Joining us today, Assembly.

I will call to order the regularly scheduled or the special meeting of Wednesday, April 22nd, 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 Clinketani.

Sarah Rollcall, please.

Mayor Isawe's present.

Mr.

Pike.

Here.

Ms.

Carlson.

Here.

Ms.

Riley.

Here.

Mr.

Christensen.

Here.

Mr.

Mosier?

Here.

And Mr.

Steline.

Here.

Thank you.

Tonight we are gathered to do a second round interview with the candidate Stephen Dahl.

He will be joining us on Zoom.

We've scheduled a little bit longer this evening to try and get a little bit more in-depth in our questions.

I've often seen the first round as kind of a meet and greet.

You know, initially do personalities mesh.

Does it look like the person could be a fit for Sitka?

So tonight is kind of the opportunity to dig down deeper and figure out, you know, how the candidates could apply themselves within the municipality and see uh you know if they would not only mesh with you and your constituents, but the the rest of the town as well.

Um so we did have two hours scheduled.

Uh if if it appears that we were running out of questions, um, I'll kind of follow that.

And you know, we don't have to use the full two hours, um, but it is there and able um for us to be used.

Josh, do you have anything you need to add to this process this evening?

Uh good evening, Mayor and Assembly.

Um, it'll be a round robin just as last time.

Um reminder that there should be within your iPads there a list of questions.

If uh I didn't print them out again this time, um, but they're to be there in your email.

Um also put a sheet in front of everybody, which is the uh protected categories, prohibited questions.

Um if you're in a joking manner, if you had one of these questions on there, make sure you remove it.

Um but uh it's not an exhaustive list, but uh if you have anything that was similar to that, make sure not to ask it.

Um and then uh yeah, Mr.

Dahl is standing by for me to send him a text and he will join and be ready to go.

Great, thank you, Josh.

Questions from the assembly this evening.

Okay, I guess we're all old pros.

Um last time we did start with Kevin.

Katie, do you want to start it off tonight or should we punt that over to Kevin again?

Can we actually because Katie is having logistical vision?

I'll go ahead and get started then.

And then we'll yeah, we'll see which way we uh we go from there.

Oh, I don't know if I have an opening question.

How are you?

Yeah, please.

Uh good evening, Steve.

Um, good evening.

Hopefully you can see me and hear me this time.

Yeah, yeah, we got you on the screen.

Uh so thank you for joining us again on this second round of interviews.

Um, as I think you've kind of picked up, this is uh a little bit more in-depth round uh where we get to know each other a little bit better and see if uh this uh employment opportunity would be mutually beneficial.

So we do have two hours scheduled for this evening.

Uh if uh if it looks like the assembly is wrapping up on questions a little earlier than that, um we'll let you know.

Um and go from there.

Uh anything from you before we get started.

No, I'll go right ahead.

Great, thank you.

Uh so this evening I'll get started uh with some questions.

I'll have a couple throughout the the evening.

Um but this is just gonna be a follow-up uh to the question I asked in the first round.

You know, I asked uh what you had uh had you read our code or uh charter.

Um so just wondering what additional work you've done to learn about Sitka to prepare for this interview.

Um well I took out a monthly subscription to the um Sitka newspaper, and so I've been reading back copies and stuff about that going on and all the activities in town and trying to get a feel for what the community does and what it you know does for fun and what it is excited about and work that process out.

I also went through the um your codes, ordinances, and uh um some of the but not all of the um ordinances you've passed over the last couple years um to get an understanding of where you guys' focus is.

Um again, really read the um the goals and the um you know the five year goal plan and the plan in the 30 year on the the planet the major plan that ends in 2030.

I can't remember the name of that one off top, but the the city plan for that, and we're gonna do that again on that direction.

So that's what I did um to help prepare for this interview.

Great.

Sounds like you were doing some homework.

Thank you.

Uh good evening.

Thank you for giving us your time.

My name's Tim Pike, uh Deputy May.

Uh you know, the city administrator is the face of our commun or of our city staff and a face of our city in lots of different roles.

So um, what do you consider to be the administrator's role in the community?

And how have you um exhibited that in the past.

The administrator's role is basically um to run the city.

And it's not necessarily to have any political opinion or political viewpoint on things, but to do what the council wants and explain that the council's decisions and the city ordinances to people when they come in.

Um, talking to the citizens is one of the bigger parts of and being available to the citizens, one of the bigger parts of doing this job.

Um for example, in in Grand County when I was doing economic development, I found that I got a lot more work done when I went to the grocery store on a Saturday morning and went around and talked to people.

It took my like three hours sometimes to go through that grocery store because every other line, every other um aisle was like, hey, Steve, I'm gonna mean to talk to you about this, or I'm gonna ask you this.

And you have that type of opportunity going on.

So I can I represent what the council wants to see happen within the city.

And also what happens to the um with the staff.

My job is to be be the liaison between the council and the staff and working with them to do that.

The council chose chooses what direction the city wants to go in, and my job is to help them get to do that to the best of their ability, um our ability, but also to bring to the council issues and concerns from the staff that they need to worry about and be concerned about.

Um, for example, in Dundee, we were getting really close to running out of money in the water fund.

And so we needed to be able to tell the council, hey, that we need to increase the water fund, and we needed to do this, this, and this, and we got finally the water um fund, you know, passed, you know, price increase to do the water fund.

Uh and so that's just part of the process you go through because you because you as a council need to understand what some of the issues are from the people on the ground to do that.

And I like, you know, again, you're you're a small community, you know these people.

Um, but again, my job is to help get them focused on what the priorities are and work with that process and be able to be a visible part in the community, be active in the community.

And um most of the communities I've lived in, I have been active in different nonprofits or different areas of the community to be seen.

But a lot, and then I did that basically to um you know be able to answer questions and make it safe.

Uh maybe say if that's the right word, but make it easy for um people to come up and ask me questions about what the council's doing, what the council, what the rules are, what they can do this, and I try to answer them as best I can.

And if I don't know the answer, I you know give them my card and say, give me a call at work or send me an email with your question, and I'll answer it usually within 24 hours on on that day.

And so that's kind of where I, you know, the public outgrade, the cupboard look of the city is where I'm going to work on that direction, but I also make sure that any type of political decision or any type of politics, I'm completely out of.

Thank you.

I see, but this is Tor Christensen.

If you can see so um the city of Sitka has a our city government is uh significantly more involved than most cities our size since we own all of our own utilities and um it's a large organization with a big budget.

Um so what I'm uh wondering is can you tell me a little bit about your organizational style?

I mean, how you would because uh one of the you're gonna have things coming at you from 20 different directions at once and some big issues and big projects.

So tell me how you organize things and how you manage that, how you manage that constant flow of decisions and uh projects and things that have you know information.

Okay, I first start actually one of the things I I really appreciate about Sidka is your five-year plan that you've been working through and getting things done on, and you know, that's the start of the priority list of what we're looking at and how we do things.

Also, from what I can tell, reading um both the newspaper, um, you know, your your minutes and everything, you have a really good staff, and so it would be the ultimate of arrogance for me to not listen to the staff and and push decisions down that they can make and and get that communication going with them.

So I know what's going on, they know what's going on, and they know what the priorities are.

I like to sit down and talk to staff and tell them, hey, this is what the party is here, this is a priority here, um, this is what the my thought is.

What I'm what am I missing?

Trying to get that type of information from them so I can understand what they're looking for, and they understand what the priorities of the you know city are.

Now you always are going to have more information and more decision making than you have time to really do, and so that's why I try to really you know push, you know, again, the lowest, you know, for example, if if someone is having a problem with the water bill, it shouldn't be something that you as a council deal with or me, it's something that we should have rules and regulations and you do, by the way, um, on giving refunds and and doing with the water and and in that direction.

And so those are the type of things I look at is like, you know, can the person at the front desk help that customer out?

And so it doesn't go up into the system.

And so I look for the um the managers and stuff to be able to make some of the decisions and be able to understand what the priority is and help develop that skill.

But you guys set the tone and set the direction for the city, and I would make sure that those are priorities that we can meet.

And the only time I over override that your priorities or anything in that direction, if there's an emergency you make, and if there's an emergency, then that becomes a high priority in that direction.

But you have to be able to decide between what is an emergency, such as the sewer backing up and not working, or the electric lines going down, and something that's an inconvenience that you know can be fixed at a later date or work through work through on the process, and that is when you have the priorities in that direction.

But I look for the council and what your written statements are and the and your goals um to be able to say these are what we're gonna work on, that's what we focus on.

And if something comes up with that's you know needs to be addressed, we try to address as much as possible.

Uh yeah.

Thanks, Steve.

This is Katie Riley.

Um in relation to that uh the strategic plan and some of our goals on there.

I have a question about one of them.

Uh one of our primary goals is around housing, uh, the nature of our community, the limited road system, the island location makes um affordable and attainable housing for year-round workforce and families, as well as our seasonal workforce a huge impediment to economic growth and also community vitality.

Um what are your ideas for how the city can support the development of housing that addresses our different needs for year-round working families, aging population, and seasonal workers.

Well, I think you're doing one of the ideas I would have suggested already, which is um accessory dwelling units and making it available within different aspects of the um zone to make it work.

I'm also um a big believer in you know how you know most of what I call multi-income housing, um, where you have market rate housing and low-income housing, or not low income, but you know, um subsidized housing and stuff all within the same thing.

And I work try to work with different um groups to be able to help make that happen.

That's one of the situations um we try to do.

That was my idea with um Dundee, because it's also facing the same issue, is um it's pricing itself out of all any type of workers, any type of um industry.

And so I was talking to the um in Dundee, I was talking to the school superintendent and seeing if we could work a deal where the old school district old school building could be reused and refocused to have uh multi-income housing, and the city would put money into it, they would move money into it, and we were approaching a couple of different um big businesses like the hospital to put some money into it too, because they're the ones that need help and um for employees more than anything else.

And so we could try to get something where we could have you know rent some on that market rate and then rent some of the rooms at a fixed rate or you know, an interest industrial reductory rate where new people coming into the community can be able to rent it at that project process.

