with Anchorage Police Department. Uh Colin moved to lower 48 and decided to come back to Alaska and we luckily had a position open for him and he accepted. So everyone this is Colin Nice. Thank you. And with that, just one more recruitment pitch. We do have one police officer position open. So if anyone knows of anyone with experience and want to come out to a great community such as Whittier, work in basically Alaska's finest areas, Woodier and Girdwood, please contact us. Thank you.

Okay, moving forward with the reports. Um, mayor's report. I don't have anything for today. You didn't get one ready. What? Why not? 10 minutes. Um, Mr. Vice Mayor, you have a report. Thank you. Jackie,

um, as you can see, we have a lot to report, but because we have a long agenda, unless there's any, um, specific questions, I will answer them. Um, my office is available. You can call me if you have any questions about the city manager report at any time. But so we can keep this moving for you tonight. I'll just say that. Any questions from council? All right, we're going to move to forward to public hearings. Ordinance 2025- Z003.

Would you like me to read the title for that? Yes, please read the Oh, yes.

Got it. Ordinance 2025-003 is an ordinance amending Whittier Municipal Code 210.8 38 definitions and 2.1610 city manager and adding duty adding Whittier Municipal Code 2.26.060 finance director and Whittier Municipal Code 2.26.070 duties of the finance director to update position titles and align the code with title 29 of the Alaska statutes and current organizational practices and repealing Whittier Municipal Code 2.26.080 080 executive assistant 2.26090 duties of executive assistant and your municipal code chapter 2.15 director of administration to remove the executive assistant and director of administration positions from the code.

I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance uh 2025-003.

First we have to do the public hearing. I'm sorry.

Sorry, Tom. Um, and I'm going to open the public hearing for ordinance 2025-003 at 727. Madame Clark, Madam Clark, is there anyone signed in to speak at this time? Okay. Is there anyone present in the audience who would like to speak on ordinance 2025-003? Okay. If there's no further public comment, the public hearing for ordinance 20 2025- 003 is closed at this time at 7:28. Is there a motion and a second to adopt ordinance 2025-003?

I will make that motion again.

Is there a staff report on this ordinance? Uh, mayor and council, as you know, we had a work session prior to this. Uh, this is simply a cleanup of our code to match title 29 and to remove some redundancies. If there are any questions, um, we are more than happy, myself and the clerk, to answer those. So in that discussion we had talked about um some amendments. When would that happen? No. Yes. Now

yes there discussion

discussion. Okay. So for everybody's benefit I had one concern with this ordinance because there is a a little bit mixing of words. Line 65 says a city manager would be shall be appointed by a majority vote of its membership. There's a definition the definition of majority vote and the definition of quorum vote are two different things. By saying a majority voted if it's membership it it would indicate that it would be everybody in the membership. But I would argue that there's a potential for someone to say well there's only five people here at the meeting tonight that is the membership. So to clarify that I would just like to add to line 65. Um so I'll make I I will make this amendment is line 65 after the words majority vote of its membership add in parenthesis quorum vote. So there there is no um it's very clear what the intent is. There's no there

I'll second. And the definition of a quorum vote versus majority vote please once again. Okay. A majority if there was five people here and you did a majority vote a majority vote is three to two. A m a quorum vote even though there was five people would be four. It' be the it would be the amount required for the quorum as a as the minimum vote. So the term quorum vote insists that a full council is seated to address that issue. No, what it would what it would indicate is if you had five members, it would take a v vote of four to one for it to pass. A vote of three to two would not pass.

So you need the approval of a quorum regardless of attendance. Correct. Which is how resolutions are done in by our code. So it's just clarification. [Music]

Thank you. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, did you want any further discussion on the amendment or are you ready to vote on the amendment? Any further discussion on this? Ready to vote on the amendment? I just have a question. Is there any possibility that corn vote could be this conrude through um a definition amendment or some such in the future?

Do we need to define? I believe means you need four votes. I believe that's already in code. We we went years ago we went through this. We had a vote where it was 3 to2 and we had to go look it up and it took a while and it it it specifically says that in the code that a resolution requires a quorum vote. So it's it's already it's already there I believe. Okay. Thank you for discussion

for reference uh municipal code 2.08.050. 050 addresses the definition of quorum and it says four council members constitute a quorum and then it says four affirmative votes are required for the passage of an ordinance resolution or motion and there's more about electronic participation but that's the meat and potatoes. Okay, thank you. Last words. Okay, ready to vote on the amendment? Yes. Ready to vote.

Voting on the amendment to amend ordinance 2025-003 line 65 by adding in parenthesis quorum vote after majority of its membership. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Mr. Denmark, yes. Mr. Wagner, yes. Mr. McCto, yes. Miss Lone, yes. Miss Borg. Yes. Mr. Mayor. Yes.

The motion passes and ordinance 2025-003 is amended. Returning again to the motion to adopt ordinance 2025-00003 as amended. Is there further discussion on the ordinance amended ordinance? Do you have something, Tom?

Okay. Well, hearing no further discussion, will the will the clerk please call the role?

Voting on the motion to adopt ordinance 2025-003, an ordinance amending Whittier Municipal Code 2.10.038 definitions and 2.16.10 100 city manager and adding Whitier Whittier Municipal Code 2.26.060 finance director and Whittier Municipal Code 2.26.070 duties of the finance director to update position titles and align the code with title 29 of the Alaska statutes and current organizational practices and repealing Whittier Municipal Code 2.26.080 executive assistant 2.26090 26090 duties of executive assistant and Whittier Municipal Code Chapter 2.15 Director of Administration to remove the executive assistant and the director of administration positions from the code as amended. Mr. Wagner,

yes. Mr. Denmark, yes. Mr. McCalto, yes. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Miss Borg, yes. Mr. Shen,

yes. The motion passes and ordinance 2025-00003 is adopted as amended. Thank you. Move on to new business. Resolutions. Um, resolution 2025-028, a resolution affirming support for ongoing city efforts with state and regional partners to plan and implement infrastructure improvements to address increased cruise ship traffic and community needs. Is there a motion and a second?

I would move to table resolution 202528 indefinitely. Any discussion? Okay, I'm seeing some um roll call, please. Voting on the motion to table indefinitely resolution 2025-028. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Mr. Mr. Denmark. Yes. Miss Loan. Yes. Mr. Malto. Yes. Mr. Wagner.

Yes. Miss Borg. Yes. Mr. Mayor. Yes. The motion passes and resolution 2025-028 is tabled indefinitely. Okay. Thank you. Next resolution is 2025-034, a resolution directing the city manager to provide a subsidy to Alaska Weather Consulting LLC for the continuation of weather forecasting services for Passage Canal in the amount of $24,000. Is there a motion and a second to approve? Move to adopt.

Second. Any discussion? Mr. Ben Kush. Question and discussion. The question was it was an application filed for this? That was the original intent was that there would be application forms available for anyone to submit for the line item community support uh through the mayor. Uh this was not um requested by a application. It was specifically requested by Vice Mayor Denmark um at your council meeting on September 30th, the rescheduled and um we did not move forward to that type of thing because of the way that it was requested.

Okay. Well, if me memory serves for council, I believe that was the intent when we created the line item community support was that it would be there would be an application process and that anybody in the community could could submit um for and I believe the line item is $45,000 40 or 45,000. So, I guess it would be a different discussion, but I think we should follow through with that so that everybody is aware of this money. And I I mean I will support this because no one else has done it. And we have that apparently have that money. But honestly, you know that it's a it's community support. There are very few people that in this community that utilize this. And I guess I guess I would hope that we get this the word out that that money is available for anyone to apply for something that would benefit the community. This does benefit the community, but limited. So, being being there's nobody else, I don't see any reason not support it, but I would like to see see us um get get it more formalized so other people know about it.

Um we can do that by a we'll make sure the resolution comes forward in your November agenda and then we'll make sure that it is also on the consistency checklist moving forward. Any questions? Mr. P.

Oh. Um, yes. I did uh ask the administration to prepare this administration and a few brief words in support of the idea uh that uh this has been a valuable resource uh for local weather conditions uh for those who who use it. you know, predominantly small craft operators um and have found it to be a very useful tool in uh since its inception and especially since Noah's being uh downfunded a little bit. Um the divergence in the forecast between Noah and AK uh WX Consulting uh was more apparent this year than ever. I guess I have some questions. Um I guess the timeline, how long would um the subsidy fund the service for? Um if you have

the upcoming year, the upcoming year. And then are there any other supporters? Um was he um individual able to garner any other support from u the community or entities? Not that I'm aware of.

Mr. Mayor, I guess I have a question of last year the the amount that we appropriated Why did we come up with that amount and then why? So I I don't I don't remember what why that was whatever the number was like 5700 or something. Yeah, I don't have the answer. I guess um we have Mr. Goldstein in the room. Maybe perhaps you could come up.

Okay, thank you Jackie. Um, on line 27 it says, "Whereas the city of Whittier provided a one-time annual subsidy to the Alaska Weather Consulting in the amount of 5400 with future elevation of annual funding in the amount of 22,000 via resolution in 2024. That answer your question?" Okay. Well, well, yeah. I don't know how it does still doesn't we don't know how we got to 5,400. I mean, we're asking for three three and a half times that. But

um if I my memory suits me, um I believe that you guys had went to um break it down because there was only so many months left in that year and so you broke it down to that many months. Any further discussion?

Okay. Calling for a role. Voting on the motion to approve resolution 2025-034, a resolution directing the city manager to provide a subsidy to Alaska Weather Consulting LLC for the continuation of weather forecasting services for Passage Canal in the amount of $24,000. Mr. Denmark, yes. Mr. Wagner, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Mr. Malto. Yes. Miss Borg. Yes. Mr. Mayor. Yes.

The motion passes and resolution 2025-034 is approved. All right. Next resolution. Resolution 2025-035, a resolution authorizing the demolition and disposal of the East Finger Pier at the city dock in the amount of 36,300 and appropriating funds. Is there a a motion and second to approve resolution 2025-035? Motion to adopt. I'll second it. Let's bring up um discussion please.

Um yes, sorry. Um staff report, please. I'll go ahead and let the deputy harbor master as well as the finance director um answer any questions regarding this resolution.

Thank you, council members. Um as you know, my name is Kyle Lone. I'm the deputy harbor master with the harbor master Dave Borg at the uh annual harbor master conference this week. I um will be speaking on this resolution. Um, long story short, the uh hair stand of gravel that's here doing our rebuild um is concerned about the corner there um on Xflat and um they need to be able to get in between whiskey and X-ray to remove the uh the two large steel piles um that are part of that project. Um, when this was all put together, uh, it was determined that, um, they'd be able to do it for the stated price, um, which is is is going to be a lot a lot less than what, um, it would be because they have the equipment here, they have the the personnel here, and this um, demolition job also falls under the uh, permits that we have submitted. um which as I understand is is one of the hardest parts of of getting anything like this done is getting the permitting process uh completed. Um as you can see it's the demolition of the small 3-foot u finger pier that was used for the boat lift uh which we no longer own and um do not have plans to immediate plans to reopen. I do know that the excuse me um I know the city with the capital improvement plan um it does include demolishing this dock in the future and replacing it with uh some sort of drive down dock. So we do intend to replace the infrastructure the the council and city um and um yeah I'm sorry are there any

questions? Yes. This wasn't anticipated in the initial bill uh in the initial

as I understand no um it was brought to our attention when they came and visited but I do believe the 100% plans had already been approved at that point. Um um yes I think it was unanticipated. I think they um they were still building the small barge that they're using to pull the and drive pile right now at the time. So, they were unsure if it would if it would uh interfere um with their personnel and um and all the equipment here. It uh it just seems like an opportunity. Um I forgot to mention there are there is a if you look on page 35, you'll see that there are six small green dots. the proposed batter piles on the existing city dock. Those will be installed. It'll also uh create a little bit more morage there if uh any of those larger boats are looking to to offload or unload cargo on the city dock. And those will be uh reused uh piles from the uh demo of uh of the finger. So my essential concern is that to turn back the hands of time this building our initial contract price virtually doubled by the time the building was done and a lot of the issues were anticipatable and what I gathered from your statement is is that the barges being used were under construction so they could not be aware of their ability not to navigate that portion of of the harbor.

The uh I I was personally not present for the entire process, but um I I think it's possible without the destruction of this, but um very tight. It'll also open up that waterway for our users. Um, and especially since since this uh um the 2021 um uh investigation uh I apologize. Um it it it basically found that the um the load rating was was significantly reduced and we would be able to un this would basically be an unusable finger for for pretty much anything um moving forward. Thank you.

Any more discussion? Um, Madame Clerk, will you call the role, please? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Voting on the resolution 2025-035, a resolution authorizing the demolition and disposal of the East Finger Pier at the city dock in the amount of $36,300 and appropriating funds. Mr. Wagner, yes. Miss Borg, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Mr. McCalto, yes. Mr. Denmark, yes. Mr. Mr. Mayor.

Yes. The motion passes and resolution 2025-035 is approved.

