Name: Tim Montgomery
Age: 65
Occupation: Construction/carpenter
Where are you from? How long have you lived in Ketchikan?
My family moved to Ketchikan in 1967 from Mrytle Creek, Oregon.
Have you previously run for public office? When and what office?
I have not run for public office.
What is your community involvement, past and present?
I was involved in boy scouts at a young age, dribblers league and little league baseball as a coach for 10 plus years and currently a referee and umpire of each sport. I was a member of the of the high school Boys Varsity Basketball staff in the late 90″s and early 2000’s. As a member of the recently formed Ketchikan Association of Sports Officials, I will be involved for several more years officiating. During my self-employment years I was a member of the Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce and served on the board of directors for one term. I am currently in my 16th year as a member of the local Elks Lodge and have been elected to 5 of the 6 officer positions and currently sit as the treasurer.
Why are you running for Borough Assembly?
I am running because I think my diligence and common-sense approach to proposed measures presented to the Borough Assembly would be an asset. My fiscal conservative approach to budgeting should prove helpful too. I also have a passion for supporting our youth, not only in sports and school activities. Recently as a member of our local Elks Lodge, I was involved in the lodge decision to help support Janna Paders’ “Fishing for Change”, a non-profit program, with a grant from the Elks National Foundation available through our local lodge. If Elected, I would seek out and support activities like this which promotes youth participation.
What are your top priorities if elected?
My top priority would be to help ensure the financial stability of the Borough by reviewing and approving budgets that include services being provided, capital improvements and routine preventative maintenance. This would also include providing adequate funding to the Ketchikan School District each year and help implement checks and balances in the budgeting and spending authorization given to the school district. Funding for our youth to participate in extracurricular activities is important to me. Working on solutions for both drug and alcohol abuse are important too. Affordable housing would round out the priorities I feel could help improve the retention of younger residents in our community.
What is your position on the ballot proposition asking for the transfer of library powers?
Does it make sense for the Borough to take on area-wide library powers? This question should and will be decide by the voters of all three municipalities this October. Voters of the Borough voted to keep borough funding for the library in 2022. Slightly less 2,000 voters of the 11,916 registered voters at that time decided to keep the funding. The vote was 1,066 in favor, 818 against. Voting MATTERS! Since then the cost of the amount contributed by the borough has increased to the point where the Borough Assembly decided not only to renegotiate the funding agreement with the city, but also to terminate the agreement at the end of the year. Libraries are important to any community. Simplifying the collection of revenue and allowing everyone in the borough a voice in how the library is operated by authorizing the Borough area-wide library powers appears logical. If the vote affirms authorizing area-wide library powers to the borough, how we transition is important. There are three items i think cloud the transition and they are: 1. The 2027 $1.9 million library budget does not include the annual debit service of approximately $340,000, which does not sunset until 2031. This increases the budget to $2.24 million. 2. With the transfer of the building from the city to the borough all future maintenance will fall to the borough and increase the budget. 3. The contractual agreements in place with current employees will impact the budget due to increased wages and benefits in the future. These are just a few concerns I see arising during the transition. In my opinion this would force the borough to increase the non-area mill rate for library funding from.6 mills to an area-wide mill rate of 1.2 or higher to cover the estimated annual budget of the library. This mill rate increase would be apply to all property owners within the entire borough, including the cities of Ketchikan and Saxman. Inside the city limits of Ketchikan the total mill rate would increase if the city does not adjust its current mill rate structure. The question for all borough residents, including the cities of Ketchikan and Saxman, would be does an increase in property tax justify transferring area-wide library powers from the city to the borough or should the city of Ketchikan simply renegotiate with the Borough. Please vote on this issue and let your voice be heard!
Do you think the borough is doing an adequate job keeping up with infrastructure and community needs that come with increasing tourism? If not, what steps should be taken to address it?