You're also doing a good job, you know, looking at you know the land you own and seeing if you can turn that into um housing and work it work that process out.

Um you could also take a look at you know cutting some of your you know costs of getting um into infrastructure to there, um it's making a long-term benefit on that process.

It's you know, but this isn't an issue in the West.

Um, you know, I know a lot of people have had it had trouble with it, and unless you have basically flat land, um like um Arizona or Nevada, you're gonna have issues with um finding affordable housing for everybody.

Um, but there is no magic bullet that I know of that can do that.

But those are some of the things I tried in the past, and I think you know, and you guys are doing a lot of what I've done in the past because it makes sense.

Thank you.

Steve, uh, this is Josh.

I'm not sure what setup you have on the other side, but we're getting feedback whenever they ask questions.

I don't know if you've got like a couple of devices running.

I just have one, but I um have it on a little high side.

So can you try to ask a question?

Um try to mute yourself while we are asking a question.

And go that direction.

Okay, hi, Steve.

Uh Kevin Mosher here.

Yeah, yeah.

Um my question is this.

Um, so I I hear that you have been looking at the uh the paper uh and Sidka.

And since you had tried what did they say?

Can you hear me?

Steve, can you hear me?

Raise your hand if you can hear them.

I heard you that time.

Uh give me a second.

Okay.

You're not hearing me right now?

Okay, let me try this again.

Okay, we're hearing you now.

Are you ready?

Okay.

Okay.

I'm uh try again.

Uh asking the question.

Since you've been um looking at sitka online, um, had some time to think about it.

I was wondering I had a a couple questions all in one.

Basically big picture.

What is your impression after learning a little bit after your research about Sitka?

What is your impression of the community?

Meaning what are some of the pressing needs that you see?

Uh what are also some any other issues that you see that are very important to the community.

Um, what are your first impressions of uh of the community as a whole?

What's important to this community and what its needs are um I'm very actually very impressed with um Zitco as a whole.

I think you have a good sense of community.

I see a lot of um organizations and nonprofits and different groups working together to provide entertainment to provide information, give you know people things to do um in that process.

Again, you have some of the some of the issues that a lot of cities have.

Um you have uh you know non-affordable housing, you don't have enough housing to um get people to work.

Um, your income is lower in the seasonal, um you know, you and you need an I would if you you know if I could find an industry that wasn't um that was more consistent year-round instead of just seasonal, I think that'd be helpful to you in that direction.

Um, on the good side, you have you know industrial land um to be able to work on and so you know, lease to people, you have um control over your infrastructure to be able to offer um selective parts on on that.

So you have a lot of you know positive things in that direction.

Um with that and so again, some of the negative kit is just again when you have the tourism that you have going on, and you get overwhelmed that that can hurt a sense of community, and that would is you can and again, you have a group of people who don't particularly like that, and and you have the the different agreements, different you know, personalities and small issues on that that direction.

But you know, overall, you guys are really well, you know, well run.

Um your last city ministry was I I think probably one of the best I've seen um with jobs I've actually looked for, and and I wouldn't have to come in and reinvent everything like I've done the last couple jobs I've had, and it'd be a good you know, you know, positive in that direction.

I think you have a great staff, which is a good thing to do, and you have a council that seems to work together and talk to each other, and so those are all good things to look at.

So, you know, some of these some of the issues you have are great big issues that do not have easy answers.

And um I can and I don't and I can't tell you and say you can do XX or Y to fix these things because people have been looking at these for the last 20 years, and they're still you know tough answers to to work in.

And so, but I think overall my impression of set case is it's very positive.

Um, you know, again, another thing I might want to take a look at, which would not be a high priority, is your ordinances are extremely um detailed.

And some of them I would question whether or not you actually have the ability to enforce some of them.

Um I can't remember which one off the top of my head, but um I but with ordinances and I one of the things I look with ordinances is can it be enforceable and can it be as broad as possible because that makes um enforcing it and making it work a lot easier.

Um but it's not and so those are the that was one of the things I was when I was reading the ordinances today that I was like, oh I didn't know all of them were as enforceable as I thought they could be.

Um that's off the top of my head what I think of SICK.

Thank you.

Steve Scotty here.

Uh this one's gonna take me a minute to hello.

This one's gonna take me a minute to get you where I want, but it's kind of like starts with the command structure, like uh, you know, in the Bering Sea, I learned uh on a factory gray card boat that engineers can always cover up their mistakes, and you know, not talking about a captain, right?

But in the aspect of knowing the technical aspects of hydraulics, electron flow, everything that's working on the boat.

But when you come here to sit gu as a manager, like without having uh you know, like hydroelectric experience, you're gonna be stepping into an environment here where we have precarious transmission lines that we're trying to get replaced to not be in such a vulnerable position, and two hydroelectric dams that are being operated by a real competent kid right now that isn't being paid what he's worth.

And when you look at what people should be paid who have the skills to run a utility like Sitkas, we can't afford it.

And it won't be long before like your job, a high turnover rate just from the stress, but you may show up here and then you gotta pick a new kid that we're not gonna be able to pay what the colleges need for an electrical engineering degree, and then you're gonna have to find somebody that can make the utility run.

And uh there you go.

Okay.

Um the last place I had a electric utility, which was drain.

Um, one of the things I talked to the school superintendent in DRAIN about was starting a mentoring program with some of the high school kids that didn't necessarily want to go to college, but were smart, you know, smart enough to be able to do some technical training.

And I wanted to introduce them, like so they could work in Oregon, you can do this.

I don't know the laws in Alaska, but you have to figure it out.

Um, you could take you know, four hours of classes in the morning, and then you can have four hours of an internship in the afternoon.

And I wanted to be able to start taking these kids that you know were interested in working in public works and moving them so they would go to class and take their English and math and everything they needed to do graduate, but then we'd have them four hours in the afternoon or repay them to be able to learn the beginning parts of running the system, and so we'd be able to get that type of training in there.

So when you know they knew what was going on, they could actually be able to step in, you know, and help run the system and help work through that process.

And you know, I know and I was gonna lose some, but what actually what I found there, and I think maybe we'd be lucky here is there's um a lot of times with the you know, engineers or with people working in the electric lines, they'll go to um San Francisco or California where they can make you know double or triple what I could pay them.

But when they began to, you know, get married, have kids, they wanted to come back to an area they knew.

And so uh you know, was creating a you know pipeline where okay, they'd leave for a couple years, but you know, at a certain time when they've made their money, they want to be back to their family, and we could sort of recruit them back in that direction so we can keep track of who these people are and say, hey, you want to come back to Sitka and be with your family, be stuff like that is a process that we could try to try to work.

Um I didn't get that done because uh the board school board and you know the brain did not want to go that route, but um that was one of the things I found when I was working with the electric, you know, people is a lot of them, you know, not all of it, some of them would like to go back to the area where they grew up where they had you know family to come back to, and that was something that I think a little you know, all the electric electricity unions um this the electric companies run by the cities um we use in that direction.

It's one thing to try, it's not something that um you know I I don't have proof of putting in that way, but that's one way uh of approach it.

Um is you know, get them young and start working them and giving them the ability to grow here, and if you lose half of them, you still have half of them coming back, you know, or half of them there, you might have them coming back.

But that'd be something to try that direction.

But there is no again, you know grain had a hard really hard time recruiting people too.

I mean the only way I was able to um get you know people is to contract it out and bring contractors in, and then but the only person I had full time to do that was actually someone who had family in the area and came back to that area.

So that's that's my knowledge of um some of that.

Um and you know, again, I'm gonna have to trust staff to get all this all the details and you know and make sure they're doing the job correctly as long as it works.

And you know, again, you sometimes you have to hire contractors to bring in to do specific programs like you know, changing out the wire wires and stuff like that.

It's it's you know, not necessarily cost effective, but it's better than you know having everything.

Very good.

I'll catch you next round.

Okay.

Hi, Steve.

Uh JJ Carlson.

Uh it's been two weeks uh since we've talked to you, and we had about 45 minutes together the last time.

In that two weeks, is there anything that you you know didn't say or or thought you maybe misspoke about last one that you'd want to um have an opportunity to reframe tonight?

Um not that you know, um nothing comes quickly to mind that you know, I I really want to reframe um on doing that.

Um if anything in the last two weeks, I'm actually more impressed with your city administrator and your staff than I was two weeks ago.

And um coming in would be you know, I would if I could do half as good as he did and have and be successful on that one.

I I think I'd be very you know very successful as a you know city administrator for Cisco.

Um I'm really impressed by him more than anything else right now, and I'm impressed by your staff and like and I probably didn't say that enough in the last um go around.

Thank you.

Yes, because you know it's important for us all to you know reflect and and learn and grow and so much of what the administrator or leader does is take from one situation and apply it to the next.

And so I think it's important to be able to kind of be in that continuous improvement place.

So thank you for that.

Yeah, well, I mean, the biggest thing from last time is I was really embarrassed that the um system broke down, I could only answer um my phone, and it took so long to get through the uh process.

So that was my biggest um embarrassment from last from last week.

Hopefully, we've corrected that this time.

Well, Steve, I'm not looking for someone half as good.

At least three quarters.

You gotta give me at least that one.

Um another question.

This one multiple parts, um, and there's not a right or wrong answer to this.

Uh if you had to choose between delivering a project on time with known quality issues, or delivering it late with everything fixed, and you could not discuss it with anyone or get more information, which would you choose and why would deliver it late?

Um because over the long period of time, that's gonna save you money um by being able to deliver it.

Well, I mean, I guess the true answer is it would depend on how important the project and time and required timeline if it you know the city would shut down if it didn't happen on time with the mistakes, then you have to do it that way.

But if again, in a hypothetical situation where it wouldn't make a difference if I did it on time or a little bit late, maybe a little bit more money, is I would make sure it would be late in the project that was completed, because by doing that, you're gonna save your time over things over time because you don't have to go back and redo things when things fail and stuff like that, it will last longer.

Um it goes back to the philosophy is when you do a road work, you change the um sewer line, you change the water line, and if you can underground your utilities you do it the same same time when you open up the street, so you don't have to do it at a separate time, and so you know that's kind of the thought process I have with it.