Thank you. Let's see here. I believe the other one was taken care of on a consent agenda, I believe. Are we on We're on new business now. Okay. Number three. So, new business evaluation templates for city manager and city attorney reviews. Um, correct. Okay. Is there a

We don't need a motion. I can just tell you what is why this is here. So, um, next month is the annual review of myself and your attorneys. Um, as promised, when I was hired, I would work with, um, ICMA to create a template to help you be able to do an efficient evaluation. Um, I've worked with a couple great mentors in the ICMA project, um, program and they helped me come up with a a to help the council be able to give a good and understandable evaluation for both your city manager and your um, legal team. In the packet tonight is the city manager one. We need to change a couple things with legal and I need to talk to them about that before I give it to you. Uh tonight our goal is to give you this evaluation to have each one of you council members complete it independently and return it to the city clerk no later than August 31st. Um there October 31st, sorry, October 31st. And um a little thing that's different is they were really um adamant about doing a tally team, which would be three members of council that would then tally all of the um the evaluations and then um collect those forms, those completed forms, and then verify the submitted um evaluation. Then they'd enter the council member scores onto a tally sheet and then do an average of them. And then you guys would then schedule a meeting um to either meet with me or do an executive session

the night of in November and we could go over the um the evaluation. So, since the attorneys have not had theirs done for a while, that's why I needed to hold off to get a couple things input from them. But one of the things that I did want to hand out to you guys tonight um for you to be able to take home is um when I was acting city manager, I did send out a survey to all of the employees just to make sure that I was doing the job that needed to be done for the employees as well as the city. So, um this is an evaluation by all of the employees um on me and then this is my achievements for the year. So, I will give those to you. Um new council members, uh you know, I know it's a little hard to evaluate me um because you haven't worked with me as close, but um you can also evaluate what you've seen me do in the community and work with your fellow council members for those things. Um, I just want to remind all the council that I did when I accepted this position, I really did say that um, I hope that we can move forward into a direction in which you evaluate me off of what I've done and not what the past has been.

And I just want to add that um it's been a pleasure and I hope that we can continue moving forward to do great things here in Whittier. Um I do believe that uh Shelby will have to create a tally team now. So uh we propose that the tally team be um randomized. So we select three of you uh out of a hat. Is there any objection to that?

Mr. Wagner, we need your hat. I did not prepare. Sorry. This is council member Wagner going into the hat. Council member loan going into the hat. Council member Shen going into the hat. I've got five going in for Denmark. Don't worry.

I have one for Denmark going into the hat. One for Pen Kush going into the hat. One for Borg going into the hat. And the last one, Monalto. And to keep it really, really, really fair, we'll let the mayor pick them. Oh, we need you to pick three, sir.

You want me to read them? You can read them. All right. The lucky winners are Pen Kush, Denmark, Borg. What was that? So, you are the independent tally team and once you all turn in your uh reviews to the clerk, she will get with you to schedule a time that you can all get together. I I would like to extract. Okay. So, please pull another name.

Malto, that's it. Only one of you get to pull out. You've used yours for the year.

We'll assign you to something else by by voting. Do we need anything else for this one? Shall we? Okay. All right. Um, new business item four, objection to the Outpost liquor outpost liquor door alcohol license renewal.

Is there a staff report anything on this?

Yes. Um, I'm going to read the memorandum just so that it's into the record. Uh, the clerk's office has been notified by the state of Alaska alcohol and marijuana control office an application to renew the alcohol license within the city of Whittier for the following. Um, business type is a package store license is 1075. The doing business as name is the outpost liquor door. Service location is Whittier Harbor and the Lency is Ralph Colin. Following the review of the application and the relevant lease agreements, administration recommends that the city council formably eject the renewal. Background for this is the outpost was formerly located in the triangle area lot A under lease to Mr. Ralph C. RC Colin. The structure on that property was destroyed by a fire in 2011 and was not rebuilt. Despite this, the license application lists the outpost liquor door as operating at that location. Still administration reviewed the city's leases files, found that both the Harbor Triangle lot 13A and Harbor View Lot A, the current site of the Harbor Store, are subject to multiple lease violations and remain out of compliance with their restrictive lease agreements. The findings: The location no longer exists. The outpost building on Harbor Triangle Lot 13A was destroyed by a fire and has not been reconstructed. Triangle lot 13A lease non-compliance. The lease is currently in violation of several provisions of the lease agreement, including but not limited to the use of property inconsistent with the permitted purpose, failure to maintain the premises and improvements in good condition and repair. Unauthorized alterations inconsistent with the permit use. Failure to operate

a liquor store or restaurant as required under the lease. Failure to maintain the premises in an orderly neat and condition clean condition free of hazard and nuisance. Storage of debris, trash and machinery not directly related to the least business. The business operating from different premises. The package store appears to be operating out of the harbor store on the Harborview lot 8 rather than license location as stated on the state license of lot 13A. Harborview lot 8 lease is in non-compliance. The lease is also in violation of lease provisions. is the Harborview lot 8, including failure to maintain premises and improvements in good condition and repair, allowing public and private nuisances to exist on private on property, failure to maintain the premise in orderly, neat, and con clean condition, storage of debris, parts, and equipment unrelated to the business. Number five, failure to respond to the city's compliant request on September 20. On September 8th, 2025, the city requests a written plan from Mr. Colin detailing how he intended to bring both leases in compliance. No response is received within the 30-day period required under the lease terms. The recommendation based on the following above findings, the administration recommends that the city option of objecting to the renewal of the Outpost liquor license on the grounds that the lease premise is no longer exist. the applicant is not in compliance with the terms of his municipal lease for the harbor lots A13A in the triangle and Harborview lot 8. And then we attached the um applications so that you could see that he has the wrong addresses um also located

Tom. So, I have issues with uh at least half of this. Um I have questions that need to be answered and I do not think that they should be asked or answered in a public forum. So, I'd ask that any further discussion on this be moved into an executive session. Mr. Mr. Wagner, if you were to do that, you would need to make sure that you contacted RC Colin to give him the opportunity to ask for it to be in an open session. Executive.

No, no, no. He has the opportunity to ask that your discussion not to be in executive session and be in open session. That's the provision in the executive session code. Basically, if he didn't want you to talk about it behind closed doors, he gets the right to ask for I have spoke to him and he agrees.

Does he have to submit it in writing? [Music] While the application is public record, um he does have to submit in person to let us know that he approves either in writing and then it has to be notorized. It can't be um secondhand. Okay. Yeah, he contacted me this morning. So,

can we postpone this for the till the next meeting or do we need to does a decision need to be made now? Mr. Mayor. Yes. The um alcohol and marijuana office licensing office uh gives the local government a 60-day protest period. If we do not respond within the 60 days, then we do not get an opportunity to protest the license. Um, and unfortunately, because it took us some time to write the letter to Mr. Colin and request his compliance, we did not bring it to you at your September meeting. We brought it at this meeting. So, when is

um I would need to double check, but only a few more days. So you could call a special meeting if you'd like to follow up on this, but it would definitely need to be prompted. So the issue with the state is the address, right? My understanding is the issue with the state is the address of the facility. Uh when we get a license like this, they ask us if they're compliant within the community. Um, yes. Number one, I would say the address is the one of the biggest parts. Um, I it's fixable.

