Marquis For Kenai

At the November 2, 2011 meeting, the first couple of items took up most of the time.

First, we approved ordinance number 2586-2011. This ordinance rezoned a piece of property from “Rural Residential” to “Heavy Industrial” which sounds like a major change, right? Well, perhaps not. The owner of the property — for full disclosure’s sake, the parcel is owned by Kenai’s City Manager, Rick Koch — originally planned to build a house and a large shop on the property. Before developing the parcel, he came across a great deal on a different house and purchased it. Now, he wanted to still build his shop on the original parcel but since it was zoned residential a lone shop wasn’t an allowed use. As a private property-owner, he initiated the process of applying for a rezone. The Planning and Zoning Commission held their independent hearing and recommended the rezone to Council by a vote of 5 – 1, before it was sent to the City Council.

A couple of things are worth nothing about the property. This property is accessed off of Bridge Access Road. The parcel is adjacent to parcels in the Walker Lane and Rogers Road neighborhoods; however, development is limited due to the slope of the bluff in that area. Further, the natural topography maintains a buffer between this parcel and the other residential areas. The bluff, gulley, and anadromous stream that runs through the parcel would prohibit most types of industrial development that would have a negative impact on residential areas. The property was also already bordered by Heavy Industrial-zoned parcels. The applicant’s intended use — a personal shop — coupled with the natural limitations to major development (in the case of future property owners) eased some of my concerns about expanding Heavy Industrial zones that abut Residential zones. Councilmember Molloy made a motion to postpone the ordinance, contract with a private planning firm, and contract with an outside attorney to get an entirely independent recommendation, which would assuage concerns that the rezone applicant was also at the top of the administrative hierarchy in the City. This motion ultimately didn’t pass and my reason for voting against it was that I believed that a private planner would come to the exact same recommendation that Council received otherwise, but at the cost of thousands of dollars. Following a couple of minor amendments to the supporting language, the ordinance passed 5 to 2, with Councilmembers Molloy and Boyle dissenting.

The next item on the agenda was ordinance number 2587-2011, which is intended to change and codify the existing process for appointing members to the Planning and Zoning Commission. The ordinance is the result of a worksession held in May following a different ordinance that was unsuccessful. The ordinance, sponsored by Councilmembers Bookey and Molloy, creates a period of advertisement of vacancies on the commission and provides time for the Council and the public to review the applicants the Mayor intends to appoint. Code requires that the Mayor nominate commissioners and the Council either confirms or rejects the applicant. Since the Council has the responsibility of confirming or rejecting nominations, I feel it is important that the Council has some advance notice of whom the Mayor intends to nominate. Planning and Zoning Commissioners have a fair bit of influence over how the City is developed and it is important that Councilmembers are afforded the opportunity to take their responsibilities of confirmation seriously and not on the spur-of-the-moment. That said, I felt ordinance that the ordinance created a process that was too time-consuming and left the Planning and Zoning Commission with vacancies that were too extensive. After much discussion and procedural moves, the Council ultimately postponed the ordinance and scheduled a worksession for further discussion. The ordinance will come back to Council in December with, I’m expecting, certain amendments that expedite the process of filling vacancies.

Following those two ordinance, the Council appropriated funds – most of it grant funding – to a number of different projects. Among the grant funding was $1.75 million for the Kenai Bluff Stabilization Project, $200,000 for the City Hall Improvements Capital Project Fund, $761,650 for the Kenai Industrial Park Capital Project Fund, and $100,000 for the Municipal Roadway Capital Project Fund. Among other appropriations was $50,000 for the Cemetery Improvement Capital Project Fund and $37,470 for the Kenai Comprehensive Plan Project Fund. The City also appropriated a $5,000 donation from Marathon Oil, who are providing the donation along with volunteers to support the Annual Peninsula-Wide Senior Thanksgiving Dinner.

The City adopted its Capital Projects list for state and federal funding requests.

Prior to adjourning the meeting, the Council met in Executive Session with the City Attorney and City Manager to discuss and provide direction regarding the new City Clerk’s contract. Following the session, Council returned and instructed the Mayor to enter into an employment contract with Sandra Modigh, who will begin working for the City in December.

The 3 hour and 45 minute Council meeting adjourned at 10:45pm.

Unapproved minutes for the meeting can be viewed here.

At the October 19th, 2011 Kenai City Council meeting, we said goodbye to Joe Moore who had more than 15 years cumulative on the Kenai City Council. I appreciate Joe’s service to his community and for his often-impassioned approach to debate. Whether I agreed or disagreed with him on a particular issue, he always challenged me to do my best.

