Local business owner Spencer Strassburg has filed to run for a one year term on the Ketchikan City Council.

There’s only one one-term seat available. The other two seats up for grabs are for three-year terms. Strassburg is currently the only candidate in the running for the one year seat.

KRBD’s Sydney Dauphinais sat down with Strassburg to talk about his decision to run.

Spencer Strassburg: I was from Washington state as a kid and spent about 12 years in Florida, getting some of my early business education, and then I sold everything I had and moved my family to Ketchikan in 1997. I live here with my significant other Julie. Most of us know us as Julie and Spencer. We’re kind of a team.

Sydney Dauphinais: Why are you running for city council?

Strassburg: I ran previously in 2015, 2016. I think I might have skipped 2017 or 2018, and then again in 2019 and 2020. So about five years I ran before, and took the last six years off to kind of learn how to keep my mouth closed. I’ve been working on my business strategies and new trainings and working on my team during that time and kind of living under the status quo since then, and I’ve kind of decided I need to throw my hat in the ring again in an effort to try to bring a business focus to the council.

Dauphinais: If elected, what is something that you would like to accomplish on the council?

Strassburg: My primary focus would be to figure out how to extract more revenue from the cruise ship industry. It’s absolutely ridiculous that 8,000 people are having a hard time keeping the lights and the water on, and the multi-billion dollar companies are posting record-breaking profits. It’s just a direct sign that we’re not doing business properly somehow.

Dauphinais: What kind of community engagement or leadership experience do you have that you feel would be helpful in this role?

Strassburg: I’ve been working on leadership training pretty significantly while I’ve been away. In particular, I’ve spent about a quarter of a million dollars in training in 2026 alone to build my team and myself stronger. All my people have sales training and coaches, and that’s what’s really made me understand that we’re making some mistakes in our management of the port. That asset’s not properly being managed, and that’s why we’re not getting the revenue that we deserve there.

Dauphinais: What is something that you would like listeners to know about you? 

Strassburg: That I’m honest and transparent. I think most people that have seen me run before know that I’m just speaking exactly what I think, and I think that’s really refreshing right now. I think that transparency is something that the voter is really seeking, and that’s what you’ll get from me. I only applied for the one-year seat because I don’t want you to trust what I say. I want you to test me. If I’m not making decent results or satisfactory results in the one year that I’m there… I don’t expect everything to be done overnight, but if we’re not seeing some action, I’ll take myself out of there because we don’t need anybody else camping out in that seat. We need change. We need change, and we need to act immediately.

The post Spencer Strassburg on his decision to run for Ketchikan City Council appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly member Sharli Arntzen has filed to run for reelection. If elected, this would be Arntzen’s second term on the assembly.

There are three 3-year assembly seats up for grabs this upcoming municipal election. KRBD spoke with Arntzen about why she decided to run again.

This interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.

Hunter Morrison: Why are you running for borough assembly?

Sharli Arntzen: Honestly, I’m running for borough assembly because I’ve just completed my first term as an elected official after three years. So I’m asking Ketchikan if they’d like to rehire me for the position once again. Now that I have three years under my belt, I think I understand a lot more about the processes and the way that things interact. So, how do I take that knowledge and information I’ve gained over the last three years and reinvest that back into our community?

Morrison: What are your main priorities?

Arntzen: My main priorities as an elected official is to serve with care, diligence and integrity. That to me means showing up. It means being present. It means coming prepared to meetings, reading the materials, getting questions asked.

My priorities, though, when I’m looking at what’s important for Ketchikan, I think about our future, and I think about what is going to be here for my children in 10 or 20 years. So we talk a lot about housing. That’s a really big hot button issue with my background in real estate. I think I bring a lot of knowledge and information and experience to those conversations. I also served on the planning commission for 10 years, so I have a lot of information about our zoning codes, and I have some ideas for ways that we can continue to increase the housing stock and inventory in our community, which will help stabilize prices. I think economic development is really important in our community, diversity of our economy, and how we do that in a way that does not punish local folks, but enhances daily life. But also supports our small businesses as well as our tourism industry. I think we’re missing the mark possibly when it comes to the medical industry, and we have an aging population. What are we doing as a community to plan for the future, so that when I’m old or when my kids are having kids, that from the cradle to the grave we have things in place for our community that continue to keep Ketchikan a great place to live.

