Mr.

Allen, are we ready back there?

All right.

I call the January 7th, 2026 Assembly Finance Committee meeting to order.

Miss Wendell, will you call roll or no role?

Thank you, Chair Wall.

We have all assembly members present in chambers besides Mayor Weldon, who is present on Zoom.

Thank you.

That brings us to approval of minutes.

You have the December 1st, 2025 minutes in front of you.

Any changes to those minutes.

Seeing none, those are so moved.

That brings us to agenda topics, and we will start with the FY2027 draft AFC budget calendar.

Ms.

Flick.

Thank you, Chair Wool.

In your packet on page 10, you will find a memo from Chair Wool and myself bringing to you some options and just wanted to get some discussion on how to approach the FY27 budget, given the um number of decisions that are expected to need to be made.

Two joint meetings that are just there for discussion.

Nothing has been scheduled.

We've not talked to the other boards.

So don't get excited about anything.

Just um if we wanted to have some additional um joint meetings, those are a couple of dates that might work with the parties that might work.

Those are just notating that there's two kinds of meetings on those particular nights.

That we want to, you know, wait for some of that feedback before we make decisions.

We'll start that tonight.

So if they are going to be services that we may potentially be considering um altering in our budget, now is a good time to start asking those questions of our partner agencies.

We'll start that tonight.

We've got two folks who are gonna two organizations who are gonna give us an update on what they've been up to.

We also have put tentatively here joint meetings with the airport, Dawson Harbors School Board, Bartlett and Eagle Crest kind of earlier than we normally would.

Some of those folks will be done with their budgets.

And so that will be a time for us to um, you know, review what we typically would.

If others aren't quite done, then it would be a time for us to give them the direction that they'll need.

Um so when when we finalize things, we're on the same page.

In the past, we've done that kind of right at the beginning.

Um, so this will be a bit earlier.

Um, other than that, I'd say there's a we've built room in here.

We don't exactly know how things are gonna go when we get into April and May.

Um, and so I would love feedback now or as we go in terms of how you guys want to be having these decisions.

So maybe what I'd ask is um if you have questions tonight, definitely ask those any feedback tonight, kind of um on what you want to see in this process would be helpful.

And then we can maybe talk about a few dates um before we move on this evening.

Thanks.

So I'll uh see if folks have questions first.

Mr.

Smith.

Thanks.

Um and sorry if you said it a a shift that I see is it just remind me.

In the past, we would have likely heard from it at least the airport docks and harbors and Bartlett at the all day retreat on Saturday.

Um this is meant to move that earlier.

And it may be that we don't make, you know, they come back with tweaks for us later in the process, but this is basically meant to take what used to be at the all-day retreat and move it into January, February, and March.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um seeing no other questions.

I oh, Mr.

Smiths.

I I was gonna say if if if you're ready for comments.

I'm ready for comments.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I I think this, I mean, it's a robust schedule, but I think clearing space on the all-day meeting is wise.

Um I'd have to look and see, you know, which I guess it looks like from April to May, we have pretty much booked every Wednesday, which I think is also wise.

Um, you know, part of me was maybe gonna just say it's unfortunate, but I mean, it but I don't know if we should put April 15 down as like TBD so that we block it out now, like if we do need it, and then maybe we can cancel or something, but um, that would just be one thought just because we may need all of these, and I mean, hopefully we get a Wednesday off in those two months, but that may not be the that may not be in the cards for us this year.

So um, but strong strong calendar and schedule, um, Madam Chair, Ms.

Flick, thank you.

I think it's might be what we need to do.

Thank you.

Miss Hughes Candies.

Uh thanks, Madam Chair.

I appreciate this.

Uh, really appreciate I agree what we can get out of the way.

So it's not taking up time on the budget retreat day is a good idea, but also just sort of robust is a good word.

But seeing uh I was one of the people who has expressed uh, I feel pretty fervently that we need to start sooner.

I feel an anxiousness to start work now, but I recognize the public's part of that process.

Uh staff is part of that process, and we don't want to be working almost to the detriment of letting staff do their work.

So trying to figure out what that balance is.

I imagine this looks good to me.

I imagine that I'll have um more feedback as we go along.

It's good to talk to partners and I've talked with you a little bit about this one-on-one.

I think we will discover hopefully as we go along what that space is and what that pacing is for, I don't want to say squarely ideas, but ideas that may not naturally be an idea that you our staff are gonna put on the calendar or the process because there are things we haven't thought about before.

One thing that I have brought up before is, you know, if you were to keep a facility and like a keep warm status versus closing it, you know.

I think like when we actually get closer to talking about service reductions or things like that, we might have more ideas like that.

Um so making sure we have room uh to talk about those things.

So I think this looks great.

Thanks.

We we did start a squirrel ideas list already um in the background.

And so I I appreciate that.

I think at some point we'll kind of give folks deadlines on like if there are cuts or you know, changes that you yourself are going to be championing that we, you know, that you come prepared with information on that.

And so, you know, I know staff will be working hard on their budget, but it's probably not never too early if you've got something that you're gonna be exploring to do that with with staff, and staff can come to us when they say, you know, we're spending too much time on this thing, the whole body needs to talk about it.

Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, I should call out early.

Uh I I know I've talked with you a little bit about the scheduling of that um Saturday retreat.

I will just say personally, I for me to be attending that whole day on the 18th will be a challenge.

I would do my best to be engaged at least maybe on item C.

Um, but I due to the calendar as it was presented and things anyway.

I I do not want to upset the ship.

And if that's the best day that works for staff and the most assembly members, uh clearly go ahead, but I just want to lag that is um that I would not be able to participate all day on that day.

I I think our number one priority is that everyone can participate all day on our retreat.

And so the reason that we sh we thought about shifting it was because folk fest is the weekend before we know that people participate in that, and you know, if we could shift it, but my my thought would so we really have three potential dates and we should decide tonight.

Um, April 4th, I believe is um a possibility that is Easter weekend.

And so we are concerned that that might be family time for folks.

April 11th, which is folk fest, which I know people enjoy, but that's probably you know something that we can give up if we need to, or April 18th, which I think now is out because I would say if Mr.

Smith's not gonna be there, that that's number one priority for me.

So I will um look to the body to see if there are folks who have opposition to April 4th or April 11th.

Miss Hugh Scandies.

Um, thanks, Madam Chair.

I would say April 4th in that case works a lot better for me than April 11th.

April 11th is always hard.

Uh the week of focus is always a hard one for me to get to Miss Hall.

Yeah, and I I would oppose to April 4th because of the fact that it is Easter weekend, and that's um would be akin to scheduling something close to Christmas.

Yeah, thank you.

Any other comments?

I I think given that I think we've got to stick with April 11th.

Um, since that was what was on the calendar, and I know it's missing scandies.

Thanks.

I will um obviously go with what was on the previously approved calendar.

I will also say that um Easter is not as secularly as greatly celebrated holiday as it is uh Christmas and so not celebrating the Easter holiday myself.

Um it will be hard for me, but I will see what I can do to make it work on the 11th.

All right, anything else um on this?

I realize looking at this one thing that's missing is no room for discussion of potential finance-related ballot initiative.

So we will have to figure out where to put that because I imagine that will um I know the three percent um is up, will be coming up, and there may be other things.

So something to keep in mind.

We'll figure out where to put it.

Oh, madam mayor, go ahead.

Is the Saturday gonna be on April 11th or April 18th?

I was confused, you know what we had on April 11th.

All right.

Um, I think that brings us to partner agents.

Go ahead.

Um, could we um get an affirmation from the body that there's a desire to have these joint meetings?

Um, and do these dates work for this body, and then we can work with those others to try to get that scheduled.

Those meetings being ones that if you have to attend virtually is also acceptable.

Um folks cool with joint meetings.

This means you know, more third more Wednesdays getting it done.

Okay.

Looks good.

Thank you.

All right.

That brings us to partner agency program updates.

Um, we've asked the Alaska Committee and Southeast Childhood Collective to come in, give us a 15-minute presentation on what they've been up to.

We did give them some guidance to you know, give us some budget information um as they do that so we can start thinking about it and um there'll be some time for questions.

So uh Mr.

Jensen, I think you are first up to assembly.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

And you should press the button on the microphone for you, and when it turns green.

Yes, thank you.

And yeah, when um feel free to go ahead whenever you're ready.

Okay, my name is Wayne Jensen.

I'm the chair of the Alaska Committee.

Uh, give you a little bit of background on the Alaska Committee.

It was formed over 30 years ago uh to become more proactive uh representing the capital city and to uh do what we can to enhance the capital city for all of Alaskans.

Uh and we've done that over the last 30 years.

Um our committee is governed by a board of directors, which consists of 22 members.

Uh, two members include uh uh Mr.

Smith and uh Mayor Weldon.

Um we also have uh they're also uh including in that 22 is several uh partners.

I would call them uh JEDC, uh Juno Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Conference, and Travel Juno are designated members of our um of our organization.

Um our focus, as I mentioned, includes improving access to the capital, uh enhancing infrastructure uh to support legislators and visitors, uh improving communications and partnering with other organizations to enhance our efforts.

Uh the capital, some of the partners that we we uh work with all the time are the capital fund of the Junial Community Foundation, uh the Develop Juno, which has uh apartments that are designated for legislators or staff, uh, and Junior Downtown Business Association and probably the most importantly is is KTO or Gavel Gavel.

Uh this is the another uh grant that you have is to commit the grant for Gab Alaska that is by far the most important.

Uh I think the creation of Gabel is Gavel the Gavel is the which is now Gab Alaska, uh was the most important thing that we've ever done.

I think then bringing uh legislature and the communications uh to from the capital city to everyone, virtually everyone in the state.

I think that's been uh a big success and has started out as a as a small pilot and has turned into a very, very robust, uh excellent uh program that uh is available to virtually everyone in the city if they choose.

Um the other things that we've worked on, uh probably the the most current one and one of the biggest ones outside of Gab Alaska is the community welcome reception that's uh scheduled for uh two weeks uh at on the 20th.

Uh it's it's one that we've been doing for almost as long as we've been in in organization in in uh existence.

Uh it's uh opportunity for all the legislators, staff, uh members of the administration uh to join uh us at the community uh and in a legislation in an uh opportunity that uh is just a friendly uh way to welcome everyone back to the capital city for the session.

So uh there's no agenda to it, it's just uh uh there's no program to it.

That's just an opportunity to meet uh people from around the state, people that are gonna be working with the session uh for the next 120 days or so.

And uh we we really enjoy that.

We hope you all attend.

It's at the assembly, it's at the uh uh Civic Center uh in five o'clock, I believe, on the 20th, so the first day of the session.

Uh some of the other sponsors, some of the other activities we have scheduled we do annually is represent the Alaska Committee and the and the uh city and the Capitol, uh, and some of the fly-ins that come in, some of the larger ones like Southeast Conference and AML and Chamber of Commerce and Alaska Power Association, the school boards.

Uh we try to have an opportunity to welcome them and we uh financially support them as well.

Uh and that's that's something we've done for a long time.

Uh we also assist uh KTO and funding for Gav Alaska, that's just more important than it has been in the past with the loss of federal funding.

Um I think they're doing well.

I've talked to uh them and they said they're they're recovering and looking at different opportunities and different possibilities for them, and and we're joining with that as well and see if there's more opportunities for sponsorships uh that we might be able to help with.

So that's that's something on our coming upcoming and something we've already worked on is something that's upcoming too to increase that because we definitely want to keep that as a robust opportunity uh you know, program that we have, and uh it's it's really important to keep it going.

Um we we also another another thing we have on our schedule is to uh continuation of the partnering that we do with the League of Women Voters and their uh tours through the Capitol during the session.

Uh we hope to enlarge that a little bit by making a program that could be distributed throughout the schools in the state so that it's not just the eighth graders in Juneau that get an opportunity to visit their legislature and the capital, uh, that we might be able to digitally uh have them uh participate and learn about their capital and learn about what the legislature and uh that we could distribute to the different school districts around the state.

So we're working on that, and both the League of Women Voters and Gab Alaska are both uh enthusiastic about helping us with that one, and that's that's something we've been working on for a while now.

But I think this year we're gonna be able to uh accomplish that.

Um the uh you know, as I said, the the main purpose of ours is to increase the awareness of uh the importance of the capital in June and what we can do and make that most available to everybody throughout the state.

Um and mainly increasing importantness of Gav Alaska.

So I appreciate the opportunity, appreciate your consideration, available to ask or answer any questions.

Um welcome you to our meetings.

