All right, thank you everybody for joining us this evening.

I will call to order the regularly scheduled meeting of Tuesday, March 10th, 2026.

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 Klinkett Ani.

Sarah Roll Call, please.

Mayor Isenbise.

Present.

Mr.

Pike.

Here.

Ms.

Carlson.

Here.

Ms.

Riley.

Here.

Mr.

Christensen.

Here.

Mr.

Steline.

Here.

Mr.

Mosier is absent this evening.

Great.

Thank you.

Correspondence or agenda changes.

John, I understand you have some correspondence.

I do.

Thank you, Mayor.

Looks like a budget meeting in here tonight.

I was gonna announce this for the public.

And in your packet, I just wanted to point to this just like we did last year.

The tourism commission met on January 15th, and they recommended that uh staff reevaluate the potential one-way closure options for Lincoln Street during the uh during the tourism season.

Uh the CBS departments met to kind of go over the mechanics of that and do a review.

Um, and they went back to the tourism commission.

Um, and the group reached a consensus that essentially will follow the same procedures that we did last year.

We'll leave Lincoln Street fully open uh during the tourism season, and the uh the restroom will be placed at the uh Max Uddoff uh intersection as it was last year.

But just wanted to point that out for everyone.

Thank you.

Any other correspondence or agenda changes this evening.

Uh moving on to special reports.

Uh we have uh several scheduled special reports this evening uh for from department head quarterly reports.

Uh we'll start with HR and Josh, please.

Good evening, Mayor and Assembly.

Josh Brantover, Assistant Municipal Administrator.

Um for staff and hours, we have our HR Generalist two, which is Denise Salter, and Denise recently finished a uh kind of a multi-year uh certification for her Society for Human Resource Management Certified Profession Professional Certification.

Um we also recently welcomed Amelia Abeda as our HR assistant.

Um things I want to highlight uh that we've been working on.

Uh our our rollout of NeilGov has been a long process.

Um we have just in the last couple of weeks have uh sent everybody um given access to everybody still working on getting everybody fully into the system.

Uh but we are have got everybody's uh information in there.

Um we're gonna be doing a presentation at the AHOD on Thursday to start gearing people up for uh for getting in there for more stuff.

Uh some things that we are pushing out here very soon are evaluations and our training program is gonna be our learning management system going forward.

Um things that are on the horizon is that we have uh PSEA negotiations that um that contract is expiring on June 30th.

So we'll be uh we'll be working with them to get a new contract in place by that date, hopefully.

The other thing we have coming up is uh that we're preparing for right now is our annual open enrollment for health care, which will be in June.

And then uh for staffing status, we have 18 budgeted positions we are seeking to fill right now with around a 90% fill rate across all CBS departments, and we hired seven full-time employees for various positions this this quarter.

Uh vacancies are advertised at our governmentjobs.com/slash careers slash sitka.

And uh we are gearing up for our seasonal hiring.

I think last year, um, which we like 50 to 80 um seasonals that we bring on, you know.

So it's uh it's a big part um of HR work over the next couple months.

Um, and uh we we really need uh that support in the summertime to allow us to do all of our operations.

So if anybody's looking for uh for seasonal employment, um keep an eye out on our website that'll be coming up soon.

And uh that's all I have pinning any questions.

Uh Josh, I do have one question for you under your staffing status.

Um it says we have 18 budgeted positions we're seeking to fill with a round and 90 percent fill rate.

Um are we at 90 percent now, or those 18 positions will get us to 90 percent?

Oh, so we it's um so we have 182 budgeted positions, so we only have 18 of those that are so it's 10 percent that are that are empty right now.

So eighteen of our 182 positions are vacant.

Okay, so we are at a 90 percent.

We are at a 90% rate now.

I mean, honestly, that's pretty good.

I think that's higher uh than we have had previously.

Uh so kudos to you and your department for uh for keeping that fill rate um high.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Our next scheduled special report this evening is IT and Don.

There we go.

Come on, IT.

Can't you fix the mics?

I'm just yeah, I did.

Come on.

Turn it on, turn it off.

You know, turn it on, turn it off.

Whatever.

You know, that's the way it works.

That's all we do.

We just push buttons.

Hey, problem solved.

We can go home.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and Assembly members.

My name is Don McKinnon.

I'm the IT system admin for the IT department.

Nice job.

Um grant grants traveling this week, so I get to come and give the report.

So uh our department is now fully staffed across all five IT positions, which has helped maintain improved stability response times and project throughput with full staffing.

We're able to continue to support both citywide operations and public safety more effectively.

We're making significant strides in modernizing our digital and physical infrastructure.

Uh new website, we are nearing the finish line with that.

Go live.

I think it's scheduled now for the 19th of March.

Uh mid-March, but this new system is more modern, integrated, and easier to manage.

Uh network network infrastructure.

We've are collaborating across departments to expand city owned networks and infrastructure, hardware updates.

We've completed the installation of access points at all our remaining locations.

Additionally, we are currently updating the course, which is uh in the data center.

These efforts position us for more secure, efficient, and maintainable technology environments.

Our help desk remains highly active, maintaining strong efficiency over the past quarter.

Ticket ticket handling, we've seen 203 requests and successfully resolved 187 of them.

Our efficiency we reached we achieved at 70.4%.

First contact resolution rate ensures most issues are fixed immediately upon first report.