Morrison: What is something you’ve done during your time on the assembly that you are proud of?

Arntzen: Well, one of the things that is really close to my heart that we’re working on right now is an assembly code of conduct. That, to me, is not something that one person should be writing and bringing in and telling the group how it’s going to be. It’s something that I think needs to involve everybody so that there’s buy-in, and we can all subscribe to the same standards. We’re in the process of going through that now. I believe we’re going to have a work session at our next assembly meeting.

I’ve sponsored a few different resolutions and ordinances. One of the other ones that I did was the accessory dwelling unit program. So a couple years ago, there was a program in Juneau that gave grants to local property owners who added accessory dwelling units to their home, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough had received $7 million from the federal government that was leftover COVID money that they have kept aside to help address the housing issues. While they go through the process of deciding what is the best to do with that money, I asked for assembly support to have a $200,000 grant program where people can apply and get $14,000 from the borough once they add additional housing to their property. So that program has been relatively successful. I believe that at least 14 grants have been awarded. A couple have been redeemed, and the borough saw that the program was doing well enough that they actually added the line item into our FY27 budget once again, so there are another 14 grants that are available. I think it just kind of helps ease some of the pressure when people are trying to add housing, maybe for parents or for children or for guests or visitors who come, or even if they have a business and they need a place for workers to stay when they come. So I think knowing what I know about real estate, inventory is the big, best answer, and the most equitable answer to solving our housing crunch.

Morrison: Outside of your tenure on the assembly, what other community engagement or leadership experience makes you equipped for this role?

Arntzen: I think everything that we do sets us up for doing what we’re called in to do today. So I could go on and on about all of the different opportunities I’ve had to learn and grow in leadership positions, but just to touch on a couple smaller ones or more recent ones, I had the opportunity of going through the National Association of Counties (NACo) High Performance Leadership Academy last year. That was an incredible learning opportunity to help take some of the practical things that we do in our daily lives into our business world, or into our business planning, or into our service planning. Those skills translate across all areas of my life. I mean, I’m a mom. I run a household. I’ve got multiple small businesses, and one other thing that I’m very proud of for that I was asked to be a part of the Alaska Association of Realtors Professional Standards and Grievance Committee, and so we review cases against other real estate agents and determine if all the facts and information presented were to be true. [We ask,] ‘Would it constitute an ethics violation?’ So that’s one of the other leadership roles that I play is reviewing ethics violations. And then they asked me this year to apply to be a mediator for the state of Alaska. So I’m going in September to Chicago for a week-long training. Those kinds of opportunities that I have, I really try to apply to every area of my life. So, if Ketchikan re-elects me, I’m going to bring the same level of analysis that I try to bring to each situation, where I want to get as much information as I can about the situation, so that we can make the best decision possible for the most amount of people in Ketchikan.

Leadership happens every day, and I hope that everything that I do is going to apply to my role as a borough assembly member. So whether it’s analyzing ethics cases for the State of Alaska, or refereeing basketball games, or dealing with bickering teenagers, trying even to decide what we have for dinner — these are all decisions that can build confidence in what we’re doing at the table.

Morrison: What’s something you’d like listeners to know about you?

Arntzen: I don’t think that my service on the assembly is about me. I try to remember that I’m on a team when I’m on the assembly. There’s six other people that vote, and I want to work cooperatively with them because really we all have the same goal in mind, and that is what is in the best interest of Ketchikan.

The post Borough assembly member Sharli Arntzen files for reelection appeared first on KRBD.

A Ketchikan man is being charged with reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident after an alleged hit-and-run with a tour bus Aug. 8.

Cameron Lacey, 37, was driving a dump truck on North Tongass Highway when he rear ended a double-decker bus and fled the scene, according to court documents. One passenger reported a neck injury, but declined medical attention. The officer on scene said they observed fluid leaking out of the bottom of the bus and damage on the driver’s side.

Lacey reportedly told a Ketchikan Police Officer when visiting his house later that day that his sister-in-law was in the truck with him during the accident. He said his wife took her to the emergency room. 

Lacey is being charged with Failure to Remain at the Scene of an Accident and failing to render assistance to the injured, which is a Class A Felony. He is also being charged with Reckless Endangerment, Reckless Driving, and No Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance.