We meet at 7 o'clock, the second Wednesday of the month at the uh Office of the Commerce.

Is that AM?

That's AM, yes.

You know, uh with there are 22 people on the board, and about the only place we could, the only time we could find that no one has any previous commitments was 7 a.m.

And then we decided Wednesday was another one because that that's another one that doesn't have a lot of deeds.

So uh it's worked and we get very good attendance.

Um you can ask uh Mr.

Smith, he's usually there, so as well as the mayor.

So um, but we look at this opportunity.

We're open to any questions you might have.

Uh we were requesting the continuation of the grant that we have received in the past, and uh appreciate working with the with the city.

The city uh has been a very good partner for us and you know, working with the legislative reception or you know, other organizations and we've been able to help with this the assembly at different times over the years.

So um I think it's a good partnership and uh one that would I think it's important to continue.

So thank you, Mr.

Judson.

Questions from the committee, Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you for uh joining us and given your presentation.

Uh if the city did not continue giving the grant, would you guys cease to be an organization?

I can't tell you that.

I don't know.

Other questions?

Ms.

Hughes Candice.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks for being here.

Then I guess a follow-on to Mr.

Brooks' question.

Would the Alaska committee look to other partners uh to be a funding source?

We're well welcome working with other partners.

Uh we we pretty much uh identified the people that have a uh similar um uh you know purpose as ours.

Uh and like I said, we're working with a lot of the people, the downtown business association, the chamber, uh developed Juno, the community foundation.

Uh we're already partnering with all of them now.

So uh we're looking for more if there's people that legal women voters have been important one for us, and you know, we have supported some of them financially as well.

So particularly the legal women voters uh and Gav Alaska.

Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you, madam chair.

Do you have a uh rough idea of um how many uh fundraising sources you have and how much fundraising you do on an annual basis?

Uh the main um financing is through the city.

Uh the legislative reception is primarily funded through fundraising.

Uh the community uh provides the financial most of the financial uh resource as well as all the gifts that go into the bags that are given to each legislator each year.

Uh and that those seem like they get better every year, but it's an incredible uh gift that every legislator gives is given, and as well as the governor, the lieutenant governor.

And then we have one, we we collect 63 uh sets of of gifts, and we have one of them on display at the writ legislative reception.

So everyone can see uh what's what all the community is given.

Our community is very, very uh uh good about supporting uh the legislature and through that, and it both through money and through uh through gifts.

And you know, the legislative reception uh costs uh currently around $30,000.

Uh and it's uh you know, the city is a is a good partner in doing that and putting it on.

So we uh uh the costs keep going up, but uh we don't expect to uh decrease the importance of it.

Ms.

Hall.

Yes, thank you, madam chair.

Um, with the sponsorship of your fly-ins, what is the average amount that you fund towards supporting um the annual fly-in meetings?

Yeah, it it varies, but probably anywhere from 500 to 2500, and it usually is for a specific thing like transportation or um you know the the uh food or something like that that we have we've able to do it.

And and some of them come back in response um sponsor us too.

So like AML, for instance, we sponsor uh some stuff from AML and sent the Southeast Conference, and they come back and sponsor the legislative reception.

So it it it works both ways, but we both get credit for uh you know what we're doing.

So Ms.

Hughes Candice.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh Mr.

Jensen, do you know?

Uh of course you know because you're the man with the answer.

Um do you maintain uh any kind of fund balance between years or over the years has the Alaska Committee um built to up a fund balance?

We do have uh some reserves, yes.

I I don't have the amount of that, but we do keep some reserves so that we're able to respond to uh issues that might come up very quickly without having to come back to the assembly essentially for uh for you know some some work, but we we do maintain some resources and I and think that it's uh good at situation to do that, and I think we've done it at a you know reasonable amount.

We have two very good accountants on our member uh on our membership, and they've advised us that help advise us on the amount of reserves that uh organization should have.

So great.

Thanks.

Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, madam chair.

If I may just give a brief comment, just being on the Alaska Committee.

I just want to say that the committee and its members and the organizations are like, I mean, there's this excellent list of things they do.

There's also a lot of like soft touches with the legislators.

I think, you know, when the the JDC did a legislative survey, I mean, those were some of the people that went to like talk to legislators and you know, try to make sure I mean problems big and small are being addressed to make Juno like the most welcoming capital city uh to ensure that the capital city stays here.

Um and anyway, the the committee does a lot of work in in that regard to um just be the most welcoming capital city we can be.

So appreciate the the committee's work and Mr.

Jensen does a lot of it himself.

So thank you for the thank you for the time there.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

And uh Mr.

Jensen, I think it's a good reminder that you know, just we're I know we're really focused on finances right now, and that's because that's where we're at and where we you know have to be directing your focus, but um we appreciate the update on on the activities you're doing as well.

I've got one final question.

Um you were asked kind of what what would happen if you got no money from CBJ.

I think the the other question is, you know, what if if you were asked to reduce um the or you were told the the amount that we you'd be provided we reduced, what do you think you would um do less of, or how would you as an organization kind of figure out how you would what what would be your next steps in that situation?

What I would suggest, if there is a uh you know, an effort to reduce the amount was that we continue with our annual grant that but we return some of the resources, some reserves that we have.

I mean, if that's a possibility, uh, I think that would be keep keep everything going the way they are, and then maybe we just reduce our reserves a little, and that would be a possibility.

We'd consider that.

We actually have considered that and would be open to that.

Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you.

I just wanted to get this last question.

Uh do you have a rough idea of your annual fundraising and what percentage is roughly the the grant that's from CBJ?

Well, like I said, the only uh fundraising we do for my primarily is for the legislative reception.

And we typically are able to get the last few years we haven't been able to get the 100% of that through um local community contributions, mainly because the number of people hasn't changed, but the amount of the cost of the uh reception has increased.

But I that I said we budget about $30,000 for that, and I think it probably is in the 25,000.

We might have a five thousand dollar or so um gap.

Uh so in other words, we we we hope to get about 25 to 30,000 in contributions for the year.

All right.

So thank you so much for being here answering our questions.

I know if um committee members have more, they'll follow up with you.

Thanks for being here.

I'm available, and like I said, I welcome you to come to our meetings at seven o'clock in the morning.

Join uh Mr.

Smith and the mayor.

Ms.

Scheibler and Miss Love.

And it looks like your microphone is already green, so get started whenever you're ready.

Um, good evening, Terwall and members of the committee and staff.

Um Ms.

Wendell has a PowerPoint for us.

I'll introduce myself, Blue Scheibler.

I'm the executive director of the Southeast Childhood Collective, still a new name, still a little bit of a mouthful.

We used to be AEYC.

Um, and we just recently changed our name.

Hi, um, thanks for having us this evening.

My name is Nikki Love.

I'm the creative director at Southeast Childhood Collective, and uh we are really appreciative of this opportunity.

Thank you.

Yeah, so just to get started, um, our we're a nonprofit organization.

Um, our mission is basically to support all of those who care for young children.

So that's families, caregivers, educators in Juno and in other Southeast communities.

You can see that we've been established since 1982.

We are known as a child care resource and referral agency that's part of a national network of organizations that does this type of work and supporting child care providers and families to make communities stronger.

You go to the next slide.

The next slide kind of shows the three main buckets of work that we do in Juno and have done throughout our history.

The first one is a focus on family support.

We do that through mostly our parents as teachers program, which we'll talk about more in depth.

And the next bucket is supporting early educators, childcare providers, and then we do do a lot of work in terms of community collaboration with other social service, not nonprofits, state and tribal entities that also support children and families.

And on the next slide.

So this slide highlights the work that partnerships for families and children do.

I'm the coordinator of that coalition.

It's a coalition consisting of about 20 nonprofit state, city, and tribal entities who all offer services or supports to families with young children.

We meet monthly and we are now celebrating our 28th year of collaborating.

And we are an example known statewide.

Most coalitions in other parts of Alaska have only been together a handful of years.

It's work that we knew in our small community was really important.

I think we all know that Southeast thrives when we work together.

So that's what we're doing.

One of our goals is to share resources, leverage support, and being really mindful about not duplicating services.

So when we're looking at grant funding and service delivery, we collaborate with each other to make sure that we're not competing for resources.

We're leveraging and enhancing what is coming into the community and partnering with each other to make sure that that is as effective as it possibly can be.

And we also are continually looking at gaps in service and trends that families are experiencing.

Like right now, and this has been the case for a while, we see a lot of kin and grandparents caring for young children because there is no child care available.

So we have launched some initiatives to bring resources to those populations.

We also partner with the field house and with the libraries.

They have attended our meetings and we collaborate together to partner in services.

And as an example, there's a family fun night this Friday.

The social media blast went out today.

And on average, 200 families are attending that.

And anecdotal feedback that we get talks a lot about how connecting with other families is such a buoy or a lifeline, especially in this climate and with these weather challenges, to get young children out and have an experience like that and be able to connect with other families, is really invaluable.

On the next slide.

Oh, and we do more.

We do more than that.

We also offer a diaper bank to partner agencies and the families that they serve.

And we recently did our update, and we're distributing over 66,000 diapers per year to families.

And for those of you who might not be familiar with this, it's a fundamental resource for families.

It's often a necessity that can be challenging to afford and to procure.

And it's it's really relentless when you have young children.

You have to have clean diapers.

It's also a barrier to accessing child care.

And it's not something people think about a lot, but many child care programs require a family to provide their own diapers because the expense is notable.

So that is something that we as a partnership identified as a need and coalesced resources to offer.

We also distribute a monthly parent bulletin.

It goes out to about 2,000 subscribers per month.

And we have a 70% open rate.

And that is, if you're familiar with these things, very much above and beyond what an average open rate is.

It's usually in the 30%.

So we know that families are engaging with us, engaging with partners who are helping to populate that bulletin with their resources and offerings.

We also have a very strong early literacy initiative among partners.

And we know that reading with young children, even in infancy, is one of the strongest ways to support children in their development, not only academically, but socially and emotionally.

And all of these things, if they're not supported early, we're going to see them in kindergarten.

We're going to see kids falling behind and lots of stressors and lots of supports that need to come into play.

So if we can catch these things early, we're saving time and money.

And since so many of our partner agencies are working with families and children every year, that's a main goal of this community collaboration is what can we do?

And we've tried different strategies throughout the year and from year to year it changes.

Last year we really focused on improving just kindergarten registration rates.

The district had reported that about 50% of kindergartners register early, and the other half show up the day school starts.

And it's a huge burden for them in terms of like placing children in classroom management and stuff.

And so we we put out a big effort for that and had some success.

And the next slide continues our the highlight of our parent support with our parents as teachers program.

This is a home visiting program where you get a family gets a early childhood specialists come to their house, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, depending on where they rank in terms of their needs.

And they bring a fun activity and then they bring developmental information about their child's development at that point in time and how they can support it, sort of with the idea that the parents are the child's first teacher.

But so many of us, when we have kids, we we don't really know what we're doing.

And so having this expert come into your home and another really important part of this program is they're really checking with the parent.

What kind of supports do you need?

How can I help you?

And then they do a lot of work to connect parents to resources that they need for their family or for themselves.

We see this having a huge impact on postpartum depression and anxiety among families that we work with.

The Parents as Teachers program also hosts a weekly play group at our office.

And so that's usually attended by grandparents or parents who are staying at home with kids.

That's one of the highlights of our week is having a bunch of toddlers running around our office.

And then they do monthly group events called group and group connections, where everybody, including families who are on the waiting list.

Our program right now serves around 100 families with full services, and we have about 70 on the wait list.

But if you're on the wait list, you can have access to the diaper bank and come to the group connections, and we really try to keep them engaged while they wait to be enrolled in the program.

And then I would just point out that Parents as Teachers is nationally recognized as an abuse neglect abuse and neglect prevention tool if it's used to Fidelity.

And the Juno Parents as Teachers program is the largest affiliate in the state.

There's only four.

And we uh hold a blue ribbon status.

Emily, our program manager would want me to tell you all that, which means that we use the program to fidelity.

So it actually does have those outcomes.

On the next slide, we move into the next big bucket of our work, which is supporting early educators, and we do that in a variety of sectors, including in Head Start, school district, licensed child care, unlicensed child care, um, and what used to be known as rally or after school care.

And we can get into some more details on that in the next slide.

And before I talk about this, I did want to just note that the uh CBJ has been for a long time just very supportive of child care, the sector in general, recognizing that it's a necessary part of our economy and a huge support to families.