I also think that you could I think we have a city attorney here. He could answer maybe some of those questions for you. Um,

so well either way, but it was stated that the issue with the state was the listed address is still at the facility that burned down and the current operation is at the Harbor Store on Harbor View. And the point I want to make was if this is simply about an address on the state application, that is easily fixed. and presenting this memorandum there's a very subjective component about this about uh I don't know how you stated about um uh disorganization and repair was part of the conversation here which is a subjective have response or yes and so in the in the memorandum here it states administration recommends the city council formally adject to the renewal just I would like to hear from the attorney but just so the attorney is aware I'm I'm I will I will not do that um I would have vote against it but I'm I think this is a carrot and a stick situation you know the man's property burned down. He's got Parkinson's and here we are using a stick on him instead of a carrot. So, I would much rather the council find council administration find a way to help RC rather than take away his liquor license. As Mr. Bender stated, it's worth a lot of money.

I'm Can I ask the lawyer to our lawyer to speak on behalf or Yes. brief us, please? Yes, Mr. Mayor. And I guess I need to What specifically is the question? Are you asking about the formalities of the state alerting the city of Whittier to its right to protest the renewal of an alcohol license or are you asking about the actual specifics of the factual basis underlying the memorandum which would be a question for administration? But if you're asking for questions about the actual legal process with the state,

my first question is this seems we this is stemming from an action by the state for non-compliance which looks to be simply an administrative problem with an mislisted address. I don't think the state started this.

No, Mr. Vice Mayor, as a matter of course, under Title 4, AMCO, the Alaska Marija, the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office must notify local governments of either new applications or renewals uh of licenses for either alcohol or marijuana. Um, and they do so to ensure that the local government has its opportunity to protest this being under title four, which is our alcohol statutes. And under Alaska law, the alcohol beverage control board quote must uphold your protest unless they find that it's arbitrary or combious. Okay. So, the process here

was who is flagging the the misstated location? Is it the state or the city? And the administration will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it is the city that is flagging. It's the city that's flagging the wrong location for the state because we're signing off stating that on an application that it's at this location, you know, at a certain location and we have to say no, it is not at that location. It is at this location and we've done this for three years now.

Okay. And so my followup well if if it is that is the seinal issue here seems to be a correction of address would take care of that from the state's perspective and if we've been doing which could have been done by Mr. RC and multiple occasions and and has been offered to be helped on multiple occasions. The problem we have is Mr. RC may talk to each one of you, but he is not talking to the people that need to help him. Tom,

so quick question. The uh the letter I guess from the uh uh ABC board, was that sent to both the administration and RC separately? Um when did when did RC find out about this? um because he was in full-on panic mode when I talked to him this morning.

RC um Mr. Collins has um received multiple notifications from the city alone. I don't know how many he's received from the state liquor license board, but he has received multiple from us on via um inperson certified email, telephone, every way we could reach out except for by smoke signal.

Okay. I'm Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm not going to pick sides here. Um I I think that we need to do our due diligence and get him in here and sit down. Um look, I I've heard both sides that he has said that he has tried to reach out. He cannot get a phone call back. And I I'm not going to I'm not going to debate on who's telling the truth here, but this is a big deal. And um this decision cannot be made tonight. So we need to come up with some way to put this on ice and satisfy the ABC board to do so so we can sort this out.

Mr. Wagner, I am going to debate that because we have multiple lines and we have multiple ways that we have tried to contact Mr. RC. So if you can get him in here, that is great. We appreciate it. But I just do not want it to seem as if we have not done our best part to reach out. We have done everything that we can for the last three years to have Mr. RC come in and talk to us about all of his leases. And and this is why I didn't want to talk about this in open session because it's going to turn into a he said, she said. Jackie, I believe you. I also believe that RC's got some serious medical issues that he may be confused

and and we have talked to him in multiple ways and I understand that and believe me I understand when people have medical issues. I am just saying that um tonight we made a recommendation. It doesn't mean that you have to follow that recommendation as a council. we do what you ask us to do as a whole. But um in the future when it comes to these type of things, it does set a precedence whether or not you know when we try to um start moving forward as we have been on other leases, it sets a precedence across the board. I just need that to be very clear

and I agree. I agree. Um but I guess my question is yeah, it's very easier for us to vote no on this or to table it. How is that going to stop the ABC board if he's only got a few more days to comply?

And Mr. Wagner, if I may, this is just a routine notice from the state that went to the lency and also the city saying, "City, you now have 60 days to lodge an objection as a matter of course for any reason." There's nothing in this letter from the state that seemingly indicates that they are aware of the issues. This is boilerplate. They send this out for every single license renewal in the state. Also for every new license application as well. This is I don't believe they are aware of these problems or at least they're not indicating so here. Denmark.

Thank you. It so we've let it slide for three years. Now it's an issue. We I don't see why we're pressing this hard right now. Uh given RC's personal circumstance, he can be a difficult man to work with. I am aware of that. Um he has spoken to a number of counselors and um maybe with some prompting from them he can be dragged into the city office to address these issues. Finally,

and I just want to say that it's been me dealing with him for three years, but this has been an issue for 14 years because the building did burn down in 2011

Jamie. Um, I guess I just want like some just to be like super clear and uh to clarify that it's not just the matter of the address, right? Which I think would be maybe the easiest fix. It I'm looking at this list. Unauthorized alterations inconsistent with permit use, failure, failure to operate a liquor store on required lease, failure to maintain premises, um, storage of debris, trash and machinery. Um, I really I I on the one hand I want to treat everybody the same and on the other hand I also think that we should be helping people get become compliant. Um but I guess I just has has prior to this letter the city has reached out to him about all these issues. Is is that the case

like how first job then my first week I started here. Okay. Thank you. I have a question on the property and is Scott still with us? Scott, that that lot where the liquor store burnt down slough during that earthquake and the repairs were made. Is that lot totally usable at this point? Slough. It was the outside retaining wall that sloughed. It was repaired. Uh he has water and sewer uh available to that lot. um 100% usable.

So for clarification, you can build on that.

