On August 26, 2025, the City and Borough of Sitka Assembly held a regular meeting at the Assembly Chambers. Deputy Mayor Timothy Pike presided in the absence of Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz, with members Kevin Mosher arriving later. The meeting covered an assessing department report, public comments, approval of consent agenda items, a board reappointment, a collective bargaining agreement, and updates on electric vehicle shipping, a cell phone tower hearing, city facilities, and the upcoming municipal election.
To call to order the uh August 26th assembly meeting. Please join me for a flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. The Assembly of the City and Borough of Sitka would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional first people of Sheetka with gratitude. We proceed on Clinkenani. Sarah, roll call, please. Mr. Pike. Here. Ms. Carlson. Here. Mr. Yestad. Here. Mr. Steline. Here. Mayor Eisenbais and Mr. Christianson are absent this evening, and Mr. Mosier will be here momentarily. Thank you. Are there any correspondence? This brings us to correspondence agenda changes. Are there any correspondence or agenda change changes this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on to special reports. Tonight we have a special report from assessing. Thank you. Good evening, Assembly. John. The assessing department currently operates with three full-time employees. All three positions are currently filled. Me as the director, our appraiser's Casey Kinslow, and our appraisal technician is Chloe Cagle. Along with our day-to-day work, we're currently working on corrections to the 2025 tax roll. Corrections usually consist of improper mailing addresses and ownership information. Typically, a correction does not address values unless it's involved a clerical error. We haven't had any of those this year. We are also continuing our reappraisal of the residential properties in Sitka. This will be our fifth year, and we'll be working on the north end, including Halibut Point Road and adjacent streets. Uh sample every year to keep that as current as possible. The reappraisal project has brought values closer to the full and true value required by Alaska State Statute. Between appraisals, market trend will be applied to all properties every year. This will help us to comply with the Alaska statute and minimize the impact of reappraisals on our property owners. Using market data, we can develop and apply trends to all properties in the borough. We will apply trends for the 2026 tax year and every year going forward. The application of a trend model annually will assist in keeping our values current. Recent accomplishments as a team, we recently attended the Alaska Association of Assessing Officers Summer Conference via Zoom. The Triple AO continues to grow under new leadership. We have added a monthly assessors June meeting, Zoom meeting to discuss current assessment issues.