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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-01-26 Council Minutes - Special Meeting1 AGENDA KENAI CITY COUNCIL -SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 7:00 P.M. KENAI CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS http://www.ci.kenai.ak.us ITEM A: CALL TO ORDER 1. Pledge of Allegiance 2. Roll Call 3. Agenda Approval ITEM B: NEW BUSINESS 1. Council Position Candidate Interviews EXECUTIVE SESSION - None Scheduled ITEM C: ADJOURNMENT KENAI CITY COUNCIL -SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 7:00 P.M. KENAI CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS http://www.ci.kenai.ak.us ITEM A: CALL TO ORDER Mayor Williams called the meeting to order at approximately 7: p.m. in the Council Chambers in the Kenai City Hall Building. A-1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Williams led those assembled in the Pledge of Allegiance. A-2, ROLL CALL Roll was taken by the City Clerk. Present were: Bookey, Swarner, Moore, Measles, Bannock and Williams. A-3, AGENDA APPROVAL Mayor Williams requested council add to their agenda packet the January 26, 1999 letter from David S. Landry who stated, due to family responsibilities, he was withdrawing from consideration of appointment to the available council seat. There being no objections to the agenda, Williams ordered the agenda was approved as submitted. Williams also noted there had been an article in the paper regarding a port project at Adak which was to include both air carriers and shipping. He added, the Native association who took over the island and were involved in the project had requested a study be done through funding from the Department of Transportation in regard to their entering into a world air freight business. ITEM B: NEW BUSINESS B-1. Council Position Candidate Interviews Williams noted the following candidates were present: Helen Donahue, Barry Eldridge, Mark Schrag, Jack Castimore, Bill Frazer and Bernard Brown. Williams noted, the Kenai Charter and Code direct the council to make an appointment to the council position left vacant by Hal Smalley, who was elected to the State Legislature. He added, the appointment will be to complete this year's portion of Smalley's term. In October, if so chosen, the appointee would have to run again for the remaining year of Smalley's term. If the person wishes to continue on the council, he would then have to run again at the end of the term, but this time it would be for a three- year term, thereby getting back into the normal rotation of the terms. It was also KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 2 pointed out, any of the candidates could also run for the other two three-year term positions that will be up for election in October or the one-year term position. Williams also noted, council had an opportunity to review the resumes submitted by the candidates. Upon consideration of the resumes and what is said during the interviews, council would make an appointment at the February 3, 1999 council meeting. Williams also invited the candidates to attend the special meeting scheduled for January 28 during which a mid -year budget review would take place. Measles suggested each candidate make an opening statement prior to the question and answer portion of the meeting. Helen Donahue -- I'm Helen Donahue. I am currently employed at the Kenai Peninsula United Way in a part-time position. I chose to put my hat in the ring for this position because I've been in the community now for about seven and one-half years. I built, we built a home here and we lived here. We recently sold that house and are currently living in an apartment but there are some things happening in the community and the growth ... I've watched Mayor Williams and this council do some wonderful progressive things in our community and I believe in progress and it interested me and it interested me to be a part of that and a part of that growth. So, when the position came open, I debated it and thought about it and thought, well, you know, I could do this. I have a background in the legislative process. I know the legislative system. I retired from the Alaska State Legislature a couple of years ago and I know the community and I like the community. I lived in it and I want to be a part of it and where do you start? You start at your city council and that's why I wanted to do it and that was my reason for applying for the position or putting my name in for the position. I also bring to this a background in government, in the process and I think that's helpful and I felt that that could be a contributing factor to my application when I applied for it. I have told my board of directors that I work for with United Way that I would be plopping my hat in so it was not surprise to them so, once I made that decision. I would entertain any questions you would have of me. Beyond that point, I would be glad to answer anything, but I think those were the things that I highlighted here. It's kind of tough when you're the first one, cause all those guys get to say everything that I don't cover, you know, so put me on the end when you ask me some of your questions, would you? Okay, thank you very much. Williams: Thank you Helen. Mark, your next. Mark Schrag -- Mark Schrag. I guess after the Planning 8, Zoning so you guys know pretty much about me. I will concur, I was going to try to make sure I got in the middle tonight. It was fun to be, it was good to be on the last person the last time. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 3 I guess I've sometimes asked myself why, why am I doing this. I need to spend the time and everything, but I guess over this last year or so, I've gotten kind of involved here and it just kind of keeps squeaking me along. So, that's kind of why I'm doing it. I guess what I think I have to offer is that I feel that I have a good analytical mind, pretty good basis in reality and also, some good people skills, which I feel that are important, especially as we, as the community, as it grows it kind of changes also. So, I'll just stop with that. Williams: Barry. Barry Eldridge -- I'm Barry Eldridge. I've been here in the community since 1985 and my wife and I live over in VIP Subdivision since that time and have been very much interested in what's been going on within the community during that time period. I fairly soon thereafter got involved with the Harbor Commission and served on the Harbor Commission and still serve on the Harbor Commission and served as its chairman for about three years. My background was 27 years in the Coast Guard, mostly in management positions as commanding officer in various units and locations here in Alaska and the rest of the country. I have been involved in management probably since 1970 in very significant positions. I just wanted to contribute to the community. I have expressed an interest previously. I did run. In fact, I ran against Hal Smalley back in 1988 when he came and was elected to the council. Duane Bannock joined me in that race, but we didn't win. Hall did and then my, I didn't seem to have the time. I was gone a lot onboard vessels during the year and didn't have time to devote to council activities. But now that I have semi -retired I have the time available now to serve on the council and to meet the meeting dates and times that you have. I'm interested in seeing the City of Kenai continue to grow in the way that it has and I'd like to see more retain activity come back to the city. I'd like to see light industry developed within the city. I'd like to see the airport be even more of a centerpiece than it is and more activities taking place around that airport. So, there are a lot of things that I would like to see happen within the City of Kenai and I'd like to be involved in some of those decisions that the council makes. Williams: Thank you very much. Jack? Good to have you with us this evening. Jack Castimore-- Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to come. I've been in the community well over 20 years. When I first came here, back in the early 70's, the first thing I did was march right down to VIP and find myself a house and start KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 4 putting money back into the community and like John, I have quite a bit of real estate in the community. I don't think most people are aware of that, but the APOC filing would bring that out. My background is on the sheet in front of you. I've been involved in a lot of community activities during that time. I think the one thing I bring to you is history. I remember back in the old days when the pipe was laying on the ground down in Valdez. I remember when we sent our young people off to work up there just after they graduated from high school and when the pipeline was over with, they all came home and thought they were worth $10 and $20 and $30 an hour and they sat for two full years until reality hit them and they realized, yes they were going to have to go to work for $7 an hour. I remember those days. I remember the busts we went through. The boom of '85 of construction. The bust of '86. I remember those people walking out of here in late '86, the first part of '87, handing the keys to the bankers and off they went. Boy, if I had known then what I know now, I would have bought all those houses for 70 cents on the buck. But I remember those days well. So, I think I can bring history. I think history sometimes is important because some of the things that we have tried before, a newcomer won't be aware of the fact that we tried that and it didn't work. Or maybe the newcomer has a better slant on what we have tried before. Sometimes history is not a good thing. My concerns are the continuation of growth like its been. I like looking down the road to five- years, knowing that the new learning center is going to be on line and that means more jobs and more people coming into the community. That hockey facility is going to be running which means in the wintertime, we can bring some of these activities into Kenai that are currently in Soldotna and it's overburdened by. That adds more jobs in the community for restaurants and for our hotel/motel industry. I look down the road and see the infrastructure of the new fire training facility really coming on line. It doesn't usually happen in a year or two because training and education take awhile, but I think that's an avenue. I also see some other things, like John's envisioned new things. Training is really lacking in the State of Alaska for Alaska kids. Today there is no vocational education in the state of Alaska. Kenai High School doesn't do it anymore, okay? The college out here has only a small portion of what it had back in the 70's. There may be an avenue in there for the community to open up more training like the fire training facility. And that adds a lot of jobs. I've got some ideas along the lines of that. I am a fiscal conservative as a retired school teacher. Most school teachers, you think of them as saying, oh, there's those old democrat. Well folks, never been a democrat. Always been a fiscal conservative. I'm pro -growth. I like the idea of what has occurred to this community in the last 20 years especially with jobs. The empty buildings in town concern me. They concern me because I noticed in the budget, that 44% of the budget was, the revenue for the community, was based upon sales income and only 15% is based upon the household property taxes and business KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 5 property taxes. That says to me that those empty buildings, if they were used, they would create sales revenue and everyone right now is worrying about another bust coming. You hear that said quite a bit. If that's the case, then we're going to have to look and visualize how we're going to deal with that bust. So I think I can add that to the city council. Um, I'll stop. Williams: Thank you very much. Bill? William R. Frazer -- Thanks John. I'm Bill Frazer, a local insurance broker. Over the years, I've spent many hours donating time, energy and money working with the various oil industry trade groups, chambers of commerce, and other recreational groups such as the Kenai Golf Association. I've decided to, I'd like to dedicate some time in a more official capacity such as serving on the city council. I've lived in Kenai since 1986 and life on the Kenai has been good, good to me. I'd like to give something back, if possible. In addition, I believe the City of Kenai is in excellent shape financially and has positioned itself very well from an infrastructure standpoint. This is a direct result of excellent planning by the past and present administrations and city councils. But, we're now facing some difficult and economic times over the next few years, especially with oil prices low and predictions for them to stay that way for perhaps several years. Critical decisions will have to be made in the near future in regard to revenues and expenditures. I want to be part of that process. My business experience has given me the ability to understand balancing a budget. I also have excellent relationships with the Peninsula delegation to the Alaska Legislature, in addition to some Juneau lobbying experience with the Alaska Sport Industry Alliance. I believe that these relationships and experience could prove helpful in the painful budget process we're facing. Finally, I'm interested in seeing Kenai grow in a responsible and financially sensible way that it has over the past few years. Many important decisions will have to be made and I believe I can help in that process. Thank you. Williams: Thank you very much. Mr. Brown, you're on