As far as I know, the answer is yes, we did add we used this for a staging area for uh the repairs to the breakwater out front. We left took the remaining gravel that was there, spread it out over the lot, leveled it up to prevent some uh minor ponding that was occurring on his lot here. So, the laundry um the non-compliance list here, this is all stemming from a conversation about an address as the precursor. And then now we're getting involved in the some component of the nuisance ordinance about unsightly uh stuff around the building, storage of debris, parts and equipment. Um I think if you talk to RC that all of those old metal floats, anchors and chains are supposed to pass as art. whether they pass this art or not, Mr. Denmark, um according to the way that his lease is written, those things should not be there. So, um just to to try to help move this along, you as a council can agree to go ahead and let this um let us not have an objection. We'll still be um working towards the um lease portions of that. And with that being said, um you can see the long line of val of violations on his lease properties and we will keep continuing moving forward. Um this was just a way to try to help Mr. um Colin come in and

talk to us so that we could help him become compliant in which he did not. We gave him plenty of opportunity. So um you as a council can do um as you wish. You know, my understanding is one of the tasks we assigned our administration to is um our leases, getting them in compliance, cleaning them up. And I right now it looks to me that like they're trying to to do that. And I guess with this um objection, I guess my question is how or the ramifications I guess for our legal team or administration ramification if they were to go through and he had to getting things in compliance like like I I I want to see things come into compliance. That's you know my my position here but I'd like also that you know we have latitude for resilience that whatever um you know um penalty they may suffer that we can come back from that.

So Mr. Mayor, um if the council objects to the renewal of this license under Alaska statute, the board, the um alcoholic beverage control board must uphold it. Therefore, that means they cannot renew the license. Absent them conducting a hearing and finding that your action was arbitrary and capriccious. Other than that finding, they would have to deny the renewal of the license if you object to it. When can they reapply for a renewal?

At that point, if the board were to deny the renewal application, the lency could seek administrative appeal of that and therefore they would have a hearing to determine whether your decision was arbitrary and capriccious. Assuming they find that it's not, he could then pursue remedies in the superior court. assuming he exhausts all of his avenues in the court system and administratively it would require a new license application to get an to get a license at that point if that answers your question and I did look it up if the body does not object by the 25th which is a Saturday so you would get till the 27th on Monday the you lose your legal aility to object to the license renewal Denmark,

the liquor store is closed until spring right now. Anyway, there's a given the laundry list attached to this if if the license is terminated, he basically has no chance to get back. RC will is unable to go through any of those processes. And as frustrating as the process has been for the administration, I would like to see this get moved into the wintertime, find a way to get RC in town and sat down. And when we get into the nuisance components of this memorandum, there's a shades of gray conversation as you look all the way down the harbor at the same time. Now, there were only two lease holders that were noted as uncompliant, as noted in the waterfront development study. There are issues down the way, some big, some small. And it has been my, pardon the soap box, it has been my hope as an aging city councelor here that the evolution that the city of Whittier is engaged in at this point will allow for some discretion and for some help for those who are aging out of here, those who have put decades into Whittier. And we all know how Whittier has been historically run. Um that was status quo for a great number of years and there are people on their way out here. I am hoping that the city administration and this council will help them find their

way to their ultimate destiny destiny uh instead of just getting kicked to the curb as our current evolution is a foot. Thank you,

Penosh. So, so we're beating this a long time, but so here is my opinion and I and I think I got from most of you the same thing. Um, so I'm going to offer this as a summary to the administration and hope and you guys can agree or disagree that that that's what we're looking for. I don't think the use of the liquor license is is where where we should go. Period. We shouldn't address it. Just just let it let them get it. On the other hand, I do agree we need to start working toward getting the leases cleaned up and and and I support that 100%. Um, but the liquor license is not the answer. Not not the not the stick to use in any case far as I'm concerned because it's too valuable. That's a that's you know that's worth a lot more than the leases itself. So, but anyway, that's my opinion. And it seemed like I I heard that is we don't want to protest the license, but we are in support of getting the leases working on the leases to clean them up.

Second one. It's not a motion. It's just a statement of

and I I agree with that statement. Uh Council Member Penush through the mayor. I would like a vote on the um possibly instead of objection changing it to the non-objection so that um our clerk can notify the state that you are not against this liquor license in a due time. So just like you've always had you've normally had it in front of you and it would say nonobjection to the outpost liquor door alcohol license renewal. Um, if we can have a motion to non-object to it, I would appreciate that. Okay. I move to non-object to the liquor license for the Outpost Outpost liquor store. Um, that is addressed in the memorandum on October 21st, 2025 by the city of Whittier.

Second. Any further discussion

Jamie um what uh moving forward what does this change any precedent for any other non-compliant leases as we're moving forward because I have a lot of empathy for this situation and I I it's this is actually This is this discussion has been really hard for me because I'm trying to do the right thing, but I would like everyone to be given the same the same empathy, you know. So, I mean, I guess I just if does this have any rand sorry ramifications um moving forward for any other leases or renewals or anything like that?

Um I would hope not. I would like to um after you do this vote, possibly ask Mr. Penush if he would vote to agree with the um tactics and the way that we are moving forward to help all lease holders become compliant because we are trying to help them. We're not just trying to kick them to the curb. We are trying to help them in every way possible. Um I've I've been doing this for many many years. It's very hard. But um you know I think there's been many times where myself and the finance director have sat right here in front of you and said it's going to come down to a very very hard decision that you're going to have to make when we start working on these leases. And um while I understand it and um agree with the way that Pen Kush has asked for this to be done, I also want you to know that as these come forward, um you will be the hearing officers when they come to appeal it. And so you need to know that you have to be able to support your administration that they've done everything. This is not just a simple look for it in a document and try to see what's gone. You know, we've told you for many years that the leases are a mess and we are trying to clean them up. We're not picking on anybody. We're not picking and choosing. We have started in one corner and and done and helped some people become compliant. And I'm really proud of those people. I mean, even when it comes to building new, um, we have people that seem to want to fight the process and then we have people that come in and say, "Just tell me what we need to do." So, um, at the same time, once this vote is done, I'm just going to really hold to the fact that I appreciate Mr. Penush saying he agrees that the leases do need to be cleaned up.

And if I may, uh, the city manager, I do not disagree with that at all. I have been advocating that for for decades. Um I'm looking and Jaime's we're looking for some empathy as we approach some of the historical issues that still prevail here will be appreciated.