Looking at our year-to-date budget as of early March, expenditures are total about 59% of the annual budget.

This puts us on track financially for the point for this point in the physical cycle.

Higher early year spending and contract services reflect scheduled annual software licensing and cybersecurity renewals, which is expected and budgeted for no correction, no corrective actions is needed.

Closing summary, it excuse me.

IT is fully staffed, projects are progressing on schedule and service levels are strong, and our budget is right where it should be for this time of year.

I'll answer any questions if you have any questions.

Katie?

Yeah, thank you.

Um I was just wondering because it seems like there's quite a few new projects that I think are being set up by other departments that are gonna fall under IT.

One of them is like the police, the body cameras is gonna be an IT line.

The um I think the uh project management, uh, what is it, the permitting software potentially might be under IT.

So I was just wondering if y'all anticipate that that will fit into your your current staffing needs, or if that's like something else that we should expect.

Uh Sam at the uh police department's been highly involved in the body camera implementations, so that's that's ongoing as well.

Um and I I'm not as familiar with the project software, but I I know it has been discussed in meetings and stuff.

So it's also part of it.

We have quite quite a few things going on.

Um sort of just hit on the top highlights here.

So thanks for asking.

Sounds like you're gonna have some more going on.

So if there's if there's any changes to the state, it's never ending.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Don, just thank you to the department for your work in modernizing uh IT when I first came on to the assembly.

Uh we were back in the DOS era on a lot of our things, and my understanding is the last of the DOS uh recently went the way of the dinosaur, which it should have a long time ago.

So we appreciate your continued work.

Uh he's about to tell me there's still some more DOS running around, isn't he?

Um but we we appreciate the work in modernizing it.

It hasn't been without cost, obviously.

You've come forward and we've we've put a lot of money into IT, but in today's world, that's that's all we can do.

So thank you.

Yeah.

All right.

Appreciate it.

All right, thank you.

I will move on to the clerk's report.

Sarah.

All right, uh, thank you, Mayor.

Uh so in the clerk's office, there's three of us the myself, uh Holly, the deputy municipal clerk, and then Brian, the assistant municipal clerk.

This last quarter, uh, we processed 59 uh public records requests.

Um we're continuing to work on our records digitization.

Uh we shipped off 41 boxes of records um to ACOM, and they arrived on Monday, so they're gonna get um scanning those, and we'll be able to view those in the next couple of months.

Um Holly is working on a rollout plan to provide staff with um access and instructions for um viewing those records in laser fees.

Um I just received word on our um recodification of the code um that the migration to eCode 360 was completed a couple of days ago, so I'll be reviewing that, and then um we'll let folks know when we're going live with that.

Uh Board Commission Committee training.

Uh we have been actively involved in that.

We've visited four commissions so far.

Um, and then we have been working on the work culture project.

Uh, we had the holiday party that was well attended in January, and then we had a huge turnout for our ice cream social last Friday.

And as far as um budget, we are at 57%.

Uh thank you.

Any questions for Sarah?

I don't have questions because we talk to you so much.

We see you frequently.

And then uh moving on to planning.

Um, Amy has a paper report for us.

The incorrect one got uploaded, it appears.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor and Assembly members, Amy Ainsley.

I'm the planning and community development director.

Um, and as the mayor just pointed out, the uh report that was uploaded into your packet, the staffing table is correct, and the budget reports are correct.

Um it appears that they I accidentally put the project updates from last quarter, so I apologize for that.

But the updated ones are there printed in front of you there.

Um to start with is our staffing.

I it's truly it's truly an on like one of the greatest honors of my career to lead my phenomenal team of uh nine uh across planning, sustainability, parks and recreation in the building department.

I truly have a really committed, competent, fun group of folks that are committed to serving this community with all they have.

Um we are largely staffed, although we have um a vacancy for our halftime position of the head lifeguard, and we were not um given an American, we didn't did not have an AmeriCorps volunteer placed with us this year.

Uh while not pla not in the department, I did also want to highlight that we have filled the tourism manager position.

Judson Rusk started uh want to say about six to eight weeks ago, um, is working remotely but coming to Sitka about once a month for a week and working remotely in between, um which kind of rolls right into some of my project updates starting with tourism.

Um it's been actually a really nice coincidence to be onboarding our tourism manager at the same time that we've been onboarding our new visit Sitka contractors.

Um it's been a really good opportunity to sort of re-establish new relationships, teach everyone at this kind of at the same time, get everyone up to speed and oriented at the same time together.

Um, and just for that team to really kind of start building its own kind of reporting and meeting schedule and sort of figuring out um kind of some new particulars of this contract.

In particular, um, gonna be focusing a lot on getting a pilot program for TBMP stood up for this summer and working to also establish those sort of economic indic and other key performance indicators that we're gonna want to collect throughout the summer and then continue to track over the next couple of years.

Also continuing work um in that space as well that kind of overlaps with planning as well.

Um, our zoning code update on um cruise ship docks as well, and kind of sharing that responsibility with tourism and the tourism commission as well as the planning commission working on that.

Um, had an opportunity to give you a special report a little while ago on the housing land suitability and feasibility study, so won't spend too much time doing that this evening.

Um, just wanted to let the assembly know we're currently in the process of getting our contracts updated to get phase two started.