Thank you.

Tim Pike again.

Um so continuing a little bit on the community theme.

Obviously, one of the big problems uh or one of the big things that you have to deal with are community complaints.

What can you describe your process and how do you how much do you involve department heads in in the resolution of the issues with the department heads?

I will take a lot of I go to the department heads, and if I need to, I go to um the staff because they're the ones who do the work, and they're the ones who know the issues of solving you know X or Y or what the small minutiae is on that.

I can sit there and say, okay, this is what we've done in the past and this is what it is, but I look for the department heads who know the area to know the part to help me come up with the process.

So if I'm you know again, if we're sitting there saying these are the goals that the city council wants to achieve, one of the things I work with is go to the department and says, Okay, the city council wants to approve wants to do X.

How can we help us get the X done?

What type of information, what type of um is there a new is there an equipment that doesn't work right now that's gonna help you get X done that we can um buy you know buy for you or lease for you or something like that.

You know, for example, in um you know, Dundee, one of the issues that we had, well, actually let's go drain in Drain, one of the issues we had is they didn't have a camera that will be able to go in and camera a sewer line.

Um, and so we were paying you know X amount of money, like you know, but it was more money than it was worth it to have have them come in and do it.

So for like eight thousand dollars, I bought a brand new camera so they could you know camera the sewer lines and be able to find those issues um so we wouldn't have an issue in the in the past.

So that was again, you know, investment in the money to make it work so they could do that.

I get I learned that from talking to um the hit you know the department head and from the um staff that this is what their priority was or what they needed to make things work, and so that's where I figure out what type of you know what type of tools, what type of information do you need, what type of you know, how can I support you so you can be successful?

You know, I sum it up this way.

You know, when it comes to the staff, my job is to help eliminate problems for so they can do their job better, quicker, and faster.

Thank you.

Um again, Tor Christianson again.

Um so this is an incredibly complex job, and you only get to see us approximately every two weeks.

And I think the administrator gives a report this 10 or 15 minutes at the end of the meeting.

So obviously you're not gonna be able to bring everything to us that you're doing, and nor do we want you to.

Um how do you decide uh how would you decide uh what needs to come to the assembly and what doesn't, uh, because you're gonna have to make that call and it's you know, there's so much going on that there's no way you're gonna be able to tell us everything, every detail.

What I try to do is um bring to the council things that are only they can deal with only you have to you know you you need to deal with or things that I think can blow up and become a big issue.

For example, if I hear two or three people coming in and saying, you know, I'm really concerned about um the street on you know Fifth Street.

It's too it's too icy, we're not getting the snow removal fast enough or stuff like that.

I will be, you know, let the council know, probably maybe send out an email um or if you get or text if you guys, you know whichever one you prefer that direction saying, hey, I'm hearing this just to let you know that that's going on.

Um and you know, in working that process out.

And so it's and but again, I try to bring you the decisions that only you can make, which are the executive decisions, uh not the exact but the um the four thinking decisions that are beyond either my pay, you know, what I can approve and what I can um you know, issues that are are in that process.

So, you know, you guys are at the ten thousand foot level, and so I I will bring to you decisions that you would need to be at the ten thousand foot level or the five thousand foot, whatever you want to do that.

The minutiae details on things I would not necessarily bring to you unless I could think it's gonna blow up and the committees are gonna come and start complaining to you, so you have a head heads up in that direction.

Um so that's kind of how I how I think of it.

Is it a directional issue that we need to talk about, or is it a minutiae issue, it's a minutiae issue that I can sit there and talk with staff and the um department has and we can we'll try to work it out.

And if it's gonna if I think it's gonna blow up, then I can let you guys know as a council, but uh probably try to get you more information on the you know, this is what could happen.

This is what property uh on the the five to ten thousand foot level where you can help set direction and tone versus in the menu show.

Thank you.

Hi, Steve.

This is Katie.

Can you um mute yourself while I'm speaking to see if that resolves our issues?

I tried that and you guys disappeared.

So um let me see.

Let me try one more thing.

Not the video.

Okay.

It looks yeah, it looks like you're muted now.

Okay.

Never mind.

Um that's good.

We're gonna roll with it.

Uh how do you think about the line between policy and administration?

And can you describe a time when that line was tested, either by an assembly member stepping into operations, uh, such as you just said, the menutia and the detail, or a situation where you had to push back on direction from the assembly.

Okay.

Um I'll give you two examples of that.

Both of them were in um drain.

Oh I'll I'll use the um Phoenix example.

When I was in Phoenix, I had two counselors call me into their office.

They owned a um automated repair place and basically told me, um, you come to us and we will tell you whether you can bring this to council or not.

Um, but you know, this is how it works.

You you come to us and you talk to us about something, and we'll tell you whether you like we like it or not, and we we'll work that direction.

Um I was like, no, this is not how it works because you know, their charter was, you know, can the you know the mayor and council, they make decisions.

Um and so that became an issue that we had to deal with.

Um also in in Drain, I had a counselor show up at public works at 6 30 in the morning, um, start telling them what to do.

And I had to go tell her no, you can't do that.

And then that exploded into um a very negative situation.

Um and so again, push back.

Also in DRAIN, we had a strip club come in and the council basically said shut it down.

And I said, No, you can't do that because in the state of Oregon, strip clubs are in you know, stripping is considered a free speech issue.

And that, you know, I talked to the insurance company, and they basically said if you do anything to shut them down directly like that, again, we could we tried, you know, the building thing and a whole bunch of other avenues to do this, but just going and shutting down is what people wanted us to do.

I basically said no, because the insurance company would not cover us if we got sued about that, and then we'd all be personally liable if we did that.

And so I kind of refused to do that part also on in that direction.

So again, part of the job here is sometimes you have to say to the council is like and know what you want to do isn't legal according to you know, Oregon law, federal law, or something in that direction, and you need to be able to, you know, have a council do that and work that process out.

So, but yeah, I'm I'm if there's an issue of something like that.

I try to have a conversation privately with council member and say, hey, this is the problem here.

Um, but you know, sometimes you need to push back on that.

Yeah, can you uh elaborate a little bit on how you dealt with the um you know explosion from the counselor at public works or the issues?

Did you communicate back why you felt uncomfortable doing that?

And it was resolved.

Like, what was the approach that you took to solve those situations?

Um well the the public works with um I basically said with the couple in Phoenix at that meeting.

I basically told them that um, you know, I understand what you're saying here.

You're you know you're part of the council, but the council is the one that sets the direction, and sounds is the one that says the process here.

That's what that's what the um charter says, and that's what we have to do.

Um, if you want to, you know, again, bring it to council if you want to talk about that stuff.

And I Maggie sorry, my dog's going, you know, saw something in the window.

Um so that's the process that you have to work with basically saying this is what the code is, this is what the awareness is, and follow that you know, follow that process with um the per the the the um with when I basically said you know, again talk to a privately the um person in DRAIN who showed up the um public works and said, Okay, you still overstep the boundary of what is allowed to do.

If you want to talk to um staff, fine, I don't have your problem talking to staff.

You know, I have an issue when you go to staff and you start demanding information or you start demanding something like that, because it's not staff's job to know you know you know what you should, you know, what how to spend their time in that direction.

It's my job to help them figure out what they need to do and work and assign them the jobs, and if there's something that you need to do um in that direction, uh, but I also try to find out in Dundee.

I had um one of the new counselors show up and ask for five years of water leaks, and I asked him, okay, why do you want this information?

And his response was, oh, I want that information because it's just good information to have.

And I'm like, Well, no offense, but how are you going to use this information to help make a decision or something, you know, that and he goes, Well, it's just good information.

I go, Well, is there another way?

I mean, like, what are you trying to find out?

Because it can take 20 hours because we didn't organize a list of, you know, we we talk about like okay, we have a monthly list of what happens, but five years to go through that might take 10 hours or something to go through.

I don't know how um in that direction, you know, where exactly they have that information is in the um public work files.

I don't have it, so it's like, okay, we have to go to him, they'd have to take the job off of and say this.

And so if you can't tell me a really good you know, reason why you need that information, then you know, I can't.

I mean, then talk to the council and ask the council court as a whole, and I'm happy to get you that because the councils decide that that this is important to have.

If it's just you as a counselor just wanting information for information's sake or something like that, then that's something that you know we don't necessarily have to agree on.

Um, the way I phrase it to all the counselors when they you run and when they get elected, is you have all the rights and responsibilities of a citizen of sitka or the citizen of drain.

It only is when you act as a council, you have the ability to dictate what happens with me and staff.

Other than that, it's kind of a request, and I try to meet you guys as a request, just like I try to remove all the requests of all the citizens in that I work for.

But you know, it's only as acting as a council, do you actually get to sit there and say we want this, we want this, and we want this.

And those are the conversations I had.

So, you know, again, that's part of the issue.

Thank you.

Hi, Steve.

Cloud Mosher again.

Um my question is a little more generic, I guess, but uh it's an important one.

Um budget process in Sitka.

Excuse me.

Sorry, I had to sneeze.

I thought I had to sneeze.

Um, the budget process, at least in Sitka, is a month-long process.

Um and it involves not just finance department, but many department heads, um community needs, assembly desires or needs, um, things like that.

What is your overall uh philosophy and process and logistically?

How do you begin and you know how from beginning to end, how do you manage the budget process?

What I like to do with the budget process is I start off with hopefully having a meeting, like you know, you should already be in the budget process right now, um, in my mind, um, with the staff.

Um, because you can start preparing by okay, this is what the goals are from the um council they want to accomplish in the next year.

You know, they should have one-year goals, five-year goals, ten-year goals, you know, something along those lines to be able to that to get this.

And that's what I want to the um bring out to the department says that this is what the council wants to achieve.

How can we work it with this part in the department?

And then we start talking about you know, them setting up the priorities and how much they think the priorities are going to cost, and working that to, you know, so I'm gonna have the head of public works come up with you know, uh, being in the draft budget for water and sewer and electric.

