By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
At a special meeting on the budget Thursday, the Assembly expressed support for a study aimed at opening more public land for affordable housing, but made no final decision on areas to be considered.
It was one of a number of decision points on Administrator John Leach’s list for consideration at the more than two-hour meeting on the general fund.
Budget planning for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, always starts early in the calendar year, and the Assembly has already started work on the biggest single item in the city budget, local funding for schools.
On Jan. 19 the Assembly assured the School Board that they planned to fund schools to the maximum allowed by the state, $7,697,278, and add another non-educational funding increasing school-related funding to $8,827,498.
The meeting Thursday was to consider funding other parts of the city general fund budget, using a metric being introduced by Leach as part of the Sitka Strategic Plan adopted in 2022. A new feature in the budget process is that “any new (change from status quo) resource requested must have Resource Proposal(RP) form filled out.” The outline for the new budgeting procedure states that there is an “initial internal review process” for RPs, and “the administrator and team approves RPs for consideration by the Assembly“ for inclusion in the draft budget.
In her opening remarks to the Assembly Thursday Finance Director Melissa Haley said the city is on track to collect $2 million more in sales tax than was projected in the current year’s budget.
On the other hand, she said, there are many unknowns, such as the strength of the upcoming tourist season numbers, and inflation, which is still high at 5 percent.
“There’s also concern about the trajectory of the economy and what impacts that might have on us,” she said today. “If people start canceling trips that would have a significant impact.”
Discussion of a proposed $750,000 housing development study took most of the time at the special meeting. The goal would be to develop a plan to improve housing options in Sitka, including affordable housing.
The cost of the study would vary depending on the number of areas to be studied, and $330,000 of that could be covered by capital funds previously set aside for development of the Benchlands off Kramer Avenue.
The Assembly discussed the pros and cons of various areas listed as possibilities for housing development, including state-owned land up the Indian River Valley, the city-owned land in the Kramer Avenue Benchlands; and city land northeast of Sitka High School. They also weighed the pros and cons of studying a smaller area at a lower cost.
City Planning Director Amy Ainslie said today the discussion of specific areas to study is premature at this point.
“We are still in the conceptual phase of defining the work,” she said.
Housing has come up in community surveys as one of Sitkans’ top concerns, and the goal of the study is to see what Sitka’s options are. The budget for the item is intended to cover such items as geotechnical evaluations and civil engineering issues.
“Soil types, wetlands delineation and landslide risks,” Ainslie said today.
The Assembly in general was in favor of the proposal which will come back before the Assembly when they approve items for the general fund budget.
“What the hope is once we get this study, get this work done, and we can start to get an idea of how much it is to develop it, we can go to the state and the feds and ask for help (to develop it),” Thor Christianson said. “It’s pretty important and it can make a huge difference.”
Kevin Mosher said the 12- to 18-month study could provide options for a diversity of housing alternatives.
“This is a big ask,” he said, noting the dollar figure, but said it could make a difference. “This is a very in-depth report that will help us take real action to address the housing problem.”
Leach said the study is not just about housing development and availability, but affordable housing as well.
Haley showed five slides, with costs related to the five goals in the new strategic plan: Quality of Life, Communication, Sustainability, Infrastructure, and Service.
A summary slide showed the number of employees for next year citywide unchanged from the current year, although Leach and Haley highlighted a few positions that would change from fiscal year 2023 to FY24.
Under the Quality of Life goal, that included not filling a code enforcement officer position to enforce city regulations in such departments as building, planning and police. The position was never advertised or filled.
Some of the items in this category are expenses that have been in the budget for years, including funds for the Blatchley pool, $100,000 for the Sitka Historical Society, and $80,000 worth of services for the senior center to maintain vehicles and the building. Another item is a $25,000 city contribution to the RIDE public transportation, which is also a regular item in the budget.
The second item was toward improved communications and strengthening relationships within the community and city hall. One was the ongoing support for the SAFV Shelter at the usual $50,000, and a record migration and digitization project, which is intended to improve employee and the public’s access to records.
The current records center is in the Sealing Cove Business Center, and the initiative would move records onto a laserfiche program, which would be accessible to the public, the Assembly was told.
A slide for Sustainability includes items in the current budget, including $70,000 to support Sitka Economic Development Association, which is an increase of $7,000 from last year.
Also on the list is $70,000 for supporting large scale construction projects, such as those related to the new SEARHC medical center.
Under the goal of planning and investing in infrastructure, one engineering position - the asset manager - will be moved from public works into administration, with a focus that is more organization-wide than just the public works department, Haley said.
Under the same goal, public works will recruit for a new engineer, bringing the total number of engineers to three, of which only one position is filled. An additional $100,000 would be allocated for public works engineering support for the $150 million in public works projects under way, including the haulout at GPIP, new airport terminal, the floatplane base and seawall.
Also on the list is $20,000 for a “vehicle monitoring system,” to reduce non-city use of city vehicles, and keep track of where the vehicles are at all times.
The goal of Service has a few items, including $88,000 for a new time tracking system to “ensure employees are correctly compensated and that time is spent efficiently.” Leach said it currently takes him an hour every two weeks to review and verify department head’s time cards with the current system.
Also under that item is replacement of the voting tabulator, for $16,000.
“The one we currently have we purchased in 2014, and the lifespan is about eight to 10 years,” said City Clerk Sara Peterson. “On this last election we had a significant number of paper jams and things that can create questioning in the public eye.”
The state and most cities have replaced theirs already, Peterson said.
In a few items of discussion at the end of the meeting, the Assembly floated a few ideas for future discussion including lights for the community playground, and the shortage of volunteers in the Sitka Fire Department. A request for three full-time firefighters/EMTs did not make the final cut in the budget.
“It’s getting harder and harder to cover routine EMS calls and we’re having to pay more overtime for staff call-back,” Fire Chief Craig Warren said today. He expressed concern about the staff overtime hours leading to burnout.
“The fire department has not had an issue covering calls,” Warren clarified. “We’ve made sure we are covering every call. This resource request was primarily to get this discussion started. If I didn’t get it started this year, it would be more difficult to get it in two or three years.”
Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz noted that emergency services is one of the core services the city is expected to cover. He said he’s not advocating for adding the three FTEs in the fire hall, but he would not be surprised to see a request for that in the next year.
Warren said the current EMT I class has 12 students, who upon graduation in early April could serve on ambulance calls.
The next budget meeting is 6 p.m. February 23 on enterprise funds such as harbors, electric, water, wastewater, garbage, marine services center and the Gary Paxton Industrial Park.