And so going back to like 2012, the assembly the city has invested in programs to help support child care providers.

And it's as a former child care provider that's widely known among providers here and greatly appreciated.

I'll never forget when COVID hit and I owned a child care center, and the Parks and Rec department was delivering PPE to our facility because we couldn't get it anywhere else.

Child care providers were called essential and told to stay open, but given no support.

And the city and the EOC stepped up and they were delivering Ziploc bags fan sanitizer that might have exploded all over the sidewalk.

But it was it was a really a great support.

And so after COVID and some CARES grant funding was used to stabilize child care providers, the city leadership at the time recognized that even though those uh pandemic era funds were going away, we needed to keep supporting them or they were probably going to close like they were all over the state.

And so that we transitioned into a city funded and assembly grant funded program.

Um at this point, I had moved away from being a child care provider and it was in this role, and we designed a monthly child care grant program similar to the one that the state has.

And so this issues a monthly operating grant to licensed child care programs that don't already have subsidies, like Head Start and School District tribal programs that are already subsidized, don't participate in this.

We saw child care provider wages go from $13 an hour to $20 an hour almost immediately, and those have been sustained since this grant program started.

Um, and what it's really done is it has stabilized the child care sector in June, where across the state where we've lost, I think 30 to 40% of programs, and they're just closing almost every month everywhere, but not here.

We did lose a couple of programs to just people retiring.

These are like women who did child care in their homes for 30 plus years.

And and every there was three of them, and all three of them told me they would not have retired if they didn't know that other people were going to open programs in their place.

Um so this this investment from the city of Juneau is has been had a huge impact on the child care sector.

Um that those funds also provide the hearts, they fund the hearts awards, and that was the actually started in 2012.

That's an award that goes directly to an individual, and um it's a an award based on their own professional development.

So as they move up in their education and professional development, they get um a higher tier status award twice a year.

And then we have a startup and expansion grant program that's also funded through this, and then a variety of uh professional other professional development opportunities, which um are highlighted a little bit more on the next slide.

Um, circles of security in the classroom is a training program that um it's kind of it's it's unique in the state.

We have the only facilitator of it, and it it gives you a child care provider, like a one-on-one coach to go in and just help them do their job better and just with more information.

And then we host an early childhood conference every year at Centennial Hall that brings in around 250 um educators from usually 16, 17 different communities, mostly in Southeast, but also some from Anchorage.

And on the next slide, um, I think one of the most impactive things we do for the child care workforce is our child care apprenticeship program.

Um we're in our third year of it.

Um, this is a federally registered child care apprenticeship.

Um last year we had four cohort, four apprentices that graduated, and they are all still working in child care, and now there are journey workers, and so they're working with the the next cohort.

Um we have four.

We actually expanded to include some teachers in other Southeast communities.

We have an apprentice in Yakutat and Sitka now.

This is not a city funded program right now.

This is a program that we we started with a grant that was given from the state to the city and passed to us and as like just a startup.

And this is a program that we are struggling to keep viable with the lack of funding, but also very hopeful about some relationships that we've made with the US Department of Labor that are very interested in our model and funding it.

And then CDA trainings, I'll just mention really quick as a child development associate is a credential that providers can get relatively quickly within three to six months if they work really hard at it.

And it's one of those credentials that licensing requires.

So we really focus a lot on trying to get as many providers in town as possible to have that credential so that programs can benefit from meeting that licensing regulation.

And I'll ask you to wrap up here pretty quickly.

Thank you.

Okay, I'll try to be brief.

One of our big projects that I'm working on is building a comprehensive family and child care center.

Phase one will house a large child care center to serve up to 100 children.

It will also house the apprenticeship program so we can train the workforce that will be working with the families and kids.

And we know that many of the centers have operated for years without enough workers.

And we cannot expand child care availability without training workforce.

And the apprenticeship program is designed to do that, give skills to the folks who are going to do this work.

It's also going to be a place for families to connect.

And we know that the Surgeon General, I think it was 2024, came out and said that parental stress is a national health crisis.

And we know that Alaska has high rates of abuse and neglect.

So all of the work that we're doing is to address these things so we can have a really healthy and productive community.

We have secured our land.

We have a three and a half acre plot in the Hansinger subdivision off of Egan Drive.

And we have completed a positive feasibility study.

All phases of our project are viable.

And we also have a formal cost estimate, and we're working with our campaign capital campaign manager to finalize our pro forma and to launch our capital campaign and secure funding so we can hopefully open our doors sooner than later.

And not only are we looking to address issues and get those supports to families, but we're really looking at the impact that will be in our community from the Storys being ported here.

And we our tagline is very intentional.

We are supporting families and we're building child care.

That is our mission, and that is what we're actively working on.

Thank you very much.

Thank you both for being here.

And again, caveat that if our questions are finance related, it's just where our brains are right now and not a reflection on all the probably other questions we have about the amazing work you do.

Questions from the committee.

Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

When you're talking about the journey workers and the apprenticeship program, once they get in once they get into journey status, is that the same as being a licensed care provider?

Um in Alaska, providers themselves are not licensed.

It's a the license is attached to a facility.

They do get an apprenticeship certificate from the national apprenticeship office.

Yes, I read that you were expecting possibly some trickle-down funding from the rural health transformation funding.

Um could you speak a little bit more about what you plan to do with that funding?

Yeah, the notice of funding opportunities for that should be coming out this month.

Um we were personally approached by um Leah Van Kirk about applying for it.

She intentionally, when she wrote Alaska's plan for that, she intentionally included child care workforce in it.

And so because we have the only registered apprenticeship program in the state, she told us to be on the lookout for a funding opportunity for that.

Also noteworthy that in the rural health transformation grant is expected to be large investments in home visiting programs.

And so our Parents as Teachers program will be losing some federal funds from OCS.

And we hope that those will be replaced with the rural health transformation.

Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thanks you two for all you do.

I I wanted to, I was just looking at some headlines, but I'd heard about, you know, freezes to federal grants regarding child care.

Does that affect Alaska or any anything you can talk about?

Alaska, or I guess more so our Juno or Southeast child care centers.

Alaska hasn't been targeted for that yet.

Um my bigger concern with what the federal administration is trying to do is undo some rule changes that will impact how low-income families access child care assistance.

Just follow in that that would impact Alaska Juno Southeast, or could potentially impact Alaska's Southeast and Juno families.

Yes, specifically families who qualify for child care assistance.

Thank you.

Mr.

Brooks, then Ms.

Hall.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh do you have a number of how many children are under direct care from the Southeast Childhood Collective, or is it kind of like uh um subcontracted out to other people that have care provider facilities, or do you are have currently have a facility that care is being provided out of?

We do not provide direct child care services currently.

We're hoping to build a child care center and and eat when that's the our intention will be to hire uh a contractor to run it.

Uh could you share with us what that uh rough cost estimate of the facility would be?

Um, right now the 16 million.

That's not just the child care center, though, that also includes an indoor park and um agency offices.

We envision a handful of different nonprofits being there that would offer support to a large child care center.

We've never really had one that big in Juno.

Um, and as we've talked about staffing being a challenge in child care, we want to really set it up for success.

And so we're looking at partnering with other agencies that would be there that can help with some of that sort of administrative and uh quality programming support.

Ms.

Hall.

Yeah, hopefully, final question, maybe.

But um, how is everyone that wants child care able to access it in Juneau and Southeast, or there's still large waiting lists and there's a large waiting list, especially for children between the ages of zero and 18 months.

Um right now in licensed settings, there is only enough care for one out of every three children.

And I'd like to add to that that child care programs, and we're I'm talking more like the centers, not the family homes.

Um almost all of them are operating with fewer children than they are legally allowed to have because they can't find teachers to be able to take in more.

So we technically have licensed space available.

We just don't have the workers there.

And so that's why we have such a big focus on um the workforce.

Child care is a very challenging job.

You don't just jump into it with no skill or training or education and find it find success.

And so if you enter this job and you don't know what you're doing and you get bit in the face on your first day of work, you might not be coming back if you don't know how to address, you know, things like that.

And so that's what we really found with the first group of apprentices that graduated, they feel very successful in their jobs.

They feel successful as coaches for the the new apprentices because they got the training and education that they needed to be successful.

Mr.

Kelly.

Thank you.

Um I guess Ms.

Hall's question kind of um brought to mind a question for me.

Um my question is basically what what metrics would you say that you use in order to measure that your your programs and your organization um have been successful and have made an impact.

In terms of the child care supporting child care programs.

Yeah, I think I'd say especially that since that's a that's one of the major crises we faced in Southeast.

Yeah.

I would say the biggest metric is that they're not closing, they're staying open, and we are growing programs.

We've had um since the startup grant program was funded.

Um, we've had four new family child care programs open and uh one transition into a center.

Um and to give you a concrete example, um, there's a large union hall here was considering turning their union hall into a child care center and moving their offices upstairs.

And when he did the the budget, the numbers, he was like, why how does anybody do this?

This is crazy.

And then I said, Well, add in what you would get from this CBJ grant, and it completely changed it.

And he pitched it to his leadership and got it approved, and we're working on getting that open.

So I would say that's our metric.

People are staying open and new programs are opening.

I'd I'd like to add, um, I don't this is kind of a soft metric, but over the time that we have had support from CBJ, a number of communities statewide, including Sitka and Skagway and Homer and Gnome and Valdez have all reached out to us in some way.

Some of them are just to have a brief presentation to them.

They they want to find out how we're doing this, how we're keeping programs open, um, what relationships we had to build, what kind of support is being offered.

And some of them are launching their own initiatives and looking really closely at how they can utilize the revenue streams because they recognize that without a child care base, people can't go to work and their communities just aren't as strong.

Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh do you guys see any um possibility of the vision of your facility being reached by going through with a partnership with organizations that are already in the Floyd Dryden space and expanding in that area more and kind of using that as a means to not have as much overhead and get things you know going quicker.

Are you referring to the family center?

Yes, just the the Floyd Dryden um land and specific, just you know, leasing out a portion of that so you're not responsible for all the overhead of a facility and then having like partners in the same area and be able to work symbiotically.

Yeah, um my understanding is that Clink and Anahidaida has plans to use that whole space.

Um, to my knowledge, right now, they have a lease on it.

Um, and our our building is designed in a way that we envision needing a purpose-built space.

Um we did look at working in with one of the schools when we found out one of them was going to be open, but it made more sense for Clinken and Heida to be in there because they had they already had child care programs or head start programs that were kind of spread out all over town, and so coming together into that building, it's it's a really lovely project that we wholeheartedly support.

Um, but we don't see our project being able to fit in there.

Quick one.

Um for the manager, um, do you know uh how much of the Floyd Dryden facility is being leased out by Clink and Heida?

Thank you, Assemblymember Brooks.

Clink and Heida is leasing out all of the classroom space at Floyd Dryden.

Uh the gym space is still available and managed through a parks and recreations.

And we do have a signed lease with them and they're actively uh renovating that space.

All right.

Thank you guys so much for being here.

Really appreciate it.

And I'm sure folks will follow up if they have more questions.

Thank you.

All right, I am um gonna suggest we take a break um here.

Let's take a 10-minute break.

There, our next item.

We did get a supplemental materials pretty late.

So if you have not read the memo, I have not.

Um please use some of your break to review it.

Mine's working.

Oh, no, it works.

Cool.

Okay.

That brings us to the national resource.

Now I believe it's natural resources conservation service bio.

Is this manager Kestor?

Yes.

Go ahead.

I can't see you guys.

All I see is that lovely clock.

Not that um, not that I don't know what you look like, but I'll just uh let the the clerks know that on Zoom we don't.

There we go.

Okay.

Uh so thank you.

So my apologies that this was uh a red folder item.

We kind of had tag teamed it and then uh you know Snow Mageddon happened and so um needed to uh to pull this together after a packet deadline.

Um I wanna just briefly touch on uh why uh a buyout program for the 18 properties on View Drive is even being considered when we have a preferred alternative for an enduring solution.

Um we will be briefing you on uh the Lake Tap, which is the preferred alternative that came out of a three-day charrette with Army Corps of Engineers in December 25.

Um, but that uh that timeline for that project is six years, and that is a you know, if everything lines up, and I can tell you Mayor Weldon and I are both here in Washington, DC with uh Clinkettenhida President Peterson and his staff advocating for that accelerated timeline, advocating for that funding.

It's a billion dollar project, and um we have you know tremendous amount of support from the delegation.

Uh Senator Sullivan was our last meeting this evening, and boy, he is uh he is definitely doing everything to you know uh apply that pressure.