Lacey’s attorney could not be immediately reached for comment. 

The post Man charged with leaving scene of an accident after crashing into Ketchikan tour bus appeared first on KRBD.

The City of Ketchikan has operated the local library for over 80 years. This October, voters will be given the opportunity to change that.

Earlier this spring, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough voted to dissolve its library funding agreement with the city, which includes a set borough contribution. That decision meant the city and the borough would have to negotiate a new contract by the end of the year. That work is now on pause.

A group of citizens submitted a petition last month to have the Ketchikan Gateway Borough take full ownership of the library. All borough voters will be able to vote on the measure in the Oct. 6 election. If it passes, it would also transfer responsibility of all operations and debt to the borough. 

Supporters of the measure, including petitioner Judith McQuerry, say this initiative aims to simplify funding and make it equal for all residents across the island who all have library access. 

“There has been ongoing controversy and disagreement over the funding and management between the borough and the city,” McQuerry said. “This ballot initiative serves to solve that problem by ensuring fair funding and governance community-wide.”

Both local governments are figuring out the implications of that. At a recent borough assembly meeting, Borough Attorney Glenn Brown said they are trying to plan ahead without being able to predict how events will unfold. 

“The challenge is there’s really nobody either in the borough or on the city side who is able to have anything other than kind of high level theoretical discussions at this point,” Brown told the assembly. 

If the ballot measure passes, the transfer of ownership would go into effect immediately. 

Right now, although all borough residents have access to the library, people across the island pay different amounts. City of Ketchikan residents pay the most for library services. It’s part of the city property taxes. The portion of those property taxes that go to the library equals about 1.4 mills. That means city residents pay about $140 annually for library services for every $100,000 of assessed property value. People who don’t live within city limits pay about $60 yearly per $100,000 of assessed property value, or a 0.6 mill levy. Residents of the nearby City of Saxman pay nothing. 

The votes of the measure will be tabulated in two groups. For the proposition to pass, there must be a majority of voters outside city limits who vote yes, and a separate majority of voters within the city limits of Ketchikan and Saxman. If it doesn’t pass in both groups, the measure fails. Brown expects that if the measure fails, borough staff will then work on renegotiating a new funding agreement with the city. If it passes, he says the biggest challenge is how the transfer of power will happen. 

It will be up to the city council to reduce property taxes in order to offset a new levy from the borough. At a Ketchikan City Council meeting earlier this month, the council directed staff to identify the portion of property taxes city residents pay that currently go towards library services to evaluate any additional levies that may be added to meet funding needs. The existing portion of the city’s levy that has been set aside for library contribution has been sufficient funding in recent years. 

Another problem brought up by both governments is the timeline. The borough and city operate on different fiscal years. The city’s fiscal year ends in December, while the borough’s ends in July. 

“We would need to have some discussions about how to maintain the operation during that period of time, when really no one right now has money budgeted to operate the library from January to June,” Brown said. “So nobody at staff level is able to offer that solution.”

For years, there’s been disagreement on island-wide library funding for various reasons.

Assembly member Bridget Mattson says she supports the library and wants it to be fully funded through a new agreement. She said she is not necessarily against the borough taking over library powers, but she worries this ballot measure is rushing things before anyone has time to responsibly plan. 

“I’m deeply, deeply concerned that the problem is that we don’t have a plan, but we will be voting on something that doesn’t have clear understanding to the public,” Mattson said. 

Library expenses have been on the rise in recent years. Most of those costs are staffing, and library director Pat Tully has said it’s the consequences of rising costs of operations. 

Assembly member Rodney Dial has said the only reason library funding is being discussed is because the library needs to limit spending. He said the rise in increasing library expenses is more than just keeping up with inflation. 

“We’re paying for it,” Dial said. “We’re trying to say we need to keep those expenses in line with inflation, or we’re going to have tax increase after tax increase.”

He expressed concern that if this passes, everyone’s property taxes would increase.

“We’re trying to protect the people that say they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford health care, they can’t afford rent,” Dial said. 