Um, so I'm anticipating that before the end of this month, phase two will be kicked off, and we'll be looking at approximately six to nine months for completion of phase two.

Sustainability is still focusing heavily on its two projects.

Um, the SICA community community renewable energy strategy as well as our energy to communities um project, both of which have federal funding and technical assistance attached to them.

We're continuing to feel some of the pain of sort of adjustments and changes at the federal level and how that's impacting our projects, um, the renewable energy strategy in particular.

Um, but we are taking this opportunity to as much as possible try to align timelines and resources between these two projects so that as one is kind of supposed to be winding down anything that we can sort of use from that or complement in the other, or if we have potentially more resources remaining in one project versus the other, kind of leveling that that load a little bit more.

And we are anticipating bringing a special report to you about the energy to communities project very soon with Bree and Ron.

Parks and recreation is continuing to succeed.

All expectations, they have a very full slate of after school programs and city league volleyball is ongoing right now.

There's a very high demand for facility rentals.

Uh we are struggling a little bit to have enough staff to keep those covered, and so we're kind of feeling out how many of those requests we can continue to support given our staffing levels.

Uh the team is also continuing to work really closely with facilities, both to identify facility needs and also to kind of work around planned maintenance, especially with the senior center and some of the pool repairs that are going on, doing our best to minimize um programming impacts, um, particularly with the senior center.

Some programs we're trying to shift locations for and just kind of making do as we can while those those projects are ongoing.

Parks and rec is also really focused on um getting the master plan for parks and recreation facilities going after the assembly did approve the MOU with the SICA Recreation Foundation to get that kicked off.

The building department did have uh kind of our anticipated slowdown in the fourth quarter of last year.

Gets a little bit quieter in construction season, you know, October through December.

Um, but it's also a really good chance to catch up on kind of outstanding permits.

So you can see during quarters two and three of last year that it was, you know, you're looking at kind of the same number of permits in versus out on a quarterly basis.

This quarter is an opportunity to catch up with you know, you know, a little over 50 permits going out the door with only a little you know over 30 coming in.

So it's a good opportunity to get caught up there and get ahead while still performing a very impressive number of inspections in very challenging conditions.

No major surprises for us or kind of busts in our budget.

Um we're kind of where we're expecting to be for being you know, kind of closing in on the last quarter of the year.

Did want to thank the assembly for some of their support in our mid-year supplemental appropriation, being able to move the funding out of contract services for the AmeriCorps volunteer to increase our temp services and parks and rec is gonna help us get a little bit closer to closing that that staffing gap and also having some extra support to get some of these really high demand code changes that have been on our plate, um, moving a little bit more and trying to balance which of those we take on as staff versus having more resource to contract some of those out, is definitely gonna help with our project and workload.

That's everything I have.

Questions for Amy?

Uh Amy, just one.

Um I know tourism was you reluctantly.

Um thank you for taking that on, um, bang up job on that.

Um, but are we we're on track for the transition and that should be accomplished within a month or two, I'm assuming.

That is there's definitely a longer trajectory for handing that over.

Um my estimation is we're really looking at six to twelve months, and within that time, kind of moving more and more work over the to the tourism manager and away from planning.

Um, but there's you know, there's there's you know, this has been I think four coming up on five years of you know, of kind of this role sort of coexisting with my own, and so peeling it apart and training a new person orientation, all of that um, you know, is gonna take a pretty significant amount of time.

Um, but so you know, so far our I think our our new tourism manager is more than up to the task and performing really well.

So I'm really optimistic that that's gonna move it a good clip.

Let's make sure we're utilizing them then because I want to make sure we we get that workload off of you while I care about our new employees and keep them busy.

Um I really care about getting your workload down some so that you can focus on your team.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Uh anything else?

Thank you, Amy.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

I'm moving on in special reports this evening.

Is there anyone here for government to government, municipal boards, commissions, committees, municipal departments, school district?

Seeing none, that'll bring us two persons to be heard.

Seeing none, we'll move on to consent agenda, please.

I move to approve the consent agenda consisting of item A.

Second.

Sarah?

All right.

On the motion to approve the consent agenda, Mayor Eisenbais.

Yes.

Mr.

Christensen.

Yes.

Ms.

Riley?

Yes.

Mr.

Celine?

Yes.

Ms.

Carlson?

Yes.

And Mr.

Pike.

Yes.

Motion passes 6-0 on the consent agenda.

Thank you.

Board Commission Committee appointments.

I move to B.

Go ahead.

All right.

I move to reappoint Marjorie Esquiro to a three-year term on the Library Commission.

Second.

That's been moved and seconded to re reappoint Margie Esquiro to the Library Commission.

Is there any public comment?

Assembly deliberation.

Sarah?

All right.

On the motion to reappoint Margie to a three-year term on the Library Commission, Ms.

Riley?

Yes.

Mayor Eisenbaise?

Yes.

Ms.

Carlson?

Yes.

Mr.

Pike?

Yes.

Mr.

Christensen?

Yes.

And Mr.

Celine.

Yes.

The motion passed to 6-0 on item B.

Unfinished business item C, please.

I move to approve ordinance 2026-04 and second and final reading.

Amending Title 1 to the Second General Code by adding Chapter 1.41.

Americans with Disabilities Act Title II enactment.

So I guess.

That's been moved and seconded to approve ordinance 26-04 on second and final reading.