Uh however, there are no less than 30 points of failure uh the the core team has analyzed when looking at that aggressive timeline and and things that have to line up, including you know, acts of Congress, literal acts of Congress.

So uh six years uh is still too long for many people, and it's definitely too long for our neighbors on View Drive uh that are experiencing you know catastrophic uh flooding every year because the HESCO barrier solution, phase one and phase two uh just cannot be designed to address them.

And I know uh I know that you know this, but I I do want to acknowledge that you know there will likely be uh that's a that's an individual decision um for those property owners whether or not to um you know take their chances and and wait for an enduring solution.

And we are doing everything in our power, uh and so is your federal delegation to to speed that process along.

Uh so all of that uh kind of as a preface for uh the memo before you today.

The last time you talked about this was October 30th, and you had a presentation from Brett Nelson with NRCS, and he is online today uh and available to answer questions uh that you have.

I just want to briefly summarize the project.

Uh the project would be a buyout of up to 18 uh homes on View Drive, and those homes would need to be demoed and turned into parkland in perpetuity uh to participate in this program.

The program is entirely voluntary, uh so no one has to participate.

Uh but there is some likely combination of homes uh you know that work or don't work.

And I think the example that Mr.

Nelson used was if the least impacted homes were the only homes that wanted to participate, that would unlikely make a good argument for a project.

There is federal funding set aside for this project, uh, but we do need to move relatively quickly because it is an emergency and of course it's an emergency uh authority.

The rough order of magnitude cost estimate for both the buyouts and the uh demolition and restoration is 25 million dollars with a 25% uh non-federal cost share.

We did uh receive direction at the October meeting to request a waiver from NRCS for that cost share amount.

We promptly requested that and we were notified that that waiver was denied.

Uh we notified View Drive residents of of a denial of that waiver as well.

So now the question before you today is whether or not to uh continue to pursue the program, knowing that there's about a if every property participated, there's a six million dollar uh cost share that that has to be non-federal.

Um I do want to uh you know point out that you know you can decide to participate and pull out right before the the kind of there's a project agreement that we need to sign to be able to take the next step to participate.

Um that is by no means binding.

However, there's a tremendous amount of staff effort involved in uh this program.

You know, we have to to carry out the not only the paperwork burden, but also the project itself.

Any risk associated with cost overruns are borne by CBJ.

And there's frankly, you know, a goodwill measure too, right?

Of uh of both, you know, um in RCS and the program and uh and you know, participating.

So while I don't think a final decision needs to be made today, in fact, I suspect you would want to gather more information from residents.

Um, I do hesitate going too far down the path of a project without having a good idea that it's something that the the borough wants to um undertake.

Um so the the memo kind of walks you through some different options.

Um certainly we have the City and Borough Genoa has uh contributed to uh uh to protecting homes through the Hesco Barrier project.

And that was of course a combination of contribution from uh local properties and uh taxpayer dollars.

And that that amount for every property in phase one of the LID was $10,000.

As I always remind you, there are plenty of uh there are plenty of expenses left for our flood long-term, both our short-term flood fighting and our long-term flood mitigation.

Even though we have the Army Corps of Engineers coming in doing phase two, uh, there's maintenance, there's our uh participation in that project, which includes uh constituent outreach and assisting, you know, being the boots on the ground, and there likely is a never-ending stream of uh of cost.

You know, there one scenario would be a 90 10 cost share for the enduring solution.

So at a billion dollars, that's a hundred million dollar uh project.

We're of course advocating, you know, uh all the time uh to to reduce those impacts to our community, but the the point is there is no shortage of um public funds that will be needed to save our community from this existential threat.

So the memo just walked you through a couple of decision points.

And if you do decide to participate, uh I think one option would be to send a certified mailing to View Drive residents outlining the terms and conditions under under which the City and Broad Juno would participate in the program.

We have heard from three property owners that they're interested in participating, but we haven't uh proposed to them any uh amount of cost share.

We cannot, um, from what I understand, we cannot just reduce the amount that the property owner gets when their home is built out by that 25% cost share.

That is not um an eligible way to carry out that program.

Uh, certainly there um are ways that a nonprofit or even the property owner themselves could uh contribute to that project in order to offset some of the taxpayer dollars.

So those are the kind of pieces that uh this memo is prompting you to discuss so that we can um either not participate in the project and make that decision tonight, or uh give the property owners some real informed uh information about um what kind of their responsibilities would be and a better uh vision of what participating in the project looks like.

Thank you, Manager Kester.

Questions from the committee.

Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good to see you, Manager Kester.

It would help me a bit.

If you could like or you or Mr.

Nelson could give me some examples with like numbers like say there is a property on View Drive that you know could possibly participate in the program and and the assessed value is five hundred thousand dollars.

Like, can you help me figure out how that anyway?

Like what that looks like, or you know, what what are some of the financial you know things related to that property owner should they wish to participate and should the project go forward?

Yeah, so the uh the amount that that property owner would receive in a buyout program would be the um 2024 flood amount appraised value.

So NRCS would uh do uh an appraisal of those properties uh to find that value.

The the value that I think is more difficult to quantify, and Mr.

Nelson may have uh better insight here is the remainder of those project costs that are demolition and permitting and restoring that property to a to parkland state.

And so that is a more difficult um number to uh to pin on a property, right?

Like per per parcel, how much would that be?

You have a follow-up, Mr.

Smith.

Go ahead.

Uh I do.

I okay.

I I just I'm just like so.

Would they get sorry?

Did you say they would get 75% of the 2024 assessment?

But I'm confused on like say the other costs are you know, five million dollars total.

Anyway, I'm just like, are they gonna get just gonna get 75% of the assessment?

Are they gonna get less than that or more than that?

So the the pro under the program, they get the appraised, not assessed, appraised values higher than this value, uh pre-flood damage.

They get 100% of that.

One thing we cannot do is say, hey, the city has to pay 25% cost share.

So we're gonna reduce that check that you get from the federal government by 25%, or let's even say 50%, because we know that we're gonna have a lot of project costs.

We cannot do that.

So we have to be able to commit up front to our 25% cost share of that project.

That total project cost is is 25 million dollars.

So that's over 1 million dollars uh per parcel.

Does that help?

I'm not sure.

I'm seeing that other people are understanding, but I'm I am not, but um I don't know how to how you could better how you can better say it.

So anyway, maybe we can continue on and maybe I'll learn throughout here.

Okay, I have Miss Hughes Scandis, Mr.

Brooks and Mayor Weldon.

Go ahead, Miss Yuscandis.

Thank you, madam chair.

I'm gonna ask a question.

I will note that I wasn't there at the October 30th.

So if uh meeting, and unfortunately, I did not before the I I'm not confident after hearing Mr.

Smith's question that I have the understanding I thought I had.

So um, Miss Castar.

I am going to ask if my understanding is correct.

This 25 million project cost, that estimated cost is the cost of purchasing if all if all of the homes were to participate to purchase those homes as well as it's that, whatever that number is, X plus the Y, where Y is me turning it into a park, demolition and restoring, is that correct?

You are correct.

Follow up.

And so looking in this memo and seeing that it can be so long as it's non-federal, it can come from other sources.

Is there a world where if we are all homeowners and we all want to participate?

I guess this mathematically probably wouldn't add up, but in a theoretical world, if if we're willing to pony up the non-federal bit, because I want to I want to be bought out and I'm willing to we're each gonna pay a portion of the city's share, so the city doesn't have to pay anything.

Would that be allowable?

I'm not sure that would make sense to the owner, but yeah.

So thank you for that question, because that is indeed a scenario where um that I have talked through with the attorney.

For example, uh, let's say the the per person uh total project cost is 1.38 million dollars.

And so uh maybe a property owner who does want to participate gives the city and borough of Juneau a check for 350,000 to hold in escrow if that project moves forward and is finalized.

That would be 25% of that share.

And and of course, that uh that would would vary depending on on the value of the parcel, but that is one example, and the city could decide to offset that request by um by whatever amount.

Um but that is one scenario that uh I did talk with the city attorney about.

I uh I appreciate that uh there is a number of reasons why property owners may not have appetite for something like that, but um, that would be a mechanism for non for us to ensure that we have those non-federal dollars.

Great, thank you.

Mr.

Brooks.

Mayor Weldon.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Do we have a um knowledge of when these houses were built?

I know that the unknown costs is how demolishing I'm wondering if we have to deal with asbestos.

Thank you for that question, Mayor Weldon.

I do that that information is available on the website.

I don't know if the cost estimate includes dealing with asbestos.

We found when we did debris removal for the flood.

Um it really did hover around the 1980 mark.

So uh my guess would be that um the mitigation, hazardous mitigation for these projects would be less than some of our downtown properties, for example.

Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you, madam chair.

Out of the uh three homes that are interested in partaking in the program, what's their impact level?

Are they you know severely impacted or some of the more lightly impacted houses?

Yeah, I I don't have that information.

I mean, I um uh I think for each property owner, their uh the impact is very real.

Um I also want to make sure I clarify that uh we have been three property owners have reached out to us about participating.

None of them have been asked to, you know, how they think about a personal financial contribution.

So I do think that would be a very different answer, um, or at least a very different consideration.

Mayor Weldon.

Thank you, Chair.

Um would this program be could let me read this a little bit different?

Could houses use this program if they had been flooded previously to 2023.

So I um I I guess you're it if the the program as designed and that as we have requested is for view drive uh residents only, regardless of if if they started flooding in 2014 or 2023.

Maybe your question is uh is what the appraised value would be.

Ums Hughes Candy is we'll come back to you.

I saw Mr.

Smith and Mr.

Steininger.

Oh, but I already got a question from Mr.

Sith, so I'll go to Steininger.

Thank you.

And um, Manager Kestra, you may have already answered this, and I apologize if I didn't catch it.

Of the 25 million dollar estimated cost, what proportion of that estimate or how many millions of that estimate is uh the actual buyout value value of the 18 homes and how much is the kind of other costs?

I don't have that uh figure.

We do have Brett Nelson online who came up with that cost estimate or his organization didn't and he may be able to uh give further detail on the on how he came up with the cost estimate.

Hear me.

Yep.

Go ahead, Mr.

Nelson.

Did you hear the question?

We can't hear you now, unfortunately.

We did hear you right at the start.

Am I back?

You are back.

Did you hear the question?

I I did hear the question.

Um I can tell you off the top of my head, roughly on average.

Um we used Zillow estimates as an approximation for appraised value.

And I think on average, over all 18 properties, uh they it probably lands at around 750,000 as an average.

So the cost in excess of that would be um the demolition and the site restoration, things like that.

I can, as we're talking here now, I'm gonna try and look something up and get a little more accurate information for you on that.

Thank you.

We'll we'll come back to you in a bit on that one.

Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um I guess I just wanted to ask about uh how and when and if these numbers could change, you know.

So say we say yes, we want to participate in the program and do a certified mailing, and then we say, you know, we would ask, you know, the the participating owners to contribute the pro rata 25% share.

We could change that later.

I imagine we also will get better cost estimates later.

I mean, we will anyway, just trying to figure out down the line, these numbers will and and well, in some cases will, and in other cases may or may not could change.

That's a question for Mr.

Nelson.

Is that correct?

Or um I don't know if manager Caster knows or anyway.

Trying to think about the finality of you know the things are due to tonight.

I'm gonna just because we're having technical difficulties with uh Mr.

Mr.

Nelson, um, he did say that they would in RCS would come in and do an appraisal and the value would be the 2024 appraisal value.

So I suspect that would be different than the Zillow numbers that they use just to get a rough order of magnitude cost estimate.

I don't know when that uh that you know timing is.

Um and I I did confirm that the uh the estimate for those uh buying out those homes is 13 and a half million dollars.

So you know, about half, a little more than half the total project cost is buyouts, and the rest is restoration.

So that's a that's a hefty price tag for restoration.

Ms.

Hughes Scandis.

Thank you, madam chair.

My question, uh manager Costa is about you mentioned a nonprofit as well as you know, it could come from any number of sources.

Was someone like Southeast Land Trust?

Um I feel like they got brought up before, but has any community partner express interest, or that's just uh example of other places that are non-federal?

Um so we have reached out to uh other nonprofit partners, and they're certainly um amenable to the conversation.

I think it's just a a lot harder to uh come up with that type of match, especially in a short time frame.

So my answer is no, but we have had some of those conversations and people are uh organizations are certainly sympathetic and interested, but um not interested in so much as they're able to commit uh millions of dollars at this time.

