Daily Sitka Sentinel

Assembly to Tackle Big Agenda Tonight

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    A preliminary resolution to remove Keith Brady as city administrator is on tonight’s Assembly agenda.
    The resolution is co-sponsored by Aaron Bean, Richard Wein and Kevin Mosher. Under the city charter the administrator serves at the pleasure of the Assembly,
    While the charter states that a preliminary resolution for removal must state the reasons for removal, the document to be introduced tonight states only that “the Assembly hereby states its desire to pursue a change in legislative policy and administrative philosophy which the Assembly believes would be best achieved with a new administrator.”
    The charter gives an administrator the right to request a public hearing within five days of receiving the preliminary resolution for dismissal.
    The removal resolution is near the end of a lengthy agenda that includes final approval of budgets for the 2020 general fund and enterprise fund budgets.
    Four items are slated for executive sessions: an update on the litigation related to the 2015 Kramer Avenue landslide “including consideration and potential action upon a settlement offer after executive session.” The Assembly is also slated to take up a forbearance agreement related to the Baranof Island Brewing Company, a lawsuit filed by Rutter dba 738 Taxi LLC, and a claim by the city against a utility customer for “equipment tampering/power theft.”
    The public works department will present its plan for the Lincoln Street repaving project that includes new “bulb-outs” near crosswalks, ADA-accessible ramps and a larger pedestrian area around St. Michael’s Cathedral.
    Several items related to Sitka Community Hospital are also on the agenda, including amended resolutions to change the date that Sitka Community Hospital employees will be removed from the Public Employees Retirement System and the Supplemental Benefits System. The original date was June 30, but needed to be changed after SEARHC and the city announced a one-month delay in the closing date for the affiliation agreement between the two health-care entities.
    In a related item, an ordinance is up for first reading to cover the Sitka hospital for one month into the next fiscal year. The short-term budget shows $2,275,063 in operations and $1,926,536 in revenues. The item will be up for final reading June 25.
    Another budget ordinance up for introduction is for $422,000 in consulting services, professional valuation services and legal services related to the SCH-SEARHC affiliation.
    The six-page agenda also has a few other ordinances up for consideration. One would change the dates for the seasonal shifts in electric rates by a month, with the higher rate in effect from May through October, instead of April through September. Mosher during a budget meeting made a motion to cut the electric budget by $80,000 to make up for the expected loss in revenues from this ordinance. The motion passed.
    The lower rates would run between November and April. The ordinance, sponsored by Valorie Nelson and Kevin Mosher, is up on first reading.
    Mosher and Nelson have co-sponsored a ballot ordinance up for second and final reading that would call for a public vote on a charter amendment. At present all proceeds from public land sales go into the city’s permanent fund. The proposed change would divide land sale proceeds equally between Sitka Permanent Fund and the Capital Projects Fund.
    If the ordinance is approved the question will be on the October municipal election ballot.
    The Assembly also will decide on an allocation of $35,592 in the fisheries enhancement fund. Voters in 2006 approved a $10 per box levy on fish caught by charter customers, with 20 percent of the funds going to fisheries enhancement projects.
    The Sitka Sound Science Center has applied for $35,592 and Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association has asked for $10,000.
    The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall.