Editor’s note: This transcript has been edited for clarity, however candidate answers and statements are transcribed in their entirety.
For transparency, Terry Haines is a member of KMXT’s staff, but neither he nor the other candidates were shown any of the questions ahead of the forum. Haines also did not see this transcript before publication, and does not have any editorial influence over KMXT stories.
Candidates were given one minute for opening statements, in alphabetical order by last name:
Mark Anderson: Thank you to the residents in Kodiak listening online and on the radio. Thank you for taking part in the public process. That's important. We've heard a lot of comments – all of us candidates have heard that there hasn't been enough involvement from the public, and I hope that continues to improve and I am a 27 year resident of Kodiak, continually. Since 1998, moved here almost 27 years ago next month, and raised three children in the public schools here. And I've invested in Kodiak. I pay a quarterly sales tax. I know and understand what many of the businesses here in town do every quarter. But my most important qualifier for being a candidate is being a grandpa, which I think is a very good thing for a person to be able to think about the future. Thank you, sir.
Terry Haines: Thanks for everybody here and everybody listening at home. My name is Terry Haines. I first came to Kodiak in 1981, and I've been a commercial fisherman most of my life on deck, on boats, and lately, though I've been working on the radio and I have a little column in the newspaper. But I also managed to get in about 16 years or so on the Kodiak City Council, which has been very gratifying. It's been good work. It's been my way to give back to the community that I've come to love so much, and it has been so good to me. So I have two years left on my last term, which are three year term summit here on the city council, and when I realized that we're going to have such tremendous turnover, I immediately was extremely glad we've been asking for this for a long time, and the quality of candidates that have come forward for all of the different seats that are open this cycle has been amazing and so heartening to see. But I did think that, because the mayor was retiring, that it might be a good role for me to fill in my last two years, to step up and be mayor and to make sure this transitional period goes smoothly.
J. Alan Seale: Good evening. You're about to learn all about your city's mayoral candidates, and this will help you make your decision about your vote on October 7. Your vote will help me in bringing together people from our diverse community, fishermen, business owners, tribal leaders, elders and neighbors to make Kodiak stronger for future generations. Kodiak's roots are in the fishing industry, and this will always be the beating heart of our community. But let's recognize that we face challenges like aging infrastructure, a transitional economy, and unknown obstacles to create opportunities for future generations to be able to call Kodiak home. I have spent the last 16 years in Kodiak, living and working. Alongside the people who make this island great, and I am known for being a dependable collaborator. I'm running for mayor because I trust in the hope that our best days are ahead of us if we prepare with common sense, invest locally and lead with respect. My name is Al Seale, and I'm excited to be here tonight. Thank you.
Mary Jean Silva: Good evening. I’m Mary Jean Silva, and I’ve lived here in Kodiak for almost six years now. I moved here in 2019 because I accepted a job in the Coast Guard. I love exploring around the world, and I am so grateful that I came over here in Kodiak. Hoping that I will leave in a year, but here I am, five years later, I'm still here in Kodiak, in which I now love to live, and also encourage my other children to move here in Kodiak, because I told them that it is a very safe place to raise children. Second, where I spent 15 years in Japan, which we feel safe, and everywhere we went, and lower 48 I believe this is a safer place to live. Thank you.
Questions posed by moderators, candidates were given two minutes to answer.
What qualifies you to be the Mayor of the City of Kodiak? What connections, skills, and experience would you bring to the position that would most benefit the council and the community at-large?
- Terry Haines: Well, I have been on the city council for a number of years now, and during that time, I've lobbied for various projects that we've had, and sat in on a lot of our meetings and our business, and so I'm familiar with what we do and what's important to Kodiak, and I think that would be useful going forward as mayor, because we're in a transitional period with so many new people. And I'd like to be that “Team Kodiak” guy who helps bring everyone together. I think that's one of my strong points, is I like people, and I think that now is a good time. I think now that we're having a transition to start, see try to build team Kodiak and bring together, you know all of our various communities and entities and the borough and the city, and start to be more collaborative as we go forward. And I think I'm a good person to do that.