Right.

Okay, thanks.

Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um you were saying that the NRCS would do the appraisals.

Um what if someone isn't satisfied with their appraisal or wants their own appraisal or like how how would that mess with the process?

That would be a question for Mr.

Nelson.

Mr.

Nelson, we can see you now.

Um go ahead.

Yes.

So um to be clear, the appraisal if if if the project proceeds, the appraise an appraiser would be hired.

Um that would be part of the project costs.

Um City Borough Juno as project sponsor would hire an appraiser to appraise each of the interested properties.

Um the homeowners do have the ability to because this is voluntary, they have the ability to turn it down.

They can say, well, uh, you know, that that's the number, I don't agree to it.

Um, and and and they can walk away at that point.

Um there is the ability for them to one other thing.

I just wanted to be clear about the that was talked about earlier.

Um when we said that uh we can't just offer the homeowner like 75% of the appraised value.

That that really isn't a question for the attorneys that but they have weighed in on that.

But the the biggest problem with that is if you only offer them 75% of the value and they accept that voluntarily, then the actual cost of the program becomes that lower number, and then NRCS only pays 75% of that.

So that that's the the part of the the dilemma is you end up kind of chasing your tail there.

Um that's why the the more likely route would be some sort of third party uh coming up with the the 25% local cost share, Mr.

Smith.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Nelson or Miss Castro the way, but maybe Mr.

Nelson.

Who in the past who have been some of those third parties that come up with the cost share?

Is it usually a municipality or like who has who has come in with that money in the past?

Yeah, so great question.

Um this is the first time this the buyout option of the EWP program has been used or will be used in Alaska if we do this project.

So I don't have any Alaskan examples.

Uh buyouts only became an option in the program within about the last one and a half to two years in the program.

Some of the other states that have taken advantage of this, typically it is the county or the city that's sponsoring the project that does come up with the local cost share.

Um and it's across the country.

Uh probably a few dozen.

And it's really everything from soup to not.

Sometimes they come up with it out of their own budget.

Um sometimes there's an entity like Southeast Alaska Land Trust that steps in.

Um there's it's kind of all over the board.

Uh thank you, madam chair.

So just so I'm clear, the twenty-five percent is not the twenty-five percent of the assessed value, but it's twenty-five percent of the total project costs, which could far exceed the twenty-five percent of the assessed value, would that be correct?

So I'm guessing asking the homeowners if they want to chip in.

I think we might have our answers, but worth the ask, I guess.

Did I see a hand?

Mr.

Kelly.

Um there's a few things that um could could affect my decision that I've kind of taken for granted that I like uh I want to make sure I think I want to confirm them before I I make any sort of decision tonight.

Um so you know the rest of the valley has or at least a good portion of the valley has the Hesco barriers to protect them as a temporary measure.

The Hesco barriers won't protect view drive.

Um if we don't do this, are there any other temporary measures that would protect View Drive?

This could be for anyone.

I think it's more direct to the manager Custer, though.

Yeah, thank you.

Not that we are aware of, and we have definitely uh in asking those questions.

If there's not other questions, could I have like a three minute ease to like try to figure this math out?

That would be awesome.

Um more questions?

All right, let's take a few minute at ease.

Mr.

Smith will solve this one for us,

All right, I'm bringing us back, Mr.

Smith.

I think I have a better understanding of, you know, if it's just like if every property owner participates, if there's the same value, I start to my brain starts to melt a little bit when it's changing values, and if people are participating in this and that, but I think I at least get it enough to go forward something.

If they're interested in contributing the pro-RADA 25% cost share for their property.

And my understanding is the pro rata would mean if someone has a million dollar home, they would be contributing more.

I don't know if it's twice as much as someone who has a $500,000 home.

But that's my understanding of what the okay.

And I'm getting confirmation that that's what the prorata prorata means.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll just ask for well.

If you have questions, you can any objections, including for questions.

Miss Use Candice.

Thanks, uh, Madam Chair.

So just to follow up to make sure I'm understanding the motion.

So to decide that we would participate in this home.

I guess I'm looking for some assurance that this is the starting step of that we you're giving us a starting place to include in certified mail to view drive, because okay.

So the direction to staff would be that they're coming up with that.

Okay.

Thanks I remove.

Steph, do you feel like you have if if this was to pass you have the direction that you would need just to make sure we're all on the same page?

Thank you.

Yes, I do.

I would um probably bring the information back to you uh at a later meeting.

I would request a relatively tight turnaround given the emergent nature, emergency nature of this program, and probably ask you again, want to have better information about your desire to fully participate in the program.

I see head nodding here.

All right, any objections to the motion?

Seeing none, that's so moved.

Our folks cool, move into the next weighty topic.

I'm seeing head nods.

Okay, that brings us to the municipal building project.

Oh, and thank you, Mr.

Uh Nelson, for being here and and for all your help and um navigating this difficult issue.

All right, um, municipal building project funding.

Is this you, Miss Kester?

Yes.

Thank you.

Uh so just to briefly, I don't know that uh I don't know that you need much of a recap because this body has a very real and recent lived experience through our path of trying to find uh office space for downtown uh employees.

But maybe I'll just recap where we last left it in September of 2025.

Uh we um you you agreed to purchase the the Burns building, you passed an ordinance uh to purchase the Burns building, and then we brought you some cost estimates for three different scenarios of remodels.

And those cost estimates had some sticker shock from the last cost estimate we brought you, and we said, don't worry, we're gonna do some more design work, and we're hopefully going to bring these numbers down.

Instead, we did more design work, and those numbers just continued to escalate.

Uh, so for example, the um full reverse floor plan that would be kind of reconfiguring the entire space so that management offices are in the center and cubicles are in the exterior walls, much like how the permanent fund corporation has their is laid out.

Uh, we had estimated at seven and a half million dollars.

Um when we had, you know, uh limited information, and that cost estimate now is upwards of 20 million dollars.

Non-starter, right?

Uh, a partial remodel is what we are advocating for uh for the Burns building.

And that um I uh my memo doesn't say this, but that um remodel estimate it came in at 13 million dollars.

Uh, we're committed to value engineering that number down to eight and a half million dollars.

Um, and the the types of things that that um that cost estimate includes is some interior walls to create uh office spaces.

It includes partitions and cubicles and cubicle furniture and includes paint and carpet.

Um includes an expansion of the uh uh board of education room to make it the same size at of your chambers now and a new dias, because guess what?

The one you're at is particle board, and if we even look at it wrong, it's gonna disintegrate.

Um so that's what that cost estimate uh includes.

It doesn't include uh new furniture for employees that will have their own office space.

Um, it doesn't include renovating the bathrooms.

Um I'm sorry, it does also include a public counter space because that's a very important piece of the reason for this uh move is so that we can be more efficient for our public, more efficient for our employees, but also for our public.

So they have one place to go to receive city services.

And again, as you know, the current kind of status quo option, which we compare everything to really no longer is an option because of the change of ownership in the Marine View building, but most importantly, because of the uh conditions there with a lot of leaks and and just ongoing issues.

The building needs to, you know, have us move out so those those units can be uh renovated into apartments.

It would be the previous owner in intention was to renovate those back into apartments.

And certainly there's value in that for the city and borough of Juneau.

Our operating costs will decrease by about 50% uh with the moving.

So moving out of City Hall, moving out of uh our lease properties will decrease our operating costs.

And that is a value for for us as we move forward.

Um I want to talk a little bit about timing.

Uh you again passed an ordinance to purchase the uh Burns building.

I have not signed that purchase and sale agreement yet.

It's it's finished, it's ready to be signed.

I want to have a plan for funding the uh be these basic renovations before signing that.

We also need to move quickly on being able to have that funding secured so that we can award those bids, hopefully sometime this spring.

So that is why I'm bringing kind of a plan to you at this time instead of waiting until later.

Um, so the the plan, if you recall, there's 14 and a half million dollars in two separate uh CIP accounts for um City Hall and New City Hall.

And we would propose combining those into one account and titling the project municipal building in our minds.

This is not a new city hall, this is not a city hall, this is a basic municipal building that will provide uh municipal office space and municipal services.

And of course, we will be sharing the building with a permanent fund corporation.

So the ask for you today is six million dollars to be able to uh complete that renovation.

And I uh understanding the pressure that is on your fund balance.

You have 15 million dollars in fund balance, but you are entering a period of a lot of uncertainty.

We have said we're gonna um know we're gonna spend some fund balance in 2026 because we're not jumping to you know knee-jerk reactions with budget cuts.

We want to see information on what our revenue impacts are, um, how how much we can control uh through you know managing our labs better before you make those decisions.

And that uncertainty for 26 and probably for 27 too, as we do uh as we implement some cuts, but again, have imperfect information.

We've talked about this being a two-year uh cycle of reductions to our budget as we get more information.

All of that uncertainty means you need to preserve your fund balance.

So the proposal that I have uh here is uh a series of transfers.

So the proposal is to take money from capital projects that are either uh uh not likely to be funded or be finished in the near future compared to the need that we have with renovating the Burns building.

Uh and so there's a list in your packet, uh two million from Capital Civic Center.

Um, this is the the amount that would be left after the five million dollar transfer that was made from that account to uh flood um long-term flood mitigation and maintenance.

That that was something that you guys did a few meetings ago.

Uh two uh one million from the North State Office Building parking garage.

That um project is uh very uh very needed to be a good capital city, like we we talked about earlier with the Alaska Committee.

Uh we got a five million dollar grant from the legislature for that project.

We also have five million dollars slated in the one percent one million dollars of which has been appropriated.

We've done some engineering on that project and discovered that it was not built as it was designed, so it cannot hold additional stories of parking without essentially reinforcing the whole garage, which is as expensive as building a new garage.

So, again, that project is probably you know a 40 to 60 million dollar project if we were to add levels of parking, which was the original goal of that project to add levels of parking for uh the Octo Village District and also at that time City Hall.

So we still have funding in that uh to continue to explore that with the state grant money, but my proposal would be to take the million dollars of general fund from 1% from there.

Similarly, the waterfront museum has funding uh in it for uh from passenger fees, but it has 300,000 in general fund from the 1%.

This would be to this proposal would be to pull uh the the general fund out of that account and reappropriate it.

Lemon Creek Multimodal Path has long been a CBJ priority.

In fact, you um asked the staff to uh do some feasibility and some community outreach on that project, and we have secured a grant and are working with a communications team to do that.

Our strategy was Lemon Creek Multimodal Path, which is an over 10 million dollar project that would divert pedestrian and cycle traffic kind of through the the dump and along Egan instead of having to wind through the kind of scary streets of Lemon Creek proper.

Um our strategy has been to have enough seed money in that account that we can continue to aggressively pursue grants.

The current administration is less favorable to these multimodal projects than the previous administration.

So, you know, there may be a pause in that, but we feel like with a million dollars left in that account, we can still continue that strategy of aggressively looking for funding.

Uh there's also uh a proposal to uh transfer 175,000 from the uh River Road Junk Vehicle CIP.

This project uh this project, which is cleaning up that property uh on River Road and then uh um putting a lien on that property to pay for what the city and borough has spent in cleaning up that property um has really met with some challenges in the court system uh and and it's not been successful.

So does leave some funding in that account, $75,000 in that account should the opportunity uh arise for us to do some of that proactive work, but we have found that uh it that's very challenging, uh challenging project for a lot of reasons.

I won't go into a ton of detail.

The uh other proposal, because I just could not find six million dollars in projects that I thought were um you know weren't coming to fruition in the near future is two million dollars from deferred maintenance.

Uh this account has a about five to six million dollars in it.

The rationale being this is a city facility, uh pulling funds from this this account to spend on a city facility.

Certainly our deferred maintenance needs are long.

Um, you know, we would love to see that funding uh restored because the the burns building remodel is such an urgent need if if the assembly approves this uh moving forward with this transfer.

And certainly you could uh dedicate the sale of the current city hall of any proceeds from that to uh replenishing the deferred maintenance fund.

Um and of course, there's always uh fund balance, and that that's an option that I didn't propose because I really wanted to give you something that you could uh move forward with that uh protected your fund balance.

But um, of course, that is always an option.

Um so I just I think I want to close with a little bit of grandstanding.

So please uh excuse my um taking the opportunity here.

Um, but I know that um you know we all would have I would have preferred, and and speaking for me and city employees, a purpose-built facility that really uh met our needs.

And uh this is not that, uh, but it's a perfectly decent office space that is less than half uh per square foot and and in total of what a purpose-built facility would cost.