According to a memo from borough staff about the proposal, an island-wide levy necessary to support library operations would equal a 100% increase in property taxes for people living outside city limits, going from the current 0.6 to 1.2 mills. It would tack on a brand new levy for Saxman residents, who currently have no library contribution. If nothing else changes, Ketchikan residents would be paying the island-wide levy from the borough on top of the existing levy to the city — so unless and until the city council repeals the existing levy, Ketchikan residents could be paying twice. 

This isn’t the first time there was a measure on the ballot challenging areawide power. Four years ago, there was a ballot proposition to repeal the borough’s nonareawide library powers and defund the library. It failed.

Both the borough assembly and the city council decided to take no action until election results are finalized in October. Whether the proposition passes or not, both governments will have to work quickly to make financial and logistical decisions before the end of the calendar year to avoid a funding gap for the library. 

The borough has already issued the notice to terminate the current funding agreement with the city, effective Dec. 31. 

The Ketchikan City Council meets this Thursday for a regular meeting. A work session regarding library powers is on the agenda.

The post Ketchikan’s local governments weigh library powers ballot measure appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan Borough Assembly member Dan Ortiz has filed to run for reelection in the upcoming municipal election. There are three 3-year seats up for grabs on the borough assembly. 

The assembly serves as the legislative power of the borough, and is responsible for voting on action items and establishing policy for the borough.  

KRBD spoke with Ortiz about his goals and priorities if reelected to office. 

Dan Ortiz: I’m running because I want to continue to be an advocate for the things that I think make Ketchikan a unique and wonderful community. You know, I have a long history here, and I have a lot of interest in how we move forward into the future, and want to maintain a lot of what makes Ketchikan unique. And when I say that, it’s to a sense of community here, and I think that’s getting more rare all the time in our society. And I grew up in that community, and I want to do what I can to maintain that sense of community, both in specific ways, but also to try to maintain an understanding amongst people that you know. First and foremost we’re here on this island together. We need to value each other and value the community that we’re in, and appreciate it for what it is, because it’s, in my opinion, a unique place and growing more unique in its sense of community all the time. 

Specifically, I’m interested in maintaining a voice for public education. I think it is the backbone of what formed the country, and constitutionally, representatives have some mandates for protecting, and public safety and public education are two of those mandates. They don’t talk about anything else. You know, we get comfortable with the idea that the government should do a lot of other things, and that’s good too. But when it’s all said and done, there’s only two things they have to do: that’s provide for an adequate public education for kids between 5 to 18, and then also to provide for public safety. So I don’t apologize for being an advocate for public education. I feel like it’s just following our Constitutional mandate, the Alaskan Constitution, and that’s what we swore allegiance to. When I was in the legislature, we also were bound by the Alaskan Constitution. I know when I took my oath of office to the borough, it was an oath of swearing allegiance to the U.S. Constitution as well as to the Alaska Constitution, so there you go. 

And then from there, issues like the library. I want to continue to be an advocate for public libraries and the importance of public libraries and having access to places where people can get information and can learn, and don’t have to pay a lot of money for it. In fact, you know, other than taxpayers for their share, it’s one of the few places that are open to people when they walk in the door they don’t have to pay a fee. And I think what they encounter when they go into the library is lots of stuff that’s good and good for them to be exposed to and have access to, and so I’ll be an advocate for and continue to try to be an advocate for the library, whether the borough takes over powers or not. I feel like we need to maintain our contribution to the library, and to make sure that people island-wide have access to a public library; those would be two big issues for me. 

And then, you know, I think as we move forward, I think we’re getting closer and closer to reaching a tipping point, if you will, towards being comfortable with all the tourists that are arriving. But at the same time, understanding what an important role they play in our economy. But at the same time, trying to maintain a balance so that the people who live here year-round feel like they can go to certain places and go to certain areas where, traditionally they’ve had some privacy, or at least, knowing that they would be not inundated by tourists. And now that seems to be – there’s fewer and fewer places. It’s going to be a tough balancing act because I understand the importance of tourism to our economy and will always be an advocate for that. 

But at the same time, I’m hearing more and more from people about, you know, is there no limit to how many people are in our town each day, and is it a good thing if we have now 12,000 to 13,000 in a day? Does that mean that four years from now it’s going to be a good thing to have 19,000 or 20,000 a day? I don’t know that our infrastructure can support that, and that it would also support maintaining the quality of life for the people here. So issues like that. But yeah, I’m excited to continue to try to serve on the borough. And I filled a one-year seat and thought that you know I need to give it a little bit more effort than that than just the one year. So I filed, and we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what the voters say.