Councilmember Mike Boyle was sworn in for another term, along with Tim Navarre who is new to the Council. Tim Navarre served as the “Junior Councilman” as a high school student in the 1980s.

I was honored with being selected as the City’s vice-mayor. I look forward to serving the City of Kenai in that capacity and expect to work productively with Mayor Porter and the rest of Council in a manner that best serves the City and her residents. I’m truly grateful for the unanimous support from my colleagues and greatly appreciate their vote of confidence.

We had a relatively light agenda and moved through it fairly quickly. We awarded a contract to Nelson Engineering for design and engineering services to begin the Kenai Industrial Park project. This project will provide roads and utilities to a number of City parcels off of Marathon Road, which will encourage economic development within the City. Its designated zoning and proximity to the Kenai Municipal Airport should attract a wide range of new economic activity.

We assigned Council members to serve as liaisons to the Council’s various commissions and committees. I will be serving as liaison to the Council on Aging and look forward to listening to the discussion and advice coming from the committee.

The Council also confirmed the Mayor’s appointment of Clifford Smith to the Planning and Zoning Commission, Ryan Tunseth to the Parks and Recreation Commission, and Vonnie Pierce to the Beautification Committee.

Council approved of up to $500 for a congratulatory breakfast for the Kenai Central High School football team, which won the medium-schools state championship.

Before adjourning, we convened in executive session to discuss the contract for our newly appointed City Clerk, Sandra Modigh, and provided direction to our City Attorney, Krista Stearns. Mrs. Modigh will begin her career with the City in December.

For more information about this meeting, check out the unapproved (as of this writing) minutes (.pdf).
Also, here are some links to coverage of the meeting from the local media:
Peninsula Clarion’s Report
KSRM report regarding the Kenai Industrial Park
KSRM report regarding new Vice Mayor

The November 23rd regular council meeting was comparatively short, lasting only 51 minutes.

Vice Mayor Boyle chaired the meeting in Mayor Porter’s absence.

Ken Tarbox, of the Keen Eye Birders, spoke to the Council about upcoming birding events and festivals. He thanked the City for moving the gate at the city dock, allowing year-round access to the birding platform located on that road.

Due to unanticipated overtime by the Police Department, Council approved a budget transfer from the regular wages account to the overtime account.

We scheduled a couple of worksessions; one to discuss priorities with area legislators for December 21, at 6pm, the other to go over the results of a wind power generation study, scheduled for December 15 at 6pm.

The meeting adjourned at 7:51pm.

At the October 20th Council meeting, we certified the election results and seated two new Councilmembers. Brian Gabriel and Terry Bookey replaced Barry Eldridge and Hal Smalley.

Allow me to digress for a moment.

It’s hard to believe a year has already passed since I first sat down as a member of the Kenai City Council. Time has flown by, faster than I can keep up with it. It seems like I was just starting to understand how each member of the Council worked, and then 2/7ths of the body changed. I feel proud to have served for the past year with Barry and Hal, and I’m grateful for the years of service they have put in — and will undoubtedly continue to put in — to the service of our community. That being said, I look forward to the next year and the opportunity to build a professional relationship with Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Bookey. They ran solid campaigns and received impressive results at the polls. I have no doubts that both of them are going to be dedicated Councilmembers, and I look forward to the knowledge and experience they bring to the Council.

Following the seating of the new members, we postponed the election of the vice-mayor, as one of our members wasn’t present. Since the vice-mayor is elected by the Council, it only seemed right to make that decision with a full body.

We had two scheduled public presentations; both relating to the Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska project. The presentations both focused on concerns with the project, which will re-inject surplus natural gas into an existing depleted well, to be retrieved during periods of peak demand.

In regular business, the Council:

• Amended a Local Amendment to the National Electric Code 2008.
• Appropriated funds and authorized the purchase of land, for public use, within the City of Kenai from the State of Alaska.
• Authorized a budget transfer for snowplow/sanding services at the Kenai Municipal Airport, Flight Service Station, and the Alaska Fire Training Center.
• Supported the use of Economic Recovery Act funds for Buccaneer Alaska and possible other companies to acquire a jack-up drill rig for use in the Cook Inlet.

All of the former passed unanimously.

At the November 3rd Council meeting, the body elected Council Member Mike Boyle as Vice Mayor. I think it sends a good message to the community that, while they ran against each other for the office of Mayor, once the election is over we’re all on the same team.

Council appropriated $13,800 for professional services for the Visitor’s Center. This will allow the proper cataloging and inventory of the myriad items on display and in storage at the facility.

We appropriated funds for ADA upgrades at Vintage Pointe.