And I think that's you know, being responsive to the voters, but also uh addressing our very real needs for decent office space.

And I feel as the city manager who is really in charge of uh our city and borough of Juno employees, I have an obligation to provide them a safe space, a decent space, uh safe drinking water, um, a bathroom to go to, um, and and that really is what this project is trying to do.

And I would I would argue that you also have a moral obligation to provide decent office space for City and Borough and of Juno employees.

And so I would implore you to do that.

And thank you for letting me um uh soapbox for a little bit, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Questions for manager Kester.

Um I'll go, Mr.

Kelly Steininger Brooks, Hughes Candice.

Oh, and Mayor Weldon, sorry, Mayor.

I heard you're first.

And because I've not seen you, Mayor Weldon.

We're gonna give you the floor.

Well, thank you for that, Madam Chair.

Um the two million dollars in maintenance, you said we could uh sell City Hall.

We got a rough estimate of how much City Hall would sell.

Thank you for that question, Mayor Weldon.

We don't um, I believe we we are working on that.

Um that requires an appraisal.

Um, and I know that the lands manager Blydorn is working on that.

I believe the assessed value is a little over three million dollars.

However, we don't do much with assessed with you know untaxed property, so it's likely not a very accurate uh estimate.

The real value of that of that parcel that you're all in right now is uh the land and the location.

Mr.

Kelly.

Thank you.

Um I'll I'll start with uh this question.

And and you and I did uh talk uh a little about this um on only uh when we talked on Friday.

Um but it's it's my understanding that um this um new office building uh would operating it would basically be uh a reduction of what we're paying now in current operations, however, we have like a significant upfront cost.

Um would you be able to remind me um how uh how long it would take for us to to break even uh before we would actually start saving money first based off of uh compared to current operations.

Yeah, thank you for that question.

So the uh the transfer um saves us transferring to this building saves us uh 50% of our operating and maintenance costs, including lease costs.

And I believe that's like we spend about 1.2 million um and our uh condo duce would be 650,000, and that would be kind of our all in number.

Um I uh believe that that uh is a 20 year payback.

So um that is with a purchase price and the renovation price, um, that is when we would be kind of if if you if you scale that out.

The the the challenge with that number of a 20 year payback is that assumes the status quo, and we know the status quo isn't feasible, and and we if we uh if we don't move forward, we would be leasing um different space at a higher cost.

But of course, making those assumptions isn't really fair.

So that's where we ended up with the 20 year payback number.

Mr.

Steininger.

Um thank you.

Uh thank you, Chair, and thank you, Manager Kestor.

Um, my question might be dive a little bit too far into the weeds, but the 2 million in maintenance CIP that you're proposing to transfer.

Um, there's logic is 2.7 million of this purchase price goes into maintenance.

So it's kind of a a one to one.

But I assume that $2 million isn't all maintenance for the current city hall building.

You know, are is there needed maintenance that we're gonna have to push out further as a result of this transfer?

Like kind of what's the what's the uh the the cost there.

Yeah.

Uh thank you for that question.

Um so uh the way that we do our deferred maintenance is we have a pretty um comprehensive uh matrix of um uh variables that prioritize different projects.

So you're correct it it is not directly tied to a project at City Hall.

Uh and that matrix incorporates things like uh life safety, um, and and uh you know how how emergent the need is.

The the two projects that would be delayed um for this uh if we were to transfer these funds are um repairs to the um the library conference room and I'm trying to remember it's the valley or the downtown uh um there's a small meeting room in the downtown, thank you.

Might be maybe phoning a friend there who's supposed to be relaxing and and not uh not calling in on this so we can take some turns.

But um, but so it would be a uh delaying a leak that is in the downtown library conference room.

And then um the the big project that would uh would be impacted would be HVAC system um at the fire hall.

Um and that project we actually wouldn't have enough funding in this year to do um the 2026 uh regardless, but it would get us substantially there.

So um we would hope if there was some backfilling of deferred maintenance that we would still be able to do that project on schedule.

Um, but certainly that would be something that you know that would be a need to refill those funds.

Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you, madam chair.

So the moving into the the new facility will decrease the operating cost by 50%.

Can you give like a an idea of how much of that 50% and reduction of cost will be attributed to new paint and carpet and what the cost estimates are for those, please.

Well, it's really not a um uh the the reduction in operating expenditure doesn't have anything to do with the capital cost of paint and carpet.

Um but the budget for the the budget for carpet uh is 260,000.

That includes demoing and installing new carpet tiles.

I don't have a cost estimate for paint.

Um we're hoping that you know that's a project that we can do as employees.

We do have union um union.

This will be a uh union project with a project labor agreement.

So that's a piece that we would have to care for.

So I don't have the painting cost estimate, but really paint and carpet are not the most expensive parts of this.

It's reconfiguring the space.

Um Missy Scandis.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh question about the CIP items.

I do not my memory is uh not helping me out here, remembering what number we actually landed on at our retreat.

Um, when we talked about, you know, do we try to control costs through some reductions?

But then we also had a conversation about read controlling costs through CIP.

And I'm saying controlling cost, but really what I mean is looking for cuts.

Um and I think hearing you go through the list um with each project and why they're you know good candidates or why they were unlikely to move forward uh in our current um budget situation.

Wouldn't these be the same CIPs that we would use to reduce budget pressure?

I don't know if someone else remembers better, like if we had a number for CIP, but I think you get sort of the bent I'm on.

So yeah, I I remember because I had to translate your direction into real numbers for staff to build the CIP.

So the direction that I gave staff was uh because the direction that I heard from you was to uh reduce the CIP through a mix of reducing uh projects, uh so named projects and also kind of overall uh CIP line items, but not touch our maintenance uh line items.

And so the direction that we gave to staff that to develop the CIP was to not fund the North State Office Building parking garage and the waterfront museum, who are two projects that are scheduled for um about three million dollars total in the next uh round of one percent funding.

And then the other million dollars of that we are uh taking in a pro radar reduction in all of the things that we uh always kind of always fund at a certain amount, exclusive of maintenance for schools and maintenance for city facilities.

Those line items include area-wide paving, um uh trails and playgrounds, uh, Eagle Crests um has a maintenance accountant that we uh send funding to, and there may be another, but um trying to protect the maintenance accounts, and and so that is you know, you'll have that discussion when you receive the CIP, but that is the uh direction that I gave staff um identifying that these same projects.

Yes.

So as a follow-up, and thank you for translating that direction into actual numbers and actual work.

Um so then in this case, so that $3 million of savings would be would need to be more how you were just describing what the other items is the normal items that get funded pro rata going through and funding them at lesser amounts because these would no longer be candidates, so these would no longer be savings, correct?

Oh, sorry, Ms.

Flet Kether Handrays.

So maybe she gets where I'm going.

Thank you.

Some of them were Hughes Candies.

Um I think it's important to remember that the items and the projects listed in this memo have already been funded.

So they were funded FY26 or before.

The items that Manager Custer just outlined would be receiving funding in 27 and beyond.

So you wouldn't, so doing transfers based on what's in this memo doesn't really have an impact on um uh controlling cost or budget reductions for 27 because these have already been funded.

Does that make sense?

Yes, and it's super helpful.

So thank you.

I was starting to get my wires crossed a little bit.

So for example, these named projects, these are the amounts we can sweep these amounts through a transfer.

And it could also be true that those named projects are gonna not show up in the CIP or I So for example, the the North State Office Building.

Yeah, um, the million dollars in Manager Kestor's memo has already been funded.

Her um request here is to sweep that for the municipal building, but it's that project was also supposed to get roughly two and a half million dollars next year.

This year.

And so for FY27, her direction is don't don't put that 2.7 or 2.5 million dollars into this project for next year.

That would be a budget reduction.

Got it for 27.

Super helpful.

Thank you, Ms.

Flick.

Um I've got Mr.

Kelly, but I'm gonna fit in a question first.

Um also hearkening back to the retreat.

You know, I'm I'm thinking about our fund balance um and whether that may be a you know more appropriate use in some cases here.

You know, what this says is you know, our our estimate for the end of this current fiscal year given the reductions in revenue would be 15 million.

Can it's okay if you can't remember this, but when um we set some goals at the retreat in terms of um what size reductions we would um make and the revenue we would increase, do we remember what the fund in that scenario where we reach our goals um through the budget process?

What we would be drawing from FY from the from the fund balance in FY27, Ms.

Flick.

Yes, um, it's anywhere from one and a half to um 1.2 million to 4.2 million of fund balance draw for FY27.

Um so if you fully maximize all of the other areas of reductions and our revenue growth, it's only 1.2 million.

If we end up on the lower side of some of those ranges, it would be 4.2 million.

Thank you.

Um I'll go to Mr.

Smith because he hadn't asked a question yet, and then back to Mr.

Kelly.

Oh I do see Mr.

Wheeler.

Maybe I'll ask staff if there's a if there is something they would like Mr.

Wheeler to answer, or maybe that's a mistake in hand.

All right, I'm gonna keep us rolling.

Um Mr.

Smith and Mr.

Kelly.

Um Madam Chair.

Go ahead.

I have a little to add to the deferred maintenance if if uh if I could.

Mr.

Wheeler, it's a bit out of our protocol to um call call on you in this scenario, but you're welcome to call up with us.

Yeah, no problem.

Okay, thank you.

Go ahead, Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um my question's about I guess like the mechanics of the transfer timing of the transfer.

So my sense is if if say we move this as proposed, if and if if the funding all comes as a transfer, that would show up as like a consent item on a future assembly meeting.

Madam Manager, do you want me to answer that one?

The answer is yes.

That could be pulled by uh that of course could be pulled, but transfers are um typically on the consent agenda in one reading.

You could do something different, but that is the protocol for transfers.

And just a follow-up or maybe related question.

Um say we wanted to change any of these amounts to um general fund.

That would that require an appropriating ordinance?

That is correct.

So if you um if you wanted to uh say don't take two million dollars from maintenance, rather we'd like to do an ordinance that would take two meetings to approve.

You could also say do the transfer as you have it written on your memo, and then please prepare an ordinance to transfer two million dollars from general fund to deferred maintenance, and that would take two meetings to accomplish.

Um, but that would allow the um efficiency of um manager castor knowing that she's got the funding available to move forward with the renovation, but also then care for um replenishing the deferred maintenance if that's your desire.

Mr.

Smith.

And just because Ms.

Flick mentioned it, if we were to direct the manager to say move two million from general fund to the deferred maintenance CIP in our FY27 budget, we could also would that would that be appropriate direction or would it would you prefer does an ordinance make more sense?

Looks like Miss Kestor.

Are you okay?

There's a mouse in my hotel room.

I'm sorry.

And Casper, do you need a minute to uh call 911 sorry just tuck my feet up under me.

Mr.

Smith, um I think you could uh direct the manager to include in her proposed budget an additional two million to go from the general fund balance to the deferred maintenance CIP in FI27 you could also propose that as an adjustment throughout your your budget process um either way I think is is fine.

Mr.

Kelly given that new information I'm gonna hold off on my question.

Mayor Weldon and I see Mr.

Brooks and Miss Yusandes Katie or Mrs.

Kester um this is a question for Ms.

Flick um but we could tonight just say go ahead we'll figure out the funding later correct mayor by go ahead do you mean go ahead with this transfer?

Yes but then I'll just answer my own question because we have to have a where we're just coming from never mind Mr.

Brooks.

Thank you madam chair and this for the manager the floor plan is another thing that arguably doesn't necessarily directly contribute to uh a reduced operating cost of a facility is there a uh other alternative floor plans that have been exercised and cost estimates that are lower than the 7.5 so the estimate is 8.5 and again that is um value that is committing to doing more value engineering and getting that that number down um through any way possible so that original cost estimate came in at 13 million um and we're committed to not spending more than eight and a half million uh the um the floor plan includes some new office space so including some new interior walls for supervisors and the reason that we did that is because putting supervisors in cubicles means you need to have a differ additional conference rooms so that they can have private conversations HR issues etc and so um when you look at the space needs of those those private additional conference rooms uh and and keeping supervisors in cubicles it really didn't make sense to do that certainly you know the more walls that we build the more that drives the cost so um that that was the trade off that we uh struggled with when looking at um the floor plan and the floor plan is you know still under design so it's not and that will be an area that we use to try to control costs I miss use Cindy sin miss hall thank you madam chair um manager castor without you know we typically don't see these things broken a the budget broken down by cost item which is in my mind you know 99% a good thing because you don't want nine uh elected officials going through your your um your project and for instance at the playground comes to mind and when people got really into the weeds of like why don't we put the swing set over here and you know you uh I think we're all familiar with how well that doesn't work but I am thinking about the concept of value engineering knowing that we are already trying to drag it down to that lower number um you know 13 to 8.5 and I'm wondering knowing the financial situation we're in um knowing that we are already under I think our estimates on sales quarter or one of the quarters I think we're under on sales tax uh and knowing what kind of budget season we're gonna have what thought has been given to doing this looking at which pieces can be done uh kind of staged so can we do some of this later for instance uh you just mentioned the interior interior walls and I recognize there's great reasons um why those has have to happen at the same time that the move does but are there things like um the assembly chambers expansion and dais or the front desk or things like that that uh the painting the carpet that have we tried to add that up and and see if we could split that across across years so the most the most economical thing to do is to renovate a building when you're

But are there things like the assembly chambers expansion and dais or the front desk or things like that that uh the painting, the carpet that have we tried to add that up and and see if we could split that across across years?