I'm gonna have um the tourism people come up with a budget for tourism and make suggested cuts with you know, suggested with the budget.

So we have this budget that we can take a look at and say, okay, this is what this adjusted budget would be.

Now, how much money do we need to do um to you know, do this?

And it could be you know, twice as much as what we have.

And then we begin to cut down, okay, what's the priority here based on what the council wants?

What's the party here based on what the council wants and what needs to happen to protect the system?

And so we work through that process to we get to the point where we have a you know a working budget.

And again, you guys have a some you know, submitted budget um for next year already a couple of times to take a look at right now in January, February, um, to be able to say, okay, we like where this is going, we don't like this to go on it like this.

And in DRAIN, when I after got to this point with it, I found 300,000 350,000 in cuts that were going to hurt.

And I thought they were cuts that were more, you know, directional cuts.

So we, for example, um in DRAIN, they gave $30,000 away to different um nonprofits in the in the area.

I didn't want to sit there and make an executive decision and cut that from the budget.

So we had a budget meeting with um a preview of the budget meeting with the with the council and said, This is what our issue is.

We're $350,000 short.

Um, these are the suggestive ways I can cut the budget.

What are you guys comfortable doing?

And so they can make suggestions of where they want to make the cuts and work with it.

And so we'd be able to be we were able to you know make the cuts to get that into that $350,000 and get what we were going to expect for the um budget for the next fiscal year.

And so that's basically how I try to work the budget.

And so by the time um it comes to the budget committee, we can still make changes to the budget, but we have a balanced budget.

We have a budget that you know could work, we have a budget that can explain every line and why we're doing every line, and then you can and understand what again with the council and bring it back to what the council programs are and what the council priorities are, and that's what I try to do when I do the budget.

Okay, thank you.

Uh follow-up question.

Um, I'm not sure if you're familiar with uh Alaska and the infrastructure in Alaska, but um uh back in the oil days of the 80s, uh the state was flush with oil money and basically built multi-million dollar billion dollar infrastructure projects throughout the entire state, uh, hydro, uh lot lots of um uh energy plants and schools, everything all over the state.

And then when the money dried up, the state basically gave these projects to the local communities, and now it's 30, 40, 50 years from time those were built and they're needing to be uh you know, repaired, maintained with populaces that don't have the tax base to you know rebuild.

Um and sitca has you know applied for federal uh grants as many uh communities throughout the state.

Um do you have any similar experience trying to uh you know with infrastructure, trying to uh uh rehab, rebuild, and what were your ideas for creative funding to try to maintain your aging infrastructure?

Yeah, um this is the same issue I had in drain.

Um Douglas County is a big forest county, and in the 70s and 80s, and they were cutting lots of logs, they had you know built roads, they built, you know, gave money to the um cities to build infrastructure and work that process out.

And nowadays, you know, we're again they don't have the money, um, they can't give us anything, and we're stuck with uh not stuck, but we had issues with long-term, you know costs associated with it.

What I try to do, and you know, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, is I focus on maintenance.

You know, is there is there low cost you know ways that we can do something to help maintain last longer?

For example, um, if we have to do a road, you know, if the road is alligatored, which means it's all broken up in different sections and needs to be repaired, you know, re-redone back to the base, then I'm not gonna put I'm gonna put off that as long as I possibly can.

If a road is still decent, no sign of alligator, but the uh you know asphalt's wearing out, then there I could probably make an effort to put in a um seal uh you know do some story seal on it to make it last longer that direction.

And you know, I can explain that to people when they come in and complain, why are you working on Main Street when Third Street over here is all broken up?

It's like, well, Main Street can still be saved.

Third Street needs to be rebuilt from the base, and that's how we can work that direction.

So I can try to you know set things up to work in that with that process.

I also try to do multiple projects at one time.

You know, for example, if we're gonna do third street and we need to repay third street, how long, how long until failure are we gonna have other water lines there?

How long for failure are we gonna have the sewer lines there?

You know, so is there something that I can get all of them together and combined the um project so they all get done at the same time.

And so I'm you know, using money from water, using money from sewer and using funding from roads to be able to get that project done to the best of our ability.

Um, and sometimes I've had a you know you know how to borrow money to be able to do that and pay that money back because it was um going to be cheaper in the long run than it was to um try to save up money to do that because the cost of asphalt, the cost of um doing the projects are going up faster than um any money we save.

And so those are some of the things I've done to help alleviate that.

Um, but there's no perfect answer.

Thank you.

Steve Scotty here again.

Take you back to the uh electricity thing, and what Kevin was talking about was Blue Lake Dam.

And if you get off this, go to Blue Lake Dam sitka, and you'll see uh what we're talking about as far as our hydroelectric plant.

But what I was trying to bring you to on that last question was even though you've never touched a hydroelectric plant and maybe don't know anything about electricity except plugging it into the wall running this town, you know, it wasn't like Kevin said where the state funded this dam, the city of Sitka did for the biggest bond in Alaska history for a town of 8700 people with 147 million dollar debt that we're paying off by selling kilowatt hours now.

And uh, you know, that's what I mean with it's not just you know running a garage for the city or you know the all the harbors, but then generating that power and the stress of that when the wind blows and all of the above and keeping that going and it just uh an awareness that's downrange for you of taking this job on that's all I just wanted to have you go to that when we're done and then see see what the apprehension is and you know you may not have the skills to run the cycles out there, but you're gonna have to pick somebody that can, and then that's where as CEO of the ship you may hit a rock because you know of that extra skill set that we're not paying the people that are doing it now, and then you're gonna have to go through and pick out people that are gonna crush the town and how it is.

So good luck, bro.

Oh well, that I mean, you know, I talked to Ketchukan's um finalists there, and they had a very similar problem with their electric utility.

And you know, they had an 800 piece of um 800 um thousand dollar piece of equipment that hasn't worked for you know a couple years.

And so I'm like, okay, how much would it cost if you know to fix it?

And again, how you want to approach that is a way to do it.

But I under I understand what you're saying, and you know, it's you know, with input from both the the people and from you know the council, you try to do the best decision you can make.

And then you, you know, you know, if that's it's that's the wrong wrong decision, then you try to get out of that wrong decision and make another decision in that process.

Um, you know, and that's the best you can do, and that's the best anyone can do in that in that direction.

And sometimes you win, and sometimes you screw up early.

Um, hopefully you win more than you screw up.

Um, but you know, you know it's a problem.

You start looking for people who know how to answer those questions, and a lot of people are a lot smarter than I am when it comes to those things, and you try to get information that way to make a decision.

Um, but again, there's no, you know, there's no guaranteeing if you hired me that I get that decision right.

Um, and but at least we know what's happening and we can try to make the best decision we can make.

How's that for an answer?

Looking good, bro.

Thank you.

Carlson here.

Um I'd like to hear a bit about you know, you and your formative years and your education.

Um, you know, what first got you interested in public service.

Actually, my dad was in the Forest Service, and so I learned and he was um uh you know, forest range.

I mean, he had he held he ran a couple of um ranger stations and was a I think GS-15 in um Santa Barbara, California, and I watched him how to work with people and how to work with um groups to get things done, and being very successful in that direction.

And so I learned a lot um from him.

And when I was in grad school um studying management, um he would call me on the phone and he would start saying, Steve, I have a you know, let's this hypothetical situation here.

If you had an employee who you know claimed to have a back injury, but you couldn't figure out, you know, but the doctor said it wasn't one, and so you know, he wouldn't he wanted to go home and lie down every time his back hurt.

How would you handle that situation?

And I would come in and say, Well, I would probably look at it this way, I'd you know, do this, I you know, you know, do that and see if that would work.

And he goes, Okay, um, you know, and then he let me know whether that worked because that was a situation he was dealing with.

Um, and so I learned how to manage and learn how to manage people in the public spectrum that way.

I spent a lot of time talking to my dad about those things about what he was facing as a supervisor in a you know, think 100 million dollar, no, 20 million dollar, um, it's 100 million dollar in um you know area is outside of Santa Barbara and they had fires and a whole bunch of other stuff going on.

And so I began to learn, and and so one thing that I um I really came to the conclusion was your people matter, and you have to make sure your people are growing, and you have to put the the people in the right positions to be successful.

And if someone isn't being successful, you need to find a way to move them into something different that way they can be successful.

Because again, my assumption is when I work with staff and I work with people, is that no one wants to come in and spend 40 hours 40 hours a week doing nothing.

And so it's my job to be able to figure out what they can do and what they need can do, and give them the ability to be successful as a worker, and that's being able to talking to them, listening to them and working in that direction.

So that's what got me into um you know, public service.

That's what got me into um you know management, and I try to work at that reproduction.

Thank you.

Yeah, I see a transition here from an undergraduate in music to graduate school and management.

Uh and then it also looks like you went to law school at the same time as business management.

Can you talk on that a little bit?

Um, actually, I didn't, well, I took a couple of classes in law school.

What I really was in grad school, what I really found interesting, and I thought was really effective, is alternative dispute resolution.

And what alternative dispute resolution is is you learn different ways to solve problems other than just the legal way, you know, for example, negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.

And so you begin to learn how to work those processes out, and that's what I found in because those processes talk about solving problems and solving issues, and that's what I like to do.

I like to be able to come in and help solve an issue or solve a problem within a community or within a group or what you know, and by listening and talking to people.

And so you learn to, you know, they sort of train you how to listen to people, how to you know hear what they're actually saying, um, and then you can respond to them in that direction.

Sometimes you just need to be able to understand that there needs a third party out there that can give each side a real understanding um of what's going on.

Um, I use this most effectively when I was in um the city of Phoenix.

Um, they were putting a 75 million dollar um interchange exit off of um exit 24 and i5, which was Phoenix, and there were like multiple lawsuits associated with that.

And um so basically I wouldn't talk to the um ODOT who was basically being sued, the city of Phoenix, a couple of the businesses that were in the suits, and I figured there was some overlap here if they'd actually sit down and talk, and we needed someone to help them see that overlap.

And so I convinced every party to come in and join the join through a mediation, um, and they got to an agreement.