- J. Alan Seale: I guess what qualifies me to be the mayor of the City of Kodiak is I meet all the requirements set out in the city charter. First of all, to be the mayor of Kodiak, these positions are available to reasonable people in our republic, and so I have just as much expertise or experience being the mayor as anyone else on this stage, and meeting the basic requirements would qualify me to be the mayor. I've worked really hard to maintain the connections that I made last time I ran for mayor of Kodiak two years ago, and worked really hard to make new connections this time and made myself available. I am a student of leadership, and being in leadership for the last 30 years and leadership positions, I have become a student of humanity and my own humility and my outlook on leadership. I have service to shared goals, and I believe in collaboration with others to make sure that those goals become a reality. And I think that that would be a benefit to council, that I'm willing to be a good listener, a communicator, a cooperator and collaborator with both city personnel, other city council members and other project partners and regulatory agencies that come in contact with the city, just as I have done over the last 30 years of my careers. Thank you.
- Mary Jean Silva: Looking at the papers, in terms of qualification, in terms of education, I believe that I met that. However, that's not what I'm looking at in terms of good quality of a mayor. In terms of connections, the connection that I felt in my heart is – I see that there are some common grounds in the community, connections that I am going to find in each individual's skills and ability to bring the Kodiak to the quality of life that we're looking for. Quality of life may be something that, you know, we keep saying, but what? What does it look like? What's a quality of life look like? I think I have traveled around the world to see what the quality of life looks like, and with that experience, I think this is the place that I will be bringing that experience and implement that with the people that I will make connections with. Because I believe, or I've seen, that there's a lot of talented and smart people on this island, and if we collaborate together, we can make a big impact in this community. What skills do I have? I think outside the box. There's a lot of common ideas, but has it worked before? I am willing to challenge that and say, “Hey, let's implement this new idea – ideas that I know it works, I've seen it work.” And as long as there's an open mind in on the table, I believe that new ideas can rise up and benefits everybody in the community, and regardless what your position and what status you are in life, I believe that if we truly care about this Kodiak, we will open our mind and set goals together. Thank you.
- Mark Anderson: I think my past broad experience in business and in leadership is what gives me the best qualifications to be the mayor of the City of Kodiak. The history that I've had, I've had to be in roles where hard decisions had to be made, and I've been in those leadership positions at those times when those hard decisions have been both in banking and as I've said before, I've been involved in about a dozen nonprofits over the years, I've been on the application side of those nonprofits wanting to secure money from various organizations so that nonprofit could succeed through the through the year, and know what it's like when you don't get the money or when you do and and so I've had a lot of experience with that. I've had experience in philanthropy, in working with the Alaska Community Foundation through its local organization here the Kodiak Community Foundation, in looking on the other side of those nonprofit applications, seeing how those nonprofits look to places like the city for help. So in addition, I've had to sit in the room to make negotiations with leases, with contracts, purchase of property. I have spent most of my career in Kodiak dealing with a lot of business decisions, and I've had some good success with that. So I think that qualifies me in a unique position to be the mayor, and I still recognize the mayor is not the city manager, but the mayor can guide and set the tone for the Council. Thank you.
If elected Mayor, you would be the face and voice of the City of Kodiak. How would you advocate for the city and help ensure Kodiak is a priority at the state and federal levels?
- J. Alan Seale: I really do think that the mayor of Kodiak is in a unique position. We do entertain more state and national level politicians here than most municipalities in Alaska get the opportunity to do. I believe that the mayor should, as the voice and the face of Kodiak, be the best of what Kodiak has to offer. I think that if you are true to yourself and put that best foot forward, it's a good beginning to being the mayor of Kodiak and making sure that you're able to effectively advocate for the city. The mayor acts as an envoy to these people. And I've heard it said that ask, ask, ask is the way forward. We need to make sure that whoever is there is willing to fight for this community at whatever opportunity arises, to make sure that any opportunity that does come up is accessible to us, be able to look anyone in the eye and not be intimidated by them. To make sure that Kodiak is always seen as a priority, and when you do need to compromise, always compromise with the city of Kodiak as your priority. As the mayor, I think that's my answer. Thank you.
- Mary Jean Silva: Just like serving military families, and you are serving a quality program, you are the front person who will receive all, everybody that's coming in your town. You have to know how to advocate for what we need, what we prioritize, and what is it for. We need to justify everything that we are going to ask for. Because even if we ask, ask us if they understand, what is that for, they're not going to give it to you. You have to really articulate why we need that money, how we going [sic] to use it, who's going to benefit? How long are we going to implement whatever that project is, and what was the outcome? And can you produce an outcome? If the answer is yes, they'll give you a chance. And so therefore Kodiak, we prioritize this, because this is where we live, this is where we're going to bring up our children, our grandchildren, and the future of Kodiak. So we need to invest in our children, our people, and the skills that we have here in Kodiak, and we use those, or we utilize those skills, to also voice what we need. The mayor is not the only voice. The people are the backbone of the mayor. So everybody’s got to know what the purpose is of what we're doing, because everybody’s got to know why we are doing things the way we do. And if they understand the purpose of what they're doing, everybody can speak up, not just the Mayor. Thank you.