So the most the most economical thing to do is to renovate a building when you're not inside it.

If you do renovations once you're inside a building, you're paying not only for leased space to move those employees into, but also for the moving costs of moving those, all of that furniture.

Because this, you know, we've we hire to hire movers, we have to uh pay for all of those costs.

You have to pay for the inefficiencies of of you know not being in there.

So there are very few things that I would recommend coming back and doing later.

Expanding chambers, you know, for example, uh yeah, you guys could squeeze into a smaller chambers uh that doesn't quite fit your needs, but then the disruption of having to expand chambers means that we're hosting meetings somewhere else.

The employees that are uh also on that floor can't, you know, work on that floor.

Um, so you know, it becomes really difficult really quickly.

I mean, I think what we are committing to you was saying we will bring this in at eight and a half million dollars instead of 13 million dollars is that we will make every single decision we can to control costs on this because we've committed to you for committed that to you.

Oh, that mouse is running around.

Sorry.

I'm so sorry.

Uh so we are committing to you.

I mean, there are there's furniture we cannot buy, right?

We can say um we're gonna incorporate furniture costs and some of these other things into future budgets, operational budgets, instead of those upfront costs.

So we've had some of those conversations of like, you know, what could we wait for?

Um, but really there's I don't see a lot that we can carve out of this cost estimate, aside from what we're already committing to you, that frankly we don't have a plan for.

We have us all those ideas that you're bringing us of okay, what if you like economize here or there that we're gonna have to pull on?

So there is some faith that you're gonna that that you're putting in us in being able to, you know, bring this cost actual cost down and still get uh a basic product that is is suitable for um for city employees.

And I can tell you, we're using all of our all of our smarts and all of our uh you know ingenuity and creativity uh to try to do that.

So, you know, asking me like, are you doing that even more?

Um no, we we are committed to doing that 100%.

Uh thank you, manager Kessar.

And a bit of a follow-up.

I have no doubt that you all are using all your tricks, and I also have no doubt that you all have superior skill sets to bring that in under budget or that you are looking for every cost efficiency.

I am sure there are many good quotes because I've read them and I can't think of any right now, but the basic gist is it's very expensive to be poor.

You know, if you can buy a thing and you buy it once, that's a lot cheaper over the long-term cost than renting.

Um I it gives me no pleasure to be sitting here and suggesting are there worse and inefficient ways we could do things as a city?

Um could we make things more expensive by getting people in and out and and harder on the employees by moving them back and forth between telework and and being in the office?

So I imagine you all haven't spent much time with that because CBJ does as an organization in my in my experience, really work hard to bring in the most efficient and best product it can in all things to the city.

So uh I fully understand that that would be more expensive and less efficient.

And I am trying to think from the perspective of a city that has recently voted to, you know, if it may be more expensive over time for us because we get a set allowance, you know, every year, and um, and that makes uh it ties our hands and it makes things more difficult.

So that is where that question is coming from, but I appreciate um your feedback.

Ms.

Hall, then Miss Atkinson.

Yeah, thank you, madam chair.

And this is another one of those in the weeds questions, but do we know the condition of the roof of the Burns building with the snow load?

Yeah, I uh assembly member Hall, I do not know uh an answer to that question specifically.

I do know that we've done a thorough condition assessment of the facility.

So I'm sure um our facility superintendent has uh has that information, but part of our due diligence in purchasing the building was that facilities assessment.

And they had a actually they had a leak um, not a uh not a roof leak, and they notified me immediately about it because we are in this negotiation to purchase the building.

So um I would expect that same notification if they had any of those other concerns because they've been very good about keeping me updated on the um state of the building.

Ms.

Atkinson.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh Ms.

Kester, maybe a somewhat snarky question.

I apologize.

Um we've been talking a lot about the uh sort of tangible costs of this, looking at the memo you've provided us.

But would you say that um good working conditions for employees would translate to employee retention and government efficiency, which in itself does save on costs.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Mr.

Brooks, I'm hoping we are getting close to wrapping up this question and answer session.

Thank you.

No, to pick on you, just that's for everyone.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, so uh I appreciate and I I have no doubts either that uh you guys are doing everything you can to whittle it down to as small as possible.

But you're saying like the initial ideas were kind of at 20.

Now, you know, refine it to 13 and want to bring it in at 8.9.

But if you're initially upwards of 20, we were looking at doing all deferred maintenance and renovating this entire facility for 14 million or moving into a building that is substantially in better condition and with better amenities than this facility, but we somehow wouldn't need to spend more to make it uh usable.

So just for you know, maybe people tuning in at home and myself, just kind of walking through how that comes about.

Thank you, assembly member Brooks.

Uh, first I want to point out that less than half of our downtown employees are actually housed in uh City Hall.

So most of our employees are housed.

Um, they used to be housed in the Muni Ray building and um Marine View.

Um Muniway uh employees are scattered across the wind right now.

Some of them are in the fish house, some of them are teleworking, some of them have been moved to the uh central office building.

I believe that's what we're calling it now.

Um former JSD Edmund building.

So um certainly just renovating City Hall does not solve uh our space needs.

Second, you know, the $14 million cost estimate was uh a cost estimate that was done internally, and that was uh done you know years ago when I was engineering and public works director by our then chief architect, who's also wonderful, wonderful person, uh, but also gave us the cost estimates that we were originally working with uh for um renovating the Burns building that were you know probably low by uh by about 75%.

When we had Northwind Architecture look at actually renovating uh City Hall, they quoted us upwards of 40 million dollars to renovate City Hall.

Now the reason for that is because the foundation is settling and so it's kind of breaking in half.

Obviously, I would never ask you for 40 million dollars to renovate City Hall.

If you were to say, hey, I want to stay in City Hall, I would find like the bare minimum things that we would need to extend the lifespan of City Hall, you know, for 10 years.

And and that 14 million dollar number also didn't extend the lifespan of City Hall for you know another 50 years, it extended it for I I can't recall 10 or 15 years.

And it included like uh the facade and you know, windows and and things like that.

But when you start digging into what it really costs to renovate City Hall, it it's just really expensive because it's an old building that hasn't been given a lot of attention.

So I would caution using that $14 million number as like, gee, everything we could stay here if we just if we just spent $40 million.

If you if you wanted to stay here, I would I would plan on spending money to renovate City Hall.

I just can't tell you, you know, it it's always a balance.

Um and when you start digging into old buildings, you you start finding a lot.

Ms.

Candies.

Thanks for your indulgence, Madam Mayor, or uh Madam Chair.

Um Ms.

Buck, I just had one quick one for you.

You uh, which was just to clarify my understanding of what you said to Ms.

Wall earlier with the 1.2 million on the low range and 4.2 million on the high range.

Could you restate what that number is?

Absolutely.

Assembly member Hughes Candies at the retreat, um, we looked at two different options.

Um we looked at um we looked at two options, but what you ended up giving as direction was the manager was to come up with uh um three to four million dollars worth of budget assumption cuts and um between the assembly and the manager, roughly two million dollars of revenue increase.

And the assembly was going to come up with two to four million dollars of service reductions.

And if if all of those were done on the high side, that would leave a gap of 1.2 million dollars that we would need to use fund balance to cover the estimated revenue loss.

If we came in on the low side of all of those, we would need 4.2 million dollars to cover that estimated revenue loss.

Okay, great.

That helps me.

So it's to cover the shortfall, depending on how well or how poorly we do in our homework that we all have to do.

Absolutely.

And also dependent on that 11 million dollar estimate being what comes to fruition.

Right.

Thank you.

Mr.

Smith, are you ready to kick us off with a motion?

I'll give it a shot.

That the assembly direct the manager in the FY27 budget to move $2 million from the general fund to the maintenance deferred maintenance CIP and to transfer the funds from the various accounts shown on the bottom of page 33, $2 million from the Capital Civic Center, $2 million from maintenance, $1 million from the North North SOB parking lot, $300,000 waterfront museum.

I probably don't need to read this out.

520, but I'm going, so I'm gonna stop keeping going.

525K from Leonard Creek Multimotoph and 175k from the River Road Junked Vehicle Project.

If I may speak to my motion.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I appreciate what they are doing to try to make this as cost effective of a move and um renovation as they can.

Um I know they were trying very hard, and I appreciated manager Kester's efforts to try to make it so you know, directors and the managers don't have these windows like a la, you know, 1987 or whatever.

Um obviously that was too expensive.

But I appreciate what they're trying to do there.

Um and the motion including the transfer from maintenance is I said it before we are we will, you know, we are tightening the budget with the reduced revenue we expect.

But in my value is that we will not put that on the shoulders of future assemblies or underfund by underfunding our infrastructure.

So the reason for the motion, I think people probably get it moves the transfer along, but it also is essentially in 27 in the manager's budget will backfill money from the general fund to deferred maintenance.

So um that that CIP is essentially replenished because I think I don't want to get in the habit of underfunding that CIP.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Objections, Mr.

Steininger.

Um I'll object for the purpose of an amendment because I agree with 99% of what you put forward, but I would much rather see the backfill of the maintenance happen before the fiscal year 27 budget.

Um I think pushing it into 27, then you know, it it just will compete with all of our other 27 needs.

And I don't think that we should slow down either of those projects.

Um and I think inflating our 27 budget by another two million dollars for deferred maintenance, you know, doesn't really kind of do justice to putting the costs in the year where the costs are supposed to be incurred.

So I guess my amendment would be to change it to 26 for the transfer from the general fund into deferred maintenance.

And that would be a direction to create an ordinance that would be the technical amendment.

Yes, I believe I'm looking for claiming for me.

Okay, just so we all are the on the same page.

Okay, so we have a motion on the floor.

We have an amendment.

Do we have objections to the amendment, Ms.

Atkinson?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I definitely appreciate the intent of the amendment, but I guess my objection is dependent on uh answer from Ms.

Kester.

Uh, my understanding was having this as a transfer uh was important for timeline reasons and that potentially having an ordinance with two meetings would slow the project down in a detrimental way.

Would it make a big difference to have a chunk of this money uh take a little longer to come than uh rather than do the backfill.

Thank you for that question.

Uh we we don't need these funds uh in so much of a rush that we need to rush them through in one meeting.

So uh two meetings would be fine.

With that case, I removed my objection.

Steiner you can restate your amendment to yeah maybe I'll state just what I want the end the end result to be yeah so the end result would be a transfer as compli as contemplated in the manager's memo that transfers money out of maintenance and out of all the other projects that Deputy Mayor Smith listed um and then that would go forward at the next meeting on the consent agenda and then a separately an ordinance that would transfer two million dollars into backfill which would then take a little bit of time any objections to that amendment seeing none that brings us back to the original motion as amended oh mayor weldon did you sorry I didn't see the timing of your hand were you objecting to the amendment no okay we're we're coming back to our original um motion as amended I have miss you scandis and mayor weldon uh thank you madam chair I have a a real hard time with this one um but I feel better knowing that we're like taking the maintenance was a non-starter so I'm happy that we have cared for that through that amendment so thank you uh to both of you I will say that um it's hard to advocate for then taking more out of the general fund because when I look at this I all I feel is all of the competing things that are going to be coming for the general fund is which I don't want to spend down and I don't want to be one of those assemblies that leaves it in worse shape because I am grateful for the ones who came before me.