And you know, so instead of having to do a multi-million dollar court case or you know, two years in court to do this, they got to an agreement that was approved within, you know, I think a year and a half of when I was there.

Um, and so that's just kind of how um, yeah, that's how I use it in the past, but it comes down to effectively listening knowing what's out there and trying to understand what the um the processes are.

I've also used mediators when um I've negotiated union negotiated union contracts when we are at an impasse, um, so they could sit there and I could tell tell the um the mediator, look, this is the most I can do, and this is the reason the most I can do, and explain it to them in that direction, and then they can then pass that on to um as a third party and say, Hey, this is what they're telling me, this is why they're telling me it, you know, and you know, do you you know, and so add some validity and um and say, hey, this is basically it says we are you know I'm telling you the truth, even though most of the times I do that.

Um, and usually after I've had um been there a year or two, I have enough relationship with the um staff, and that when we get to union negotiations, they know the truth because I've I've already explained to them how things are work, um, the budget process, because I think the staff needs to know the budget process as well as the um managers do.

And so when you get to these union contracts, they know where the money's coming from, they know how much money is there, um, and they can try you know we can try to work out what's going to be effective for everybody.

Um, and then it comes down to whether the council agrees with that agreement or not.

Um, so but that's how I use it in the past, and that's why I really um like alternative resolution because you know, going to court and attorneys very rarely solve anything, it's pretty much an hour to solve problems.

That's why this thank you.

Thank you.

I think application of that may be a little different here.

Uh, as a municipal attorney, probably be the lead in a lot of that, or HR um director for the next one.

I ran soft fees, we didn't have those.

Yes.

So I like to try and ask questions that are kind of along the lines of the of the same or the previous one, uh, but this is gonna be a complete 180, so a little bit of exercise and being nimble.

Um what is Sitka Tribe of Alaska and what does it mean to you okay?

Um the question I heard is what is Sikta tribe of Alaska and what does it mean to me?

Correct.

Okay.

I'm assuming it is the native tribe in that area um originally um with that, which has some legal rights associated with that, and it's something that um is a quasi, if not a uh separate government organization that the city of Sitka has to deal with.

Um in that process, and it means that is it would be a part of government that I'd have to work with to get a partnership going on so we could work together to help solve the issues um facing you know sitka in that area.

You know, I'm if you aren't working with the people around you and creating bonds that work and get stuff done, you're you know, if you can get three people together, and even though it may seem longer to get something done than just doing it yourself, but it becomes a better longer investment in you know, investing that time develops that respect, and that you can actually solve problems and speeds up things in the past, and so they're gonna be a partner you have to you know, I get to work with and I'd have to work with the get to work with to help you know move around.

So if I can know what their issues are and they can know what my issues are, and we can work and help solve problems with those issues, then that would be a good way to do that.

Thank you.

Hi, Steve again, Tim Pike.

Um I I'm gonna not follow Steven's question closely, but um, can you tell us about some your experience with the management teams, how you've structured them in the past, how you would have how you would change them if you had a chance to do it over again, and how are you expecting them to function, what is their role for you, um, and how do they help you going forward.

What I've tried to do with management teams in the past is get them unsiloed.

Um, because what I have found a lot of times when I come into cities, and I don't think it'd be this one here as much, is that they are in silos, public works just deals with public works and doesn't understand what the fire department is doing and doesn't understand what planning is doing, and doesn't understand, you know, so they don't necessarily work together to help get things done.

Now they have their their special teams and work in that process, but what I try to do when I set up a management team in the past is I try to get them to meet on a regular basis, you know, usually after the council meetings to talk about what happened to the council and get a different perspective that happened in from their perspective, what happened in the council meetings, and you know, get them thinking, okay, how can how can the you know, because they might public works might see something that happened that will affect how billing operates that isn't you know wasn't particularly known, or billing didn't see that in connection with that, whatever they were talking about that night.

And so by having them having a discussion and work that direction and start working as a partnership as we will get this done, um it works a lot better.

And then and then again it gives you support when you end up with um an issue.

For example, in you know, Phoenix, I had an issue in public works that was sort of brought up in a you know, in the meeting afterward, the count after the uh after the council meeting with the department heads saying exemploye is having a you know, I'm having a really hard time dealing with ex employee, and I don't know really what how to approach it.

And so we were we spent like you know 20 minutes talking about that issue, and they could get support that direction and help solve that problem in in that direction.

Um I wasn't able to get that going in um Dundee because every time I try to begin those meetings and stuff, someone was on vacation, someone was on you know, X or someone else Y.

And so there's always an excuse not to have it, and so we quit having those meetings in that direction.

And what I ended up doing um at that time, even though I would have preferred to do it the other way, is going and meeting them in their office talking about what they were facing up here, what they're facing, and you know, getting some communication with staff and with them in that in that direction.

They were still a little bit more silo than I liked, but they knew what was going on and they knew what was going on in different parts of it.

You know, for example, in Dundee, I went and talked to um the fire department staff one time, and they had a lot of questions on planning, and because how it affected their job, and how you know how they affected where they were going and all the all the stuff and that needed to happen with that.

And so I was able to sit there and in four or five minutes, 45 minutes explain, you know, the basic planning laws and how you set up a good planning committee committee in that direction, in that direction.

So that's kind of how I want to work work things, and that's where it failed in the past, and you know, where I couldn't really set it up that way.

But um, you know, I was able to adapt to do something that would be effective for everyone in that direction.

So I hope that answered your question.

If I miss something, let me know.

Well, looking backward in your experience, uh, what what are some things that you would have done differently had you had the opportunity.

Um the one thing that no, the two things come in come to mind quickly.

Um is I had in in Drain, I had a public works director um that I could never really get on my side.

And so I think I probably should have been a little bit more you know forceful on that direction.

Um, and you know, with saying you just need to get this done, and you need to get this done in that process.

Um, but he had been there for 30 years, he started there working there when he was 18.

Um, and so it was just kind of you know, and he knew all the community, so it was you know, I should have gotten a little bit more, you know, forceful management-wise in there, but if I could like train him how to think as a manager and stuff, and he never could understand that because in his line management was just telling people what to do instead of getting them to think.

And so that's where I and after six months I should have just started telling him what to do versus trying to get him to think on a regular basis.

And that's that's like one thing I really blew in that in that direction with it.

Um the second thing is I um you know there are times I should have fired people faster.

Um and you know, in that process where I didn't like you know, doing what was going on, and so they weren't good managers, they weren't doing what I wanted, and I should have got them out quicker than I did.

And um, when I got them out, then a lot of the problems solved.

So it's not necessarily you know, again, the the size of what I have dealt with is a lot smaller than what you have there, and so um that'd be you know, so I'd have to you know learn do some learning to figure out some of the stuff that may work that I've done in the past um that won't work in a small community that would work in um your community.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Tor Christensen again.

I'm actually gonna follow up on Tim's last question, not the one he just did, but the one before that, and talking about complaints.

Um it's gonna happen if you get this job where somebody's gonna come in with a complaint that you can't fix, whether it's legal or resources or um it's just not doable uh for lots of reasons, and and they're they're gonna be hot on their collar, and whoever the administrator is I'm sure John would tell you we'll have people come into his office demanding things that you just can't do uh for whatever reason.

Um so talk to me about how you would deal with that because you know that there's how you get that person and and understand that sometimes they uh they might not really listen to what you're trying to say to them, but it's not an uncommon situation here.

Um what I do is anyone who wants to come in and talk to me, I will talk to.

Um, I think sometimes you get you know, people coming in and they want to talk to the city administrator, but the city administrator doesn't want to talk to them per se, and so they just like sign them on.

So, unless I'm in a meeting or on a phone call or something along those lines, I will meet it with them and I will let them talk, and I will listen to what they have to say.

And you know, even though I can't help them, or I'll explain why I can't help them and whether they like it or not.

Sometimes um, you know, they don't, and a lot of times they don't because I want to do what they want.

Um, but at least uh they try I try to get them to understand why I can't do X or why I can't do Y.

Um, you know, for example, there was a guy in Dundee who you know bought a house in this cul-de-sac, and he didn't understand why the city couldn't go in and um prevent people from pot you know parking on his driveway, but because basically his driveway was the entrance to the culture sack, and and he wanted the city to enforce that rule, and basically ended up telling him it's you know it's private property, the city has no authority on that.

And he goes, Well, you you have to keep it clear for you know fire department.

I go, Yeah, but again, it's not the city, it city doesn't have the legal authority to ticket anybody in that process, and you know, you know, find them in in that direction.

It's not set up to do that.

You know, and the fire department doesn't have the authority to do that, and the you know, we have contracted police in that part, and contract police is gonna isn't gonna come.

And so we you know help trying to help mediate with him and got in with the police and had to explain things and the fire department explained things and get him to that point.

But finally got to the point with him is it's like okay, we've gone through everything we can know.

This is what the rules are, this is what we can you know can and cannot do according to law, and this is what you know, this is the end of the conversation.

So every time you come in after that when you complain and stuff like that, I go, that's the end of the conversation.

We pick we've been here before.

And you know, he got mad at me and just walked out.

But you know, I know he was he felt he was like it's hurt, he just didn't feel like he was getting a solution made.

And so a lot of times what I have found is when people are upset and stuff like that, if at least get the chance to be heard about something like that, um, and you know, and get all the emotion and anger out.

A lot of times at that time they'll listen to what I can and cannot do.

Sometimes they'll get mad again, and sometimes they'll leave the office again.

But I try to um you know, let that roll off my back and get sort of and concentrate on this is what we can do, this is what we can't do.

Um, this is what the ordinance say, this is where the order ordinance comes from, and I can show them that part of it.

And sometimes if I don't know the answer, I'll sit there and say, I don't know the answer right now.

Um let me redo some research it, and I'll give you um a call back or I'll contact you, I'll send you an email, whatever you prefer, um, and try to do a day certain on on that.

So, like you know, keep to me on a Friday, I'll get you an answer by then, if not before.

So that's what I try to do to handle those situations, and most of the time it works for me.

Thank you.

Uh I would like to build on the tourism question uh that was asked last time.