When I thought about this issue, I asked myself what infrastructure the borough owns or operates that is impacted by tourism. The three obvious ones are the Ketchikan International Airport, both South and North Tongass Fire/EMS protection and the Borough Bus. The airport is in the middle of a major renovation and expansion after upgrades to town side parking and ferry ramp. The ferry ramp issue is still at large, but the state owns the airport so I do not know what if anything the borough can do that it has not already done to address the problem. The South Tongass Fire department is recovering from a recent fire, rebuilding and replacing equipment and facility structures. North Tongass Fire Department is purchasing a new command vehicle. The Transit Division is purchasing two new electric buses, while maintaining it’s current fleet with plans to replace them in the future as needed. In my opinion, these are examples of the borough sufficiently keeping up with the demand tourism is putting on these services. However, there are concerns in the borough over the number of tourist visiting Ketchikan and the impact they have on public lands in densely populated or commonly used areas. Service Areas near these location deserve a say in how these areas are managed and monitored. This issue is delicate because public access lands should not be over restricted. This does not mean there should not be reasonable restrictions in place similar to state park use or local playgrounds. I think a reasonable plan should be developed to address the issues and strict enforcement of the plan should be maintained. An example of this would be the recent passage of the Herring Cove Neighborhood Planning Effort by the Borough Assembly. As for community needs, I do not have and answer at this time. There will always be needs in a community like Ketchikan related to tourism. If elected to the Borough Assemble, I will listen to all needs or concerns presented to the Borough and diligently address the matters and work to produce reasonable solutions.
What are ways the assembly can address the housing affordability crisis?
The simple answer is open up more borough land at an affordable cost to allow young professionals, lower income individuals and families the opportunity to build adequate sized homes. How this is accomplished is difficult. It is expensive to develop subdivisions, which in turn drives up the cost of building lots. Land directly off the highway serving Ketchikan is not as expensive to develop, but is scarce. Regardless, undeveloped land sits off the tax roles. What if the borough offered land at a steep discount and teamed up with RurAL CAP and its Mutual Self-Help Housing program. A program that requires a group of participants, who work together under the direction of a RurAL CAP construction supervisor, with each family dedicating 35 hours per week to the construction of not only their home, but all homes in the group. Interestingly, no family can move in to their home until all homes are complete. The borough already has a relationship with RurAL CAP in its collaboration with a Saxman lead project providing low income housing utilizing RurAL CAP’s HUD Community Based Development Organization. It also has in place a Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Mutual Self-Help Housing program. With land the borough owns behind Fawn Mountain, a program like this might work. In my observation, it appears the the local housing market has slowed, with houses being on the market for longer periods of time. The prices do not appear to have dropped significantly, are high prices in conjunction with high interest rates the driving force? The private sector continues to supply housing with evidence in the Homestead area, the top of Jackson Street and the Mud Bight area. If elected I will encourage the borough staff to work with developers in any way possible to make the building process seamless and simple, therefore helping to make the purchase price affordable.
What is your position on school funding? Do you think the borough should be funding the school district to the maximum allowable by state law?
My position on borough funding of schools has always been to fund the district to the maximum allowable amount under state law. With that being said and the current condition of the school district’s financial status, I feel the assembly has a fiduciary responsibility to residents of the borough ensuring that future spending by the school district does not exceed budgeted amounts. The assembly is responsible for setting the mill rate, which in turn helps define the cap amount. The school district is responsible for preparing a balanced budget, the school board is responsible for adopting the budget and forwarding it to the borough assembly, who is responsible for authorizing the amount of cap funding and giving spending authority to the school district. Any unforeseen expenses during the fiscal year would follow the same procedures to allow for a properly amended budget. When procedures like this are in place and followed, funding becomes a mutual and agreeable cooperative process that ends with positive results for all parties involved. I do believe the sitting members of borough assembly support full funding for the school district. I think their concern is the liability put on the entire borough when expenses exceed revenue.
Describe one piece of legislation you would like to bring forward as an assembly member, and explain how you think it should be funded.
At this time I would like to work on the funding of extracurricular activities for the school district. I do have some ideas on how to accomplish funding for these activities, but i have not had the time to formalize the information. Whether I am elected or not I would continue to champion funding these activities and will not let this issue be kicked down the road.