- Mark Anderson: Advocating for the city would be, obviously, extremely important, and I would take on that role pretty, pretty seriously. And I feel like the person who goes before our congressional delegation, who goes to the state legislature in Juneau, needs to be very well prepared. When I have been in those situations in the past, thinking specifically about a short meeting that we had with Dan Sullivan, he expressed, “Okay, is everybody behind this?” And when he said, everybody, he's meaning, is all of Kodiak behind the particular issue that we were advocating for? I think that's very important before the ask is to collaborate with the assembly, to collaborate with the Tribes and the Native organizations here in Kodiak. To say, “Yes, this is a priority for our entire community.” So I would research and have the facts and have the information ready, so that when asked, I would be well prepared, and that's how I can best represent Kodiak.
- Terry Haines: Well, the mayor is both the ears and the voice of Kodiak. You've got to go to every single meeting and be very accessible to constituents and be there when they're talking about their concerns and understand what the Kodiak people, what their citizens are really thinking and what they need. And then you have to be their voice too. You have to tell Kodiak's story, and you have to tell it over and over and over and over again. You have to tell it to every different person who it might matter to, and you have to tell it to the same person over and over again. I'll never forget being in Don Young's office. And of course, I was talking about our fire station, and I'm giving him a great story. I'm telling him how a big tsunami is going to come into town and take out our fire station, and then where would we be? And he was eating it up and because he realized it's something that he can use, it's a story that he can use to secure funding for us. And it's a good story, when he gets that funding, gets our fire station in, and he felt really good about getting that funding for our station. Likewise, Bert Stedman here at a state level, he was very important to get our fire station funding chosen among many, many projects that wanted state funding when it was funded. And he would see Mayor Branson coming and say, “oh.” And he because he knew what she was going to say, “We need a new fire station.” and she would tell him that story again. And that's the kind of person you have to be. You have to be willing to not only listen, but to tell Kodiak’s story over and over and over again. And if you know me, you know, I'm a bit of a storyteller. I kind of like that. And you have to have good relations with these people. You know, when people see me coming, they say, Here comes Terry. He's going to have substantive issues, he's probably going to have outcomes, and he's going to be well prepared. And he'll probably make me laugh a couple of times. It's not a bad starting place when you are telling Kodiak's story. And you know, I think in the end, it's all about personal relationships in a big way, because you are talking to people, and you're telling people a story, and it's Kodiak’s story.
One of the powers the mayor has is the ability to veto ordinances and resolutions passed by the city council. How do you think vetoes should or should not be used and when would you use this responsibility to override council decisions?
- Mary Jean Silva: I understand that the mayor's role is to lead the meeting, make agendas and make sure the meeting is ordinance. However, if there's a perception in the community that the mayor is responsible for a lot of things that happens in the city, I need to make sure that I am involved in making sure that my input is heard as well in a council. That I also wanted to have, that my opinion matters as a mayor, even though I can't vote on it, and that I should be able to voice what the community needs. So if I have to vote, I will vote for the benefits of the community, whoever that needed benefits for whatever that decision that the council needs to make. And I hope and pray that the outcome would be for the benefits, fully benefits of the community. Thank you.
- Mark Anderson: The only thing that comes to mind about overriding a council decision is when I can I could see a situation where there was a room full of people and it was not clear what the outcome from public comment was, if there was essentially 50% that was in favor and 50% for – and the council voted a certain way. I think that's to me, that seems an appropriate time to override or veto a decision. It would not come easily. I think that if it was a matter of public safety, that it would be the mayor's duty to move forward with maybe an unpopular decision, if, if it meant if it was a public safety issue for the community. So, yeah, tough, tough spot.
