By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly Tuesday approved accepting a $1 million “no strings attached” donation from Norwegian Cruise Line to help offset the economic impact of the cancellation of two cruise ship seasons.
But members held off on deciding whether to spend it, and what to spend it on.
The vote was 4-1 on the motion, with Kevin Mosher, Rebecca Himschoot, Crystal Duncan and Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz in favor, and Valorie Nelson against it. Kevin Knox had to leave the meeting early and Thor Christianson was absent.
The motion that passed was to accept the donation and once it’s received for the Assembly to discuss and decide on how to dedicate the funds.
No Assembly member suggested rejecting it. The main debate was whether to dedicate the funds to capital projects and reserves; Nelson’s motion was to that end.
The vote on her motion was 1-4, with Nelson casting the lone vote in favor.
Some members said they would probably agree with the suggestion, but that more discussion was needed before dedicating the funds.
“I want to have a process,” Himschoot said.
Norwegian Cruise Line has a 15-year history of cruise visits to Sitka, with port calls by some of the company’s 700-passenger vessels, including the Regatta and Seven Seas Mariner. The company has included Sitka in its 2022 itinerary for the Norwegian Spirit, which carries about 2,000 passengers, the Sentinel was told.
Hospital Expenses
The Assembly passed on introduction an ordinance to increase appropriations by $425,000 to cover long-term contracts, legal expenses and increased unemployment costs, related to the sale of the Sitka Community Hospital business to SEARHC.
The explanation in the ordinance says that this addresses “both final determination of accounting treatment of certain contracts as well as previously unknown legal expenses and an increase in unemployment costs for previous SCH employees.”
It will be up for final reading and public hearing at the May 11 Assembly meeting.
The expense is related to Assembly approval, at the hospital’s request, of purchasing a new CERNER Electronic Health Records system for $5 million. SCH was in the middle of implementing the new system, when the hospital business was sold to SEARHC under the Asset Purchase Agreement. The agreement to purchase the EHR included a provision to get out of the contract.
Haley said this expense in the ordinance is mostly related to paying CERNER to get out of the contract, which this year cost the city $366,000.
“We have exercised the early termination and that liability is closed,” she said.
The funds will come out of the hospital dedicated fund, established for the tobacco tax and used to subsidize the community hospital. It’s also where the city deposits annual payments from SEARHC for the sale.
The fund balance at the end of fiscal year 2020 in that fund was $1.1 million in the red, Haley said.
“As we pay off the liabilities it’s going to start to replenish,” she said. “It’s not at all surprising - recording the entire first year - that it’s got a negative fund balance. As we finish paying off the hospital’s liabilities we’re not incurring new liabilities so we’ll slowly get healthier.”
The vote was 4-1 with Nelson opposed.
Public Emails
On another agenda item, the Assembly approved setting up a new option for citizens writing emails to the Assembly and city staff.
The change, proposed by Mosher and Knox, was intended to limit the number of emails sent to Assembly members that were forwarded to the administrator.
With Tuesday’s vote, there now are four options for the public to send emails:
To Assembly members: assembly@cityofsitka.org
To the Assembly and administrator:
assemblyandadministrator@cityofsitka.org
To the Assembly and department heads:
assembly.departmentheads@cityofsitka.org
And to just department heads:
department.heads@cityofsitka.org
Nelson voted no, saying the previous system was better because members of the public should be able to contact the Assembly without the emails being forwarded to staff.
“It’s all about trust. There has not been a lot of trust,” she said. “People need to be able to reach out to elected officials,” and expect the emails will not be forwarded.
Mosher agreed that it was about trust, specifically about a lack of trust, in the past.
“This changed,” he said.
The Assembly packet gives some background:
At the March 26, 2019, Assembly meeting, the administrator was directed to remove all department heads from the Assembly group email address. A motion failed on December 23 to add back the administrator, attorney and clerk to the group email address.
From the public, Richard Wein pointed out that all communications to public officials on the city website may be accessed by members of the public through a Freedom of Information Act request, and are not private.
The city website says that as well:
“Note: Written communication with public officials generally are considered a public record and subject to disclosure (viewing and/or copying of the communication) pursuant to a public records request.”
Other Issues
In other business, the Assembly took care of a number of items in short order including:
- approving a lease termination for Christian Scantling and Deborah Wynsen at 725 Siginaka Way, effective April 1.
- approving liquor license renewals for Allen Marine Tours on Finn Island; and transfer of ownership of a liquor license for Pizza Express, to add another business partner.
- heard an update from the city’s lobbyists.
- passed on final reading amending of an ordinance (approved June 9, 2020), and establishing a new effective date. The ordinance extended the expiration date for refinancing a loan from the Alaska Energy Authority. Haley said the refinancing may save the city some $500,000 over 10 years.
- approved an ordinance on final reading to spend $65,000 on audiovisual upgrades at Centennial Hall.
- approved issuing an RFP for 8,400 square feet of cold storage at the Marine Services Center.
- approved terms and conditions related to Seafood Producers Cooperative lease activities, effective May 1.