All of the empathy is here. They just need to come and talk to us. We need they they need to and even if they call you, I need a call and maybe I can get on with that call with one of you, you know, because it is very hard. You hear one thing and you don't know what we've done or, you know, you're only hearing bits and pieces of it. And and so if anybody from the community calls you, I would really hope that you would call me and say, "Jackie, this is what's happened." And some of you do, and I really appreciate that. And I think that this is a prime example. We have been working with him for many, many years and I can't get him to come in and sit down. Okay. Motion further discussion. Um, we call a roll call. Voting on the motion to of non-objection to the alcohol license renewal for the outpost liquor door. Mr. Pinkush,

yes. Mr. Denmark, yes. Mr. Wagner, yes. Mr. McCalto, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Miss Borg, no. Mr. Mayor. Yes. The motion passes 6 to1 and uh the alcohol license renewal for the outpost liquor door is nonobjected to.

All right. And next item, council comments. Tom. So, although he's left, I just wanted to say uh a big thank you to uh Dan Blair for all his years of service. We may not all have agreed with his politics, but uh you know, serving on the city council for almost two decades is uh quite a feat. And I just wanted to say thank you to him. I wish he was here to say in person.

Yep. Just off the top of my head, a consideration or a thought about the leases itself. Um in the past we had well we the leases weren't on the land, right? So it took what took we did years of moving survey lines and all that to figure all that out. Have we got have we got that all sorted out yet or not? And and let me finish before you reply. But and the reason I say that is I I kind of think an approach of rather than one one lease at a time, it's one problem with the lease at time because that was that was one step that we wanted to fix. Then we had people living on the property and campers. So we kind of just picked you know that this you're all out of compliance here. you need to fix this and start doing it kind of one at a time to in general picking the the thing that most most of the leases are out of rather than just each individual lease. It's just a thought, but and then we could work toward the cleansiness on all of them. Most of them are pretty good and maybe maybe that's not needed at this point, but that was what we did years ago. We kind of just looked at one violation at a time instead of all of them. um to answer that I the the problem is and I think I've said this before is how those leases were written. That specific intent portion is really where the non-compliancy hits most of these these leases. Um but as far as cleaning up lot lines and those type of things, you know, you you did approve for GIS. We had surveyors down last year. the GIS is up and coming and and in January our 911 will be up and going and you will start getting new addresses. So those things are all happening and those are other ways that we've helped these people become compliant in the leases. But a lot of them are just the intent. It would have

just been so simple to say harbor commercial use intent harbor commercial use. But unfortunately um that was not how these were written and a lot of them were written where they have to supply yearly business plans and you know it's just strange and so it's really hard to just go one at a time. You know, when you have somebody that's got five leases, going one at a time is extremely hard when you'd rather just pull all of them together and say, "Okay, here's what's not in complian lease one through five. Let's figure out how we can help you." But we do we do it in a way that you know I I feel we reach out to them in many ways and then it gets to the the part where we have to do certified letters and then we have to bring in attorneys and I don't want to do any of that. I would like to be able to you know I don't want to have to pull people's leases but you may get there. You may have it where administration pulls people's leases because they've just absolutely refused to to do what's the requirements are and that's going to come in front of you at some point unfortunately.

Well, we now know so I for one I know many of us got calls from RC but RC will hear from this council member also. So

you know I like to speak on the leases as well. You know that's something that we are asking our administration to get on. I um you know I want to see these leases and compliance at the same time. I don't I guess this process I um I guess would have liked to use this tool but I felt that you know kind of along along with you have individuals be able to come to meetings and speak on that behalf and have a chance to reply. Um, and I understand that you've been working on it for a while, but yeah, moving forward, um, that's something I'd like to see is we have these things, we have our tools that we can use for compliance, but a process where they have a chance, you know, saying like to come in, I don't know, using a um, and be able to respond or comment or to this stuff. Um, yes, there will be a lot of uncomfortable things in the future. Um, I appreciate your work. Thank you. Any other council comments? Um, next item, citizen discussion. If there's any citizens discuss discussion, the time is limited to 5 minutes per speaker on any subject over which the commission um citizen or the council has control. Again, this is not time for dialogue. Rather, it is a time for citizens to speak and the council to listen. Madam clerk, is there anybody signed in for citizens discussion?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. First is Representative Kai Kai Holland. Okay.

Good evening, council, and congratulations to those of you in the new positions, Mr. Mayor and Vice Mayor. Good for you. Good luck. Um, just a couple updates tonight. Um the uh storm of course out in southwestern Alaska has been taking a lot of attention for all of us and just want to encourage you to be uh aware of the support the Alaska Community Foundation is providing for folks that want to help out with that. And uh if you have other questions, we've got other resources in the office if you're trying to learn about how to help or uh opportunities that are uh uh being still organized at this point. Um since uh last time I was here, I just wanted to update you. I was out at the confluence conference in Kodiak a few weeks ago. This is focused on outdoor recreation. A lot of issues I think overlap with Whittier in terms of the development you're trying to do with the visitor industry and focus there on outdoor recreation and how do we support outdoor recreation services and the development of those businesses. So continue to work on that. I'm also attending the Alaska Travel Industry Association conference that's going on in Anchorage this week and I've been able to meet with some of the folks involved with the Huna Totem project there and trying to stay up to date with their efforts on both the success of this first season and plans for next season. So, um looking forward to any input that people have down the road on additional work on uh your projects that you'd like to see focused in on. Um, and then I'll continuing to monitor the railroad project, but I know we're you have your work still going on. So, I'm still working uh with the uh legislation on that. That's just kind of waiting for you to tell me that you're ready for something to move ahead or if you need changes with that as that develops. Um, we're starting to work on the capsus. That's the capital projects process we go through each year for collecting uh capital project requests from the

community. Um last year um our top priority um top priority was actually your EMS ambulance replacement. We had that in there and out of the um Senator Geel's uh area which combines both my area and represent cops that was our top priority. Unfortunately none of the capsus proposals in the state were funded. We didn't have any extra money. We were essentially just investing in critical necessary transportation projects which did include the tunnel here and some of the other highway projects, but some of the other community projects didn't get funded. But I'd like to encourage you to consider applying again for that. Um I'm also aware that there was interest on the part of your EMS personnel to look at some proposals around some upgraded um newer generation extraction equipment um so that you have more of the tools that are being used today to help facilitate vehicle extraction projects. So um the deadline for that will not be until sometime in late January, but it's a good time to start working on that if there's any sort of quotes and details you want to be preparing on that. I think it's still important to be providing these to us even though the funding situation looks kind of dire. It helps elevate our awareness of your needs, but it's also for me u it's helpful to be able to share how important your work is and how important these assets are to our community because you're providing emergency first responder services from Turnigan Arm out, you know, into the north side of Turnigan Arm to this whole area here. So being able to share those requests and the importance and the value that they provide is really important even if we have to somehow find some other pathways for funding. Um and uh the other thing I'll just mention and this will get me into trouble but I I don't mind that once in a while is we'll have our time zone change again on November second coming up. And one of the bills I'm carrying is one of the many bills