- Terry Haines: In my years on the Council, under two different mayors, I can't remember a single time when either of them used their power to veto anything, and I think that's a tribute to their work as facilitators. The mayor has three main jobs in this town. One of them is to chair the meetings, so you have to be familiar with Robert's Rules of Order and know how to move a meeting along. The other is to represent and advocate for the city, and the other is to facilitate the council process, and the facilitator helps the council come to the decision that they were naturally going to come to on their own. You guide the conversation in a way that allows everyone to have input and for everyone to bounce off each other and come to the best possible decision. Even as the best facilitator, sometimes you're going to get maybe a three to three tie, and that's when the mayor says, “Well, okay. I'm going to break this tie with my vote.” That's a lot different than having the council vote to pass something and then having the mayor say, “Well, I think you're all wrong, and so I think I'm going to veto that.” To me, that's a failure of facilitation. It'd be hard for me to imagine in what circumstance the mayor would be legitimately vetoing something the Council voted to do, but I imagine it'll be something extraordinary, some new safety issue, I don't know, Godzilla. I can't really imagine what it would be, so I think it should be judiciously used, if at all.
- J. Alan Seale: I also think the mayor should use the veto power extremely sparingly. I think that collaboration would always be able to come first, hopefully. I think that if the mayor did have the power to and wanted to use the veto, it may be something that comes up around a contract that the mayor would like to see reworked, or that some other priority that was not aligned with, or some other surprise came up that nobody knew about before the ordinance was passed. Or there was some other issue if anyone became uneasy with the legality of something. Or if there was an emergency, I think that the mayor could use the veto power in that case to make sure that the right thing was done in the long run. But overall, I think that a sparing use of this power would be appropriate for the mayor of Kodiak.
In part due to increased supply chain prices like for groceries and housing, the cost of living is rising in Kodiak, making it harder for people and businesses to afford to stay here. If elected, what would you do to support both established and incoming residents as well as businesses?
- Mark Anderson: We are living in inflationary times, and that's why it is expensive to live in Kodiak, in Indianapolis, in Jacksonville, Florida, every place in the country. That inflation is what has caused these high prices, and we can't escape that. I think what I would try to do, if possible, it would only be able to happen, most likely, with the cooperation of the borough, is to open up more housing. Housing constitutes about 30 to 35% of most people's individual discretionary income, and so if we can work to make housing more plentiful, in theory, that should drive costs down a little bit for people, and that would probably be the best single thing we could do for our community.
- Terry Haines: Well, groceries and housing, those are two good things to zero in on. For housing, it's something that's being faced all across the nation, especially in communities like ours in Alaska, but we happen to be the worst. We have the least amount of supply and the highest amount of demand. And the way it was explained to us, that's kind of a good thing, because it motivates builders to build, but we've still had a tough time. Another factor with housing is more and more people are living at home as they get older, and staying in their own homes, and that's a great thing, but we have homes that once had an entire family and, then, maybe five or six people, and then the kids move away, and the parents are still living there into their older age, and you just have less density. You have less people in each house, and that creates less housing. In effect, that's a hard thing to put your finger on. I know council member Davidson has talked about our needs to have places where older families would be motivated to move out of the nice home that they're in with the low with the paid off mortgage at the low interest rate, and still move into some place like Emerald Heights that provides great things for them and services they might not be able to get. If we provide those kinds of options, we may be able to take a little off our housing market. But basically, it comes down to Team Kodiak. We can't really address housing without being in partnership with the borough, which has all the zoning powers. So between the borough and the city, we could probably come up with a pretty good housing plan. About groceries, you know, supporting these entities around our island who are having such great success in working on food viability, food access, and food security. And we have Koniag, I believe. No, Sun’aq is working on getting more food grown here in Kodiak. We don't live in a desert. It's amazing that we have very little food that's grown right here, and supporting those entities that are working on that would help.
- J. Alan Seale: Being that both established and incoming residents are employees, I think first I would look to promote a “buy local” culture. I would promote using local businesses, personally support the art walks, the farmers market and shop local downtown events and continue to cooperate with the Chamber of Commerce. Actually eat at the food trucks that we have here, and suggest using local vendors for civic organization events. I would like to establish local business support programs, support and cooperation with the KEDC for low interest loans or grants to new businesses, encourage the Kodiak College and the island research consortium to continue locally focused training and technical programs. I would like to see us invest in infrastructure and beautification by improving sidewalks, parking, lighting and signage downtown, along with the improvements and work at the Maritime Museum and Discover Kodiak. The KEDC downtown grant program was a good start to this kind of encouragement for downtown businesses. And although new business is important, supporting and helping existing businesses expand their services or offerings is also paramount to retainment. I would like to see the city streamline permitting and licensing. The city could look at the creation of a one stop business center that helps with zoning, permitting, licenses and compliance and processes for all businesses operating inside city limits, and I would look at deregulation for new and existing businesses within the practical means to streamline existing processes and the creation of new businesses. And I would like to see us create targeted tax incentives or fee reductions and offer property tax abatements reduced fees or sales tax rebates to existing or new businesses willing to invest in beautification, revitalization or the hiring of residents as employees.