the end of the table. Bernard Brown -- Well, this is definitely a better end than the other one. Good evening. My name is Bernie Brown. My family and I moved here two and one-half years ago and the move, the move was precipitated by the career and this was the only area in Alaska, the only geographic part of Alaska I had not lived in so far. Since I've been here, since I've been here I involved myself with the Kachemak Bay Rotary Club;, I taught Kenai, I taught Little League (my son's baseball team) for a year here in Kenai; I was on the, was a director, one of the founding directors and the treasurer of the Kenai Peninsula House Association; and I also was just a participating member in the Kenai Peninsula Builders Association. i KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 6 When we moved here is was for the career, but just after we moved here, my family fell in love with the area. When the career, when the career came, the job said it was time to move to Anchorage to further your career, we sat down as a family and we decided that we wanted the qualities of life that were, that were here. We like to, we like the schools. There's a good quality of life conducive to families. The extra- curricular activities for the kids: the summer sporting events, the winter events, the whole family fishes. My son and I hunt. Since, since we're here, we decided that we didn't want to move back to Anchorage. So, to that end, I changed careers. I changed, I changed employers and since we're going to stay here, we decided that it was high time we started, I started to give a little bit more and throw my hat in so that I could help foster and encourage economic diversity and growth in the area. The challenges we face as a community are, are great. Low oil prices, low returns on fish. Stuff I saw banking in Bristol Bay, so I have some experience with economic downturns. I grew up in bush Alaska: real small rural communities. While airports were being built and fish hatcheries were being developed. And, because of this, I would bring a unique perspective to the council because of where I grew up. My background in banking: I spent six and one-half years with National Bank of Alaska in different jobs managing and as a commercial loan officer. I've dealt with several, quite a few of the local businesses, the business owners, in the Kenai and Soldotna and a lot of them in the Kenai area to help them develop. How to build their businesses bigger. How to, how to develop and grow in a community and now I'd like to be part of the regulatory process that helps to foster that. Thank you. Williams: Thank you very much. Now, you probably feel comfortable with some questions. I'd like to lead off with the very first question for everyone. We'll get a response from you and then we'll go ahead with the rest. Because this seat is an elected official seat, it's going to require filing your Conflict of Interest Statement with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. This statement will require you to divulge every bit of your financial transactions, including your wife's financial transactions and it will include, it will have to include every financial transaction, individually, exceeding $100 for the entire year. That counts all your retirement, your IRA's, anything. Do any of you have a problem with that, starting with Mr. Brown. Brown: As a conservative, I don't particularly care for that, but no, I have no problem. It's part of the job. Frazer: I don't have any problem with that at all. Castimore : Not at all. I've done it in the past. Eldridge: Yeah. I've done it in the past as well. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 7 Schrag: No problem. Donahue: No problem. Williams: Council? Councilman Bannock? Bannock: Just a technical point of clarification in regards to the election that will take place in October. Whomever is appointed to this chair beside me isn't automatically in line for the one-year seat, but rather the ballot will read that there will be two members elected for a three-year term. There will be one person elected for a one-year term. There will be two of us on this council right now that will be, that our seats will be up, but it's, the person who will be filling this seat won't automatically be in line for the one-year seat. Now, the person may choose to run for one of the three-year seats. The three-year seat will read that it will be, the top two finishers for the three-year two seats and the one top finisher for the one-year seat. Williams: I believe you're correct. I believe that, the city attorney can help us out here, but if the person were to so designate themselves in this case, to the one-year seat, is that the permissible method by which we're going to operate, or could he come out, or could three candidates come out and say, "I want to run for the council" and the two highest get the three-year seats and the lowest get the one-year seat. Graves: No, no. There will be two different slots. There will be the three-year seats and there will be two of them and then there will be the one-year seat and you can file for either one. Williams: Either one. Bookey: Just so everyone understands, you're not restricted to running for just the one-year term. If you so choose to, you can run for the three-year term too, on that ballot and then you wouldn't run for the one-year. So, you can go on either side of that ticket. And anyone from the general public can come up and stand up for that one-year term. Williams: So, what would happen if no one filed for the one-year seat? Bannock: We'd been in the exact place we are right now. Williams: Councilwoman Swarner. Swarner: I have some questions here and some of them are similar to what we've been asked when we ran, by the newspaper and I'm sorry I forgot the newspaper column with the actual questions. But, I guess, one of the questions is pertaining to this election and I guess, I'd like to see us rotate so the same people aren't always first. So, Mark, you're first. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 8 Would you plan on running for an elected seat in October? Schrag: I don't have an answer at this point. I guess I would see once how, how things went. How it felt. So at this point, yeah, I don't have a yes or no. Eldridge: Yes, if appointed, I would plan to run for re-election in the fall. Castimore: I saw this as an interim seat and I don't have any plans at this point in time. I think that one of the concerns that some of you had was an individual getting a leg up on an outright competition for that seat. So, at the current time, no, I do not have any plans of running in the fall. Frazer: I'm interested really in serving more than just the next eight and one-half months to the general election. I don't really believe a new council person can be effective with only, for at least two or three months of serving before you actually become an effective member of the council. And, I don't really think whoever the council appoints would be much of a strongly entrenched incumbent with the short span of time until the October election, so I'm not sure that you'd really have a whole lot of advantage over somebody from the general public. Brown: I have considered running before. So, yes, I would, I would be so inclined to run again in October if I fit in the council and if it was the kind of work that I enjoyed. Williams: Councilman... oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry Helen. I saw Jim raise his hand... Donahue: That's okay, that's okay. I like being last this time. Give me a chance to hear what they all said. At this time, I do not know if I would do that. I would assume I would. I'm assuming, should I be selected, I would do a job that I'd be very proud of and pleased with and I would take that responsibility to run. But, I think it's a little, at this point, presumptuous to assume that we automatically do that and I would only file for the one-year seat at this point. Williams: Thank you. Now, Councilman Bookey. Bookey: Thank you. You all know that there was an election last October and Councilman Moore and myself ran and nobody ran and all of a sudden I have seven people from the public interested in an appointed seat. And, I'm curious to know why you didn't run and why you're interested, really now. It baffles me. Eldridge: My turn? Actually, I had very much considered running for a seat this fall, but since my wife and I were discussing, well maybe we'll take the car and drive out, down and visit some friends outside in the fall, I figured I couldn't really run for an KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 9 election and driving down the Alcan. So, this particular year, although I did consider it, I did not file for that reason. Castimore: I've run twice before, Jim. Each time I run fifteen or twenty people come out of the woodwork to run against me and as Duane can remember, the last time, there was a whole crowd and I came in third, which wasn't bad. I think it was like 30 points. It wasn't much. It was a large gathering. The second reason is, I'm recently retired and hopefully, in another couple of weeks, my house project for the last 18 months will be completed and I'll need something to keep myself busy. I wouldn't want my wife to think I was sitting around too much and this would fill that gap nicely and I certainly have the time I could spend with it. Frazer: I've thought about running in the past, but primarily time and other commitments from a business standpoint and personal standpoint, kept me from doing it. Actually, I've got the time now to do it. So that's the reason. Brown: This summer, with the bank I worked for, elected positions were a no -no. You couldn't set for an elected, you couldn't separate the person from the bank, so any position you took, you'd always alienate half of your customers. So, so the bank had a restriction on elected positions and I didn't, I didn't leave the bank until the middle of July, so by that time, it was too late and I had just switched careers and employers. So, it wasn't the right time to mount a campaign in the last two months. Donahue: This was a question that I was prepared and could have answered first. I, this was something that comes up and when you are a good councilman, as the two of you seem to have been, one of the things that you do when you enter a race as you all know in the political arena, is to win. When you are competing against people who are doing a good job, you're going to have a tough row. And, it's hard to get out there an campaign and to do that kind of thing and one of the concerns, and I've discussed this with Mayor Williams who had no competition also, he's doing a good job or the community felt he was, and that's why there was no competition. When you're doing a good job or when there is someone there doing a good job that you appreciate, you don't file for office against them. I saw this as an opportunity for myself to fill a position, do that good job, and you bet I'll get elected when I run for that office and that's why I didn't file in October, or. when the election was in October. Schrag: I guess I would pretty much agree with that. Also, in October yet, I was still, hadn't been around, hadn't been around that many meetings and everything, but also it had a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't unhappy with anybody running or was happy actually. And also, though, the incumbency thing is hard though. It's hard to beat. You need to have some name recognition and things like that and I just, I really don't have that and I had some people who offered to help me, but I wasn't sure if I had the energy and the time to do that. So... � Williams: Next question. Councilman Moore? l KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 10 Moore: Yeah. This is my, the beginning of my second term on this council and what I have been seeing, especially recently, is local businesses falling behind in sales tax payments, property tax payments, water and sewer bills. It's got me concerned and I would like to ask you if you have any ideas or solutions to alleviating the distress that our small businesses are going through in town. Castimore: Good question, Joe. For about a decade, I've been involved in computers and the internet and way back in the 80s we did a lot of what's there today, but we did it as text files. You would sit there with the University of California data or even books, for that matter, and they were all boring text files. Black and white. On the screen. I'm talking about his because of e-commerce. As we finished up December, the United States had businesses that were in the neighborhood of 2.4 billion dollars in e-commerce. E-commerce is the electronic way of doing business over the internet. If I want some baseball tickets, I can get it there today. If I want cheap airline tickets, I can get them there today. There's a whole avenue of e-commerce that we are not looking at here in Alaska. An awful lot of it is less expensive. Some of the small businesses right now are allowed ten items on a catalog page for free at one of the malls out there on the internet and there are three or four that I was talking to Marti Regan who just bought that little craft shop next to the old Kenai Supply. It's an excellent place to put e-commerce and some of these businesses, Joe, are going to have to go that way in order to pick avenues. Alaska is sitting in a unique place. We have all these craft materials here. All of the artwork that's here and no one is selling it. There's a company called e-Bay and if you watched its stock today, it went up 21 points today. Okay. If you watched e-Bay during the last 12 months, a dividend check that you had