Is there any public comment?

Assembly deliberation.

Sarah.

All right.

On the motion to approve ordinance 2026-04 on second and final reading.

Mayor Eisenbais?

Yes.

Mr.

Christensen.

Yes.

Ms.

Carlson?

Yes.

Ms.

Riley?

Yes.

Mr.

Pike?

Yes.

And Mr.

Celine.

Yes.

Motion passes 6-0 on item C, and that's final reading.

Item D, please.

I move to approve ordinance 2026-05 and second to end final reading.

Making supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2026.

Body worn cameras.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve ordinance 26-05.

Is there any public comment?

Assembly deliberation.

Katie.

Yeah, I um really in favor of this.

I think this is great.

And uh I just wanted to say that I did attend the uh talk that um Chief Gaydon put on uh last week or so about the police use of force and something I just found really interesting um that I thought I would mention was that uh cameras um I think we think of them as a really um like airtight solution and they provide you know really unbiased um view of the situation which is true but they do not capture the entire situation right it captures where it is looking and so sometimes the officer can be looking or facing a different direction and the cameras can't capture the perception of everything that the officer might be observing or um in you know experiencing at that moment so I just thought that was an important point um to point out as we uh value this as an additional piece of input but is not uh always the full picture of of everything that's being considered so really supportive of this and just wanted to um mention that and grateful for the opportunity to learn more during that session uh Sarah on the ordinance please all right on the motion to approve ordinance 2605 on second and final reading Ms.

Carlson Yes Ms.

Riley Yes Mr.

Celine Yes Mayor Eisenbais Yes Mr.

Pike Yes Mr.

Christensen Yes Motion passes 60 on item D final reading thank you item E please I move to approve ordinance 2026-06 on second and final reading making supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2026 public records request software second it's been moved and seconded to approve ordinance 26-06 is there any public comment assembly deliberation all right on the motion to approve ordinance 2026 06 on second and final reading Mr.

Pike yes Ms.

Riley Yes Mr.

Christianson yes Mayor Eisenbais yes Mr.

Selene yes and Ms.

And Miss Carlson.

Yes.

The motion passes 6-0 on item E, and that's final reading.

On this next item, I think James already approved it because he took some pictures and left.

So I don't even think we need to do it.

James says it's good to go.

So new business item F tonight.

I move to approve the promotion of Michael Hall from Lieutenant to Police Chief.

Second.

John, I understand you and Josh have an inter introduction for this one.

I do, thank you, Mayor.

And while Josh makes his way up here, I'll try to explain this process a little quick.

And we knew this was going to happen.

With the with the establishment of an assistant administrator position, there are certain functions that were put underneath the uh assistant municipal administrator, the police department being one of them for direct supervision.

However, the code still talks about any department head that is hired or terminated.

Um still needs um basically concurrence from the assembly.

Um so the way this process worked since since Josh oversees that position, um, he was making the recommendation to me, even though we we would we served on the hiring panel together, um, but making the recommendation to me for the promotion, and you'll see the memo where I've endorsed that, and now we're bringing this together fully as a uh as a promotion package as that position is still a department head.

Um but with that I'll let uh Josh uh kind of run through um Mr.

Hall's background and uh and then also as we move along.

We've got uh we've got Mike in the audience as well if there's any questions for for him.

But Josh All right, good evening, Mayor and Assembly.

Uh this is my recommendation for promoting Lieutenant Michael Hall to police chief.

In the spring of 2025, my goal became to explore robust options to find the best candidate to fill the permanent regular police chief position.

We leverage the reach of our new NeoGov hiring platform to ensure wide visibility of the vacancy, resulting in many applicants from outside Alaska.

The hiring panel consisted of municipal administrator John Leach, Lisa Gasman, interim police chief Chad Gayden, and me.

The process entailed extensive vetting, multiple rounds of interviews, and candidate in-person meet and greets with the community along with survey and input opportunities from the public.

I announced to the assembly and the public in October that Mike Hall emerged as a highly qualified candidate who was well received by both the panel and the public.

He brings decades of law enforcement experience and demonstrates the leadership qualities we are seeking in Sitka's next police chief.

Because of Alaska Police Standards Council certification requirements, however, he had to attend a police officer certification academy within a one-year window.

And we offered Mike Hall a vacant position as a police lieutenant, which he accepted, and we would sent him to the police academy that began in October 2025.

After successful completion of the academy and other administrative requirements, he is now prepared to serve as our next police chief with assembly approval.

This opportunity was made possible because our current interim police chief Chad Gaden agreed to continue to serve in the interim position because he also believed Mike Hall was the ideal candidate for the position.

The search for our next police chief is among the most important responsibilities that I've had since I joined CBS.

I set goals of identifying the candidate candidate that was most likely to want to be intimately involved with our community that possessed the servant leadership qualities needed to lead alongside their team that displayed the humility to work with others through challenges and the compassion and fortitude to wield the power entrusted to them.

The search for our new police chief included the current interim police chief Chad Gaden, initially serving as our law enforcement subject matter expert through the hiring process.

Chief Gating's expertise and guidance were instrumental throughout, as he reminded me periodically that there is no perfect candidate.

While I agree that there is no perfect candidate through the time and effort dedicated to this process, I became confident that Mike Hall embodied the qualities.

Tori?

Yeah, I come okay.

I think we all met Michael, and uh I don't want him to get up too easy.

He needs to come up and introduce himself a bit more again, and uh I'd like to well, I mean, if nothing else, give us a chance to welcome you.

But uh tell us uh what what you see the next couple months, how that going taken over.

Okay, you don't get off, you don't get to stay in the back.

And I think that's why his wife was here, but I also um confirmed that if we did not approve this, um, we would be without a police chief here soon.

Um I was slapped on the wrist very succinctly by uh the significant other.

So that is not an option for us this evening.

Oh, it's good.

It's uh it's great to be here.

I've been here for about a month or so.

Um came from Fairbanks, which I thought you were really trying to run me off, taking me to Fairbanks in the middle of winter, uh, minus 40 degrees, which is uh on it's the coldest weather I've ever been to, froze all my hair off while I was there.

Uh when I came back to SICA, I was like, wow, it's uh flip-flop weather.

Um I love this place.

Growing on me quick.

I grew up as a uh uh a family of charter fishermen, uh a little warmer weather down in South Florida, and so this culture is a little bit um reminds me a little bit of uh Key West meets Appalachia, Tennessee meets uh Montana meets a little bit of everything.

It's a beautiful place uh with beautiful people, uh a safe place for the most part, uh, and everybody seems to like the police, and I'm gonna do my best to keep it that way uh and not screw it up too bad if I can't.

Well, I did not have the pleasure of meeting you previously.

Um so I just had a couple of questions uh that I wanted to ask you and uh give you a chance to kind of share a little bit more with the community about your approach to policing, and um I was just wondering, yeah.

I mean, first off, uh, you know, how are you going to work in the next uh few months, especially, but also throughout your tenure to cultivate uh a culture of community-oriented policing, both yourself uh as the leader of the department and amongst the officers that you oversee.

Thank you for the question.

Uh Chief Gain has done a great job uh riding the ship at the at the police department.

Uh still the priority number one is to recruit.

Um it's hard to progress on new adventures if you don't have the spaces and the and the people to do it with.

Um we have limited resources at the time.

I will say that recruiting is getting better.

We have one in the academy right now.

Uh we have another one that just came in from Alabama who was a lateral who's in the FTO program.

Uh we have one coming next uh week for testing uh from Utah as another lateral, and then uh there we have three other candidates from Alaska uh looking uh to transfer from other departments here.

So uh once we can get uh a little bit more staffing, would have a little bit more room to expand in other areas.

Uh one of those areas would be investigations.

I I think it's important that we have at least one person's crime investigator that deals specifically with sexual assaults, um uh crimes against persons.

Those takes time.

And if we we have some of those cases that do come, uh and that would be like a uniform detective in this in this town, it wouldn't be somebody who just um when they didn't have those types of crimes, they would still be on patrolling and and taking reports.

But those takes those takes time for the victims.

Uh you know, for the victims to get the best support they can, and they need somebody who can dedicate that time to help them, especially in those types of cases.

Um we do have some of those, especially uh coming from uh the Mount Edgecomb area, and some of those kids come and they have issues that they report here, uh, and they need issues.

They they need to have those issues dealt with and and with somebody who has uh the expertise to do so, and it can focus on their needs as a victim.

Uh it's hard to do that when you have to do that, then you have to go to a patrol call where there's a domestic violence, or you have to go to a patrol car where there was that car accident.

So you you you focus on a crime, but then you have to leave to go do your patrol duties.

And so one of those things I would like to see in the next few months is to have uh somebody who's dedicated uh that work on crimes against persons individually.

So that would be domestic violence, sexual assault.

Um no homicides and sick.

There better not be, right?

Uh but those types of serious crimes that they can get the um the attention that's needed, and not just uh I'll get to it when I get done with this call, or I get to it when I get done with this call.

It could be something that could be dealt with uh in a timely manner that uh that the victim can get some closure.

On the community policing side, for years I've taught community policing internationally.

But for years I I helped set the model in pace for the U.S.

State Department, U.S.

Department of Justice for community policing models internationally and us and also nationally.

And that means is that police are part of your community.

We're not above it, we're not below it, we're equal to it.

And it's not us versus them, it's all of us together working in a community to make it better.

I don't want to over police the community, and I don't want to underpolice the community.

There has to be a balance that we all work together coherently to make it a better place.

Absolutely, thank you.

And uh on that note, uh how how do you plan to engage with our community, integrate yourself, build trust, and where where can folks expect to see you?

Uh you see me anywhere because um so far I think I am the tallest guy I've seen so far.

There is a guy, Robert Miller.

I met Robert Miller, he's about my size.

And um, if I bought a um uh a seal fur from him for a jack, it would it would probably be expensive.

Um but he is my size, and he's the only guy so far that I've seen that's close.

Um I'm out I'm out and about.

I I there there are times that to be in the office, of course, and and deal with things, but I like to be in the community.

I also like to be out on patrol.

I I like to to know what our officers are doing.

I also like to know what's what the issues are in the community.

And um I'm not one that just sit in the office and look around.

So I'll be on Lincoln Street walking, especially in the summertime when uh the businesses are really full.

I like to go in and make sure everybody's got what they got.

And and it's nice to see a big, you know, six foot eight policeman walking down the street, and it keeps people a little bit a little bit calmer, I think.

And uh so you'll see me everywhere.

Uh my wife and I we'll we will attend a church here in town.

Um she just came back um Friday, so she's here now with my dog, and we're looking forward to just getting in the community in any way we can in different events, and you'll see us out there for sure.

Basketball games, sporting events, uh we won't miss it.

Awesome, fantastic.

Thank you.

And um, just my last one, you know, I really want to commend um Chief Gaydon for uh his efforts to improve communication.

Um, and and I think that's led to a lot of trust building in the community, and so I wanted to ask you your plan for keeping uh the assembly and the public apprised about major incidents, department progress, and just activities that uh the community might be needing to know about.

Well, I'm really upset with Chief Gaydon to be honest with you because hi bar.

I usually uh yeah, yeah, I usually come into a place where I have to fix it, you know, and and then Chief makes it look good.

I I got I gotta man, I really gotta set it to take it a little bit higher.

Um I will say that uh Chief Gaiden has done a tremendous job, and uh what a tremendous asset he is to the community.

Um I'm not gonna look back there because I don't want to see his wife, but I still have plans for Chief Gaiden after he leaves.

So uh she likes him to be retired, and uh she looking she's I hope she's not looking at me, but uh we do have plans for Chief to uh to stick around and help us in some other areas and training if uh if if uh he and his new is real boss allows them to spend time and keep that going.

Uh and one thing we've done in my in that month that I've been here um, Chief and I have been in in a lot of uh constant communication with that with the team.

So it's not like it's we're trying to almost not a it's almost a family environment in there before than what it was, and we're trying to keep that going with the employees.

We want to make sure that they want to come to work, they enjoy coming to work.

It's not an easy job where everybody hates your guts.

We're not firemen, everybody likes firemen for whatever reason, but not many people like the police, and we we're trying to keep it in that community in our in our station that people want to come back to work, they want to serve the community, they can't wait to get and put the uniform on in the morning and and do their job.

And that's that's really the goal right now is to get that morale standard and and get it higher and higher.

Awesome.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Um very important that you know our community understands that it is our police department and that we um we have that understanding that we're all in this together.

Uh and I appreciate your efforts to boost officer morale, and I expect that uh you'll be able to do this while holding them accountable to the highest standards.

So thank you very much.

Uh I have a couple things.

Um is it Mike or Michael?

I see both presented here.

My mother calls me Michael, and if you call me Michael, it's usually because I'm in trouble.

So Mike is what I like people to call me that keeps me more, you know, makes me know I'm I understand I'm Stephen officially and Steve to friends.

I'm Stephen officially and Steve to friends, so I I get that.

And my mother does not care for that one either.

So just a couple things here for you.

Not necessarily some questions, but some some feedback from our position up here.

Um, you know, it's not it's not necessarily normal for us as an assembly to go into a lengthy process with the department head approval.

And I think that is a reflection of how important this job is to the community.

Uh it's a very visible job, and when things go wrong, uh we hear about it quite rapidly, right?

Um, you're you're out in the community, ideally, you're you're setting a tone and an example for the for the rest of town.

Um, you know, community policing was talked about earlier.

Uh I have no doubt that community policing is what this small town wants.

Um we understand that people need to be held accountable when they mess up.

Um, but we also don't want to be nitpicked.

Um, and there is a fine line there, and I can't tell you what that line is.

That's what we're hiring you for.

Um, but a a reflection of our community where we want you when we need you, right?

Um other than that, it's nice to be um off in the distance somewhat.

Um I mentioned it before, but the the trust of the police department um really is the trust of City Hall.

If the citizens don't trust City Hall, or if the uh the citizens don't trust our police department, they don't trust City Hall, they don't trust the assembly, and all of that flows down.

So this position is very much key to making everything flow in the department.

And if you if you live up to the words that you were you were speaking earlier, we're all gonna be successful, right?

Um what you said is exactly what I would want in this position.

So now I'm gonna look down a year, two years, five years down the road, and make sure that that's the standard that we're still holding because I do believe that that is what the community is looking for.

Um I'm gonna say something, and I I think you're gonna understand, um, and maybe not as many people outside of, uh, but we're very much a community right now where we're still trying to win hearts and minds, right?

That needs to be your rules of engagement as you go out into the community.

Um and that that will bring success to you and your tenure here.

Uh and then just one final thing.

Um I'm sure having gone through the academy as someone who had been in policing for quite some time.

Um I'm sure you were number one in the academy.

Um if not, I think maybe we need to have another conversation about that, because there's no reason you shouldn't have been.

I didn't win the races.

I might be number one in other things, but running wasn't it.

Okay, okay.

Even with that long tall stride you got there.

It hurts.

It hurts, especially at minus 40.

I haven't like no thanks.

Yeah, I guess when you're running against a 20-year-old, it's uh big difference.

I think that's a good thing.

I'm not as good as I once was, right?

But I'm as good once as I ever was.

Uh uh, so thank you for stepping into this role.

Um thank you for jumping into a lieutenant position um while we got everything out of the way.

Um Chad, thank you for for sticking around.

Uh your tenure has turned a tumultuous situation into a very feasible situation.

So I'm glad we're not having to hand over that situation to yourself that you are um on a solid ground here, but we know that it can always be better, right?

And so continue striving, continue improving, continue doing what you told this assembly you're gonna do.

We're all gonna be good.

