By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
After hours of testimony and debate about the mask ordinance at Tuesday night’s regular meeting, the Assembly wrapped up a number of budget and administrative items.
Prior to the meeting, the Assembly had a work session with a local company to discuss possible future development of its properties in the Benchlands on Kramer Avenue.
The company, Sound Development LLC, purchased four parcels from the city in 2013. Parcels A and B were developed, with some properties destroyed or damaged by the 2015 landslide.
The staff memo to the Assembly noted that the 2013 sale agreement said the company will “commit to a work session with the Assembly prior to the submission of the conceptual subdivision plat for Parcel C to the Planning Commission.”
Parcel C is located on the downhill side of Kramer Avenue and above the Sand Dollar Drive neighborhood.
Parcel D, also owned by Sound Development, is located northwest of Parcel C.
Planning Director Amy Ainslie said in her staff report, “Parcel C has a mix of Low, Moderate, and High landslide risk determination per the 2016 South Kramer Landslide Report” by the geotechnical firm Shannon and Wilson.
“The Low risk area of this parcel is on the southern end of the lot. Parcel D is similarly mixed, with 6 lots affected by the High risk designation, 16 lots with Moderate risk, and 12 lots in Low,” Ainslee said in the report.
The Assembly asked some clarifying questions about the Sound Development plans, but took no official action since it was a work session.
Jeremy Twaddle, a partner in Sound Development, said today the next step will be going to the Planning Commission for approval of a four-lot minor subdivision for the western section of Parcel C. The parcels the company plans to develop are the area designated by Shannon & Wilson as low landslide risk.
Explaining the reason for the meeting with the Assembly, Twaddle said: “The intent of running future subdivisions past the Assembly was imagining a major subdivision, but the wording said ‘subdivision.’ Because of the wording of the sales contract we were required to (have a work session).”
After passing the mask ordinance at the regular meeting, the Assembly:
– made some housekeeping decisions, including passing an ordinance to delete references in the Sitka General Code to commissions and panels no longer active: Sitka Hospital Board, seafood processing economic development committee and Historic Trust Board. The ordinance also changed the quorum requirements for the Library Commission, in line with an increase in 2003 in the number of members on the commission, from five to seven.
– approved a new position in the IT department. The vote was 6-1, with Valorie Nelson voting against. The budget item called for re-appropriating $120,000 from Contracted/Purchased Services to Personnel to allow the hiring of the new Systems Support Technician. The city had budgeted the same amount for extra help needed in the department, but after hearing from the Assembly during the budget process, created a permanent position.
– passed an ordinance adding $60,000 in additional expenses for extra legal and closing costs for re-funding the school bond debt service. Finance Director Melissa Haley said the re-funding will result in $650,000 in savings.
– approved on first reading an ordinance to roll over some funds from projects in fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2022.
– approved the transfer of $2.6 million to the public infrastructure sinking fund, from the undesignated fund balance for fiscal year 2021. Haley said funds were a combination of leftover CARES Act funds, funds (more than $800,000) from the American Rescue Plan for lost revenues during the pandemic, higher than budgeted sales tax revenue, funds from the Sitka Community Hospital dedicated fund, and belt tightening measures.
Haley commented that even with the large amount put into the sinking fund this year, the city is still behind in saving for needed infrastructure improvements. She noted that the city went from budgeting $2 million a year for infrastructure to zero in FY21 and FY22 due to the pandemic. The purpose of the PISF is to save for major infrastructure, “and ensure that any growth in the unrestricted fund balance goes to infrastructure,” Haley said.
Under Persons to be Heard at the end of the meeting, Valorie Nelson, speaking from the public side of the table, reiterated her concerns about comments Christianson reportedly made about unvaccinated people in an unrecorded portion of the Emergency Operations Center meeting. Christianson is the logistics section chief and Assembly liaison on the EOC.