Hunter Morrison: On your time on the assembly, what is something that you’ve done that you’re most proud of?

Ortiz: I’m not so sure that there’s been one thing. I think that, you know, just trying to help contribute to a sense of balance and a sense of dialogue where we talk about the issues. I don’t want to say before my arrival the borough was slanted in any way politically, but I think when people listen to the dialogue, they know that I’m representing just what I talked about: community representing important things that I think are important in our community, in our state. Adherence to the constitution, all those kinds of things. 

I’m not so sure that I can point to one thing, and I will tell you that being on the borough assembly compared to being a state representative, in some ways, is harder because I confront issues where I can understand very well, and I have friends on both sides of issues that come before the assembly. Friends that have lived in the community for a long time, like myself, and so it’s tougher to make those kinds of decisions when you know you’re making them, and you know, that in some cases half the people aren’t going to be happy with you. And that’s tough because they’re right there too. It’s right there, at the local meeting and those kinds of things. And so, you know, when you’re at the state level, you’re more like advocating for everybody in your district. Now, granted, not everybody agreed with you, but first of all, they’re not right there in front of you, and second of all, those people who didn’t agree with you, oftentimes you felt like you really were sticking up for the best interests of everybody in Alaska, or the best interests of your district. It seemed like it was clear what your direction should be on different issues, based on how you felt like the majority of people in the communities you’re representing, how they felt about the issue. Now, oftentimes, you know, like the issue with the building of the health facility out at Salmon Falls, that just drew lots of public comment from both sides of the issue, and I had friends on both sides of the issue, so that was tough. So in some ways, like I say, it’s harder. 

But your question was, can I point to one thing that I feel most proud about? Not really. I just feel like I’ve been a voice to try to balance things out a little bit, and I’ll continue to try to remember that I believe in the system. I believe in representative government. I believe in people getting involved and stepping up and trying to do their part to maintain community, maintain the things that are important in our society, et cetera. So I believe in that, and so I guess that’s what I feel most proud about is that I’m not just sitting on the sidelines, but I’m getting involved and I’m doing my part as a citizen.

Morrison: Outside of your time on the assembly, what other community engagement or leadership roles makes you feel like you’re equipped for the job? 

Ortiz: Well I spent 10 years as a state representative in that time. I certainly am familiar with issues that impact our community, that impact our region and our state, and I have spent 10 years listening to my own constituents. So when I go to represent this borough, the borough was the biggest part of my group that I represented, and I spent 10 years listening to them, so I feel like I have a lot of knowledge. And then I also understand quite clearly how the state interacts with the borough, and I feel like I can be a good advocate with people at the state level because I know so many of those people. I served with them, I know them personally, and even those people who were not in my caucus, I still had a pretty good relationship with. So I feel like I can be a good advocate for Ketchikan interests at the state level because I know the people are at the state level, and at least a lot of them, and so there’s that. That gives me some qualifications, if you will, and then the fact that I’ve been a resident here for over 50 years now. Yeah, I think I’m a legitimate representative. I understand what the community’s about, and so that alone gives me, I think, some qualifications, if you will, to be a borough assembly person because I have lived for and been a part of this borough for over 50 years and a public school teacher for over 32 years. So yeah.

Morrison: Aside from what you’ve already sort of mentioned, what is something that you would like listeners to know about you?

Ortiz: You know, I’m not so sure that listeners to KRBD, that there’s many of them that at least know my name, and know that if they listen to KRBD, well then that means that they’ve been listening. If they’ve been here a while, they’ve been listening over the years. I’ve certainly been engaged with. I’ve been an advocate for KRBD at the state level. I don’t necessarily know that there’s any one thing I want them to know about me, other than I’m just a local guy interested in trying to promote the community of Ketchikan and the well-being of the people of Ketchikan. And if they don’t know that about me, if they come to understand that that’s what I’m about, you know I’m not a very partisan person politically. I ran as an independent, but at the state level, of course. At the borough level, the political parties don’t necessarily play as much of a part. But I’m certainly not tied philosophically to what some people would refer to as the far left, or what other people would refer to as the far right. Either the boundaries on both sides of the political spectrum. I’m not a part of that. I’m just kind of a center guy that looks for compromise and looks for what I think is the best interest of people on the issues that come before me. So if they come to that, understand that about me, well, then that’s a good thing. 

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

The post 4 questions with Ketchikan Borough Assembly candidate Dan Ortiz appeared first on KRBD.

Ketchikan City Council member Jack Finnegan filed to run for reelection in the upcoming municipal election. There are three 3-year seats and one 1-year seat up for grabs on the Ketchikan City Council. 

The council serves as the city’s legislative power, and is responsible for creating ordinances and approving the city budget. It’s made up of a mayor and seven council members.  

KRBD spoke with candidate Jack Finnegan about his goals and priorities if reelected to office. 

Finnegan: My name is Jack Finnegan. I currently serve on the Ketchikan City Council. I’m completing a three-year term. It’s my second term. I was first elected in 2022 for a one-year seat, then re-elected in 2023 for a three-year seat, and now I have put my hat in the ring again for another three-year seat.

Morrison: And why are you running?

Finnegan: Well, why am I running? That’s, you know, an excellent question for any candidate. I think when I first ran, I had sort of a two-pronged answer to that question. One was I wanted to serve my community in a meaningful way. And two, I saw service on the city council as an excellent way to develop a better understanding of how the municipality functions, where its strengths are, some of the challenges that we face. And now having been on the council for almost four years, I will say that it has been a very stark education, very instructive as to what some of the great strengths we have are and where we have room for improvement. I see a lot of value in that education with respect to making decisions about everything from the budget to some of the policy matters that come before the city council. So at this stage, now running for my third term, which if I were to be elected would be my limit, I get to apply the lessons that I’ve learned over the last four years of service toward the decisions that I’ll be making if I am reelected to the council for the forthcoming budget cycles and other policy matters. 

Morrison: Could you talk a little bit more about some of your priorities?

Finnegan: Sure, priorities for me certainly include some of the longstanding infrastructure needs that we’ve been trying to address. You know, we’ve got portions of our infrastructure that are years, sometimes even decades, past their given service life, and we have been extraordinarily fortunate to have such committed staff who have dedicated so many of their working hours, and you know, weekend hours and overnight hours toward keeping the lights on. For example, if we have a power outage or keep the telecom systems working if things go south, I would really like us to move past the reactive nature we’ve had to a lot of these aged infrastructure needs. You know, we’re often literally or figuratively putting out fires with respect to some of this machinery and some of this outdated serviceware, and I’d like to see that become a thing of the past. It’s a pretty steep reach with respect to the fact that we’re operating at a deficit. We’ve been in a deficit for some time, and there’s not going to be any simple way to get out of that deficit. And a lot of these projects for infrastructure upkeep, replacement, and repair are incredibly expensive, and we face a challenge in that we have a slightly contracting population right now. We don’t have new rate payers for the utility specifically, you know, on which to disperse the revenue generation. So that’s one of the reasons that we’ve seen increases in in utility rates in recent years, and we’re anticipating increases in utility rates in future years, and I think part of the challenge there has been since we’re using this aged infrastructure, we don’t have a lot of flexibility with respect to things like power generation, and I’d like to see us get to a place where we’re not as burdened by those those costs, and would, you know, give us an opportunity to kind of rebuild for the future.

Morrison:  What is something that you’re most proud of during your tenure on the council?

Finnegan: You know, it’s hard to pin to one specific item or issue. I will say, you know, when you serve on the council, the most proximate issues are those that tend to be before you. I will say that I have been very grateful in my years on the council to serve on the library advisory board, which in recent years, and even this year, is facing some – there’s some uncertainty around the library, its funding mechanisms right now, and whether or not the borough is going to assume library powers. But I think, you know, I see the library as a critical community resource, and having had the opportunity to be the city council’s liaison to the library advisory board has given me a much deeper understanding of the library’s function and its value, and I am very pleased to have been able to advocate on the library’s behalf at those board meetings, and then as a council member in budget meetings, for example.

Morrison: Outside of your tenure on the council, what other leadership roles do you think sort of help your duties on the council?

