Assembly Candidates State Views at Forum

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Category: News

Created on Thursday, 19 September 2024 15:06

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By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Addressing policy topics including housing, child care, tourism and their reasons for running for office, three of the four candidates for the two Assembly seats in the Oct. 1 election spoke at a Chamber of Commerce forum Wednesday.
    Robert Hattle, a semi-retired nurse, Austin Cranford, who works at the University of Alaska, and incumbent Assembly members Scott Saline and Kevin Mosher are in the race. Saline was not present for the forum.

Assembly candidates, from left, Kevin Mosher, Austin Cranford and Robert Hattle participate in a candidates forum at the Westmark Hotel Wednesday. Candidate Scott Saline was not present. (Sentinel Photo)

    Asked about leadership style, Hattle, Cranford and Mosher all stressed the importance of listening to others.
    “It starts with listening. People need to be listened to,” Hattle said. “They might have a differing opinion than you have, but you’ve got to listen to them first. After you’ve listened to several people, you need to create your position and your viewpoint, and it needs to be a strong voice… There’s both courtesy and also political advantage to go back to the people that you listen to and tell them what position you’re taking. And in fact, it’s important to tell the people that have a different position than you.”
    Mosher, who’s seeking his third term on the Assembly, said, “I’m not really into dramatic confrontations at the Assembly table or even in public. I believe… it’s important to listen. In my six years here, a lot of the time when I’ve been most effective is when I meet with people for coffee,” Mosher said. “I do a lot of that. I meet with other Assembly members. I organize some staff meetings. It’s all about that interaction before a meeting, so that when you get there, the business isn’t complete or done, because of the Open Meetings Act, you have to abide by that, but that you’re more informed... Sometimes I’ve actually changed my mind at the table, because I think about it, I think, ‘OK, this person, that makes sense.’”
    Austin Cranford likewise said it’s vital to be a good listener.
    “We do need to listen to people, but we also need to make sure that we have all of the factual evidence,” he said. “I know, especially in tight-knit communities like ourselves, we do have those two extremes. While we should be listening to the two extremes, we also need to make sure that we’re not forgetting about the people in the middle. And if people are taking a position or making an argument or having a discussion, they need to make sure that they have the evidence to back it up.”
    The candidates also laid out the goals behind their campaigns, and addressed a question regarding the role of Sitka businesses and the Chamber of Commerce.
    Cranford said he’d like to see reduced living costs and a balance between locals and the tourism industry.
    “My campaign is still mostly the same, lower cost of living, fixing the housing issue... The plan is to get in there and allow sustainable growth for the city and the community,” Cranford said. “We want it to be where both the citizens and the business community are able to coexist. I know I spoke with several business owners last year, and during that high peak part of the season, it was getting to the point where there was too many visitors in Sitka for them to reliably handle.”
    Hattle highlighted his time working in medicine, as well as his role as a member of the Sitka Community Hospital Board.
    “I have a 45-year career in nursing and hospital administration. My primary clinical passion and love is emergency room nursing. Worked in both emergency rooms here in this community, have since right before the pandemic, retired out of emergency room nursing, and have gone on and now am semi-retired... One thing that I really am very passionate about here in Sitka is how actively involved the business community is in the day-to-day operation of our community.”
    Mosher said an economic priority should be to increase overall prosperity in the community, so city tax revenues rise without raising tax rates.
    “I believe business is absolutely essential for the survival and the thriving of any group of people. One of my philosophies is theoretically to fund government is to increase the tax revenue by being positive and friendly so that businesses can increase their activity... I’ve done everything I can to help keep the tax burden on people and businesses as low as possible.”

Child care
    A question on the future of child care drew mixed answers, though all three acknowledged its importance.
    “I believe child care is extremely important,” Mosher said. A city survey of business community members showed their top two concerns were housing and child care, he noted.
    “I would love to have enough money for us to support and directly subsidize those things. Unfortunately, at this time, we need to be looking at creative ideas,” he said.
    Cranford said he sees the Assembly’s role as “supportive and advisory.” He agreed with Mosher that “there is no money on the city side to subsidize the housing... We should support the nonprofits, the state institutions and other institutions. I know there was talk about possibly doing a preschool.”
    The school district superintendent has aired the possibility of starting a pre-K child care program.
    “If an opportunity becomes available where regulations can be changed, or if the city comes into a pot of money from the tourism or how, wherever the money comes from, where we can use it to help child care, I think we should use it for that, because in the long run, it’ll improve the economy and the community,” Cranford said.
    Hattle noted child care is a problem across the country because “we have had a rapid change in our economy, not just locally, but across the country, and where child care costs have not kept up with salary increases or accessibility.”
    “The city should never be in the business of child care,” Hattle continued. “And even if we had a big pot of money, I think it’s us working together... I’m going to segue that into a little bit different – I get asked, I’ve been asked several times, ‘why are you running for Assembly?’ And kind of hidden in that question is, ‘why are you so foolish?’ ... We have very pressing issues, the haulout, tourism, housing, child care, are stuff that I feel needs to be pushed uphill, the uphill battle, but more importantly, I see the overlying arc, regardless where you’re at politically, nationally or statewide, our democracy is in distress, and the only way we’re going to re-strengthen our democracy is by working locally where we’re not partisan, we work shoulder to shoulder.”

