Name: Judy Zenge
Age: One year shy of seven decades
Occupation: Operations Manager Plaza Mall LLC, Partner in SEAK Professional Services, LLC
Where are you from? How long have you lived in Ketchikan?
Born in Canada – Ketchikan Resident for 26 years 5 months
What is your community involvement, past and present?
I’ve put together a few community events: Guinness Boot Race Record, Orchestrated Golden Wheel Amusements coming to town two times, auctioned off men for charity. I’ve sat on many boards, now my community involvement is more personal. I try to help people directly where I can individually and through organizations. I started a free table at the mall. In the fall we fill it weekly with food and folks just help themselves. No hoopla, no forms to fill out, just if you need it and we have it here it is. Now people come in and leave all kinds of items from time to time, tenants, their customers – just a good indication of who we are as a community I think. I make myself available to the community, directing them to services, or helping them fill out paperwork, notarizing forms.
Have you previously run for public office? When and what office?
Yes, in 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2023. I ran for city council.
Why are you running for city council?
What are your top priorities if elected?
Budget – Hospital Lease Review – Community and Humanitarian Grants – Tourism Advisory Board.
What is your stance on the ballot proposition asking for the transfer of library powers?
Let’s wait for the results of the ballot proposition.
If the city continues to operate the library, we will need to see how negotiations with the Borough turn out and we will need to operate strictly within the provided means. We will have to tighten our belts significantly for this budget cycle. While we discuss this every year, this time it will truly come down to wants versus needs—unless an unexpected source of funding appears. My understanding is that the library is looking at the programs they offer and determining what programs do we absolutely need? What programs can we suspend until we’re in a better place financially? What options are available? I don’t advocate for closing the library but living within our means could mean that we look at services differently, and staff will have to make some difficult changes. So for the time being, my stance is let’s see what happens, be prepared for the worse and hope for the best.
Do you think the city 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?
I believe under the circumstances our staff does a pretty fine job. Unfortunately we have shifted over time from fixing everything to a triage and securing additional funding scenario. As a result of our underfunded Capital Budget the PW department has adopted a strict survival strategy to keep our critical services running. When you can’t fix everything then you need to prioritize failure over the asset age to operationally protect the community with the services and infrastructure needed. A water main is failure is a higher priority than a pothole. That said, we should look and are looking at extracting more funds from the tourism industry.
What are ways the city council can address the housing affordability crisis?
We need to look at how to make it easier to build in town. That has been an ongoing complaint since I’ve been on the council.
How do you think the city should continue to fund capital improvement projects?
We all recognize how important tourism is to the community, but we need to also be cognizant of the fact that most of the dollars leave the community. Wanting what is fair is what we’re after. Being able to spend the $ on our community infrastructure is not unreasonable. Having to beg for pennies when there are millions at stake is not what I would call a good partnership. We receive 2.50 from the state per passenger asking for a raise would be a good start.
Describe one piece of legislation you would like to bring forward as a council member, and explain how you think it should be funded.
Before we begin creating new pieces of legislation, we should take a step back and review what we currently have in place, is it working? Is it actually accomplishing what we intended? I believe we need to shore some of them up. Before creating any new items, we need to address the cost of implementation including oversight. It’s nice to have all these ordinances, but are we tracking whether they work. Hawking is still ongoing.