Finnegan: That’s a great question, and I will say I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to take advantage of the many offerings that Ketchikan provides. And that’s long been my sort of informal slogan for Ketchikan and what it does. Ketchikan provides, and it provides opportunity. It provides community. It provides boundless opportunity for adventure. And in my time living here, I have been able to get involved with various nonprofits. I serve on the board of the Ketchikan Agricultural Producers Association. I serve on the board of First City Players. I’ve worked with numerous nonprofits. I work in the tourism industry. I have a charter operation of my own. I’ve worked in the schools. You know, my first several winters here, I was a regular substitute teacher, and I’ve worked with youth in various capacities through most of my life, and by virtue of the experience I’ve had with the youth of our community, with the tourism industry, with various nonprofits here in town, I feel like it’s given me a pretty well-rounded understanding of what some of the needs are for our community, where people are hoping to see some some new growth or some changes. And then again, with respect to the years I’ve served on council, I feel like that’s given me a sharper understanding of the city’s own needs. And so, by virtue of that collection of experiences, I think it makes me a pretty well-rounded city council member.

Morrison: And aside from what you’ve sort of already talked about, what is something that you would like listeners to know about you? 

Finnegan: That I’m not rigid in my thinking on any one matter, and I am eager to hear what your thoughts might be. City council members have phone numbers and email addresses on the city website, and you’ll often hear if you watch or attend a city council meeting, you’ll hear city council members talk about the number of calls, texts, emails, in-person discussions they’ve had with residents of the city, talking about various issues. I can do better work as a city council member if I hear what you, as the residents of the city, think about any matter that comes before the council, or a matter that should come before the council, so I am eager to have those conversations. Don’t hesitate to call. Feel free to text. Please email me. I want to hear what you think, and I’m going to listen. Listening to what our constituents have to say is really first and foremost in the job. I mean, we have serious decisions to make at that table, on many of the meetings that we have, and I can make better decisions at that table if I know what the people of the community think and want.

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

The post 4 questions with Ketchikan City Council candidate Jack Finnegan appeared first on KRBD.

Voting is happening now for Alaska’s primary election. Bill Walker is one of the many candidates on the ballot, running as Independent with running mate Randy Hoffbeck.

Walker, who served one term as governor from 2014 to 2018, is running again. During his most recent trip to Ketchikan, KRBD’s Sydney Dauphinais spoke with Walker about his plans and priorities.

Editor’s note: this transcription has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Sydney Dauphinais: To start off, why are you running for governor?

Bill Walker: I’m running because, as a lifelong Alaskan, and I formerly served as governor, I see the fiscal situation that Alaska is in as a crisis. I am running with my lieutenant governor candidate, and Randy Hoffbeck was my commissioner of revenue, so we are running with solutions to resolve the fiscal situation that we’re in. Certainly there’s other issues that bring us to the table, but the fiscal situation is very critical. The affordability of living in Alaska is there. I’ve been very involved in the gas line for a long time. That’s a big issue, but really, it’s our financial underpinning we need for the state to grow like it should.

Dauphinais: So you said that you have ideas for fiscal solutions. Can you speak a little bit about that?

Walker: One thing I love about this campaign, especially with Randy, is that we’re about solutions and not slogans. So when we say a fiscal plan, we’ll give you lots of detail about what we’re talking about on the fiscal plan. You know, I say that Alaska is not broke; it’s broken, and we need to fix Alaska so we don’t become broke.

So one of the things that people talk about is broad-based revenue and taxes and all that, and I say no, no, not until we get our revenues from resources fixed. You know, 10 years ago there was a Senate Bill 21 that passed by, I believe, by one vote, and there was a repeal effort in 2014, the year I was elected governor, and I was very much in support of repealing Senate Bill 21. I thought it was going to be a disaster. 90,000 Alaskans said repeal it. 99,000 said keep it. So it stayed, and it’s been 10 years, and we have lost money every year. We’ve been underwater ever since, and sometimes some years to the tune of a billion dollars. In my case, it was $4 billion. I was the governor when it first came into effect, and we lost half our revenue that year, so it’s been a disaster. So we want to go from that Senate Bill 21 legislation to a gross tax on our resources. In other words, rather than having all the deductions, all the audits, all the litigation, all the secret settlements, just take it off the top. Pretty much every other state in the nation just does a gross for that reason. They don’t want to mess with all the downstream deductions and this and all the other things we do. So we want 13%. That’s not the highest in the nation, but it’s not the lowest in the nation either. Gas right now is 13% already. The only gross we use in the state of Alaska, quite honestly, is on fisheries. That’s the only gross we use. Everything else is on a net.