So you've had a little bit of time to familiarize yourself with SICA and the layout of our island community.

You know, we've got about 14 miles of road, maybe a few more in the summer, and the only way on or off the island is by plane or boat.

Uh you said last time to deal with the tourism dynamics in town.

You wondered how to make it so the people who don't want to see the tourists don't have to.

That's really hard in a community that is as small as ours uh and as concentrated as ours.

And so I'm wondering how you are actually going to address this tension um that uh Tor referenced last time between you know preserving our community character and the needs of year-round residents while encouraging economic growth in this important sector.

Okay.

I figured that out more after I studied it this time.

That my suggestion was stupid and at least illogical and working in that direction.

So forgive me on that in that part of it.

I guess what I don't know, and I'd have to know a little bit more information on this one, is what exactly it is that people who don't want tourism there, what they really don't like about it, is it you know more people invading their town, they don't feel like they can go shopping on a Saturday, or they are feel limited about that, or they feel like they're their hometown is being invaded.

Um and you know, and and work that so I guess for from my vantage point now, you know, a thousand miles away is I want to know why the people who are against tourism would are against it.

Um because you know, my response when I worked in um Grant's Pass.

One of my comments was is no one comes and moves their business to Grands Pass without coming here as a tourist first.

And I think that same you know, true for SICKA in a lot of ways.

So I think it is sort of like okay, you guys don't like this because of XLY.

I need to understand that part of it before I can come up with a good solution for that.

Um, and then if I can understand what the issue is that way, then I can probably maybe try to help develop that that theory with that.

Um but you know, I you know, if you're studying it some more, I don't have a good, really good um solution for it because again, you need the tourism in there because they provide you a heck of a lot of money, and that's keep your business and that keeps your um community alive and running.

And without that, you guys would be in a lot more physics fiscal trouble than you would beforehand.

And just maybe you know, sitting on explaining what exactly you know they get.

Um it doesn't make it won't make a difference, and maybe not like it, but um try to work at that angle.

But how's that for um again?

I'm not gonna give not an answer, but I don't I don't have a solution for you on that one.

I just know that what I told you the last time um didn't make sense now, and we'll go that direction.

I guess I'm surprised that that didn't come up in your um in your newspaper research.

Uh I think there's been there was a few articles written about it.

It was uh is a really significant issue in our community.

Um and yeah, would just say uh as you read um the things about our community um propositions uh would be another good thing to check out.

But thanks, thanks for that answer.

Hi, Steve.

Uh Kevin Mosher again.

Um thank you, everyone.

There's been really good questions here lately.

Um so I'm just gonna re- uh, you know, we're read out a generic question, and then I'm gonna kind of fill out the outline of what I'm thinking.

Um the question officially is outline your experience and effectiveness in dealing with state and federal agencies, the legislature and the congressional delegation.

And me adding to that is uh in Sitka, yes, uh we have several major industries, healthcare, uh fishing industry, tourism.

Uh also in addition, um federal granting uh state granting is not as as much hardly as it used to be, or virtually non-existent, but the federal uh grants, of course, with the national infrastructure bills that came through Congress the past couple years, uh has been an abundance of funds, and those obviously are not going to continue forever and are slowing down.

But granting from the federal agencies has been a lifeline to communities all throughout the state, including SICCA.

Um, in SIPCA, we have we do have a lobbyist, uh, and there is a relationship with the um administrator and also the mayor uh with the state legislature and the the federal uh congressional delegation.

There's also issues like state and federal unfunded mandates.

Sitka has had several things where we've had to have uh multimillion dollar facilities built because of a simple mandate that was in our opinion unnecessary.

I could think of the the effluent water uh system or whatever that it's called.

Um those are absolutely crucial, those relationships.

And I was wondering if what is your experience in your history with the um towns uh you've been with your state and federal congressional delegations, any lobbying efforts, uh any teams, granting teams that you have, um, any type of efforts that you do to prevent and protect your communities from unfunded mandates or mitigate the the consequences of those.

Sometimes they can't be avoided, but uh sometimes it's important to let um you know legislatures know the effects that their decisions have on communities because it can have uh huge implications that they may not even understand, and that takes an advanced effort.

Sometimes they can't be avoided, but uh sometimes it's important to let um you know legislatures know the effects that their decisions have on communities because it can have uh huge implications that they may not even understand and that takes an advanced effort uh PR and also relationship building constant communication it's very very crucial um what is your experience with that do you have any experience um you know positive outcomes you've had negative outcomes you've had things like that um yeah I have um I testified before um state legislatures I've gone to um board meetings um especially when I was doing economic development I would go to um the instead of Oregon they had an economic development board that advised the business Oregon part of it I would go to their quarterly meetings and talk about the needs of small communities and um with with that the direct relationship to that one is the city of Grands Pass got a um they developed a a um forgivable loan um program where the city could they would loan the city uh uh enough money to build a lift station because that was land we needed to lift station to be able to develop some um industrial land within the city boundaries and they would give us five thousand dollars per job against the loan so in five years we'd be interest free for five years and then how many jobs were created off of that would be five thousand dollars you know we wouldn't have to pay back when they started the loan and it would continue until the loan is off all done or um in that process which is the first time they ever got something like that done um within the city within the the state because I would always go into those meetings and having those conversations with people and talking to um the state legislatures in that direction.

In the city as a city um manager I continued a lot of those type of meetings with the thing with um different legislators in the area and talk to them not necessarily the legislatures but the staff um to talk to them about what's going on um especially during COVID especially during um you know the first you know couple months of um the cities when Trump took over and the cancellation of a lot of contracts that were in Oregon um one city there was um halfway through a water treatment plant build that you know basically stopped because there was no guarantee they can get the loan to you know the loan was council all of a sudden they had you know and the builder wouldn't come in and stuff like that.

Um and I worked with the regional um workforce board and work regional group to help um solve that issue what I have found is as a city manager I have access to the in communication with the senator staff or the congressman staff or the legislator staff um on a we send them a regular basis you know they send me things I send them things in the in that direction I don't necessarily talk to the you know elected official um what I have found is that for most part elected officials like to talk to elected officials and so I encourage staff I actually I'm sorry encourage counselors to develop those relationships also so they only hear it from me through the staff and the staff talks about it they also talk about it you know okay we need to have this person here our you know um in that direction and you can get a lot done that way um and you know Dundee you know we got an earmark for 3500 to put in a water line that was directly related to um both me and the council and um you know count mayor actually talking to um the local representative and getting him on board with it and understanding why we needed it and um he was able to get that earmark in for us.

So that gives an idea of what we've been able to do in the past um but I'd have to develop those relations up there.

It's like I I I guess I I spent you know if you give me the job I would I envision my first three or four months there just going around and talking to people getting an understanding of what there are what their needs are what they get and what we can do as a city to help them out and what they can do as an organization to help us out.

And so trying to get an understanding of that I can read in papers in that way um and getting that process there.

So that's kind of my thought process.

Thank you.

Steve Scotty again stand by hey uh you give a man a fish and he eats for a day and you give a man somebody else's fish and he votes for you.

So where I'm going with this one is you know when you ask about what's up with tourism and stuff uh you know sitka before the LIBOR scandal at 2008 2007 sitka was number two in America for increasing your home's equity by 33% within 18 months of buying it and how that was shaken out was putting four bunks in each bedroom and a freezer in the garage and opening up a charter lodge and you won't find any other aspect of sitka's economy that's raised housing prices other than fish harvesting.

And how that was shaken out was putting four bunks in each bedroom and a freezer in the garage and opening up a charter lodge, and you won't find any other aspect of Sitka's economy that's raised housing prices other than fish harvesting.

So this year, people get to harvest twice as many king salmon as last year.

So you know, there are species of fish that nobody gets to retain inside of our waters.

And now there are other species of fish that are being targeted because of the lack of the other species of fish.

And so uh, you know, the issue of commercial harvest, subsistence harvest, and sport are very, very uh divided.

And there are people that live here and work at the city for less than what they're worth just for the fact they get to stay in this town and look at the mountains and maybe go take a hot tub every once in a while.

You get to manage all that, and uh, you know, the non-invasive tour aspect with bus pollution and you know, just the sheer numbers of 10,000 people disembarking in town.

Um there's a lot, there's a lot going on.

And uh, you know, uh however much you bite off uh, you know, stand by because it's gonna be a ride, and good luck.

The hot springs reference was to a town site within the borough, uh South of the town that is a recreation site now and has some thermal bats.

Uh that's uh there's a lot of uniquenesses like that um within our borough.

Uh we are by size the largest city in the United States, uh, because it's the you know entirety of the island and a couple more.

Um so land management.

Um, thank you.

That actually ties in very well to my my question.

Uh there's quite a bit um with zoning and and just our land within our borough, um, and we don't have that structure of you know, your local level, your county level, your state level, your federal.

It's the you know, city and borough combined.

So we are in essence the county as well.

Um so in any like emergency response situation, um, we we're we're the ones we that we're the only ones out here on on the outer coast.

Um, with your experience kind of being on that I-5 corridor, you're kind of in that interstitial space between the coast and the mountains.

Um we have both right here close by, and so we have the hazards um from those two kind of land forms.

Um, what's your experience kind of with that um overall kind of land management or or hazard response, instant command um and natural disasters.

Well, let me just comment on the previous um speakers um talk talking about one thing I've learned as being a city manager is that no matter what I do, I'm wrong.

And so I've accepted that process for a long period of time.

Um so you just gotta do what you think is right and get you know blank.

Um so that's that process there.

Emergency management um there are so many things about emergency management that you can talk about that it's hard to um work with it.

I mean, you get into, you know, if you're supplying you know you're supplying the ambulance support things and not getting paid, and how you maintain that cost is something that we really dealt with in drain.

Um you know, and also in you know, Dundee.

Um and then in drain, we actually had a whiteout where we lost electricity and you know, had to keep the staff going for um, you know, um you know, almost a week and a half uh 24-7 to get them to help clean up things, and there we got you know, um a lot of things, a lot of people are volunteering to help out and work in that direction.

So working with them to do that and having our public works director at that time because he knew everybody was helping direct everybody in to make it more effective in that direction.

And that was pretty much you know, for the most part out of that, just handling the um we need this, we need that, and so buying stuff to get things going on on that direction, and then handling the paperwork with FEMA and all this to get some reimbursement for that.

Um, so that's my experience.

I don't have a overly a lot of doing that, but you have um you know people who you have 13 employees in the um fire department who can answer those questions, you have a police requirement that can have you know work at that.

I wouldn't necessarily go in and try to interfere with what they can do because they know they have the processes out already.

And if you don't have a an emergency plan, I'm sure you do, I just don't remember seeing it.

Um, then I'd develop emergency plans for different actions that would happen.

So if you had an earthquake, you had you know um flooding, you had you know more snow and everything in that direction.

How would you handle that how did that process work?

And so that's that's kind of how I'd work.

I'd with that one, I'd look at the people who do it for a long period of time and specifically trained in it and acted as a support mechanism for that to make sure they got the equipment and food that they needed to keep things going.

Thank you.

Tsunamis and land sites are our biggest hazards here.

Thank you.

Yeah, and if the tsunami so you have to, I mean, I'm sure you have um you know, basically tsunami safe zones that you have you got people to get to you and you had to keep their own clean to do that.

Um I learned that a little bit by studying some of the stuff on the coast, but I'm not a big expert on that.

Well, Steve, uh Kevin kind of took uh half of one of my last questions for you.

Um and I the reason I wanted to talk about state and federal uh representatives and their uh your relationship with them is because of the importance that it is in mine and the administrators' role for our community.

So I want to expand on that a little bit and see uh where else uh you've used perhaps more social settings uh to further our goals.

So I was just curious uh what professional memberships you maintain, uh, what conferences you frequently go to, and then uh how do you how you have used them uh to gain uh resources uh back to the towns that you are uh that you have managed um I did a lot with um Oregon Economic Bill Association when I did economic development, and I attended a lot of meetings in Salem and specifically with ODOT and some of the um programs they had there.

Um they started um an infrastructure program for non-road or um integrating you know plane and and and trains and stuff with um roads, and so I went to a meeting that talked about that, and so you know, we had a plan in Grant County how to get that information and how to apply for those grants.

Um, a good you know, two months before they actually did the dog and pony show because I knew about it and I and I was friends with the um head of the airport, and we had developed the plan on how to do that.

And so we had a a plan that was um the number one plan for the region and got funded for that.

And then next year we had the number the second number one plan they got funded for that in that program um in there.

Um for the city as a city manager, I worked a lot with um the regional um cities association and the national, I mean the state um association of cities, which I learned a lot of what was happening within the um legislative session on on that process because they would have a weekly call during less sessions talking about hey, what's going on here, what's going on there, and talking to other city managers and stuff about what they're hearing and and and that process.

And so the regional managers I would sit there and talk to, hey, this is what's happening, this is what's happening, and then I would talk to the um the state, listen to the state board, um, state association of cities, um, and get an update from there, and again, talking to the um elected, you know, the anything that um I could get from the uh the staff um about what was happening too, and you know, talking to them on that direction.

So, and again, part of it was just reading the Oregonian and trying to figure out what was happening because not everything was happening at once and um working with those.

So though, and you know when I did economic and not economic, but when I was at DRAIN, uh we had an um association of um public and electric utilities that um dealt specifically with that issue and trying to you know get um going on there.

So I talked to um both elected representatives and um staff and both from the state and national level on those things because that became an issue with some of the stuff that was happening there.

Um so that's those are the associations I've I've been a part of.

I've never really been a part of the national association because uh our um cities I worked in um were you know not even rounding areas for them and you know um there wasn't much interest you know interest in um them in the state from that point of view, so I never really got involved in that that part.

So those are the ones I worked with on a regular basis and I thought were good.

Um, but I also worked a lot with um the small nonprofits in the communities I worked with to help them find money um and get them money for um different things that they needed and try to work that process.

So um I I pretty much try to work with everybody who wants to work with me.

Understood, thank you.

So uh Tim Pike again.

So uh the largest component of our budget is uh public education.

Um can you tell me what you would see as the relationship between the city and the school district?

I always viewed the school districts as a partner with the city on creating um a wonderful place to live because one of the parts processes is you know you get families moving into the community, having a good school system, a good district is an essential part of having doing uh you know, having a good place to live and a good um community, and so I've always tried to work with partners on with them on on that direction and see how we can help each other out and work together.

Is there a way we can share you know share um resources or is there a way we can share um money?

I know I say money, but you know, it can we you know so like you know can we like in drain we gave them a place where they can wash their buses where they wouldn't, you know, when they had salt on the buses, what so they wouldn't contaminate the roads or wouldn't do any thing in that process or hurt that.

So we had a place where both them and Oda could wash their salt trucks and wash the buses so they wouldn't get access on the roads and could and help corrupt the roads.

So a lot of the time it's just you know working with them as a part of it.

Second thing is is um those are the people, not all of them stay, but enough of them stay in the community that they're the future of what's going on, and so they need to be part of um the decision making process and understanding what those things are in that direction, and um I'm you know encourage you know them to come in and talk and I went and talked to multiple school dist school systems and school um classrooms about what was what it's like to you know run the city and what this is what a sewer looks like, and this is what a um you know uh a water filtration plan looks like because if we can get one or two kids interested in that at you know, as young ages and and working in there, then they become something that you desperately need in the West Coast right now, which is train people in public works, and so part of it, you know, it's like hey, let's show these kids that want to come to do this and make that happen.

Um the second, you know, when one of the things that we did in um grants past was we worked with the school district to have like a career fair where we brought in all the different businesses in the community saying this is what we do, this is the education you need, and so you can start getting people thinking, okay, what you know, what do I want to do when I'm a software?

Do I want to go to um college or do I want to, you know, you know, what can I do to get some training so I I don't necessarily go into college, and so we need to be part of that conversation and help that conversation go far far because if people already live here and they want to be and want to remain here for you know the reasons of fishing or whatever they want to do, and they need a you know family wage job, they need to know what the skills are that they need to be able to do those type of things and help them get to that point with it.

But I try to but in essence I see them as a partner that I work with um to help create a positive community, and I really like to um use them, you know as you know, I again the playgrounds I like I had people go to the playgrounds all the time, and you know, I view that as part of the city's job is to help make those playgrounds work.

Thank you.

Yeah, I don't have a this tour again.

Um I don't have a real long question for you, but this job has got a lot of stress, and you're gonna have to manage that to a certain extent.

So um I guess it's so my question is like what do you do for what what brings you joy?

What do you do for fun?

Uh that will allow you to leave the office behind when you're off duty.

And feel free, don't have to get in super detail.

I just and what are your dogs?

What dogs do you have?

Yeah.

Um I have two pugs.

Um I would I play with my pugs and I like to take them for walks.

Um I like to, you know, just be out in nature.

Um I like to walk in in the morning.

I like to be active.

Um I know that you know, if I you know, if I live up there, then when I walk my dogs, people are gonna come up and talk to me.

So I mean that's part part of it.

Um, but I also find places that I can just exist outside in nature um a little bit.

And um, you know, that's just you know I try not to I try not to get some they're stressed and then there's busy and then there is frustrated and angry, and I try to not get frustrated and angry, and I try to do mental tricks sometimes to get out of that mindset.

Um, and that and sometimes that's just you know um having a very loud discussion with my wife about how angry the council's making me or something along those lines.

Sometimes that happens too.

So basically I like to spend time with my dogs and I like to you know go walking in the morning, and that helps clear my head with a lot of the stuff.

I mean it'll go back, but there's no, you know, it changes on a on a on a basis on on things, and that's just kind of how it works.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, so my last question.

Um, you know, we've talked a lot about uh our city being a full service city, carries a lot, isolated, you know, community isolated island.

We got police, fire, public works, utilities, parks and rack, and more.

Um something that many large communities in Alaska have had to do recently given um the dynamics that Kevin was talking about with uh decreased state funding, decreased federal funding and a shrinking tax base due to outmigration and aging population is uh tightening of resources and uh very large deficits.

Several communities have closed schools.

Uh we have not had to do that yet, um, but our our school board is you know facing a deficit as well.

And so generally you know, you've got to evaluate these service level trade-offs, and and we have to do that as well when resources are tight.

And then also given what you said about involving you know the young people in um understanding what our community needs, you know.

I think that sitca and and many places in Alaska really take a community approach uh to these kinds of decisions of like how do we reduce or restructure services uh to meet the resources that we have available.

So I'm wondering if you can give us some insight into how you might navigate some of those challenges.

Can you give an example of where you recommended reducing or restructuring a service and how would you engage the community in those types of decisions?

Yeah, um in Drain, um we're having issues with our um electric part of our our part, but basically we couldn't find people to um do to work there on a regular basis.

And so we ended up you know contracting out our um the work that we needed to do for electric lines, all you know a lot of the maintenance we contracted it out at certain certain times.

So we come in and have them do the maintenance on the lines and maintenance and things, and we'd have one guy that was there to help facilitate the process to know what the issues were and you know what needed the work needed to be done at that time, and that's how we streamlined um the you know electric utilities there.

Um, you know, again, another thing we you know, again, finding out in just doing some of the maintenance processes have also found a way to streamline some of the aspects of water and sewer by you know, again, concentrating on maintenance, concentrating on you know, going through the lines and you know, camera and knowing there's an issue here is that we can be proactive and doing that.

Um, you know, one thing is I do in Oregon to help, you know, the income out a little bit more that you know what we can't do here is I replace the water meters to um, you know, because after 20 years or after 10 years, water meters fall on the cannon water meters fall on the side of the customer, so we're not getting an accurate reading of what the water they're using, so we're giving a lot of water away when that happens.

And so by doing that, we'd be able to increase um revenue without increasing our costs associated with that once it was the um the thing was changed in in that direction.

That's some of the things I I've done in the past um on on there.

A lot of times we would, if there's a specific issue that we want to talk about, we try to have a public meeting that we work with to get through there.