- Mary Jean Silva: One of things that I advocate is for our Kodiak residents to stay here. I know there's a lot of price increase on groceries and housing and all that kind of stuff. So for me, I think what we need to do is go back to basics. What do we need? We need food. Can we grow food here? Do we have farmers? Do we have skilled people that can do farmers [sic]. Can we invest in greenhouses, larger greenhouses? There's a lot of land over here. Who owns the land? Let's find out who owns the land. Maybe they'll try to spare us some space and build something. There's a lot of property owners that they already have paid off all their properties, but yet they continue to increase their rent. The amount of rent increases every year, regardless of the already paid off. Maybe we should implement a policy that there's a cap on rent based on, of course, income of the individual. But if we don't have control of how businesses are raising their prices, of course they can raise their prices for however many and we just accept it and say, “Oh, there's a lot of expensive stuff, okay”? But if we work as a community, and say, “Hey, I own this piece of land. What do you need it for? What do you need a use for?” I'll be like, “Hey, we need a state of the art teen center. You know, we need it in our community, because we need to invest in our people.” We need to also encourage our elders to do volunteerism. We are always thinking of prices. We are always thinking of how much this costs, but what kind of talents do you have that we don't need to talk about the price. Let's talk about what we can do in our community with less cost or no cost.
Finding affordable housing in Kodiak continues to be a challenge for both established and incoming residents. What factors do you think are worsening the crisis and what solutions would you pursue to alleviate the issues?
- Terry Haines: As I said, we're not alone in having a housing crisis. We're just the worst. I think that addressing housing is going to have to take “Team Kodiak” all the way. We're going to have to work with the borough first thing, because the borough has zoning powers, and it's going to be very difficult for us to have a housing plan without engaging the borough. And they should be naturally part of the partnership anyway, but it's going to take a team. And I think a good example is the self help housing program that was implemented three years ago through USDA. And they contacted several entities. In fact, I have a list. In addition to the City of Kodiak, the Kodiak Island Housing Authority, RurAL CAP, Koniag inc., Housing Alaska, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, the Denali Commission, the Woody Island Tribal Council, and the US Department of Agriculture all teamed up on this. That's Team Kodiak right there. And Mindy Pruitt herded the whole group and our own mayor had a lot to do with pushing it and pushing the whole thing through. But in the end, we're breaking ground, we're clearing that land, and we're going to have 10 new homes there that are going to be built by the people who are going to move into them. So all the people in this first neighborhood of 10 homes are all going to build their homes. They're all going to put in at least 35 hours a week, each of them, and they're all going to build everybody's homes, and nobody moves into one house until all 10 are built. It's an amazing program, and we already have six people qualified. I have to say, I encourage everyone to get a hold of Mindy at the Kodiak Island Housing Authority and apply for this. If this is you, if you're a working person who has a good job, but you just can't get into housing and you're healthy enough, and you have the abilities and wherewithal to do this, apply for this self help housing program. That's the kind of thing we need to do. If this program goes all the way forward, we'll have a neighborhood of 25 homes there. It's not going to house everybody, but it's a good start, and it's the kind of collaboration that's going to be required.
- J. Alan Seale: I’m going to consult the most recent KEDC housing report for my answer here. People who answered the survey said that a lack of buildable land and costly infrastructure are major barriers to finding housing and public land sales often favor developers over locals. And while older areas like the Aleutian homes need major water, sewer and road upgrades, those houses are still not affordable. People want more land with development requirements and extending utilities and creating walkable neighborhoods with sidewalks and green space. We do have some major obstacles to those problems, high prices, often more than $400,000 for outdated homes, combined with rising interest rates and strict loan criteria put ownership out of reach for many. Renters in Kodiak have reported paying more than half of their income on housing, which leaves them no room to save for a down payment. Loan guarantees and other down payment help and programs would give locals a path to buy and build equity. We also should look at zoning and regulatory reform and permitting. I think that a look at the parking minimums in Kodiak would be a great way to reduce roadblocks in our development. Residents would also like smaller lot sizes, modular construction approvals and a faster and clear permitting to enable more diverse and adaptive housing, like multi use housing. The recommendations from this for the city are going to look like we should create a dedicated local funding to support development, pre development, and long term affordability. Thank you.