back in October would be worth $22,000 this afternoon. That fifteen hundred bucks just with e-Bay. e-Bay is a place where you take your merchandise, you take a photograph of it, put it in your scanner. You place it out there and people begin bidding on it. And I talked to a gentleman the other day who had a cap. An old World War II cap with all the pins on it from his uncle or grandfather -- one of the relatives, and he got more than $50 for every pin on that hat. He said, he thought the hat was going to be worth five bucks. Now, e-commerce is something of the future that some of our small businessmen here who have a lot of free time, because this time of year, January, February, March, as you well know, is a downtime in the retain industry. So, I perceive something along the line of e-commerce. A lot of these small people are going to need to be shown how to do it. A lot of people are going to have to visually see for the first time what e-commerce is all about, but I think once they see it, and they see the catalogs out there, and the tremendous success out there, five years ago Amazon- dot-com, it did not exist. If you're not aware of what it is, it's that giant bookstore located in Seattle that has over one million books on the shelf. It's a giant warehouse and from your computer, in two days, you'll have the latest book of whatever you KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 11 want. And me and a lot of other people around here have been buying from Amazon.com for quite awhile. Those kinds of e-commerce things can be developed here. It doesn't take a great deal of expertise because the software is getting simpler and simpler and simpler for people to use. So, that's an idea. Williams: Thank you. Bill. Frazer: That's a tough question. I was at the council meeting last Wednesday night and I remember the same discussion coming up and I don't recall that there were any answers that evening that either so I'm not sure that I can come up with one. I do recognize, from being in business here, that most of our economic wellbeing in this community, as well as others in our area and perhaps the whole state, and they probably primarily in the oil industry and number two, probably commercial fishing. And, in that light, we've got an area -wide lease sale coming up here, I believe, in the Spring sometime. We've got some pretty difficult decisions to be made by the Board of Fish regarding commercial fishing. I believe that we should probably promote and do all we can to enhance those lease sales and to encourage the Board of Fish to make their rulings in favor, at least in fairness to the commercial fishing industry and beyond that, I'm not sure what we all can do at this point in time. We don't control the price of oil. Williams: Thank you. Bernie. Brown: Councilman Moore, was your question, I don't think I understood, was your question, tax collections are slipping, businesses are paying them slower, or just overall sales taxes declining? Moore: No, we just got some delinquent taxpayers. Brown: Well, I have quite a history in collecting delinquencies and it's, it's not, it's not a nice situation. There's no easy way to call someone up and tell them that you owe me money. I need you to pay it. The easiest way I found to do deal with delinquency situations was to be apathetic to them, try to work with them, work out some kind of arrangement, and a lot of times, a lot of times, I've heard that sometimes the Borough isn't always real eager, you know, to bend the rules, they don't have the flexibility in the statutes and that to work with people to the degree that they need. When oil prices drop, when fishing returns are slow, people tend to keep their money close to them. Especially small businesses and utilize that money to try and grow the business and that you have to give something up and all too often, it's things like sales tax, utilities, things like that. So, the best way, the best way I know to get those back is to sit down, deal with the people, work out arrangements, bend the rules a little bit, and try and bring them to the table, let them offer solutions to the problem. Donahue: I was also at the meeting last Wednesday when this came up and at the time, I wondered, "how would I deal with that, what would I do." I think one of the KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 12 suggestions that I heard bouncing around was trying to work with the business to work out a compromise for, you know, part of the payment. The only concern that I would have with that if I sat on a council seat, would be the business that does pay. You've got to put yourself there if you've got the business that is making those payments and paying their taxes and doing it on time. Nobody wants to put a business out of business. Nobody wants to have that business leave our community. In the same token, you've got to try to work out a compromise with them for a payment plan. And when that payment plan's not met, there has to be a consequence for it. All of us have to do that and the council would have that ultimate, probably, responsibility for that business if they lacked in the, working out a compromise. And, the other side of that coin is the business that does pay their taxes and does stay on top of it and does desperately try to make those payments. So, it is not an easy street. It's not one that you can just sit back and say, "yes, we'll work this out, we'll do this." But I do think there are ways to allow that business who has a huge summer income coming in to maybe defer some tax payment to that time, but not allow them to get so far behind that they'll never catch up. And, I think that would be where I would go with some of the compromise to try to allow them to be still staying in our community as a business. Schrag: I guess I would need to know, or I would explore, the reasons why the delinquency, what sort of, ascertain whether it was just bad business decisions or does it seem more sneaky or what, just to explore it just a little bit further. In general, and then I agree that you try and work with them some how because it's hard, once people get behind, even if they want to catch up, but it's something that takes some time, some work sometimes, but in general as far as, I guess, some of the projects that you've sponsored so far in this community are good. What we need to bring in more people or more money, new money, retail, help circulate and that helps create jobs. But ah, that just kind of helps circulates money and we also need to doing, find these projects that will bring in new money. And I think that, you know, that would help the rental situation, the restaurants... just get people here and get their money spent. Eldridge: I think that's a lot of the answer is to get Kenai as a destination. So many, so many of the tourists go cruising down the road and their destination is Homer or Soldotna and it's not Kenai for whatever reason. I was a little disappointed in our exploring of the convention center when that item came up, that we didn't look at some other avenues. The tax avenue was not a, the tax break avenue wasn't one that we could deal with, but there might have been other avenues that could have enticed them to do something here within the community. And, something like that does bring people to the community and it benefits all the businesses in the community. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 13 What can be done to attract more retail businesses here so that this becomes more of a shopping center rather than the shoppers all going over to Soldotna. I don't know. What we can do as a council though, what the businesses here can do to try to attract other businesses to locate here so that we can have a larger base of shoppers as well as a larger base of tourists. And the specific issue about the delinquencies with the sales tax, I think, you know, what the council decided was right. They, these people either have to work out a way of paying those off and have a payment plan that they keep up with, or unfortunately, we do lose those businesses. If they get in over their head, they're not going to be able to recover. Williams: Thank you. Councilwoman Swarner? Swarner: Well, the sales tax kind of hits a nerve with me. I would like to hear from you what you would tell the business person who is struggling, but is paying their property tax and their sales tax because the sales tax is collected from the consumer. It's not paid by the business person normally, unless it's included in the price. So, what are you going to tell the struggling business person who is current on their sales tax and he says, how come you're letting this guy off for not paying, you know, they haven't even filed a return, and you're letting them use your money and everybody else's money for them to go off on a trip here or here, and yes, they want to pay their bills, you know, other bills, but they're using the consumers' money to do that. So Bill, it's your turn. Frazer: Thank you. I deal with delinquent payments pretty much on a daily basis in my business and it's funny, it's the squeaky wheel that's always the one that gets the most attention. The good thing, you never even notice them because they're never in trouble. But insurance companies cancel policies if you don't pay within a certain period of time. You can also work out payment plans through them that maybe suits your budget a little bit better. I, I agree with another statement here, that I, I agree with how the council handled this last Wednesday night. I think that's the proper way. There really is nothing to say to the guy that's paying his bill and why you're giving an advantage to somebody that maybe is in the same business he's in, competing with him. And, you can't do that. You've got to follow, pretty much, the outline set out by the council last Wednesday. Williams: Bernie. Brown: You can't reward nonpayment. There has to be, there has to be definitive penalties for nonpayment but it, it's not quite the same as a small loan or insurance policy. We're talking about businesses that employ people. We're talking about businesses that sell goods and services that increase G&P of the entire area. So, Bill, Bill's exactly correct. In my old line of business, it's always the guy who wasn't paying who had my attention. Never the good guy. And we rewarded, we rewarded the ones that paid. We rewarded them with more money or meeting their needs. Those that, those that don't pay, there has to be, there has to be a consequence. There has to be a deadline. There has to be strict adherences, especially if they come KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 14 to the table and they say, this is what I can do, if they can't do that, then you have to shut them down. I've put people in business. I've taken people out of business. But, you never, you never want to close that door when you look at the greater good unless you absolutely have to and that's a matter if they do not participate on their end. Donahue: I would reiterate again. The businessman that pays doesn't get a benefit and they pay to struggle to do that. The person that doesn't and works out a compromise has an advantage. And, in that compromise, there has to be a deadline. There has to be timeframe. There has to be a setup policy and if December 31St comes along and that deadline has not been met, and that policy hasn't been followed, and that person has not paid, or that business has not paid their taxes and you've given them the consequences, it's with anything else you do, if they know what the consequences are, you as a council have to follow through with those consequences. Whether they're closing that business down or making them pay or however it is. I maintain this tax thing is pretty unfair to the little guy that pays their taxes. It is not fair to them that the city council and the city carries those others for five months, six months, two months, three months, whatever it is. But, in the same token, we're trying to build an economy in their community, we're trying to build these businesses up and sometimes you have to give them the break. As a council, you have to say, okay, we see you're making this effort. But, I think it has to be very clear if the effort isn't made in the timeframe that this council sets, then these are the consequences of what will happen to your business and put it right back in their ballpark and let them play that game and it could work. Schrag: We always tell our kids that the world isn't a fair place sometimes. I guess it reminds me, it makes me think a little about ... I manage a bunch of rental properties and think about getting behind on rent and trying to catch up with that and how I deal with that if I cut my losses with somebody, whereas I know there are other people who are struggling and they pay their rent faithfully all the time. Particularly if I see this one person, you know, doing a lifestyle that I know I'm not crazy about, or someone who's making bad choices. So I think, yeah, a lot of it has to do again with exploring what are the reasons behind. Are they just abusing, not paying because they're abusing the system or something like that and then tend to be a little more harsh on that. If it's just something that it's a little bit more out of their control, then the other tenants, if they're aware of it, they're fairly understanding of that if I work with that person I think because sometimes they feel like, they know they might be in that situation too or so. But, so I guess, also with, if it's a rent analogy, for me, one of the things I really have to be careful of on my part, and I don't know how that works as well with the city, but that I not get behind, is one of the biggest keys for me is that it's hard to catch up. It's real hard to catch up. So I have to, sometimes I'm busy and stuff like that and I'm no crazy about going confronting this person or something, but one thing that I have learned is that, I cannot put that off because it never gets better. You know, you have to stay on top of it. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 15 Eldridge: You know, the sales tax issue really is, the council decision was whether or not to file the letter of protest, is what I understand. The sales taxes and their collection is actually the Borough's responsibilities. They have procedures for handling that and if they don't pay, they do have procedures for going ahead and setting up a payment plan for them. So, as council, we'd not really have a, any measure to take in that place, except for filing a letter of protest, from what I understand anyhow, because we don't collect those taxes ourselves. But, you're right, it is a concern when people don't pay their taxes and others are paying and sometimes folks that don't pay get away with things and eventually, it catches up with them. Sometimes it's right away and other times it's later on down the line. We've seen a number of instances of that in the community, the Central Peninsula community. Williams: You're absolutely correct. That, that's a point to make on the sales taxes that it's kind of rhetorical to think that the council can do anything about the sales tax itself, except in the one area of liquor licenses. In the event that a liquor license is up for hearing before the board or renewal, that is the only time that the council really has the opportunity to reach in an grab hold of something. I've often thought about the issue of sales taxes and as Helen talked earlier, I think, the businesses out there that are not paying. Those that just aren't catching up and Linda brought it up, there's probably lots of small businesses out there that are not paying their share. And we're totally dependent upon the Borough to handle that end of it, collecting for us. Jack, did you get a chance to answer that question of taxes? Castimore: No, I didn't John, thank you for clarifying that information. I appreciate that. You know, we've been here before. Remember back in '86 when the Borough said to the young man who had the shoe store across the way and he was struggling? They walked in. They grabbed his merchandise one morning. Threw it into boxes and took it over to Soldotna and sold it for like 25 cents on the dollar. Williams: No, no. No, no. Correction. They took it to the armory and sold it for 25 cents on a dollar. Castimore: I could remember when, but I just remember...That was a lose, lose. We lost the business. We lost the jobs and we didn't get to recover the sales tax. Shortly thereafter, they began this process of closing down, a large gift shop, I better not mention names, a large gift shop over in Soldotna, went out of business owing the Borough $80,000, which was never recovered. I think you're in a very difficult place. Local jobs, local businesses. Do you go and take a look at the individual circumstances and work with that individual or not. You're between a rock and a hard place, aren't you. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 16 Williams: All right, just to carry it a step further, I'm going to put Jack back on the hot seat again. Earlier you talked about the internet and the effect it may have on the economy. You also noted, of course, that 45, roughly 44 or 45% of our entire budget is derived from sales tax. The federal government has a moratorium of collecting sales tax on all of our internet sales for the next three years. We're not even good, according to the Borough, at collecting sales tax on catalog sales. When UPS came to town and set up shop, they anticipated using two trucks. That would be all the service that they could handle here. I understand they have six trucks now. Conservatively speaking, we did a little, somewhere around $6 million in e- trade last year and it's anticipated we'll do $12 million this year. That sales tax loss that we cannot capture, is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our budget and will become a bigger and bigger part of our fiscal gap, if you will. How do we go about accommodating e-trade and yet run the government? Castimore: There's a couple of things John. You know, we're starting with jobs and we'll come back to what Joe asked about, how do you make these businesses survive. If they can't survive, they're gone. We've lost the tax base and the employment. In that house down by Ray down there, it's going to go up for sale. We have to put something there to make them survive first, don't we. If we provide them with a job that can get them through this hard time, expand their business so that they can pay their bills. Number one, you said something about UPS, that's a great example. When Amazon.com started in Seattle, UPS's biggest, biggest company was a company called Microsoft. Their biggest company five years later, is a warehouse called Amazon.com. Now they're running a warehouse there strictly to sell e- commerce. UPS is their sole supplier. If there's a tax on UPS sales and they run semis, several of them, every day out of that warehouse, what would be the impact upon the City of Kenai if several semis a day was coming out of a warehouse here, locally, shipping UPS merchandise. Williams: Good answer. Anybody else have a good answer for that? Yeah, it's one of those situations that's got more facets to it than you can imagine. Questions from council, either individually or collectively. Councilwoman Swarner. Swarner: Well, this is one of those questions we were all asked when we run for election. How would you change the budget and do you have any personal interest in any department? Castimore: Positive or negative? Swarner: Either. Like, what would you cut and what would you increase. Williams: Let's start with Bill. It will make it more even that way. Just keep moving on down the line. Let's start with Bill. Frazer: I don't really have any items in the budget that are, particularly I have any interest in anyway or the other. And, I'm not sure at this point in time, I've looked KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 17 the budget over several times, of where you would cut and where you would add to it and so forth. I think that from my standpoint, it's a little premature to be making any defined statement on that. I, in regard to the budget though, I don't believe, at least for the next couple of years, we should be looking at a mill rate increase to support any additional items. We're perhaps facing a state income tax, if we can believe the newspapers and what's going on in Juneau, and that might be more than we can handle for the next couple of three years. But, before we, before we get into any of that, we need to look at our current spending and maybe some possible other avenues of revenue to support the budget. Brown: Since I wasn't involved in the budget process and I, I didn't get to see how, how budget decisions were determined, it's not fair for me to say, say I'd cut this or reduce that, or I'd increase this. So, with the additional taxes, it, it, it's fairly forgone that we're going, that the state of Alaska is going to have something. We're either going to have a state sales tax or we're going to have an income tax, or we're just going to live off our savings and hope that something better happens in the oil industry. We're a pretty, we're a pretty low -tax state. I don't care for taxes. I don't particularly like taxes, but I also like the services that are provided by the city and by the state. And, so until I, until I saw the process, and I saw the funding, I saw the funding methods and what could actually be cut. You get a budget too lean and then it's ineffective. Then it doesn't matter, then it doesn't matter what you cut anymore. You can cut it too deep or there might be places to cut from. Williams: Thank you. Donahue: I would like to think that the council has been fairly conservative and in knowing most of you I would guess that in previous budget processes. I would have, at this point, no place where I would know where to cut only because I'm not familiar enough with the process and the budget, actually. And, I'm satisfied with what I have seen this council approve in the past in budgets. I'm satisfied with where I've seen the dollars go in our community and the dollars that have been spent here. There's always that cut personnel, or cut graders or cut this person or that. I don't think that that's a fair way to go in a budget process. I think you have to look at the whole programs and everything that's there. So, at this point, Councilwoman Swarner, I couldn't give you an answer on where I would cut or what I would use as revenue sources. We all know it's out there and we just have to, as a council, you would have to make those decisions. Schrag: I would agree with that. I don't know of any, there's no particular area right now that I feel needs to be cut necessarily. I would just have to see the, maybe Thursday night would tell us more. The one thing that maybe a little irrelevant, but I was aware on Saturday when I drove around, that it was so sleek everyplace in Soldotna it was really slick at the intersections. Here in Kenai, it seemed like the sand truck had been around to a lot of the intersections, even back in our neighborhood, there and everything and I was really impressed with that. So, I don't KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 18 know if that's a function of having budgeted a little more for winter work or not for you guys, but anyway I was, I was glad to see that. That was nice on such a slick day. Eldridge: Yeah, I don't know of any particular area of cutting or of additional revenue. But, in seeing what the council has done over the past decade or more, I feel both the city council and the city administration have been very judicious in the way they used their funds and the way they leveraged their funds as well as leveraged the airport lands too. Go ahead and get additional improvements and infrastructure here in the community. Obviously it would be nice to attract more large businesses to bring in more sales tax and more property tax. That's something that I think still needs to be looked at and is being looked at some of the economic development people. Castimore: Linda, I think first in looking at the long term, you have to look at some of things that are recurring costs that perhaps the city can reduce. Years ago, we used to talk when we had much greater amount of municipal revenue sharing, was getting all the streets in town asphalted so you could reduce some of the maintenance so those crews didn't have to go out there and run a blade in the summertime across all those gravel areas such as where Barry and I'm building a new house in VIP. The one street gets a lot of the traffic that asphalt out there, but a lot of those others are maintenance, heavy with maintenance. Also, down in by Beaver Creek. That's a maintenance area there. So if we can get a way in which we can reduce that maintenance in the long term, then that cost would be reduced to the city and I think you've all talked about that many years in the past. That would be a way to streamline some of the budget aspects. I talked earlier about revenue. If we talk about costs, I don't see a revenue stream for the Visitors Center. Jim's not going to like this. I know you throw about $65,000 into the fee that's paid for them so you get a proper accounting financially. I know it's your building, so you have to maintain it, so that's about $45,000. There's a $65,800 that you pay there for a fee for operations of that and I think that you could look at that if it became a very hard time and you had to look at something in the budget. The maintenance you have to keep because it's your building and you want it to be kept up to grade. Somebody else operating your building, the first thing they're going to cut, is maintenance. You know that. Thank you. Williams: For a point of information, I was just looking at the general budget and our first projected tax increase comes in FY 2002, which is only a proposed budget out that far. We're looking at having to increase the mill rate by one mill and of course, that's predicated on things rocking along on a fairly even keel between now and then and it may not be worth a darn, that projection may not be worth a darn. But, at this point in time, we're hoping that things will work like that. Further questions? KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 19 All right, well, let's turn the table around a little and let's ask if we have any questions from the candidate back to the council. Let's start with Bernie on this end. Brown: How does the council view the economic outlook in the next two years for this area? Williams: I like to say, dej a vu, this is where I came in. I came in 1986 when everybody was going south. There were 30,000 people left Alaska. Eleven banks failed. We were in a disastrous situation. There has been some adjustments made to cushion us from that very type of disaster again, primarily in the banking industry and the state industry. However, you know, bloody Friday isn't here yet. It's going to be here next week. They're going to loose 1,000 jobs off the Slope before it's over. It's estimated about 300 of those are going to be from the Kenai Peninsula. Those 300 jobs are among some of the highest paying in our economy and we're going to have a lot of cars repossessed for one thing. It has me deeply concerned. Like I say, this is where I came in. We struggled