By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Candidates running for election to the Assembly voiced their opinions on Sitka’s economic conditions, housing situation and the possible purchase of the old Sitka Community Hospital by SEARHC during a virtual Chamber of Commerce forum Wednesday.
Responding to questions prepared by the Chamber and submitted by listeners, the three candidates for the two seats on the Assembly agreed that the high cost of living and the shortage of affordable housing have high priority among the issues facing Sitka. No questions were asked about the city’s mask mandate.
Candidates Kevin Mosher and Dave Miller took part in the forum. The third candidate for Assembly, Rachel Moreno, was traveling and unable to attend the live video conference. She spoke to the Sentinel today.
On the housing issue, Mosher, who is the only incumbent in the race, said he’s open to a wide range of ideas, but particularly hopes to encourage long-term rentals instead of short-term rentals. The city code defines short-term rentals as those of single dwelling units for less than 14 consecutive days.
“We need to... encourage any kind of opportunity to increase the capacity, the volume of houses on the market,” Mosher said. “Something that has been on my mind has been reviewing the Airbnbs. I don’t want to eliminate them at all, the explosion of Airbnbs has - and I haven’t really thought about it much until recently - is such that people are more motivated to have these very short term rentals, and so that’s eating up the long-term rental market. I would like to do things to encourage medium- to long-term rentals of housing units.”
Kevin Mosher
Mosher added that he favors privatizing some city lands.
“I’ve discovered since being on the Assembly that we are resource rich and cash poor, so we need to use what we have to our benefit,” he said. “We have public land available, it’s just sitting there not doing any good for anyone, just get it in private hands and we can start collecting property tax. But there’s so much more to that, like the (marine) haulout has so many benefits, something that is absolutely crucial for this town.”
Moreno said that for housing to be affordable, it must first become available.
“You can talk about affordability all you want, but if nothing is available then there is nothing to be affordable,” she told the Sentinel by phone. “And the barriers and obstacles to even build in Sitka, finding land and getting all the permits, the expense of it is incredible. Of course it can be done, but there is just so much more that could be and should be made available as far as land goes.”
Rachel Moreno
She also emphasized her support for finding housing for Sitka’s homeless.
“What I really want to push for first is housing for the homeless. The Homeless Coalition is working so hard and societies are always judged by how well they take care of their children, their elderly and their homeless,” she said, “and I just feel like until we address that issue it’s pretty difficult to move forward as we try to build back.”
To attract new residents to Sitka, she added, high quality healthcare and education are essential.
“We were at or close to 9,000 people not too long ago, and if Sitka were to attract people back to Sitka, we really have to make it attractive,” she said. “We have to put forth our best effort to help provide or make available land to build on, job security, adequate health care, and a good education for children. Those are the key things people look for when they are looking to move.”
Miller stressed the high cost of living in Sitka, particularly for younger people.
“One of the biggest problems we have is that it’s so expensive for a young couple to move to Sitka or live in Sitka and survive. They can’t do it on $20 an hour,” Miller said. “You can probably do it if both of them work for $20 an hour and may have enough to get out of town once a year.”
Dave Miller
As for housing, he acknowledged that there is no quick solution.
“In the long run, it’s going to be a long process to get this to happen, and I don’t think it’s going to happen by next year, that we have enough housing for all of the employees, if we get them all here. I’m not really sure what the solution is yet,” Miller said.
Candidates also discussed their views on the prospect of SEARHC’s purchasing the old Sitka Community Hospital.
Both Miller and Mosher expressed a degree of concern over the purchase, but noted that an expansion of SEARHC’s medical operations could bring additional revenues to town.
“I am for the sale of the hospital at this point in time, but I want to wait and see what the vote is, too, what the voters say, because that’s a huge thing. I think that the biggest thing that was brought up is that if we don’t sell the hospital, we need to come up with a plan right now on what’s the future of that building and that property,” Miller said.
An advisory question on the hospital property sale will be on October’s ballot alongside the elections for Assembly and School Board.
“(SEARHC) is bringing in a lot of business – at least this is the way that I’m seeing it now. A lot of people that are going to be paying taxes in different ways, and I hope that will sort of cover what we’re losing in the property tax value. Employee-wise they’re hoping to increase and gain numbers immensely, bringing in specialists and stuff like that. That will be a huge business for property taxes,” Miller said.
Mosher, speaking on the hospital sale, said, “In theory, yes I am in support of it. There is an offer on the table, I think it’s a fair offer and it does take a property that’s kind of just going to be sitting there, that we will have to maintain, and take it off our hands.”
“That being said,” he added, “with the advisory vote it is my plan to weight heavily what the advisory vote is... in my mind I was thinking, trying to figure this out, if there is a pretty clear majority, my intention is to vote that way; if it’s really tight, almost 50-50, I would have to think about that.”
But he noted that the expansion of SEARHC will bring many new people to town, a boon for the local economy. At the same time, he said, “I think we also need to be focusing on making sure we are prepared for the additional SEARHC employees or the additional tourists.”
Moreno noted that the possible hospital sale is a hot button topic and that she hopes to conduct more research.
“This is such a hot topic and I need to do more research on where they’re at with the purchase,” she said, “and I know people who have relied on Sitka Community all this time for their healthcare feel very passionate about it.”
While the Chamber forum did not touch on the contentious topic of masking during the coronavirus pandemic, Moreno told the Sentinel that she supports masking. For her, wearing a mask is a sign of respect for others.
“I fully support mask mandates... They’re necessary. We have to protect ourselves, our children, our families and our community,” she said, “and it’s a simple task to wear a mask. It’s a simple task to sanitize your hands, and so many places make masks available to people who don’t happen to have one. And it’s a sign of respect and consideration of others when you wear a mask.”
At the Assembly meeting last week, Mosher voted in favor of the first reading of a modified mask mandate that requires masking in public places when Sitka’s risk level is high. He told the Sentinel by phone today that he intends to vote yes on the final reading of the mask rule this coming Tuesday.
“My position has not changed... I based my decision in large part in testimony by the Chief Medical Officer of the state of Alaska, Anne Zink, highly recommending masks and vaccines,” Mosher said today.
After last week’s meeting featured interruptions from members of the public, Mosher hopes next week’s meeting will remain respectful.
“At Tuesday’s meeting, it’s my strong hope that people will be given the right to speak, but that the meeting will be done in a respectful manner,” he said.
The municipal election will be held Tuesday, Oct. 5, at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Advanced in-person voting started Monday at the hall. Polling hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.
Sitkans with questions about voting can call the office of the municipal clerk at either 907-747-1811 or 907-747-1826.