looking at ending our twice a year clock change. Um, and there's um, I think pretty broadbased support to end the clock change process. Where there is not consensus on is where to bring it to. Do we bring it to Alaska standard time, which is where we should be in terms of where the sun is over top of us. So, kind of balances out the day. There's a little more sun in the morning and our health is there. There's a lot of studies that this is a healthier way to live with the sun coming up early in the day. Or do we go with staying with Alaska daylight savings time, which is something that if you're doing a lot of things in the evening, particularly folks that are in the recreational industry, folks that are doing kayak tours, sport fishing, taking tours out, they like the daylight saving sign because it a light into the evening. So, do we do what's kind of healthy and good for people? Do we do what's good for the economy and some of the recreational opportunities? So, as it happens, I'm carrying a bill that would be the one that puts it on to Alaska standard time. That is shifts it to where the sun should be overhead and a little more morning light, a little less evening light. Um, the Senate has prioritized the daylight savings time option shifting it. So, I'm not sure we'll get past that impass, but I would love your input on this. The other final thing I'll say on this is that if we were to change it to daylight say or to to Alaska standard time where the sun should be, we as a state can do that right now. We don't have to ask the feds for permission. We could be done with this. If we go with a bill that says stay on daylight savings time, then we have to get the permission of the federal government. and that has been stalled

for many states and they have essentially stopped and backed up. So, um I'm with some trepidation going to keep this bill moving ahead. I realize I could get myself in all sorts of trouble with folks that want to see this as a hard issue, but personally, I don't like changing the clocks. I get grumpy. I'm unhappy for a week afterwards. I would love your input on this issue, though. With the time change coming up on November 2nd, you'll get a chance to change your clocks one more time, think about it. And you know, I would appreciate your input or anyone who's listening on helping me understand whether or not to move ahead with this legislation. Um, or perhaps because of your focus on the evening tourism market, you may say, you know, this is better for us to have the evening hours. I'd understand both sides of it. But anyway, I'm happy to uh be available. I've left a few flyers out on the table. has got my emails, phone numbers, uh contact information. I would welcome any u uh requests or uh information on anything I'm working on. Thanks for your time tonight.

So, if we move to standard time, if Alaska were to move to standard time, clocks would not be falling back in November. At which point where where would it be today if we were on on standard time? So currently we are on daylight savings time, right?

And we will in November 2nd our clocks will fall back an hour. So in the fall we get the extra hour of sleep so it's not such a big deal. Most people don't mind the fall back thing. It's the springtime when we have to get up an hour earlier. That's when folks get kind of grumpy. So, um, at this point, um, if we were to pass this bill, pretty sketchy, but if we were, then we would change our clocks in November, we would change our clocks again in March 8th because there's no way for the legislative process to spin around. So, at March 8th, we would go back on daylight savings time. And then next fall in November, we'd go back to standard time, and that would be the end of it.

Thank you. Thanks for your time tonight. Thank you. Thank you, K. Next on the list is Sheree Curry.

Hello everyone. I have my USS Ted Stevens Commission Committee hat on tonight.

He shut it off. Okay, great. I have my USS Ted Stevens Commissioning Committee hat on tonight. Um, very excited and first of all, congratulations everybody that was elected and um, it's a new day in in Whittier. Um, very excited to announce that we have a date for the commissioning. And for those of you that are new, the way this all came about that Whittier was even being looked at was two years ago, the Navy um, came up to um, look around for the best place to do a commissioning. We looked in um on the list when um Chuck and I took the project on um we looked in uh was Anchorage and Seward and then Chuck said, "What about Whittier with their new terminal and everything?" And we brought them here and the Navy fell in love with this location. Um they have not signed off on this location yet. Um there's that little thing called the federal government shutdown and those decision makers are currently on furlow. But they did decide on Alaska and we have no reason to think that Whittier won't be signed off on for um the week of September 28th to October 3rd with the commissioning on the 3rd. So we have less than a year. So I loved listening to some of these beautifification projects on these leases and things like that because I have no no reason to believe it's not going to be in Whittier. Captain Mary Katie Hayes um has chosen Whittier with a few stops around the state. So we'll be putting together some planning committees. We we do have a list of committees, but Whittier is going to need their own their own committees and already working with Harbor Master um Borg and uh Tor Wallen. Um Harbor Master is helping us with the DOT and then tour of course out at Huna Totem and we'll need lots of boots on the ground. We may be I don't know when all your boats got pulled up. I haven't been here for a few weeks, but we may need to extend your summer one more week next year. Um, did the boats just come in just now or over the last

couple of weeks? All the boats are stored around town. It's a slow process. It's a slow process. Okay. When do the um when do the buildings start, you know, the businesses start shutting down? Midepptember. Midepptember. So, maybe we can talk about some extensions for some of these hospitality businesses. Anyway, there'll be 350 sailors out there wanting to probably hang out in the in the evenings after they come back in from their parties. So, um that's what we got for now. I do believe we'll have a full answer by the end of the month, uh end of November, and we'll keep everybody posted. Any questions? Nope. It's very exciting. Thank you.

Cool. I'm just going to say she did say that she needed volunteers. And since you drew your name out of the hat, put his name in that hat. Mr. Denmark [Music] open. Yeah. And And your name is in the hat now. She's going to draw it for volunteering. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, no one else has signed in.

Okay. Thank you. Is anyone in the audience who would like to speak? Come on up to the podium. I figure since a short list, I'll take this opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First, congratulations to Miss Borg, Mayor Shin, Vice Mayor Denmark, Council Member Loan, and Council Member Wagner for your uh elections and re-elections and appointments. I also believe it's an exciting time for Whittier. I wanted to just recap quick in regards to the liquor store renewal topic because I didn't get a chance to speak before because I didn't actually read about it until Mr. Bender was walking to the podium and told me the number it was. So, thank you, Mr. Bender. City manager said you could be setting precedent. Um, as a business owner, I'm very concerned about this topic. I would caution and conure and encourage you to recognize that precedent is what makes it hard for you down the road to address or terminate any agreement or lease that legally you would like to terminate or address when you make exceptions based on personal relationships. The business owner in discussion afforded our business an opportunity of a lifetime to start a business here. So, I have a personal relationship with this person, too, and I'm forever grateful, but also would like to see this community cleaned up in a way that it has probably never seen before. Um, that aside, as a business owner, community member, I want this community in its best form for v visitors and future business owners and potential new community members. So, when people come to this town and see opportunities to take on a lease, open a business, move here, recreate here, they do drive around. We see him, Peter. We watch each other watch. They drive around the triangle. Some have no idea and they think it's amazing what a uh primitive primitive area this is. But other people might be considering this as a new home.