for years to try to get ourselves back up on level ground. I don't think it was until about 1995 or 96 that our property values finally returned to what they were in 1986. It took ten years to get back. Now, while we probably won't get hit that hard, I am not optimistic about the next 12 to 18 months. I'm just not very optimistic. Brown: Do you see us losing the Alpine project? Williams: Let me say, that from what I know of the construction that's going on at Natchiq at the present time, those modules will be shipped from here, finished or not, they'll be taken to the North Slope. They'll be taken ashore and mothballed and that project will not become a reality for two to three years. Councilman Bookey. Bookey: Well, being the eternal optimist, I just cracked open another Mother Earth here last week for a new building. My wife says, what are we doing. I totally am committed to the City of Kenai. I grew up in this town. I came to Kenai when there was 700 people or 600, whatever. I am a firm believer that Kenai will be bigger and stronger 20 years from the day that we are sitting right here. I don't think we have to get in a big panic over this oil, this program with the oil. We went all through it in '86. There's going to be some losses. We're going to loose some businesses. There's no doubt. You have to, in Alaska, I've been in business on my own for 25 years. I've watched the highs and the lows and fortunately, I have a wife that keeps my check book in check and, but that's just part of being in business and I look that as the City of Kenai here sitting on council. We need to watch our budgets, but we're not going to disappear. We're not going to dry up. The Mayor kind of had me upset last week because he said we were going to be a dusty spot in the middle of the road again and I'm not convinced that that is in any way, shape or form ever going to happen. Williams: It wasn't said quite in that context. I said I'd hate to see us become... KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 20 Bookey: I'll retract. Williams: Councilwoman Swarner. Swarner: Okay, well I was first elected in 1987, the year after the Mayor and everybody runs when I run. Anyway, I too have grown up in Alaska and seen lots of ups and downs since prior to statehood. So, and we came here to Kenai when property tax in the double digits and the Borough, so I have seen the ups and downs and I think the City of Kenai is on very good financial ground and we will survive and we do have good infrastructure and we have had a council that has worked together to keep costs down and I think that we work together well and we all have our favorite things that we would like to see, but we compromise too for the wellbeing of the citizens of Kenai and I'd like to see the population of Kenai increased too and more retail areas back in because one of my pet peeves is trying to buy a shovel on a Sunday in Kenai last fall and I couldn't buy one. So, it's kind of disheartening that way, but I think we will survive very well. Williams: Councilman Moore. Moore: I don't know. I don't have an answer one way or the other. I'm a little nervous about what's ahead. I've committed my office, which is now located in Soldotna, we're going to be expanding and putting a branch in Kenai this next fall. So, if that's any indication of my confidence in Kenai, I hope it is. Williams: Councilman Measles. Measles: I guess the ups and downs here, you have to take the bad with the good and in a state being as dependent as it is one source of revenue, as long as that continues to be, those peaks and valleys will always be there because the oil industry is notorious for that, always has been as far back as the oil industry goes in history. This area of the Kenai Peninsula and especially the City of Kenai is probably better equipped to handle those than any place else in the state of Alaska. Even the downturn in the early 80s, mid-80s that John referred to earlier, we didn't see the mass exodus of people from Kenai that Anchorage saw. Anchorage was hurt a lot worse in that time than we were, even though we got hurt. Our property values decreased. We were pinched, but not to the point of a lot of other areas in the state. I feel confident that the city will continue to grow. There will always be from time to time, some times not quite as good as other times. I won't say bad times. But not as good as others and we just have to deal with that and move on because things will recover and we'll be better off for it. Williams: Thank you. Councilman Bannock. Bannock: While I wasn't quite as, while I am not quite as crazy as Councilman Bookey to go build a building in the coldest week of the year, on the idea, I appreciate that he did do that. I think there are some things in Kenai that give us KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 2 61 19 9 9 PAGE 21 automatic stability. There is some legitimacy to some of the accomplishments that the administration and this council and councils well before me have put into place that can kind of buffer that tide, if you will, a little bit. I too have lived in Kenai my entire life and I have seen, I have seen the consequences of $40 a barrel oil and I've seen the consequences of $10 a barrel of oil. As Mr. Measles is accurately alluded to, there we go. In the business that I'm in, you can track my business in revenue just like you can track the price of a barrel of oil. But, the City of Kenai has done some things that said, we don't have to necessarily ride that much of a roller coaster. Sure we're going to have the less than the greatest highs and not quite as the lowest valleys, but we've put things in like a thriving tourism industry that regardless of what the price of oil is for the most part, is going to come here. Our commercial fishermen are suffering miserably. It doesn't have anything to do with the price of oil. How can we, what can we do to help buffer that industry. What can we do to shore it up. On the Peninsula we see timber taking off that hasn't necessarily been here before. Within the city limits of the City of Kenai, of course, we have one of our jewels in the fire training center. That's a magnet. It is a magnet. If that facility were somewhere else in Alaska, that's where people would go. People aren't going to come to the fire training center because it's in Kenai, Alaska. They're going to come to Kenai, Alaska because the fire training center is there. We have an airport which is probably one of our most, it is clearly one of our most financial egg basket. How can we use that to our advantage. How can we capitalize on something that's already good and make it even better. When you put all of the assets of the City of Kenai and all of the things that are going for us, you put those in your asset column and then you line up the things that, quite frankly, we cannot control, the balance sheet pares out that we're doing okay and that we don't have to, we don't have to yell the sky is falling. If the sky was falling, we wouldn't see people still here. We would have, I don't predict that mass exodus that we saw in late 1986 and early 1987. So, sky falling? No. A little bit tougher? Yeah, probably. But, I think we put the things in place to help us get through that little storm. Williams: Thank you. There's no doubt about it, the City of Kenai itself and its treasury is fairly well buffered and can withstand the onslaught for awhile like members of the council have said. I think I may have overstated. I think what I was really pointing at was the foreseeable 18 months in the private sector. That's where it's really going to get tough. And another question? Who's next? I think Helen is next. Yes. Donahue: I need to know how many phone calls, you as council members, get at home and how many hours a week you would consider that you put into your council. Bookey: Well, it all depends on the issues. You know, if the MAPTS area is up in arms, we get a few. If they're not, it's quiet. Actually, in reality, I don't take a tremendous amount of calls. I'm out in the public a lot. I handle a lot of face-to-face conversations about the city and issues, but I, I would venture to say that I haven't KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 22 had a call in the last 45 days. Well, I take that back. Mr. Schrag did call me about a week ago, two weeks ago. So I take that back. But other than that, it's not a lot. And as far as time putting in for council, I, in the winter time, sometimes the city administration gets tired of seeing me, but in the summertime when I'm busy and trying to make a living, you know, you can balance it. It's not a thing that any hard core amount and I guess it's just up to yourself and what you want to put into it. Williams: Councilwoman Swarner. Swarner: Well, first of all, we do, as council members, are liaisons to the various commissions and committees, if those of you who are seeking this position don't know. Some of us serve on more than one commission or committee. I personally are liaison to the Beautification Committee and that meets ten months of the year and involved with that is not mandatory, but I am very active as a volunteer in the planting and the weeding of the city at the Leif Hansen Park and at the fire station. And the Council on Aging, probably that meeting, that group only meets probably only three or four times a year and those meetings are a couple of hours usually and like Beautification is a couple of hours. I too, usually do not get many phone calls except that I've had, when the snow was coming down and we weren't getting snow removal, I was getting phone calls and being stopped in the grocery store, that kind of thing. But, I think the more you're out in the public, you will be asked more questions too. So, and like this week, we've had, this week we had the two special meetings and so that seems like a lot of, you know, time involved, but usually with only the two meetings a month and then in non -budget times, but when we're working on the budget, then we can meet once a week for a couple of months. Or, if you're interviewing for a city manager or something like that, it gets more time consuming too. Williams: Thank you. Councilman Moore. Moore: Yeah. I don't really have anything to add regarding phone calls. I have the same experience here and I serve, in addition to the council meetings, I'm on three other commissions and committees that at various times each month. Williams: Councilman Measles. Measles: Yes, as Councilman Bookey said, the phone calls depend on the issue, but there's, I don't receive many phone calls. An occasional call or if there's a special issue up, there may be a flurry of three or four calls on a particular issue. Other time for the council, other than the meetings, which I've seen anywhere from 18 minutes to seven hours meeting nights. We haven't had one of those seven hour ones in a long time. And then, as Councilwoman Swarner indicated, the, we do also serve as ad hoc or liaison members of at least one or more commissions or committees in the city. There is some preparation time involved prior to council meetings to read your packet and make sure you understand the issues that are l KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 23 going to be on the table for the meeting night. Budget time, there's, in addition to the budget sessions, there is time spent outside of those meetings individually, making sure we understand the budget and where we're going with it. But it's, it doesn't involve a great deal of your personal time. It normally doesn't, I have a full- time job, more than full-time most of the time, but it's not something that's overbearing or burdensome at all. Williams: Councilman Bannock. Bannock: I get a lot of phone calls. I think I get a lot. I don't get very many at home because I'm not at home very often. So, I get a lot of phone calls at work. But, I put that in the newspaper one time that it would be okay to call me at work. I love it when people call me. I don't even mind when they call me to chew me out. I really don't mind it a bit. Sometimes, sometimes I have to say, take a time out because I'm going to have to call you back because I do have a real job and sometimes if I have an owner over, standing over me needing something, I may have to put someone on the back burner for minute. As far as the time that I put into it, it's kind of a sick answer sometimes. There was an elected official that went on the record as saying that politics was almost a hobby to him and I think that was perceived as a, as a smack or something slight. Well, as sick as it sounds, local politics is a hobby to me. I can remember the very night where I sat about where Mr. Castimore is as a little boy in a council meeting and I thought, this is cool. So, I like it. I don't hunt. I don't fish. I don't have a snow machine. I don't have boat. I don't have an airplane. I like city politics and I love the City of Kenai and I want to always do the very best that I can for it. So, if that means more time trying to figure out something in the code book or driving over and looking at a particular gravel pit issue or something like that, I put as much time into as I possibly can. If I were to measure it in hours, I wouldn't even be able to guess that. But, maybe it's a sickness, but that's why I do it and why it takes up a lot of time. Schrag: I'll let you off the hook. Eldridge: When you mentioned you have a number of things that you worked on to bring people to the community; there's the court house and the fire training center and coming on line hopefully this year, the Challenger Center, what other issues, what other projects has the council been considering to make this City of Kenai, the most city of Alaska, we've been told by many tourists, to make it even more attractive and bring more folks into the city? Williams: Who wants to start? Councilman Moore. Moore: Yeah, I think the one thing, I had a question down here and it struck me when you said bring more people to the city and I had written a question of the dip net fishery... � Eldridge: Not necessarily ...... to live and shop. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 24 Moore: All right. Thanks. Sure. I don't know, we've got the multi -use recreational facility that's coming up here. We've spent some money on design. I think that will be a real asset to this city as far as bringing people in during the winter months for activities there. Dip net fishery is not a bad thing, but we need to get control of it. If we can organize it as such that people leave some money here while they're here, I think that it can be positive. I guess I'll leave it at that. Williams: Councilman Bookey. Bookey: Well, we have a mayor on the other end of this counter that brings us more ideas, most of the time, than we can handle. So, we generally have our plates full. But, I guess from my standpoint of being in business and being business on my own for all the number of years that I've been here, taxation to me. As long as we maintain our tax levels and we don't escalate, I think that business can survive and continue to grow. There's not a whole lot of things that I want the government or the council to do for me and my business. You know, I can take care of that myself. Taxation would be the one that would hurt me probably the most. Williams: Councilman Bannock. Bannock: Just to follow up on that, we've all heard the phrase of the sure things of life are death and taxes and while some of the sure things that we should be able to provide through our administration and through our council is some consistencies. You shouldn't have to worry about your sales tax rate going, tripling, doubling. We shouldn't have to worry about our property taxes taking some massive departure from the norm. We shouldn't have to worry, I wonder if my roads are going to get plowed today. We shouldn't have to worry, I wonder if my water is going to be clean and safe. Those are the things that the City of Kenai, maybe it's boring, but because they're not, as we mentioned earlier, those aren't the squeaky -wheel items, we tend to sometimes take them for granted. I call that being in a very positive stable rut and sometimes those aren't bad things and there are some things that we have come to bank on within the City of Kenai that perhaps we take as for granted, because they're there, but if you can back up from that and say, what would be the alternative if we didn't know if our roads were going to get plowed or we didn't know what our water and sewer issue was going to be like or we didn't know if the fire department was going to be able to make it out on time, those are some of the things that the city has done an excellent job of building up and there are some things that we can count on in life, just like the death and taxes, but there are other things that the administration has done that have provided us with those chips in Kenai and I'm very, very proud of that. Williams: Councilman Measles? Measles: Maybe just to expand a little on the stable tax situation. The city started, a couple years ago I guess, when our budget is prepared, we do our annual budget for KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 25 the coming year, but we also do a five-year look forward and I believe that the projected tax increase that John mentioned is out there in 2002, I believe that was first projected two years ago in our budget process has been to look forward. So, contrary to the way the state operates and looking back, "Oh my gosh, we're out of money. We didn't budget enough. Or we didn't bring in enough to cover what we budgeted." We're attempting to look ahead so if there is something out there in the future, it's something that everybody knows about ahead of time, two or three or four years before it happens, rather than waking up some morning, the sky is falling and we've got to do something. I think, from a business standpoint in the City of Kenai, that stabilization of our tax structure here within the city that we have control of, I think that's a big plus for the City of Kenai. Williams: Thank you. Councilwoman Swarner. Swarner: Well, I'll agree with Councilman Bookey. We have a very visionary mayor who brings lots of things in and sometimes I know that I don't show my appreciation very much, but I do appreciate all his... Williams: I still love you Linda... Swarner: Yeah, thanks John. And, something for all of you to look forward to is two years ago we had an economic forum and we're going to be having another one in April and I would encourage all of you to participate. And, you know, that was a, even though being involved with business here in Kenai, it still was good for me to hear what other business people were saying and their frustrations and that kind of thing. And, I guess, one of the things that's exciting for bringing people to Kenai, I think, is next month, Jack, you kind of touched on the Visitors Center about money going, this is something that I think will bring some people back in, there is, if you're interested in quilts, but it's an art exhibit, there's quilting, a quilting exhibit from two quilters from Australia, I believe. And, you can go on the internet and see these, their quilts that they've already made. But, this is something, as a tourist attraction, in February for people to come to Kenai. And I know that they're people from Anchorage that came down to the quilt show in Soldotna last June. So, you know, if you keep working on the small things, they'll get bigger. Williams: Thank you. You're question more specifically was what are some of the other projects and things that are going on. The one that we did miss and didn't mention is that in a cooperative partnership between the Borough and the State, we'll be building a new Public Health Nurse facility. It's also to include an adjunct medical facility for day care/outpatient care. It's my understanding it's going to be in the neighborhood of about 16,000 square feet, be located right here in town, we should be able to go to bid in the Spring. So that's going to be a nice little project. One, from the standpoint that it's going to bring some payroll in as far as contractors are concerned; two, it falls in line with the philosophy that the council has been following for some years now, and that is to make the City of Kenai a service center for people services. And, if you look around the way we've positioned the city, we KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 26 have of course, the transportation center of the Peninsula with the airport; we have the judicial center for the courthouse, judicial center of the Peninsula with the courthouse; we will have the Public Health Nurse facility and that portion of the medical community will be centered here in Kenai; and we're doing a lot with vocational training through the center here and also through the Economic Development District being located in Kenai; we have the Animal Control Shelter for better or worse, we absorb a tremendous impact of animals from the Borough, but again, it's a people -services thing; and we can't overlook the fact that the State has consolidated its offices with some 50 or 60 state employees right here in the City of Kenai. So, again, the way the city has positioned itself is, in my view, very, very good for the future. There is a little problem though that it relates to and it, it can be good or bad, and of course, I forgot to throw in the Senior Citizens' Center and the Visitors' Center too, because the Senior Citizens' Center is like a little factory. It's like a brand new payroll coming in over the wall every month and it's a nice clean industry to be in the senior citizens' business. But, one of the problems I see that's developed over the years is that the City of Kenai has spent, or had spent on its behalf, about $65 million in capital projects to support the community, the surrounding area, to create jobs and to help business grow and when we take a look at that and say, what has the return been by the other side, by the private sector, it's been very, very small. The City cannot continue to invest, cause to have invested by other government agencies on its behalf massives amount, massive amount of capital without finding it somewhat in the same position that a, that, you know, one -element economy city might find itself because government, of course, has to be collectively looked as part of the economy. But, we have some of the best payroll jobs right here in Kenai, as a result of government spending. The Federal Aviation Administration, Homer Electric Association, all of them produce great jobs with good payroll. So, it still comes back to that issue of private sector. Can we, should we, how will we increase and encourage and enhance the private sector? Someone else now. Jack, your turn. Castimore: Ah, you've answered quite a bit of what I had in mind, John. Somehow I thought someone up there would ask me this question. Where do you see the local economy, the City of Kenai, five years down the road? Williams: The most optimistic person in the room tonight is Jim, plant palm trees. Bookey: Yeah, that was Planning & Zoning requirement... Five years from today, I believe we're probably going to take a little slow down here. I mean, we did in '86 when the major programs took a dive and I think we're going to again. But, I don't think that it's going to be as hard. I, I'm very optimistic. We're plunging right ahead, personally. I, I'm not slowing down at all and, and I talked to a couple of other members of the community today and they both feel the same way and they're, you know, they've, they've got some ideas on the board. So, I think that it, you know, eighteen months to two years from now, we'll be right back to where we are today and going on down the road. 1 Williams: Councilwoman Swarner. J KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 27 Swarner: Well, actually, Jack I had my question here and I didn't ask it, was how do you envision the City of Kenai in ten years, so yours is five years. Up until this past few months, I guess, and hearing more about the fish processors, I would hope that in the next, you know, five to ten years, that there'd be some more secondary processing of fish products instead of it all going to other communities and that we could do something, you know, with fish products. And, I guess I would also like to see the City of Kenai being known as customer -friendly so when you walked into City Hall for something, whether it's a building permit, paying your water and sewer bill, but that we were a great place to do business with and you weren't, you know, you didn't have all these hurdles thrown in front of you that you were happy to be here and you were happy to pay your bills. Williams: Councilman Moore? Moore: I don't have anything to add. Williams: No answer. Councilman Measles? Measles: I don't have anything to add that hasn't been said. I'm optimistic about the future of the city. I think in five years we'll be in better position than we are today. Williams: Councilman Bannock? Bannock: I, I'd sure like it, I'd sure like to believe today that retail will be greater than it is today in five years. On the flip side of the, on the things that we can control from a council, I would expect that things would, perhaps, be even tighter than they are today. As we progress, we will do things better. We'll do things smarter and we will do things more efficiently. I think that's the nature of that. I can't guarantee that we would have more retail, because that certainly hasn't been our trend. But, I will do every, I will do everything I can do to see that that takes place and that's certainly my goal and my optimism, but I can't see, I cannot foresee a scenario that puts the City of Kenai in a worse position in any, whether it be financially, socially, or any of the factors that we consider on where it is that we want to live five years from now than it is today. Williams: Thank you. Frazer: Thank you. I kind of want to ask something of an economic nature, I think. watched this airport expansion issue with great interest. It seems to me there might be a major economic boost there down the road that perhaps could even out some of these peaks and valleys created by the fishing industry and the oil industry and I'm just curious in a very general sense in what the council sees as the potential for this project, given environmental and living quality issues being satisfied. I'm not looking for a definitive answer, maybe, perhaps maybe the mayor would prefer to answer something like that. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 28 Williams: Well, having given my report earlier about the Adak project, you know, when we went into this whole thing, we realized that we were in a major state of flux with air transportation throughout the state. I've visited Fairbanks, Anchorage, both with regards to the freight issue. A lot of it is governed by who out there is interested in coming here to use it and that we don't know. At this point in time, we're continuing to move ahead on a much slower basis and more low-key review of that whole program. The Economic Development District is hopeful of obtaining a major grant from the state Department of Transportation in which to be able to review all of the state airports on the Kenai Peninsula and see what their function is going to be and well they're operating and in the direction they might move over the next few years. The City of Kenai has agreed to join, we haven't actually signed any agreements or made it official yet, but we agreed that we shall explore and perhaps join, would be better wording, that effort in the study in order to garner more information about our own system. Because, as a city airport, we're not included in the state grant to do the state-owned airports. So, we're going to know some answers when that study comes out, although, you know, at this point in time, it looks like we're a little bit behind the curve, if it's anything we really want to go and do. Adak is already laying out, laying up their money in advertising their RFPs and have had great numbers of meetings around the state with the northern ports group and so forth. So, we're just moving slowly into the development of the big unit to see if it's even viable. On the other hand, one thing that we're really trying to do is bring this airport alive that we have here with regards to any number of small businesses who might locate along the airport. To those ends, that video tape that we were watching the other evening, I had Steve Atha, our Airport Manager and a couple of the council members and I reviewed about a 20 minute video tape on general aviation and small airports. We're closing hundreds of general aviation airports across the nation every year. But those that are remaining and those that are staying in business that cater to the small aircraft are coming along on a whole brand new tract and that is, trying to attract businesses who by their very nature, find that they can expand beyond just there geographical limit by being close to an airport. And, as we sat there and watched that video tape, I envisioned several of the small companies, service companies here in Kenai, who could expand tremendously by locating at the airport. Be more efficient in their operation, more efficient in their expansion. One of them that came to mind is Fire Control Services. If they were located at the airport instead of out north, they could address issues in Seldovia and Port Graham much quicker. They could, you know, if traffic warranted the movement between here and there and Homer, Kodiak. So, I think over the next few years you'll see us continue to push in that direction to try to find businesses that are compatible with air traffic and can expand their own facility when shown that their geographical limits can be expanded. So ... the airport. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 29 All right. Did we get through everybody? Everybody had a question for the council. Council, do want to take a short break? Let's take a short break right now. BREAK TAKEN: 8:45 P.M. BACK TO ORDER: 8:55 P.M. Williams: Okay, we'll come back on the record again. It's pulling up towards nine o'clock, so what I'd like to do is, we're going to take just a moment. There are some people from the general public that may like to ask a particular question, so we're going to do that one time. Then we're going to come back and have a one-time wrap- up comment from the candidates and if there are some council people then who would like to make a final announcement or final word... so, we'll just kind of wrap it up with that and we'll hear a final comment from each of you before we close so that if there's anything you've left out or like us to know, we'll have. All right, with that, is there someone from the general public? Anyone from the general public who wishes to make some comments or questions toward the candidates or council? Yes, if you come up, please use Councilman Bookey's microphone since the rest are... give your name and address for the record. Jill Lipka: And I'm Jill Lipka and 1606 Salmo Circle in Kenai. I hadn't planned on asking a question, but this kind of popped up in my mind. I wondered in a calendar year of 1998, how many council meetings or Harbor Commission, Planning 8, Zoning, have you attended and that's, that's my question. Donahue: My council meetings that I have attended have been four, I believe, maybe five, but four and two of those were on behalf of Kenai Peninsula United Way. Schrag: I don't know the exact number. There' s been quite a few. Eldridge: I think last year I only attended a couple council meetings, but I have attended the Harbor Commission meetings on a fairly regular basis. Kept fairly current during the year for the Harbor Commission. Castimore: In the past, I was on the Planning 8s Zoning Commission for quite a few years in the 1980's. Currently, I've been on the Parks & Rec because I like green grass and how beautiful the community is. We, we meet, at least once a month for that. You know, if you're doing a committee activity in the community, you don't just meet once a month. You go to visit those offices, you run upstairs to talk to someone, so I think that if you're truly involved in it, you may sit and talk to John or, or someone else on the council, in the community at length. I can remember about 45 minutes recently in Carrs Grocery Store talking to John about things. So... Frazer: I think, I'm not real clear on this. I know I've been at least two and possibly three or four council meetings this past year. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 30 Brown: My main focus was Chamber of Commerce and professional organizations. So, I probably did about two dozen of those over the last year. I haven't been to any city council. I did, I did attend two borough meetings on issues that, that interested me. Williams: Is there anyone else from the general public who wanted to ask a question? Yes? Bob Peters: My name is Bob Peters and I live in Old Town, Kenai and I'm surprised that Mr. Bannock or Mr. Bookey didn't bring this up when they were, they were asking about projects and the future projects. I was thinking about the library addition and even though they're have been two bond issues for that has failed, because I feel as though that the public didn't want to fund it through that way, the Library Commission has found a need for a library addition through a needs assessment study that was, I guess, was three years ago or so. I was wondering how the prospective council people felt about this if they felt that we did actually did need a library addition and if they did, how would they suggest that we fund that. Donahue: I'll start. I don't have any problems with that. I voted for the library bond issue when it came up because I felt the need for expansion of our library. If the community continues to grow as it has been, our library's got to grow with it. I'm not sure that some changes couldn't be done over at the library. I haven't spent a lot of time over there, but that would be something that I would like to see investigated as a prospective council member. Possibly some rearrangement inside. I don't know. I haven't spent time looking at that, but that would be one of the recommendations that I would suggest. As far as funding, there, the fundraising efforts that go on for the library I have been very supportive of. I've gone to all of your functions. They find me for tickets for everything. I'm one of those people that no matter what, they find me to buy tickets. I don't have a suggestion. I'll be honest. I don't have a up -front suggestion on how to get funding for that library. I know there's probably some out there. Grants. There's got to be some way to do that and work on it. It'd certainly be worth investigating and I'd certainly be interested in helping with something like that. Schrag: I think the library is another one of the jewels in the crown, we use that term quite a bit. It's a good facility. I think it's used quite a bit. I did vote for, for the bond issue, however I think one of the problems was that it was brought up too soon, because I felt a little bit dinged by that too that, you know, the election just before that it had been voted down and so I felt like that was a little bit too soon to bring it back up again. It maybe needed a little bit more time to be sold. I think there was maybe some reaction just on that, on that level. So, I like the idea of people who are Friends of the Library and the people who support it. You know, whether it's library or whether it's sports center, or anything else, doing all they can KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 31 do, but I guess I would also, it'd be nice if the city could find a way to help out on that, or at least whether encouragement or indirect means. And, I'm not quite sure either what that, what that'd be. Eldridge: Yeah, I'd have to agree we do have an excellent facility there at the Kenai Library. And I think that, the voters did vote it down a couple of times and I think that perhaps the size of the proposed expansion of the facility may have been the reason for some of those negative votes and personally I have not seen the needs study or have not reviewed that, so I would have to review that and, and see what the specific needs are that are addressed and confirm that it takes that size of an expansion to accommodate the needs for this community and the surrounding area. As far as funding it, I don't know what the means is for funding it. Unless we can come up with a facility that we can convince the taxpayers that they need to vote to float a bond issue on it. Castimore: Thank you Bob. I'm impressed with the 92,000 people who walk through CO - the doors of our library last year. Voice: There were over 100,000 last year, Jack... Castimore: Oh well, that's great. With that, I'm obviously a reader, and supporter and have a print on the wall that we won one of your raffles. Guttenberg Press put on line Promo.com which has 1,600 books on line. The Guttenberg people, you see their name on Public Television, PBS, all the time. They have funds. But I look back to what they did out in Nome about 1906, whatever it was. Carnegie Foundation built libraries all over our area. There's one over in the Yukon Territory, there's another one in Nome. I would think that the people like Carnegie Foundation and the Guttenberg Press that are out there trying to promote libraries and reading, would be a good avenue to begin with. Frazer: Thank you. I, I haven't reviewed the study on the library either, but based on the public votes on the bond issue or on the issue in the past, obviously the size of the project has some affect. I, I guess I would like to see, if we're going to put an addition on, some other avenues are explored for funding. I'm not sure if it's possible, but perhaps we could sell off some of the city's undeveloped assets much like the proposal is for the skating rink. In return, have a, wind up with a developed asset. I'm not sure whether that's feasible or not, but certainly would like to see that explored before we dipped into tax dollars at this point in time. Brown: Well Bob, I do support the library expansion very much. Both my, both my children use the library as a regular resource for their school work and one of their complaints, there isn't enough computer time and they, the resource books that they need aren't always there. The selection isn't always there and so I, I very much do support the library expansion. But, as a taxpayer for something like that, I like to, I like to see a lot of private and a lot of corporate donations brought in that base, kind of a, kind of a two or three tiered funding rather that as a library cause the library, KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 32 the library benefits everyone in the community, the overall community rather than just a straight tax base. I'd really to see some, some bigger corporate sponsors. Peters: Well, thank you all... Williams: All right. We'll start wrapping it up here now. I think we'll just have a closing comment from each of you and possibly there's a comment or two from council that wants to be made and see if we can cover, we pretty well covered the territory. In this kind of business, you never it, let me tell you. It's a brand new every day. Where do we want to start? Donahue: I can start John. I started before, I can start again. I don't mind. I don't mind when I get to finish it up. It's that starting -starting that was so bad. Most of you know me. I'm Helen Donahue. I'm very interested in serving on the city council in Kenai. I don't have a lot of baggage with me or anything like that, so I'm not carrying a lot of that kind of thing. I like the political process. I've always liked it. I've enjoyed being involved with it. The reason I sought the job was for that and the fact that I felt that I could contribute to my community. That I could give something back to them. The community's been good to my husband and I both. We've enjoyed being here and this is my opportunity to say, hey, I'm here and open to the public. I believe in the public forum. I believe in the public responding to our, us as a council or to the people that are on the council and I think that's really important. And, I'm open to suggestions. I listen to people. I'm a good listener and I think that I could serve you very well as a partner in your council, being a council member, and also work with the mayor and the city administration. So, with that, I'd appreciate any support I could get from the council. Thank you. Williams: Thank you. Let me say directly to all of you too. We really appreciate your taking the time to come down. Thank you very much Helen for making your presence before us this evening. Mark. Schrag: I may have baggage. I feel like I'm a good baggage, I'd like to think I'm a good baggage handler. I just, I guess I see times changing. We've talked, you know, we've talked a lot of ecom, and things like that and I just, I do think we're going to have to be thinking in those realms. It seems like in this area we're changing away from an industrial base and in some ways we are positioned because we are, it's a wonderful place to live, you know. If we can have the jobs here, people would love to live here, would choose to live here and I would love to see it, you know, that kind of, that person who's here because they want to live here and because they have a job that they can, that they can stay here as opposed to somebody who is just here for a job or something like that. And so, hoping that we can continue to develop the city along those lines, it makes it a really good place to live and includes jobs and includes a good quality of life. Thanks. Williams: Thank you very much Mark. And again, thank for coming this evening. Barry. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 33 Eldridge: Yeah, I've here, like I said, moved here back in 85 and have been involved in the community since that time doing a number of things. I mentioned earlier that I fairly quickly got on the Harbor Commission and got involved with that. And I also got very much involved with Habitat for Humanity in getting that organization going and so far we built about half a dozen houses out here in the area. Active in Rotary and Chamber. Volunteer for Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Committee. Very much interested in what is going on in the community and within the volunteer groups as well as what the city is doing. I've been very impressed, really. Truly, with what the city council and the city administration has done over these, over these years. You've, you know, you've kept a fairly tight budget. You've gone ahead and provided the services that are needed in the community and you've pretty much have been listening to the, to your constituents and responding to their needs. But, running the city is kind of like running a business. You have a city manager, but also you as a council have to make a lot of business decisions. I feel that I have a talent in that area and I have a real concern and a real interest in the community. And, I would like very much like to join you and serve on the council and serve this community and give back to it a little bit more for what its given to me. Williams: Thank you. Thank you, Barry. Also to you, thank you for coming down. Jack. Wrap up time. Castimore: It seems like I talked a lot tonight. Thank you for allowing this body to come here and feel so relaxed. I don't know about the rest of the people, but I feel very comfortable with the kinds of questions that you've asked and, and the language in which you've asked them. I've been a part of the community for 20 years. An awful lot of the young people that I've had to deal with during that 20 years are now a part of the community having businesses like Randy's Glass. I can remember saying to him, you don't want to work in Carrs Grocery Store. Let's get you out here and get you a trade. And he said to me, oh, I hate this guy out here, and I said, you've got to stick it out Randy. You're going to have a business down the road. But I see it. I see some day when you're going to go borrow that $150,000. Sure enough, he did. I remember Robert Peterkin. Remember Robert Peterkin? Oh, we had a hard time getting him through school. We had lots of talks. Lots of talks. Have you seen his financials? What a wonderful asset to the Kenai Peninsula and young man he's finally turned out to be. I've got history, I think is where I'm going to take this. A lot of those young people out there, they were not college bound. They were vocational kids. And, you know, I see an awful lot of the vocational area being ignored. This training center five years from now is going to be a wonderful thing. We need to take that and go the next step. There needs to be other things. There's a lot of vocational areas totally ignored in the state of Alaska that are just wonderful things that ought to be in the City of Kenai. So, if you put me on the council, I'll tell you more about them. Thank you very much. KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 34 Frazer: I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the council. As I said before, life on the Kenai has been very good to me the last 13 years. I've also said I believe my experience in the business community would help me be very effective in the upcoming budget process and other issues that are facing the city and I'd really welcome the opportunity to serve on the Kenai City Council. Thank you. Williams: Thank you very much and thank you for coming down. Bernie. Brown: Well, I'd also like to thank the council for inviting all of us here to listen to us. I, if brought on the council, I wouldn't bring any direct legislative experience. My father was mayor of Cold Bay when, when the city incorporated a good long time ago and he served there for a while. Both my parents were very involved with state level politics and funding in Juneau, so I've been exposed to the process a good part of the time, but I was hunting and fishing. What I do bring is a diverse experience base and skills that, that I believe can contribute to the process. I want to see, I want to see the Kenai and the entire peninsula area prosper of the years and I'd like to be part of that process. Thank you. Williams: Thank you very much. We'll return to council for just a brief few comments. Councilman Bookey had something he wanted to bring up. Bookey: No, I'd just like to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time out of your life. I would have much rather seen you on the election with us in October, but I'm glad that you're here tonight. I guess this is going to be for me the hardest decision that I will make so far in the seven years that I've been on council because I'm making this for 7,000 people and I, it's going, it's going to, I've got some really good candidates in front of me, but it's going to be one of my hardest decisions that I will make probably in the full time that I'll be on council. So, I'm taking this really, really serious and I, I, you know, I think each and everyone of us feel that basic same way. The one thing that I would like to express to the applicants tonight is that as one of the things that I have probably learned as sitting on council was that you're going to have to make, whoever this is becomes the new council member, is going to have to make some hard decisions and not always are you going to win. Sometimes you're going to lose. And I have learned that sitting on this organization down here. But we always leave here. John and I will banter back and forth or Raymond or whoever, whichever one of us it is. When the council finally makes a decision and becomes, whether it's five to four, or sometimes I'm sitting down here with my notes here and it's six to one, we all walk out here and when we're in the grocery store the next time, we always talk to each other. We don't skirt or out -skirt each other and that's really a good feeling to be able to sit here and work with that. And so, you know, I really do appreciate that and I think you will too, whoever that person is. Thank you. 1 Williams: Thank you Jim. J KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 35 Swarner: Well, I'd like to thank everybody to come to, but I can count better than Jim can because it's five to two. We have only seven voting members and you have to always count to four if you want something to pass. And I guess this, this, I will agree with Jim that this is one of the hardest decisions that I too will have faced since first being elected in '87 because we are voting for, for all those constituents out there. And, and that is, I was going to bring this up earlier and I forgot, but that, one of the hardest things as a council person is making a decision like this and also having to tell people no for something that, you know, that you're friends with and that you see all the time and an old issue that I'll bring up is the paving of the mayor's street. But... Williams: I ran on that... Swarner: I know you did, but that was, that was a very hard decision when that, when the vote came. You know, whether that they should have assessments or not and it affected businesses that I was involved with too. So, you know, you have to also think of it may how, you know, what you voted for the night before could affect the business that you're involved with in the weeks to come. Williams: Councilman Moore. Moore: Yeah, thanks for coming. I look forward to Friday. I hear you guys are going to be on the radio. Friday afternoon. I'll look forward to listening to that if I can't be there. I also am going to give this very serious thought and I'm going to encourage or seek out public input on you people. I'm going to ask people if they know you, because I think it's important that they have input on my decision. It's not just mine. It's theirs. So, I will be asking questions. Williams: Thank you. Councilman Measles. Measles: Yeah again, I certainly appreciate all of you coming down tonight and more than that, you're interested in this position. It's really nice to see six, what I consider, well -qualified people all seeking this position. It is going to be a tough decision to select one of the six of you. I would hope to see all six of those faces and names on the next, on the ballot for the next couple of years and start getting some of us old timers out of here. Williams: Thank you Councilman Measles. Councilman Bannock. Bannock: I can only echo the accolades. I appreciate community involvement and I appreciate the people wanting to get involved. If I didn't know the majority of you as well as I do, perhaps it would be easier. But, I do know most of you quite well and I know the positives that you can bring. I'm sorry Mr. Brown that I don't know you as well as I know some of the others. Mr. Frazer, we've had a lot of good political talks. Jack Castimore, I recognize the talents that you've brought to us at Parks 8v KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 36 Recreation. Mr. Eldridge, I appreciate what you've done in the Rotary Club and how we've gotten to know each other there. Mr. Schrag, although you and I have a lot of political differences, I love the fact that you've attended more meetings probably than anyone other than Mr. Peters. Mrs. Donahue, I've gotten to know you through the United Way and the talent and the energy that you bring in there. So, while it is going to be a difficult decision for the council to land one of you, the rest of the citizens of the City of Kenai need to rest assured, that we're in a win/win situation and we couldn't pick a loser here if our lives depended on it. So, congratulations on each and every one of you. And, as Mr. Moore, Mr. Moore tried to steal my thunder for Life on the Kenai Live, I do hope to see each and every one of you there, Friday at one o'clock and I've given your, your bios to the host, Merrill Sikorski to go over and he is, as we speak, developing his own set of questions. And so I look forward to seeing you there and again, thanks for coming tonight. Williams: I'm just going to briefly confer with the Clerk and then we'll finish up ... Okay, we'll come back on the record and again in closing, let me say that each and every one of you have, have endured the questions of the council and the general public and come through with flying colors and are to be commended. It's a lot of fund getting involved in city government. I've been involved in government one way or another almost since I can remember, I think. Well, since I can remember ............ I've been very deeply involved in Alaskan politics for 35 years or more and I've always found city government, local government, the best of all when it comes to working, you know, the political picture. Because this is where it all starts, right here. Right here at the grass roots. So, you're going to have fun, whoever it is. Believe me. With that, let me lay a little of the rule how we'll proceed from here. This council will make a determination and there will be a nomination and a vote for the candidate on the third of February. That will be the night that we make the final decision. There'll be a vote to confirm. The swearing in of that candidate will then take place the following meeting on the 17th. So we'll run it kind of like you do a regular election -- you're elected, then the vote has to be confirmed and the swearing in takes place. So, by the third we'll all know who you are and by the 17th you'll be on the, officially on the, on the council. Now, between the third and 17th, I will personally find time, as will the administration, to tour you through the various aspects of the government here. Physical aspects of the city as well. Other council members may want to join with us and we'll see how things go so that on the night of the 17th when you come on board, you'll be prepared to make those hard decisions. End of Verbatim. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Measles encouraged council not to drop the airport expansion issue as he believed jthere continued to be a window of opportunity for the city to be pro -active in KENAI CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 1999 PAGE 37 investigating the feasibility of the project. Measles added, the fuel -to -cargo ratio that makes Anchorage so attractive would also be considered in the decision to use Adak as a cargo destination. EXECUTIVE SESSION - None Scheduled ITEM C: ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at approximately 9 : 4 5 p.m. Minutes transcribed and prepared by: / le4,1061- X. lz� zer�� Carol L. Freas, 6ity Clerk J .r7 0V E 7 lae DATE QWY BY COUNCIL CLERK