Um one of the things I did to get public meeting and get people to attend public meetings is I worked with the um school district and I offered basically the track team or the football team or whoever wanted it a hundred bucks or 200 bucks towards their um their fund to be able to go and put um place cards on the doors of every person in in the town, and it says, Hey, there's a public meeting talking about this, and this is what the issue is to help get people out there, and you know, in Phoenix, when I did that, we had about you know 200 people show up at a planning commission meeting talking about the planning uh aspect of it, and um we had like 40 people show up and drain um talking about parks.

So that trying to get trying to get them and trying to get people involved in that that process is is what we really try to do um in there.

And so you guys have um a lot of um groups that you know you get advice from, and you might you know that might be something here is trying to get a new group um you know to work on that.

Um I know you just um something with sustainability and working through in making that work and you know making one working for the the finance part of it is something you should you know, not just the budget committee, but also someone you know, hey, what are what are some ideas that we can have that and start having uh the conversation?

You know, again, your master plan ends in you know 2030, and right now one of the things I would probably start you know recommend working on is not you know this coming year, but next year start working on developing a new master plan and basically going and making this part of a visioning process for Sika.

This is what we want to do, how can we do this, or what do you what does the community of Sigma want to do, how do they see themselves in 20 years and how work and how to help them work in that direction.

Um, but there isn't a one shot or one thing thing you can do.

You can just try to work through it and work with groups and people that are active in the community and about how to develop that process with them.

Um, and some you know, and most people can understand, hey, we don't have a budget, so if we had a decision X or Y, then you need to be able to give them to get input on what X or Y works.

Thank you.

Next question.

I'm looking at your application here, and there's a lot of you know consistency.

You've really dedicated your professional life to economic development and um being a um manager.

Uh the last two lines in additional information.

I'd like to hear more about that.

Uh you've written a children's picture book and curated a local art exhibit.

Um sure.

Um I don't know, um, 12 13 years ago, um I was reading the nativity story um at my sister's house um right before Christmas, and I walked out of the back room where I was reading the scientific story, and I go look at my sister and I say, you know, there wasn't a group of angels singing, there's one angel named Harold having a very bad day.

Um, and the reason for that at that time I was working for um Barnes and Noble as a manager there, and I was looking at all the Christmas books, and they were all about you know um the night before Christmas, the Alligator before Christmas, all the you know, all these secular books and all the religious books they had talking about um Christmas were these you know very boring picture books that had like pictures of stained glass in them and and you know, quotes from the Bible, but nothing that a kid um you know, five years old or younger could understand uh or relate to.

And so um I wrote a kid's book um retelling the nativity um from one angel who was having a very bad day.

Um, you know, for example, he was asked to make a reservation at the inn, and he gets he gets down there to make a reservation, and he can't remember the names of the people there, and so the only thing you can get is the manager behind the end and stuff like that.

So um it was a way for them for for kids and parents to read um the activity story in a way that a kid, a young kid could actually do it.

Um I got a hate letter um one of my friends who had a seven-year-old girl.

Um basically the letter said, I really don't like you right now because I've had to read this book every night for the last year and a half.

And so um for some people it's worked, other people haven't liked it, and you know, and that's fine.

But that's what that's basically what the book is.

Um the other part is um I collect um original comic strip art.

So um, you know, like Roses of Rose or different comic strips, I collected and um I did a show, organize a show uh in Grass Pass, um highlighting the look highlighting the art and um talking about you know the history of it and the development of it, and also invited um Dan Elliott, who wrote Stone Soup at the time, and Russell, who actually wrote um rights, Grimhelda, um, who lives in Grass Pass, and at the time there's only two people who had national nationwide comic strips and papers um that live in Oregon, and it was the first time they ever met, so I brought them together and I had them talk to a group of people about hey, this is um you know what it makes me a comic strip artist.

This is what I get my inspiration from, and this is what I like.

And we had about three people show up for that.

And um, the exhibit itself was the most visited exhibit that the Grass Path Art Museum had in the time I was there.

And so um it was it was a good time, and one of the things I did with that is I also had a um you know about a hundred collections of comic strips that I you know set up a reading area so kids could come up there and read the comic books and see the art, and after that, um I gave all the books to um the library um so they can have in their collection.

So that's those are those two things.

Great, thank you.

I think that was a uh a positive friendly note to kind of end on.

That was uh that was a good one, JJ.

Thanks for that.

Uh a little less serious question and just kind of uh a little bit more insight into yourself there.

Um so that we are getting close to time this evening.

As promised earlier, uh, wanted to give you an opportunity to grill us now, since uh you've been sitting on the burner for quite some time.

So if there's anything we can do to uh answer for you or to help you understand Sitka andor the position a little better, uh if you have anything for us, please.

Okay, um what if there was one issue that you need to solve in the next year, what would that issue be in your mind?

Uh we have seven people sitting at this table.

You're gonna get seven different answers on that one.

Um, and we're all gonna feel very passionately about that.

Um, I have a couple that rise to my mind, but I know that they won't be similar to Scotty's, um, who has uh you know a very different crowd that he talks to.

So um I'm not gonna give you one, but if anyone wants to chime in with one that they're looking at right now.

I think Katie and I will both probably say housing, right?

I'll speak for myself.

No, I mean I'm just saying I that's what I would put first.

We have a budget meeting on Thursday um where we need to figure out how to be balanced for the next year.

So that's on my mind of issue of how to for the next 12 months um be you know financially stable um with providing the services that this community wants at the level that they want uh and financially um prepared for any unexpected situations within that time frame.

I got one for you, Steve.

So with everybody coming off a love boat disembarking, the the state charges them 50 bucks head tax, and then they divvy it out to different towns that are affected by that, and the laws to spend that money in the community are very stringent, and sitka we haven't figured out how to get away with building something really for town that looks like we're doing it for the people on the love boat, and uh I'd like to see that resolved and uh build something that town could use for what everybody puts up with for four months in the summer.

Child care.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh yeah, um all these are very good and very important.

Um, everything everyone said, um I do agree with the child care thing.

That's uh something we're working on.

Um I would say big there's so many things, like so many things housing, child care, all these issues that we would like to try to tackle.

But as far as if you was you know, we had to say one thing right now, narrow it down, one thing for me, it would be to maintain uh uh the stable budget that we have, continuing to be able to support the school system as much as we have, which just for your information has been historically these past several many years, as much as we are uh legally allowed to.

It would be to maintain uh uh the stable budget that we have, continuing to be able to support the school system as much as we have, which just for your information has been historically these past several many years, as much as we are uh legally allowed to.

Uh we contribute as much as to the max as we are allowed to by state law, and I want to make sure that our finances are strong enough that we're able to continue to do that, as well as contributing to our infrastructure fund so that we're able to repair our aging infrastructure that we mentioned before, as well as continue the many services as a community develop uh uh depends and expects like road repair, um uh like I said, schools, uh uh the the basic services, safety, public safety, uh, and so many other things, support for for um community organizations like the nonprofits, there's just so many.

So basically, what my my most important thing is maintaining what we have now.

I do passionately want to move forward with other initiatives, and I think we should, but right now the baseline is maintaining what we have given uh unstable circumstances in the future.

And I would agree, Steve.

Uh maintaining uh revenues um and services, and as I'm sure you can imagine, uh, there's a large appetite for one of those and a much smaller appetite for the other.

Yeah, I'll just say something comprehensive is addressing out migration of our working families.

We've had a huge decrease, I think, over the past 10 years.

Um 10% or 15%, very significant.

This is our tax base.

Uh, this is our you know, vitality of our community going forward.

So it's housing, it's child care, it's keeping our schools open, all those things tie into it, but really figuring out what can we do to um stop the outmigration from our community.

A palethera of answers there.

Yeah, gives me an idea of what you guys are thinking, though, and I appreciate it.

Um, I think we're almost out of time.

Um, let me just you know say uh thank you very much for taking the time and interviewing.

Um, the more I studied SICKA, the more I was impressed by what you guys have accomplished and maintained over the last couple years.

Um, I've looked at a lot of cities and you know that I thought I could help out and work with, and I think I can help you out, and I think I'll work with you, but I think you guys are starting out on a higher level than a lot of the cities I've worked with.

And um, you should take pride in being able to what you've accomplished the last couple years, and I wish you the best.

If this is the last time I talked to you, thank you very much for your time.

Uh yes, thank you, uh Steven.

I Steve, I appreciate your time as well uh this evening.

Two-hour interviews can be a little bit long, but it definitely helps us uh gain a much larger knowledge of each other uh because I'm a huge believer that uh the job has to be mutually beneficial in order for this to succeed.

So we appreciate your time this evening.

Um get your pups out on a walk if it's still daylight there for you.

It's almost gone, but I will do that.

Thank you very much for your time.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

Thanks.

And with that, we will take a recess.

Well, thank you, assembly.

Um, a little bit of a long one there in between breaks, but uh we made it through it.

I think we had a very productive session with our uh candidate.

Um, but uh we do need to excuse me.

We do need to come together and uh talk about uh what we saw.

So um we have already excuse me.

Uh we've already uh run it by um Steven, and he is okay with us discussing tonight's interview in executive session.

I move to go into executive session to discuss subjects that may tend to prejudice the reputation and character of the municipal administrator candidate, Steve Dahl, and invite an assistant municipal administrator Josh Branhoover.

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

Second, it's moved and segmented to inter-executive session.

Is there any public comment?

Sarah.

All right, uh, Mayor Eisenbeis.

Yes, Mr.

Christensen, Ms.

Riley, yes, Mr.

Mosher.

Yes, Mr.

Celine?

Yes, Ms.

Carlson, yes, Mr.

Pike.

Yes.

Motion uh passes 7-0 and we'll be meeting in room four motion to reconvene.

Motion to reconvene.

So moved.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Thank you.

We are reconvened as the assembly in regular session.

We had a good opportunity to discuss the merits of our candidate, and we'll be looking forward to our next interview on Friday.

Friday.

That'll bring us to 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.

Seeing none, adjournment, please.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Thank you all.

We are adjourned.