That being said the other thing on this list besides maintenance this 525000 out of the Lemon Creek multimodal path I understand very well um the city manager's thinking and explanation which is super helpful and that has been our strategy uh and there has been an administration change so this is not something where there's juicy grants really lying around for so I understand that strategy of just making sure we have enough funds to aggressively seek grants I for me however I don't think that this is a great place like this when I look at this list if when we are looking for places to take money from one of the reasons that this had been championed uh by why it had been a priority for assemblies is because Lemon Creek traditionally we felt like when we did the R Park survey that there weren't enough parks there was not historically the same amount of municipal funding.

So if it's a place where we turn um when we need money I have a problem with that.

So I suppose I would amend to um drop uh I'm trying to think how to do this I would drop a ordinance to put 525000 back into the Lemon Creek multimodal path is the only way I can think to do it.

So if that seems okay I think that would be my amendment and I think you've already heard why uh that that makes sense um based on our conversation so far and following you.

Any objections Mayor Weldon are you objecting to the amendment yes Kit would you please speak to your objection certainly I appreciate where Ms Euscanys is going with this but um we need to come up with money for this and I don't think we should take it all out of a general fund.

So unless she has an idea of where to come it comes from I would object because I don't think it should come for general fund um the staff has a plan on what to do with the Lemon Creek both the modal path and it's a ways down the road um so I think this is a good idea so I object Mr.

Kelly the Mr Steininger Thank you um I will speak in in the support of uh Ms Heuscandy's motion um occluded in in the in the memo here is basically that a feasibility and outreach um the it it sounds it sounds to me and maybe I should maybe I should confirm this before I object but it sounds to me that we are going to be doing outreach to uh to the people in Lemon Creek to to verify that this is um what uh this is a project that they they value and want and I think before defunding it um we should we should have the results of that outreach.

But it sounds to me that we are going to be doing outreach to uh to the people in Lemon Creek to verify that this is um what uh this is a project that they they value and want.

And I think before defunding it, um we should we should have the results of that outreach.

Am I understanding correctly that um that we do plan on conducting outreach um and hearing back from the um from the residents of Lemmon Creek?

And I guess um if so, uh when do when we expect to receive those results?

U so the answer is yes, part of that um that project is to do that feasibility work.

I don't have a timeline right now.

Um, but it's something we will have our new communications uh division engage on uh Mr.

Steininger.

Thank you.

And uh I guess kind of a follow-on question to Mr.

Kelly's question.

Um the million dollars that would remain in the project, is that sufficient to do that communication work and any work that might be anticipated to happen on this project over the next say year, year and a half?

Yes, we are leveraging grant funding to do the uh to the outreach with with match.

So yes, I believe that leaves sufficient funding to do that type of uh feasibility work.

Mr.

Steininger, are you um maintaining your objective objection?

Uh trying to decide if I'm objecting or not.

You can so it yeah, either way, it's fine, I guess.

That's helpful.

Um Mr.

Smith and Ms.

Hall Um Manager Kester, I have to admit I don't know where the Lemon Creek Multimoto Path ended up on our legislative priority list.

I guess do you from the this assembly, do you still feel like that is a priority of this assembly, that project.

Or or how much or anyway, like I I guess I get just to preface my question.

I understand Miss Hughes Scandi's concern about you know taking from that CIP, and I understand it.

I just want to get a sense from you as the manager.

Like, are you planning on going back to take more, or do you or are you like know the this assembly values this project and therefore, you know, it I would leave, you know, sufficient funds in there.

Anyway, sorry, that might be a tricky question, but it is a little tricky.

I will say the project has fallen from uh uh I I can't recall exactly where it is in legislative priority list, but it has fallen.

I would say some of its champions are no longer on the assembly.

One of the challenges of the project is it's very expensive.

So um it's not the type of project we feel like we would be able to do without grant funding.

And so that is uh a limiting factor.

Um I I do spend a tremendous amount of time trying to guess uh all of your um uh proclivities for uh for projects, and um, I guess uh as evidenced by my including it on this list, uh it feels like there are just so many other I mean we have fires right now, right?

We just have so many other priorities um that we haven't been able to dedicate the time um to advance that that project.

And again, the grant uh situation has changed.

So probably um it's a very long-winded long-winded answer, and I'm not gonna tell you if it's a yes or a no.

That's Mr.

Smith, are you maintaining objection?

Uh I I will I I am going to maintain it completely understand and am compassionate towards uh Miss Huscandy's motion.

Um we know that area of town needs and deserves additional funding.

I don't know that the $500 for this project is like making or breaking that, or should be seen as a sign that we're not you know, wanting to make additional you know, recreation and other investments in that um in that area.

So uh I and I I guess I'm balancing that with the possible the strain on the general fund and that there's still a million dollars in there, and um anyway, any other withdrawals or transfers, you know, would have to come before the assembly.

So I will maintain my objection to the amendment.

Thank you.

Ms.

Hall.

Yeah, and I also will object.

I do so appreciate Ms.

Hughes Scandy's um championing of this and and is you know, I greatly value physical activity and making sure we have equal access around town.

But um given that the project, you know, the one million remaining will still be able to pursue grant opportunities, but also recognizing the very real climate that we're in right now federally, and the opportunity for such a project going forward is uh pretty non-existent in the next few years.

So I think uh we do have so many fires to put out, and I think we need to focus on the real needs of our community, and so I will object as well.

I'm gonna thank you, Ms.

Hall.

I'm gonna speak in favor of this um amendment for two reasons.

I I think you know, this is one of the reasons I I wish we had a fund balance policy, so we all kind of knew what we wanted.

Well, the reason for our fund balance was because when I look at the number 15 million, yes, that's um a lot of money, but that's not operating money.

That that's money that that we have there because our investments did well.

Um we have been lucky to have fund balance the last few years.

Um, and we have gotten the chance to use it on opportunities and priorities to move them forward.

I'm glad we are using some of it to make sure we're we're careful and deliberate about um our budget process, but we don't need 15 million to do that.

And so I would like to keep what I consider high priority items funded because I I've in my time here, I've seen some projects that were expensive slowly get, but were priorities slowly get shipped away at because we we were able to find some funding here and there until we were eventually able to fund them.

Um the fire and police communications tower comes to mind as one one of those projects.

So um this has been a priority for a long time.

There's really good reasons for it.

There was a lot of public outreach in Lemon Creek to do a plan a long time ago.

This was one of those projects that was prioritized.

Um, and so um I I hear you all who are objecting, but that's um my pitch.

Um I see Miss Hughes Candy's.

Uh thank you, madam chair.

I just will respond briefly.

I think, you know, if we want to rethink our approach to things, that's okay.

And I understand from manager custer's um position when things like federal priorities change, then this seems like as long as we have a little bit in there to keep that alive, then we haven't kicked this off the list entirely.

But I think just to echo what Ms.

Wall just said about chipping away at things, if it is no longer a federal priority or there are not grants all around for that, that does not mean that this is not something that the community still wants and still needs, and that some we will just have to figure out how to fund ourselves, and it may take time.

Um, but I think you do not then target a specific part of town and say, oh, no grants available.

So I guess we're not it's a priority when there's free money for it, but it's not a priority when there's not.

I'm thinking about in my time here, there was a amendment to a CIP to get lighting for a park in Lemon Creek, Saguyu Yi.

And I think I checked fairly recently if that had been completed, and it's somehow it gets bumped down the list.

And it took a an amendment.

Um, it was something I talked about with staff, and um the CIP has a lot of things on it, and it's important that we are being equitable and where we are putting our funds.

So I understand why this was on the list because it seems like there's money in it, you can remove money from it, and there's still enough money to keep the project alive.

But that does not feel fair to me when there are there are other park CIPs that we could have attacked.

There are a lot of places that have money.

Um when I compare this, which is so specific and has been a priority by previous assemblies and is somewhere on our legislative priorities list.

I know it fell.

I don't know where it ended up.

But this is so specific compared to something like maintenance.

And so for me, it does not feel equitable and it does not feel fair.

So thanks for your indulgence.

All right, we have a motion and we have an amendment.

Um Ms.

Wendell, maybe you can remind us what we're voting on.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Chairwall.

I will repeat the original motion as amended, and then I will state the amendment currently under consideration.

The original motion as amended was to move to direct the manager in the FY26 budget to appropriate two million dollars from general funds to deferred to the deferred maintenance CIP and to move forward with transferring the funds from the various accounts listed on the bottom of page 33 to the municipal building CIP.

That was the original motion as amended.

The amendment currently under consideration is to appropriate $525,000 in addition to the $2 million of general funds, but the $525,000 uh would be appropriated to the Lemon Creek multimodal pass CIP while also moving forward with the proposed transfer.

Assemblymember Hughes Scandes.

Yes.

Mayor Weldon.

No.

Assemblymember Smith.

No.

Assemblymember Steininger.

Yes.

Assemblymember Hall.

No.

Assemblymember Atkison.

No.

Assemblymember Brooks.

No.

Assemblymember Kelly.

Yes.

Chair Wall.

Yes.

The amendment fails for A's, five nays.

All right.

That brings us back to the original motion as amended.

I'm guessing we're all clear on what that is.

Are there objections to our motion on the floor?

Seeing none, that is so moved.

All right.

We have one more item.

Are people okay going through going ahead?

I see.

Head nods.

Okay.

Brings us to sales tax exemption composting.

Um this is from Mr.

Kelly.

So maybe, well, I asked him to bring it forward.

So maybe if you would like to um speak to this, and we can see if uh folks have questions for staff.

Sounds good.

Um I'll I'll try to be brief, maybe save more time if people have uh specific questions.

Uh but this was something that I brought forward when we were um considering um uh proposition three.

Um it's uh it was my priority um at that time and it remains my priority uh to try and um deflect uh some of the impact on the waste stream um uh or away from the dump and more into um something that's uh that's more more efficient.

Um I don't think I need to quite go into the the history of this, but yeah, basically um I feel that this ordinance would help us to encourage a good behavior.

Um I was hesitant to bring it up earlier um because we are not um we don't have the the benefit of the seasonal sales tax to help pay things for things, but it's my understanding after talking with Director Flick Um that the uh impact on our budget um to this would be negligible, and we're also encouraging um what I feel would be a positive behavior.

So um if you have any questions, um I'm here.

Questions for staff or for um member Kelly, Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, madam chair.

Um, I guess do we have any idea on the what the reduction in revenue would be should this ordinance take effect.

Thank you for the question, Deputy Mayor Smith.

Um that is a little bit of a tricky question to answer because this um exemption is written for residential umly um composting, and so much like all of the other um SalesX exemptions around utilities, the exempting for residential only becomes a little tricky to estimate.

There is only one vendor in town, so I'm not I'm for confidentiality reasons.

I can't share with you all of the information about that vendor's tax returns.

However, I can tell you that I don't think you will need to um adjust your plan moving forward for reductions because of the inclusion of this exemption.

Um it will be a revenue reduction, but I don't believe it will be sufficient to move the needle, so you need to figure out another swath of services to reduce or anything of that nature.

Any other questions?

Mr.

Smith.

Ready for a motion.

Maybe I'll let Mr.

Kelly do it since it's his uh go ahead, Mr.

Kelly.

Thank you.

I move um that the uh finance committee forward to the full assembly uh for introduction at the next assembly meeting.

And ordinance amending the uniform sales tax of the city and borough of Juneau to um I guess ordinance um currently with the serial number of 2026-x on page 34 of our packet.

And ask for unanimous consent.

Any objections?

Ms.

Well may provide a clarification.

Yes.

Your your next assembly meeting meeting is on Monday.

This would actually come forward to you in February, so it has proper time to be publicized and noticed for introduction.

Thanks for that clarification.

Any objections?

Seeing none that is so moved.

Um we have information only sales tax delinquency publication.

Um questions on that.

It brings us to next meeting date.

Um February 4th, 2026, though I believe we may be scheduling according to our new budget calendar, a joint meeting that will be some comp maybe it's probably not a finance committee meeting, it's whatever special meeting or something, but part of the budget process.

Um that brings us to executive session, Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, madam chair.

I move to adjourn into executive session to address litigation, mediation, and legal strategy related to marine passenger fees and dock fees and ask for unanimous consent.

Um any objections from the body.

Any objections from the public.

Seeing none, we're in executive session, or we will be when folks exit the room.

We're gonna stay here, I believe.

Yes, um, Chair.

Well, for logistics purposes, we are gonna stay in this room.

I will set up a Zoom so the mayor and the manager can participate.

Um we'll get them online.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, can we take a break?

Yes.

Okay, at least 10 minutes so I can run downstairs and save Katie.

I can I can do any particular break.

Thank you, Mayor.

I can though.

Um for the record, I'll um announce that we won't be returning to public session after the executive session.