The Valdez Beautification Commission held a rescheduled regular meeting on July 17, 2026, at 12:00 PM in the City Council Chambers. The meeting focused on reviewing the commission's role and responsibilities, discussing project and maintenance priorities for 2027, and addressing challenges in inter-departmental coordination and public engagement. Key outcomes included a commitment to pursue a boardwalk project and schedule a joint work session with the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Note: The agenda and transcript indicate the meeting was rescheduled from June 15 to June 26, 2026, but the provided date for this summary is July 17, 2026.
It would be probably best for us than we're thinking of the session and just easy discussion. We'll probably jump around a little bit because maybe we do have a lot of things on our list. But when we start, Elise, I wanted to just um ask you to we had um double check on idea of going forward with the speech. But the first item on the agenda was the a review of the role of the commission with Sherry. So sorry. So sorry. I'm sorry, we're I'm not with it today. I just came from the Coast Guard change of command ceremony and it went longer than I expected. So right should have the iPads, but I don't know if they first item on our agenda. And it's not working, nothing's working. Um I think in our packet who opened it up that link. Um Elise provided us with our original um your section of code. Sherry, yeah, please take the floor. So um I wanted you guys just to take a look at the uh both responsibilities that we outlined in in code. Um so um I'm trying to one second they're up on the screen. Sure. I can't see over there on the line. So why did you guys could just um take a look at these today because they call warm um make sure that when you know when we were making decisions, and I do this with every commitment, so not just singling you guys out. So um from time to time. So I just want to make sure that um because sometimes we don't go back and look at these um and look at the role of the of the of this commission. Um so um, and I don't know if you guys had a chance to kind of review these and go over them. Um I I wanted kind of um some feedback from you uh too about um whether you think that these are you know are you happy with these? Are are you are we think we're following these as a commission? Um do you think that we're that you're staying uh on track with with these when you're making decisions um or you're uh working on things um on your agenda. So I just kind of wanted some feedback um from you and um on this if there's no one that wants to jump in. Um I I did look at these this week a couple of times and was kind of pleased with the scope of what this outlines and I don't think we've done outside of the scope by any means, but I don't think we've utilized um the strengths of what what this empowers us for. Um we have good ideas how to you know like bringing community groups into decision making, just the public in general. Um I think that's something we're all interested in doing, and I think it would enhance whatever we do. And personally, I would think if you just want to go forward than anything that would be tasked that mustard uh public um discourse and approval. Um I think that you know where we have uh have altered having ideas, not having a process that we then say, okay, now we've we've decided that this is a good idea. Um how do we get some public input and then how do we present this to the council for consideration before budget is set for you know the next five years? Yeah, because budget you know we're gonna start in the budget very, very soon. I put in the next month that process is gonna start, we're gearing up for that. Um, and um as you said that kind of heard you apologize to Elise. I think that there, you know, if there's some frustration um on the commission, um I think um maybe there's some frustration with with maybe process um or whether or not you're being heard or or things are getting um getting transmitted to where they should go. Um so you have like Kathy said, you know, um when you have something that you want to move forward, it's great to get public input on that. Well, if the public doesn't really know about it, you know, then you're not we're not gonna get them showing up, right? So maybe we need to find a way. Um if you are soliciting public input on something to get that out there to see if we can get people, um whether they do it, you know, by email, um, if they can't come to the meeting or um some way to you know get them to show up to get that. So um so if there is a topic that you really want to get some public feedback on, maybe we need to find a way to do that. Maybe it's Sarah putting out a um what do you call that thing? Yeah, there you are. Maybe Sarah's here. Yeah, maybe it's Sarah, you know, putting forth something to um help get that feedback. Um so um we do, yeah. Go ahead, Sarah. We do uh we could do, yeah, we can do a flash vote, which I I spoke to your group about like last winter, I think. Um I think that would be an excellent way um to get some public feedback. Um, you know, we can also if you have something a little bit more honed in, we can do some news flashes or put something in our newsletter, um, get something out on Facebook too. So as far as um generating interest in a topic or a subject, but I think flash vote might be really a really excellent start if you're looking for some public suggestions or feedback.