Four seats on the Borough Assembly are up for grabs this year. Three of them are three-year terms, currently held by Assembly members Steven Ames, Bo Whiteside, and Mark Anthony Vizcocho. Vizcocho was appointed to the seat left vacant by Dave Johnson earlier this summer.
The fourth seat is a one-year term currently held by Assembly member Caroline Roberts after she was appointed last year in October to fill Ryan Sharratt’s vacant seat. Roberts is running against Alexander Sweeney, a Kodiak High School alumni who works in commercial insurance at Umialik Insurance Company. Sweeney was one of four applicants last month who threw their names into the hat for the temporary seat left vacant by Johnson.
Running for the other three assembly seats are two incumbents, Ames and Vizcocho. Former Borough Mayor and longtime assembly member Scott Arndt is also running for what would be his fifth stint on the assembly. According to borough records, Arndt was first elected to the Borough Assembly in 1980 for a three-year term, then again in 1997 for a second three-year term, then in November of 2018 for a one-year term and most recently in 2019 for a third three-year term.
Otherwise, the remaining four candidates are newcomers to Kodiak municipal government. Shawn Brekke is an owner-operator of a local welding business called Industrial Maintenance Solutions. Kaleb Callahan, who turns 24 years old shortly after the election, is an economic development specialist at Kodiak Area Native Association. Adam Powers is the director of Facilities and Maintenance at the Kodiak Island Borough School District, who previously worked on Coast Guard Base Kodiak. And Jeremy Williamson is the owner of AIM Maintenance. None of them have been elected to the local borough assembly or city council before.
Two seats on the KIBSD School Board up for election this year are uncontested. Both incumbents, Kerry Irons and Duncan Fields, have filed for their respective three-year terms.
And as for the three City Council seats on the ballot this October, only Nick Mangini and Charlie Davidson have filed to run. According to City Clerk Brandy Warnecke, this is the first time in her career with the city that she has seen fewer applicants than there are seats up for election.
That means, Warnecke said via email, that a write-in candidate could potentially win the third council seat. But the city will have to verify if any of the write-in candidates qualify and if they’re willing to serve after the October municipal election results are in.
This year’s municipal election day is Oct. 6. Early voting begins on Sept. 21 in the Borough building.