Some of you moved here for reasons other than council, business, etc. Uh Dave Pinish is right. It's time to start addressing the issues. I was I was happy to hear you say that we should separate this liquor license issue from the issue of the leases. I think that's a good move. Um, but I think it's a good direction in course for council telling administration that we do need to address these um, leases, but maybe not to hold folks accountable for things that may uh, cut their nose off despite their face. Uh, USS Ted Stevens, that update. Wow. I just wanted to say since I just heard that, um, I know it isn't completely official yet, but we will 100% be open for that just like we were through October 8th this year. And um the opportunities that these cruise ships and other uh things have brought to our business locally um have helped us grow tremendously and we're really um as a that that this hat on with um a representative Prince William Sound Sco we're really happy to be a member of the community and um really love to see this um progression of the community. So thank you for your time.

Thank you Mr. Ros. Is there anyone else in the audience who would

uh Ross Carlson um first of all congratulations everybody and I I might have thrown a couple of things on the way up here to talk about this. So hopefully it comes off cool and collect which is not really what I'm known for. But I'll tell you it really just seems like we kick cans down the road. And I'll tell you from this from on top sitting in my loader I literally watch one pile of junk get moved to another spot to get moved to another spot to get moved to another spot. And every time that pile of junk gets moved, something falls off. And inevitably, there's a few people in town that are tasked with picking that junk up. It's literally what people see when they come to this great and wonderful town. Been here 3 years. I don't think I'm ever going to leave now. Whether my wife shoots me for it or not, I don't know. But I love it here. I'm raising my family here. This place is amazing. But literally, the first thing you see when you come this town, junk, junk, junk, junk. And all we seem to do is move it. We talking about carrot and stick giving people opportunities. People have had opportunities, multiple opportunities, thousands of opportunities. I picked those opportunities right out of the blower every winter. Every time people move their junk from one side of the town to the other. So when we're talking about enforcement and what we'd like to see, understand every time that opportunity that we've given somebody ends up out in the road, it cost the city money. So something to think about when we're giving people opportunities to come into compliance. I think 10 years is a long ding on time. That's all you got to say. Thank you. Anyone else in the audience who would like to speak? Let's see. Council administration responses to citizen comments.

So, so maybe if we do have that ship come in, those sailors can be we can have a petition. They can sign up whether that anchor and that that old moring buoy is art or junk. Either that or have them bring paint and paint it. But um but actually Kai what you mentioned your um the recreational that you in Kodiak that recreation. So, I have a a little something to plug in there is there's a house bill that didn't go anywhere last year. It was in committee, but it didn't come out. I don't remember the number, but it is to it is to uh designate the u makeup of the board of fish. and the guy over there probably can help you with exactly what it is. But um anyway, I I think it's a very valuable I'm not sure what the requirement is now, but for the last 30 years, it's kind of been four commercial fisherman and three sport kind of one subsistence back and forth. This would actually make it um two sport, two commercial, two subsistence, and a scientist I think is the latest if I remember correctly. But anyway, I think that would be very valuable. Um, I assume it's going to be res resubmitted this year. And and a little backup on that of why it's valuable. And I I could be wrong on my numbers. It's been 12 years, but in 2013, the federal government did a study on the value of of of fish caught. and Alaska and Texas were the two states that did not participate in this. But if I remember it correctly, it it the study came out and said that uh a pound of fish caught by a commercial fisherman puts a $14 a dollar 40 it's either $142 or dollar Yeah, it was $147 into the economy. A pound of sport caught fish puts $142 into the economy. Um, so minute movements of commercial fish to sport the sport side, the commercial fisherman wouldn't even notice and it could be

huge to the economy of Alaska. So just since you mentioned the sport, I'd like you to be aware of that. Thank you. Mayor, I just have one more. Um, Kai, would it be helpful if I could get the council to write a resolution supporting your movement for time? Is that something that I can get a head nod from all the council that administration can write that? Okay, we will get that for you.

Any other council or administration comments, responses? Okay, next general item is executive session. Um, can I say who's to be in? Yes. Um, Jackie, will you list who needs to be in this meeting, please? Yes. Um, I need our finance director to stay on the line, our contractors to be in the room, our acting assistant city manager, and of course all of you lovely council members. Okay. You don't need to. You can. You're free. Um, do you want to make a motion for then take a quick break?

You are more than welcome to stay for it. So, we'll keep the attorney in here, too. Okay. Um, break first or a motion. Okay. Is there is there a motion, a second to I'll second. Thank you. Roll call. Voting on the motion to enter into executive session to discuss the Alaska Railroad Corporation land purchase as per Rier Municipal Code 2.08.04 OB1 matters that if immediately disclosed would tend to adversely affect the finances of the city. Mr. Wagner, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Mr. McCalto.

Mr. Malto has stepped away from the dis. Mr. Denmark, yes. Miss Borg, yes. Mr. Mayor, yes. The motion passes and council enters into executive session at 8:57 p.m.

We're back. Is there a motion and a second to exit executive session? I'll make the motion. I'll second. Roll call. Voting on the motion to exit executive session. Mr. Wagner, yes. Miss Loan, yes. Mr. McCalto, yes. Mr. Pinkush, yes. Mr. Denmark, yes. Miss Borg, yes. Mr. Mayor, yes. The motion passes and council exits executive session at 9:50 p.m.

Is there a motion and a second to direct administration to respond to Alaska Railroad Corporation's second proposal with agreement to purchase AOI lot 1, AOI 2, and AOI3 at a total of 4,893,321. I'll make that motion. I'll second it. Any discussion? Okay. I just need to make sure that the clerk re um makes sure that it says railroad lot AOI1. Railroad lot AOI2. Okay. I'll repeat it.

Ready to vote, Mr. Mayor? Yes. Roll call. Voting on the motion to direct administration to respond to Alaska Railroad Corporation's second proposal with agreement to purchase Alaska Railroad Corporation AOI1, Alaska Railroad Corporation AOI 2 and Alaska Railroad Corporation AOI3 at a total of 4,893,321. Mr. Wagner, yes. Miss Borg, yes. Miss Loan. Yes. Mr. Denmark. No, Mr. Denmark. That is not legally allowed.

Well, then I'm going to have to vote. No. This is a whole lot to drop on a person. Mr. Denmark. I only um I only take your My vote is no. Thank you, Mr. McCalto. Yes. Mr. Pinkush. No. The motion passes for Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. How do you vote, Mr. Mayor? Yes. The motion passes 5 to two.

That's pretty good decision. 15 minutes strong. Mr. Denmark, this is only us bringing a resolution forward to you in November.

All right. Call a meeting adjournment. I'll make that motion. at 9:53 p.m.