Housing
    The shortage of housing for year round residents also came to the fore at Wednesday’s meeting, and the question drew responses ranging from a push for smaller lot sizes to opening up more land for development.
    Cranford said, “the chief cause of the housing issue is obviously that we don’t have land, and then the land that we do have was not properly developed when it was made open to development. Some things that the Assembly can do... is reducing lot sizes. I know – I’m having to deal with that right now. I’m trying to build 40 rental units on a property that I bought earlier this year, and lot sizes make it very difficult to put the units, even though they’re not very big units, because of how the lot size is designated, it makes it very difficult to get those units placed to where it abides by city ordinance.”
    Cranford likewise said he’s open to the idea of building upward, and it’s unlikely the city will gain access to additional lands for development any time soon.
    “We’re not getting any more land,” he said. “The Katlian Bay Road project was, for a lack of a better term, not successful, and is not looking to be successful in any short-term capacity. So we need to make sure that we’re making good use of the land that we have.”
    Hattle noted SEARHC’s model of building housing for its employee as a possible model for the city, and said he supports denser development on lands around town.
    “The secret is density. The model of everybody having a nice little lot and a house in the middle of it is good, and we need to develop more of that, but we also need to increase the density,” Hattle said. “I think we need multiple family housing, and we need to increase the density of living downtown, so we don’t roll up Lincoln Street every night as Disneyland, but people actually live and thrive downtown. That’s where we can start increasing density.”
    Mosher said if he moved to town now, he could no longer afford his home because of housing inflation, and expressed concerns regarding the impact of short term rentals on the housing market.
    “I’m concerned that some people who want to visit here a couple of weeks out of the year might be buying some high end places. The VRBOs, they’re good. They have their goods and their pros and cons, but I think some of the causes could be possibly that people who would normally do rent long term rental might be doing short term because you can make a lot more, and you can’t blame them for that, and there’s more than that,” Mosher said. “... The city is doing a land study that’s beginning soon, and it’s to find out all the available land that the city has and what we can develop... We need to have some things in places designated for trailer parks, module homes, high density housing, things that people can afford.”
    He said he also supports smaller lot sizes.

Tourism
    The topic of the visitor industry and its future in Sitka brought out differences between candidates.
    Hattle said, “Sitka is at the crux of a great opportunity. We’re already seeing it happen, people that have an entrepreneurial attitude or some skill at it. There are great opportunities out there to start a business to thrive in it... I’ve been door to door in the downtown business sector, there are people who run long-term businesses here in town, they’re not happy with the tourist industry. It overwhelms their staff. They’re too busy selling postcards, and they don’t have the time to get to the back and sell nicer artwork or bigger price items, because they’re selling too many postcards or too many fur-lined underwear... We have one of the most beautiful streets in Alaska, Lincoln Street, good or bad, we decided to close it, but whatever we did, right in the middle of it, we put an outhouse. Come on, guys.”
    Asked about a possible cap on tourist numbers via ballot measure, Hattle said there is already pressure placed on the cruise ship industry by locals, and he’d like to see things work through the process with the city and the industry.
    “I think that those who are looking for a cap have already created some pressure that the industry is backing up a little bit, and we’re seeing that people that the industry is saying, ‘Yeah, we’ll give you one day a week, and maybe shortening the shoulders of the length of time,’” he said.
    Mosher said he’s looking forward to the work of the new city tourism commission.
    “We’ve been aggressively trying to get tourism, to increase it and because people forget how low it was before, and it has increased,” he said. “So the point, in this situation, is to manage it. Well, the other thing I can think of is, when you’re making changes, if you’re doing a policy change, you really need to think ahead about what that will do for businesses...  Any changes if you’re going to do them, they need to be brought to the whole community, perhaps a town hall, things like that, meet with people and find out from various members of the community, including the business community, to find out how that change will affect them.”
    Mosher said he doesn’t support a ballot measure to cap cruise tourist numbers, but noted that the city and Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal are working to reach a joint understanding on the matter.
    The proposed ballot measures to limit tourism, all of which have been rejected by the city clerk, “would basically shutter the prosperity we have right now,” Mosher said. “I think, again, tourism should be managed. That’s why we have a tourism manager coming on board. We need to work collaboratively with the industry to come up with numbers that fit.”
    Austin Cranford said he suspects the rapid rise in cruise visitation is part of a boom-bust economic cycle.
    “There’s no reason this cycle will be any different regarding a boom-bust cycle, I’m skeptical of putting all of our eggs in one basket,” he said. “It’s great that new businesses are opening. It’s great that the city is receiving income. It’s like, what do we do when we end up on the downside of that cycle?”
    Cranford supported the question on limiting cruise numbers on the ballot, but said he would vote against the measure personally.
    “Just on a democratic level, petitions should go on the ballot, and if they get voted down, they get voted down. That’s the will of the people; we live in a democracy,” Cranford said. “... If it did end up on the ballot, I would vote no. I would vote against it, because we don’t have the data for a cap. I personally support the tourism industry; I own shares within Norwegian Cruise Line.”
    Early voting is now open at Centennial Hall from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each weekday until the election, as well as Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. On election day, Oct. 1, voting will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
    While there are four candidates for the two Assembly seats, only one candidate has filed for School Board, which has two three-year seats to be filled. The election code permits write-in candidates to be elected, but a write-in vote won’t be counted unless the candidate has registered as a write-in with the city in advance of the election. The period to register as a write-in candidate will close Sept. 26.
    The Oct. 1 ballot also has two ballot propositions, both of which would make technical changes in the city charter, one regarding Sitka Community Hospital, which has been sold to SEARHC, and the other making the rules for voter recall of an elected official comply with those in state law.

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