- Mary Jean Silva: Continuing my previous answer. I would pursue those people who own land, and I want to find out what's the problem. Why can't they let go of this? You know, selling land, or if there's land, where is it? And then, I’d actually started a group of us, of willing to invest in Kodiak and say, “Hey, I know housing is impossible, and it's impossible for one person to buy a property and build it. So why not?” Let's put our resources together as a small community, as small individuals, and let's put a loan together, all our investment together and build housing for whatever we can afford, for what we can do, because we start small, and small can make a big impact. And if we can do that, you know, maybe we can be like the role model for the other personnel and say, “Hey, that works out.” I know I can't afford it by myself, but if we have a group of investors that are willing to purchase land and build and, of course, work with the zoning personnel, and maybe there's some kind of waiver to the policy toward which allows us to build additional housing. And before we actually bring in some other people on our island. Let's look at the talents that we have here. Let's invest again in the local personnel, send them to training, allow them to see other places, other country around and then learn from there, and bring it back to Kodiak, so that you know, instead of bringing more people you know, let's invest on the people that we have over here, and whatever we can do as a citizen, let's let's start there. Let's build something together.
Mark Anderson: Back in 2020 when KEDC was formed, John Whiddon and Tom Panamaroff, Mike Pfeffer, and Carl Hertz, and I identified housing as our primary goal in getting something done. It was a huge issue. And I'm I'm thankful to say that we were successful, not in coming up with our own project, but we brought awareness to the entities that needed to and thankfully, Kodiak Island Housing Authority was able to take some of our input and awareness and and transition that to an actual project that's now happening. I'm very excited to see that. As I mentioned before, what factors are worsening? It's inflation and the cost of building – buying a two by four. And that's the gist of it. I mentioned a plan at the senior center the other day that if I had the crystal ball, if I could make things happen. I would go to the borough, ask for 100 acres behind Selief Street and put in 100 lots, and I wouldn't put in sewer. I would try to just pump our city water system water into that that development, which would greatly lower the cost to develop, because if you don't have to deal with grade and you don't have to deal with septic, you would still have to do septic systems, but you don't have to have the separation between the water and the septic, because there'd be no wells. That has a tremendous possibility of having some housing completed in a little bit of a new form, but that I would do everything I could to try and make something like that happen.
What would your priorities be during your two-year term if you were elected as mayor?
- J. Alan Seale: Probably first, just to survive. I do have a lot to learn, and I guess my first priority would be to make sure that I would have at least some small feet to fill the big shoes that I'm going to be coming after. I think that advocating for the City of Kodiak, for the harbor, is going to be one of the most important jobs that the mayor has to do after we finish up the fire station. My priority would be to learn and collaborate with the new City Council members to make sure that we could be effective, to learn the processes and to make sure that I ran the meetings appropriately. It's going to be a tough and uphill climb for any of us that are going to step into these shoes and to prioritize at least my own willingness to grow into the seat which I was elected for. I think would be very important. I also don't think that I would want to be mayor more than three terms. I think that's all that would be required of someone here. But during the first one, I think that it's most important to learn the job if you're elected, try to do your best. Prioritize what the city needs, and listen to the people who are going to help you do that and make sure that you can move the city forward in a manner which can bring the city respect and the position also.
- Mary Jean Silva: I know two years will go by so quickly. It's like, you close your eyes and it's done and over with. But I know in three months I would get to know who I need to work for, who I need to reach out to. I'll form what our goal is, get to know everybody in the community in the first three months, then the six months is to prioritize our goals. Where do we need to go and look for resources? And then put the goals in place, and then next year would be implementation of our goals. So how do we implement that? Who's in charge of it, of that project? I know council has a lot of job [sic] to do, but council is not the only one that needs to make a decision. We need to break down all these tasks so we can accomplish a lot within a year or two. So if the harbor is priority, then let's find out where are the money that's coming from so we can fix that issue over there and who's in charge? What's the deadline? What would be our accomplished timeframe? For me, I would like to plant the seeds to where all the next generation will benefit. I would advocate heavily on state-of-the-art Child Youth Programs, because I know I'm specialized in early childhood education. The school programs and community service to increase mental health support in the community. Because, again, for me, investing and knowing who I need to focus on more, which is the citizens of Kodiak. We need to bring morale, good morale in a community, and whatever that takes, we need to recognize each individual's skills, each individual's contribution. We need to listen to everyone and united, we can do it together.
