Daily Sitka Sentinel

City Task Force Told Of Challenges Ahead

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

The Citizens’ Task Force received a grim picture of city and state finances at its second meeting Monday night.

“As bad as last year’s was, next year’s going to be 10 times worse,” City Finance Director Jay Sweeney told the committee.

The Citizens’ Task Force was appointed by the Assembly to come up with strategies and options for balancing the city budget. At its first meeting two weeks ago, the committee decided its top priority was to finish a report with “findings, recommendations and multiple alteratives.” Another priority was planning for the next 10 years.

At the meeting Monday, the committee agreed to meet weekly in order to finish the report by Jan. 1 so it can be used in preparation of the city and school district budgets. The next meeting will be 6 p.m. Monday at the Sealing Cove Business Center on Alice Island (the old elementary school), and will be devoted to presentations by some city departments.

Some of Monday’s meeting was spent on Sweeney’s presentations about the current challenges of the state budget, which will in turn affect the city and school district. The presentations were made with the assumption that not all on the committee are familiar with the inner-workings of city government, or the budget process at the city and state levels.

Attending the meeting were committee members Rob Allen, who is chairman; Max Rule, Lawrence SpottedBird, Dyan Bessette, Mary Magnuson and Cyndy Gibson. Jack Ozment, another committee member, was unable to attend. Tristan Guevin is the Assembly liaison on the committee.

Others attending included School District business manager Cassee Olin, City Administrator Mark Gorman, and a handful of members of the public.

Guevin said at the outset of the meeting it’s important to keep an open line of communication between the task force and the Assembly, and make sure the committee has a clear direction. He also raised a concern that the task force has representatives from Sitka Tribe of Alaska and Sitka Community Hospital but no representative from the School District. 

“(With the budget) the School District and the hospital are two big players in that,” Guevin said. “We can’t have a discussion on where we’re going without a voice from the School District beyond persons to be heard.”

A few others agreed, but Gorman pointed out that the city has no representative on the task force either. 

“I think that’s OK,” he said, noting that senior city officials can represent the city’s viewpoint from the audience. Allen, who is Sitka Community Hospital’s CEO, clarified later in the meeting that he is serving as a citizen, not as a hospital representative.

The second meeting of the task force drew a much larger audience than the first, and some testimony from the public. There are two opportunities at every meeting for public comment, at the beginning and end of the meeting.

Tim Ryan commented that the city should look at sharing the tax burden year-round instead of depending on summer businesses and visitors to pay 70 percent of the city’s taxes.

“Having other people pay for services, I think, is pretty short-sighted, in my opinion,” Ryan said. He said the committee should consider taking a look at the senior sales tax exemption, which is open to misuse.

“There are a lot of abuses,” he said.

Ryan also spoke against designated taxes for specific organizations. “Every year, organizations should justify what they need,” he said.

During the meeting there were a variety of opinions about the level of detail the group should get into in its recommendations. While some wanted to scrutinize each city job, each department and each line item in the School District, others said they didn’t think that was their job as a committee.

At the end of the meeting, Lois Rhodes testified from the public that for herself and many others, it’s not so much a question of what citizens are willing to pay for, but what they can afford.

Michelle Putz, who is on the Assembly but spoke as a member of the public, said she’s interested in what the community’s highest and lowest priorities are.

“That will give future decision-makers an idea of where the budget should be spent,” Putz clarified today.

The bulk of Sweeney’s presentation was on two packets of information. One was a broad overview of the city budget, including how the general fund and enterprise funds work; the other was about the economy of Alaska, which will affect every aspect of the city budget. 

Sweeney said the city will have difficult decisions ahead, and will need to be flexible and adaptable to respond to decisions at the state level. He noted the price of oil is currently under $45 a barrel, which is far below the $67 the state used in computing its income for the state budget.

“The state of Alaska is undergoing a radical, wrenching fiscal transformation, due to the sustained drop in oil prices, that will permanently reshape the state’s economy,” Sweeney wrote in his report. “The previously unthinkable is now a reality. Everything is subject to change. More than ever before, cities and towns across Alaska will be on their own to provide for the collective common good of their citizens.

“At both the state and local levels difficult choices will have to be made to balance the desires of the citizens for governmental services with the collective ability and willingness to pay for them.”

The two reports and other recommended readings are posted on the city website, under Boards & Commissions.