Sir.

Thank you.

Uh anything else for about to be our chief.

Did you bring new brass?

No, I don't care about that stuff.

That was evident uh the other day when the chief came into Pioneer Bar, and that's a place for morning coffee and you know, winning hearts and minds is not writing up trollers for parking at the harbor while they go winter fishing and uh looking forward to seeing you at the table of knowledge at the P bar, Chief.

All right.

Thank you.

I appreciate your time this evening.

Sarah All right.

Uh the motion before you is to approve the promotion of my call from Lieutenant to police chief.

Mr.

Pike.

Yes.

Ms.

Riley.

Yes.

Mr.

Christensen?

Yes.

Mr.

Celine?

Yes.

Mayor Eisenbais?

Yes.

And Ms.

Carlson.

Yes.

The motion passes 6-0 on item F.

Thank you.

Item G, please.

I move to approve amendment number one to lease agreement between the Steam Borough of Sitka and Shiatica Incorporated for 4951 Halibut Point Road.

Second.

That's been moved and seconded to approve lease amendment number one between Shiatica and City and Borough of Sitka.

Is there any public comment?

Some uh John.

Sorry, I went to public comment before you, but seeing none.

Uh John, you have an introduction for this.

It's okay.

This is uh it's pretty straightforward.

Um, and I outlined a lot of it in the memo, but um, and I think I can get this done without Amy's help, even though Amy was uh the one that uh did a lot of work crafting this lease and put it together.

Um the property at 4951 HPR is where uh basically the adventure park uh runs, and that is leased by Shiatica.

Um when that started, there was a lot of um we were a little unsure about what what the appropriate amount of coverage was given that there's a high ropes course out there and some risks associated with that.

Um in the early days of this lease, we did some negotiating, and I think we mutually agreed that the 10 million umbrella coverage was appropriate given the uncertainty of the operation.

Um since then we've learned a lot more.

Uh we have, and Shiatica's learned a lot more, and we've reached out to others in the industry and asked kind of what the industry standard is for this.

Um we spoke with our uh insurance advisor um who agrees that the um the one million dollar um excess or umbrella coverage is appropriate and in alignment with what other organizations are doing for um uh operations like this.

So what what you'll see changed in this amendment, it's still uh one million dollar coverage for um uh per occurrence uh two million aggregate and then another uh one million excess or umbrella coverage on top of it.

So that 10 million uh umbrella went down to one million.

Thank you.

Appreciate that.

Umly deliberation.

Tim I just have a question for you, John.

Is there is there anything in the works that they're planning to expand out there?

Do anything different?

Is there is there any knowledge of any other activities they're interested in participating in?

Or is that it?

Uh as of right now, um nothing's been brought forward to me to expand any activities.

Um that is a possibility, but with this lease when it was built, um I hope I included it in there.

But basically, there's a there's a pretty rudimentary map and uh an outline of their operations, and in the lease it says that if they want to do anything outside of what is um uh shown on that map, then it would be uh at the discretion of the administrator to determine if what they want to do it's new, if it fits within their original concept, but um I've not been approached with any new operations at this point.

I guess we're a little bit tangential, but how many do we know how many people they've run through when and how many of the is it three dollars ahead?

I think we're getting we're getting how much money we've got.

You know, I said I was gonna be able to do this without Amy's help, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to do it.

So I don't have the numbers uh in front of me right now, but they do they have provided their report to us every year on um on the uh customer throughput.

Do you happen to have those, Amy?

Yes, I was able to find their um 2025 compliance report.

Um the revenue share is is four dollars ahead for the I believe for the first four years, uh first ten years of the term, and then it there's a there's an escalator after 10 years.

Um I am looking at a total guest number for 2025 was uh 1,182.

So uh but I did want to add to um to John's comments if that's okay as well.

That um in I believe it was in December um I took a meeting on John's behalf as he was out of town to talk with Jadica about kind of the same question about you know are there any new operations or anything proposed?

Um, and nothing new that was that's different than what was identified in the lease agreement, but definitely some more focused work to get some of the cultural experiences that include you know some of the salmon bake, um, some of the tide tidal experiences, can you launch um programs kind of up and running as those those pieces that were also proposed as uh in addition to the adventure park that are a part of the lease haven't been fully operationalized?

So that's part of um what has been explained to be from the Lessie is that um looking to really kind of tighten the um cost down on the adventure park as well as then kind of shifting into actually building out the other programs that were proposed with the lease originally.

Katie Um I was just wondering if um I thought I saw a notice in the paper for a restaurant and eating place license application for this um location, and I was wondering if that has come in front of the city at all or if that has been brought up in discussions.

It is not.

I've reached out to the I've reached out to Shiatica just to discuss um and we've haven't connected on that, but um we we also did see that notice.

John and I have discussed um and when we have a better sense of what you know if that act if that application's actually going to move forward, um, whether that would be kind of a substantial change that would require assembly approval for the lease.

So um we are still we are we are kind of keeping track of that.

Um, and if um outside of just doing the newspaper posting, if the applications to be submitted and that's gonna go forward, we definitely want to have a discussion with the assembly about whether that's going to warrant a uh reevaluation of the lease.

Are there any other um situations where a business has a permit like that on city leased land?

Yeah, I know that the recently the golf course came up.

Um they have a they have a uh a liquor license and then had recently uh applied for an expansion, and that is city lease property.

Thank you.

Just the one that comes off off top.

There might be more.

Anything else for Amy while we have her in front of us?

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Tor, did you have anything else?

Anything else on the amendment?

Sarah.

All right, on the motion to improve amendment number one to the lease agreement between the city and borough of SICA and Shiatica Incorporated for 4951 Halibut Point Road.

Ms.

Riley?

Yes.

Mr.

Pike?

Yes.

Ms.

Carlson?

Yes.

Mr.

Christensen?

Yes.

Mayor Eisenbais?

Yes.

And Mr.

Celine.

Yes.

Motion passes 60 on item G.

Thank you.

That would bring us two persons to be heard this evening.

This is public participation for any item on or off tonight's agenda, not to exceed three minutes for any individual.

Uh seeing none, we will move on to reports.

Uh brief report from myself.

Uh had the privilege of speaking to the AmeriCorps gathering, which is going on right now.

Uh, most everybody is here from Sitka, uh, so they all know each other.

Um, but they asked me to come welcome the group and then speak about my um path to service.

Um so it was there for about a half hour, and they nicely gave me a sandwich afterwards.

Um next week I will address the cultural and tribal tourism conference.

Uh, the week after I believe it's the library librarian conference, and then uh unfortunately for Tim Um he has taken my spot uh addressing the managers conference uh when they are in town the following week, uh, because I will be out of town now.

Uh one other thing I wanted to bring up.

Uh this is a carryover from our AML winter conference.

Uh there is a movement gaining traction again in Alaska to get rid of standard time or daylight savings time or whichever one you would want to get rid of.

Um I know we fought this battle some time ago, um, but the Kitchcan borough recently passed a resolution.

I have a wrinkled copy here because it got smashed.

Um but uh Ketchkia Borough has recently passed uh a resolution uh asking the state to follow suit and to get rid of, I believe they want off of standard time and they want to be on the time zone we are now.

Um but if the assembly's interested, I have the wording that they used and we could pass a similar resolution kind of timely since we just all went through that and had to wake our kids up an hour early, which let me tell you it's fun.

John, uh administrators report.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um you briefly touched on it.

The Northwest Managers Conference is coming up uh March 30th through April 2nd.

Uh I know we'll have another assembly meeting before then.

However, uh I this is the last time I'll ever host a conference because I won't be working here anymore, and also I don't ever want to host another conference.

Uh but uh it's a lot of work, so these next two weeks um we'll be wrapping up some loose ends to make sure everything goes smooth here.

Um so you'll see a lot of uh city managers, not just from Alaska, but from Oregon and Washington in town.

Uh, we've got some good panels coming up.

Um I want to take an opportunity to thank publicly our streets crew, our central garage, water, wastewater, everybody that's been working these past few weeks for a lot of snow.

Um I think the uh three o'clock in the morning call-outs are getting pretty uh tiring for some of those folks, but they've been working their tails off to make sure the roads are as clear as possible to uh to keep things moving here.

So great work by that crew.

Um I don't know if I need to say it any more.

Lots have said it already.

I want to thank uh did he leave?

He's still back there.

I want to thank Chief Gaydon for his service.

Um the amount of effort that he's put into this place in uh and improving communications, um, educating folks and the public and stabilizing the department has been just um amazing.

So uh I I want to thank you personally for the the time and effort that you put in to uh to making sure uh there's a smooth landing here for uh for Mike.

So thank you for your service to the community.

And I think that's all I have.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

Uh we'll move on to liaison representative.

Awesome.

And then clerk's report, Polly.

Um let's see.

So the assembly has a regular meeting on March twenty-fourth, a budget meeting on uh uh the twenty-fifth, and then I will give a plug for um our many boards and commission committee vacancies that we have.

Um the investment committee, uh building department, appeals board, health needs, historic preservation, library commission, parks and rec and police and fire.

So if any of those appeal to folks, please come by the clerk's office and we will get you set up with the application.

Thanks, Sarah.

Appreciate it.

Uh any other report this evening.

Uh seeing none, that would bring us to our executive session tonight.

It's a long one.

I move to go into executive session to review applications submitted by the for the municipal administrative position and the statutory category of discussing subjects that may tend to prejudice the reputation and character of an individual and invite the assistant municipal administrator Josh Van Hoover.

In addition, I move to exclude the municipal administrator and municipal attorney.

Thank you.

It's been moved and seconded to go into executive session to discuss administrator applicants.

Is there any public comment on entering executive session?

Sarah.

On the motion to go into executive session, Mayor Eisenbeis.

Yes.

Mr.

Christensen.

Yes.

Ms.

Riley?

Yes.

Mr.

Celine?

Yes.

Ms.

Carlton?

Yes.

And Mr.

Pike.

Yes.

Motion passes 6-0.

And we'll be meeting in room four.

Uh thank you, Assembly.

Uh, please take a recess on your way in there, and uh, we'll meet when we're all ready to do that.

Uh motion to reconvene as of the assembly in regular session.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

We are reconvened as the assembly in regular session.

Uh in executive session, the assembly did meet to review potential admin administrator candidates.

We've identified some candidates that we would like to interview.

Once those candidates are notified, will we be coming out with a list for the public to digest?

So look forward to that.

Motion to adjourn.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you all.

We are adjourned.