- Mary Anderson: I've told people before that one of my first priorities is to dive into our city financial statements. My priority would be to dissect our city financial statements so I would understand that, not only we have a $16 million tax a sales tax revenue, but I want to know where that sales tax revenue is coming from, how much of it is coming from retail? How much of it is coming from big business? How much of it is coming from – we know that once that national law that Wayfair presented to the Supreme Court and we started collecting sales tax. We know that a million dollars is now coming into Kodiak's city coffers because of that – collecting sales tax from online or something close to a million dollars. So that's my number one priority. The number two priority, I would want to become on our lobbyist favorites, on their phone, and also the congressional folks. I might not make it on their favorites, but I would want to get the council, the entire council, in front of those people, and so that when a lobbyist received a phone call from me, they would say, “Oh, we know this is Kodiak mayor calling again,” so that we're not going to be able to. Harbor and housing are the two are the two priorities, but we aren't going to accomplish a lot unless we can generate some outside money to get those things done. So that's where I'd focus.
- Terry Haines: For capital priorities, the first three would be St. Herman Harbor, St. Herman Harbor, St. Herman Harbor. There's nothing more important. It looms over everything that we do. And it's not the entire body of Kodiak, but it is our heart. It's our beating heart, and our heart needs a heart transplant. That harbor is dissolving in front of us. When we have big storms, floats blow away. And the boats over there are well, very well, aware of that. And if St. Herman Harbor goes away, they'll go away too. And we have 700 boats in this town– that's a big fishing port. One of the biggest in the United States. Every single one of them is a business. We don't want to lose those businesses, and we will. So that's the most important priority, moving over everything. But in order to get those kinds of things done, I think I would really like to foster the greatest deal I can, Team Kodiak. And what I mean about is that, oh, I've just totally hit a blank spot there. Team Kodiak is very important. We need to be more collaborative. We need to have town hall meetings about things like Gibson Cove, the disposition of Gibson Cove and St. Herman Harbor. What's the best way to go forward? That and housing. And by having town hall meetings, and I totally agree with snacks and supplies and would get people to come to these meetings, because I know it's frustrating for most people to be rather limited in your engagement with the city government and even the borough government. You get your three minutes during the meeting, and there's no back and forth, because it's not allowed. That's not a conversation. We need to have town halls that will allow us to have real conversations about these real issues facing us, and that way, we can gather consensus. And with that consensus, we can more confidently go forward knowing that we have the support of the citizenry. And to help with that, I think we need someone on city staff who's directly involved with communication, just letting the public know what we do.
As Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies are challenged across the country, how do you plan to represent and support minorities and marginalized groups, which make up about half of the population of Kodiak?
- Mary Jean Silva: I know that's an executive order that has been told to us to remove in terms of our daily living, but Kodiak is a melting pot with lots of different cultures. Cultures, not as race. Culture, not as a color, culture as national origin, but we are a competent community. We are an intelligent community who can find solutions to problems. So let's identify those individuals and celebrate accomplishment together. No one is left behind regardless of where you come from or where your original race is. You are important and essential to the development of our city. Let's embrace everybody – everybody's talents, everybody's skills. It's like a 1000 piece puzzle. One is important to complete that puzzle, and each one of us plays that role. Your idea is not neglected or not listened to. Every idea is important in order to solve every issue that we're facing here in our community. So diversity of ideas is what we need to solve every problem that we're facing. So let's welcome every idea to every solution and together, let's solve problems one at a time.
- Mark Anderson: The actual issue for EEO – equal opportunity employment – is probably tasked to the city manager, and so our administration is going to be dealing with that on a regular basis. For the council, I think it would be important for us as a body to invite those minority groups and marginalized groups to attend and invite them to our meetings. To reach out and say, “Hey, we're having a work session. We'd like to hear from you.” And so that would be something I would try to do, is actually reach out to those groups and invite them to come and dialog with the Council.
- Terry Haines: Kodiak is a wonderfully diverse community. It's, a big part of our strength, is a rich tapestry of cultures that seem to interweave here in Kodiak, and all seem to coexist so beautifully. And I think that's something that we need to preserve, and it's also something that we need to expand. I think that part of being more robust as Team Kodiak is we start to go to these meetings. I mean, we attend FilAm Association meetings. We go to meetings that are being held by Native Tribes, villages and corporations, and we find out what they're working on, and we let them know what we have going. A lot of times, some of these communities are doing wonderful things. And just the question, “How can the city help?” might be very welcome to a lot of people. And I think asking the opposite question, if other entities, if a Native corporation, is doing something exciting, how can we help them? And how can they help us to achieve our goals? I think it's all part of realizing that we are much stronger because we have such a diverse community. And we have to make sure that we're serving everyone in our community. But it's easier, I think, for us, because Kodiak is just that way. I mean, everyone here in Kodiak seems, to me, to be happy and proud of our great amount of diversity, and I think we have to realize that we're all here together on one island. And we're separated by an ocean from everybody else in a lot of ways. I think Alaskans and island-dwellers are sort of the same way in that they tend to hang together, so they don't hang separately. I think that's what we have to keep in mind, is that we're all minorities and we're all marginalized at some point or another, and to realize that keeping our ears on and keeping our minds open is the way to make sure that we can help each other to the greatest degree we can.
J. Alan Seale: I think, as a leader in this community, one of the first things that you should probably do on this topic is seek understanding. This is the first step in learning acceptance or tolerance. Listen first and seek as much understanding as you could of your neighbors and your friends and the other people in the community, which you may not be as familiar with. A strong economy helps everyone here, and these are our neighbors and friends. I live across the street from Mary Jean, and just being able to listen to those people around you would be helpful. We do have a strong amount of service industry, and a lot of that industry employs minorities in our community, and so a strong economy will help all of us be able to have a better quality of life here. Keep fishing strong, make sure the waterfront stays intact, and help encourage entrepreneurship for new people who want to come to Kodiak that are in either of these groups. I think that the city can encourage these people by continuing its dual language printing in the newspaper, and making sure that the meeting materials may be even be presented in both languages, Tagalog and English. I think Kodiak is stronger because we are a strong, diverse community, and I think that the mayor's job would be to encourage that and to look forward to helping those people, however possible, with any issues that they may bring to the mayor, and be willing to listen to those people.
Candidates were given one minute for closing statements.
Mary Jean Silva: I would like to reach out to each and everyone's heart. We have issues that we've been facing, such as housing and it's been, in my experience, in talking to people that it's been a while that we haven't been able to solve that issue, or find solutions. We're moving very slowly forward. I really applaud the mayor for figuring out how to at least build 10 houses or more that are built by whoever wants to live there. But understand that there's a lot of people in this community that works 12, 16, 18 hours a day, and when do they have time to build that? Something that we have to consider. So if you also own land, please, you know, find a heart to share that in the community. So at least you know something small can build on something better.
J. Alan Seale: Thank you to everyone that tuned in and attended tonight and the organizers of this community forum. Thank you to my supporters and my family for supporting me throughout the campaign. The waterfront, our economy, our neighborhoods, these are all facing changes that are coming, whether we are ready or not. As your city mayor, I'll fight for this community and its residents at every opportunity, and I'll need guidance from you, Kodiak, on issues like our infrastructure and our harbors, quality of life and our complex and transitional economy. I do have a lot to learn, but what I can promise you is this, I will work hard every day to make Kodiak better prepared for our future and to listen, to learn and to act with the best information available to me. I'd be honored to have your vote to seal the deal on October the seventh.
Terry Haines: I was posed a question over at Emerald heights the other day. That was, ?why do you want to be mayor?” And I said, “you said that wrong.” You should have said, “Why? Why do you want to be mayor?” because it is a bit of a thankless job. It's definitely not a career. But I think I want to be mayor for the same reason that everyone in this dais does, is that I want to give back to this community that's meant so much to me. And the reason I think that I chose to run for mayor is because we're in an exciting time when we're going to have a big turnover, we're going to have new people coming in, and I think I can be that transitional figure who can help us run the meetings, who can help us transition into a new generation of leadership, and then I'll be gone after the two year term. And I hope that someone else can rise, can step forward, maybe from the City Council, to become mayor, because anyone who's ever done anything knows that experience does count. And if I'm elected mayor, I can tell you that there will be no hitch in our get along for lobbying and other functions of our government.
Mark Anderson: I was a little disappointed we didn't get a question that the city council candidates received, which is about the consolidation. I'm just going to touch on it briefly, that the number one issue that most people have talked to me about is, it's very frustrating not to have a voice in the city election and city decisions that affect them. And I just want to say that I heard that loud and clear, and I would want to do everything I could, to listen to the people. To listen, and to ponder and review and make wise decisions based on what the people have, the input they've given. I'm ready to help lead the council, and I'm excited for the future of Kodiak. Thank you.