We awarded a contract for snowplow and sanding services at the Kenai Airport.

We also approved a lease agreement and authorized an amendment to the City’s agreement with the Kenai Convention and Visitors Bureau.

We sorted out Commission and Committee assignments for the next year (I’ll continue as liaison to the Library Commission, as well as serve as liaison to the Airport Commission and an alternate to the Planning and Zoning Commission).

We had a brief discussion on whether we should allow telephonic participation for Planning and Zoning Commissioners, but withheld from taking any action.

Additionally, we scheduled some Board of Adjustment hearings.

Just prior to the meeting, City Administration provided a lay-down draft of a letter he wanted to send in support of an Alaska Municipal League resolution regarding Alaska’s Little Davis Bacon Act. There was discussion to the effect that since this wasn’t listed on the agenda and publicly noticed, that action on it should be postponed. Administration hoped that we would take action prior to the AML conference, and noted that there weren’t any other Council meetings prior. A motion was made to schedule a Special Meeting to entertain a resolution regarding AML’s request and satisfy the time constraints. The motion for the Special Meeting had the approval of a small majority.

The action agenda for the meeting can be found here: http://ci.kenai.ak.us/clerkspage/2010%20Action%20Agendas/2010action24.pdf

The minutes of the meeting can be found here: http://ci.kenai.ak.us/clerkspage/2010%20Minutes/2010minutes24.pdf (At the time of this post, the minutes aren’t uploaded; however, this link should work once they are.)

Finally, the entire packet can be read or downloaded from here: http://ci.kenai.ak.us/clerkspage/2010%20E-packets/2010e-packet24.pdf (.pdf)

At the October 6th Council Meeting, we authorized City Administration to submit an application for a federal grant to support the ongoing restoration project at the Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church. During the course of the making restorative changes to the Russian Orthodox Church, asbestos was found and needed to be removed. This grant comes with a cost to the City; as it’s a 60/40 matching grant — a $9,400 investment by the City becomes $20,000 to the Rusian Orthodox Church project. The Holy Assumption Russian Orthodox Church is a registered National Historic Landmark, and is a major tourist draw to the City of Kenai. This action was passed unanimously by the Council.

We awarded a contract to Alaskan Industries, Inc. to replace the gym floor at the Kenai Recreation Center. The contract is for $122,000 and was a project identified as a priority during the last budget process.

We adopted the City of Kenai Capital Improvements Plan Priority List, which can be viewed here: http://ci.kenai.ak.us/clerkspage/2010%20Agendas/October%206,%202010%20Council%20Meeting/2010-57.pdf

We settled the City’s claim for damages arising out a flood that occurred in 2009 at Vintage Pointe.

We rescheduled the second November meeting from November 17 to November 23. I prompted this discussion due to a potential scheduling conflict between that meeting and the Alaska Municipal League Conference, primarily because I believe the “Newly Elected Officials” seminar hosted at that event is very important for potential new Council Members (and it turns out we have two) to attend. I didn’t want them to have to choose between attending one of their first council meetings and this valuable seminar. Additionally, other Council Members, and the Mayor, have attended these conferences in the past. I chose not to attend.

We also had a discussion on absentee voting procedures and inconsistencies in the Kenai municipal election. In short, there was a discrepancy between the City’s practice of accepting applications for by-mail ballots and the City’s code. This mistake actually fell in favor of extending voting rights, by allowing more time for the public to apply for by-mail ballots.

We had a brief executive session at the end of the meeting and adjourned at 8:41pm.

The September 15th Council Meeting began with two scheduled public comments from Colleen Ward and Mark Schrag. They brought forward ideas and suggestions relating to planning and zoning, the City’s land-use table, and conditional use permits. Their presentation was well-researched and quite informative. I was excited to hear members of our City not only share what they thought were problems, but provide proposed solutions as well. This type of engagement from the community is something, in my opinion, the City Council is in dire need of. We need to hear from citizens, and whether we agree with all of the ideas and comments that are brought forward, we can all learn from each other. Following their presentations, was an unscheduled public comment from a woman who has concerns about outdoor wood-burning boilers. As far as I’m aware, this is new concern to be brought forward to the Council and I’m excited to see where it goes and what the end-result might be. The Planning and Zoning Commission is being tasked with starting the hearing and research process.

On that note, let me share one of the things that I enjoy so much about being a member of the City Council: As new issues come before us, we get a chance to learn and gain a greater understanding of things I never expected to learn much about. Since I’ve been elected, I’ve got to learn about wind energy systems, bee-keeping, ocean acidification, and so many other things. There’s always something new, and with that is the opportunity to expand our understanding and knowledge in various fields. Everyone that speaks to us is doing so because something is important to them, and it’s a privilege to be able to put myself in their shoes and try to come up with solutions. This is something I knew I’d get to experience as a Council Member, but I never realized how much these opportunities would afford me the chance to exercise my mind, and expand my knowledge of the things that affect everyday people. It is an honor to have the community share these details with me.

In regular business, we approved an ordinance that made changes to “Special Meetings”, specifically clarifying procedures and making technical corrections. Essentially, this helped modernize the way the council conducts special meetings and how the clerk provides notice to the council and the public.

Council appropriated the funds to hire three additional EMT/Firefighters to serve the City of Kenai. Hiring three will allow an additional EMT/Firefighter on each of the three shifts in a day. This is something I felt was very important to the City of Kenai. Our emergency service personnel have had exponential increases in demand over the years, with no additional increase in staffing. This increase in staff will ensure that the Fire Department can maintain, or exceed, the fantastic work that they do for our city.

At a previous meeting, Council was provided a memo from some entrepreneurs in our city, suggesting the idea of a public ferry transportation service between the City of Kenai and Anchorage. Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the initiation of looking into the feasibility of such a project. Council didn’t take action to begin any development of such an idea, but supported the notion that Kenai could be a promising location for such a service.

The Council also approved a $250 grant to sponsor a member of the Brown Bears hockey team; the only member of the team from the City of Kenai.

We had a brief executive session regarding the Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage project and provided direction to the City Manager.

The meeting adjourned at 9:20pm.

We started the September 1st Council Meeting with a scheduled public comment from Richard Gentges, with Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska, LLC. He spoke about the proposed plans to create a natural gas storage operation facility within the City of Kenai. In short, the project would consist of constructing some structures near Beaver Loop that facilitate re-injecting natural gas into a mostly-depleted well underneath the Kenai River. The purpose is to store surplus gas from low-demand portions of the year in order to extract them during periods of higher demand. The idea is that this would level out gas prices and ensure a stable supply for higher demand months. This presentation resulted in one member of the public sharing concerns that no seismic certification is required in any of the permitting processes and was worried about what kind of impact a 1964-style earthquake event would have on such a storage method.

We rezoned a piece of property where the aforementioned natural gas project will be located, appropriated funds and awarded a contract for a Phase 1 Float Plane Basin Development Project, appropriated funds for siding replacement at the Senior Center, and postponed action on an ordinance dealing with special meetings.

We also took action on something that City residents have been waiting for since as long as I can remember. We approved a contract for water treatment plant design services. This is expected to be the solution to Kenai’s long-existing water problem. Let me explain:

Kenai has two types of water (essentially); brownish water with tannins that leaves bathtubs dirty, and water that exceeds the Federal EPA standards on arsenic content. The City has dug a plethora of wells trying to find water that’s clear and low on arsenic, but these attempts have mostly proven mutually exclusive. Kenai’s Well #2, located near Beaver Loop, is a high-producing well with a very low arsenic content, but the water has those organic compounds in it that make it less than pretty in a clear glass — not to mention what it does to our porcelain fixtures and our laundry. If we could somehow produce the City’s water exclusively (for the most part, anyhow) with the water from this well, and clean it up so it’s clear, the problem would be solved. So that’s what we’re doing.

Over this winter, a contractor will be designing a water treatment plant that will be located near Well #2. This treatment facility will take the “dirty, yet arsenic free” water, clean it, and send it out to distribution in the water system. This facility is expected to be finished next year and hopefully puts an end to a problem that has always plagued the City.

How will you know it was successful? When your water runs clear and your annual water report shows it meets all the Federal guidelines!

Last, but certainly not least, the City of Kenai voted unanimously to name the park that’s being constructed off Marathon Road the “Daubenspeck Family Park”. This name was chosen in recognition of the Daubenspeck family who donated property to the City of Kenai, property that accrues subsurface royalties for the City. The Daubenspeck Family donated the land to the City with the one stipulation, that the City use proceeds from the land royalties to fund athletic programs within the City of Kenai. Previously, money from this fund has been used in the new soccer fields heading out to North Kenai.
As a gesture of thanks to the Daubenspeck Family, we decided to make their name a permanent part of the City’s culture.

We held a discussion on when the Student Representative should cast their advisory vote. It was ultimately decided to have the Student Representative rotate their vote with the rest of Council. I submitted a lay-down memo regarding this that you can read here: Memo_Regarding_Student_Rep_Voting

There were two executive sessions during this meeting which adjourned just after 10:00pm.