I love mining. I’m a big resource development guy, but in 2024, according to testimony before the legislature by the Department of Revenue, we extracted the value is about $4 billion of resources from Alaska, our share was a negative number. We actually lost money that year. So, you know, we’re the only state in the nation that does on a net, on a gross. We’re talking you know two or 3% We’re not talking a big number on that, but we don’t want to hurt any industry at all. But my goodness, I don’t, I don’t think getting a negative number on a $4 billion extraction is really what we should be doing. So it’s a matter of getting our revenues from resources right, and then deciding what we do after that.

You know, we’ve identified just those couple things as about a billion and a half dollars of additional revenue, we need to grow the pie, but Alaskans have already given twice. They’ve given us a lower dividend, and the percentage of market value has caused the permanent fund corpus, the body of it, to grow not as fast as we’d like it to, because we’re using part of that to fund government services. So, Alaskans are paid twice, and I’m not against a broad-based tax down the road, perhaps an income tax, but not until after we get our revenues and resources right.

Dauphinais: So, how would you say that these priorities and this campaign more broadly differs from your previous ones?

Walker: In previous ones, we talked and we’re talking in concepts, and now we’re talking in specifics. This is a very different kind of campaign, and I’ve enjoyed this more than any campaign I’ve ever been in because we don’t have lots of contributors. We don’t run around trying to raise money and win the money raising contests. We are focused solely on solutions. Sometimes, when you have tons of endorsements or certain things that you kind of can’t do, because who’s endorsed you, you know, it has certain sort of expectations, and not directly, but I think there are those expectations, and we don’t have that. We’re free agents. We can say and do whatever we think is best interest of Alaska without hesitation. I sometimes refer to it as what I call the political stutter. That’s when you get asked a hard question. You have to remember who your donors are, who your supporters are, and have to be careful how you answer. We don’t. We just answer very quickly, and every answer is what we believe is the best interest of Alaska. I was born in the territory. I’ve seen the ups and downs over the years, and I know what works and what doesn’t work.

Dauphinais: We’ve talked a lot about the financial crisis that the state is in. What other priorities do you have?

Walker: Well, certainly education is. A big frustration I have is that our our turnover rate with educators is is very high because we don’t have a pension plan, we don’t have a retirement plan, and every year you sort of wait almost like the sort of Democratic who’s who’s not going to be here in the school system next year because of the cuts that have to be made, because there’s less and less and less funding. We need to get away from that. We need to get back to educators being valued at what they do. The most important jobs in Alaska are the educators, as far as I’m concerned. So, you know, I read a book when I was governor, it was titled “The Smartest Kids in the World and Why.” And my takeaway from that is that the highest numbers on graduation were places where the educators were honored, they were respected. You know, you go to a mall and there was special parking places for educators. It was not always monetarily rewarded, but they were held up in highest esteem. We don’t do that here in Alaska anymore. We used to, and we need to do that again.

Dauphinais: How would you plan to do that?

Walker: With proper funding. Again, it all sort of stems from the fiscal plan. If you don’t have a fiscal plan, we’ve been living off of borrowed money for the last 13 years, and we’re now down to about $3 billion in savings. What happens when that’s gone? So that’s the concern we have: is that we have to have the foundation. I’m a carpenter by DNA, and if you know if you don’t have a proper foundation, the rest of it is just noise. You’ve got the fiscal plan that is the foundation for the future of this state. I watch the marine highway system, you know, over the over the decades, used to be the rising star in the state of Alaska was the Alaska Marine Highway System. Now it’s on a decline, and it has been for quite some time because money hasn’t been put back into it. Again, we get back to the fiscal plan.

Dauphinais: Yeah, in Southeast, the Alaska Marine Highway System is very important. Do you plan on reviving that? If so, how?

Walker: You know, I’ve thought about this a lot. I would have done it, if I’d had a second term to do this, I think it’s time that we pull Alaska Marine Highway System out of the Department of Transportation. I think it needs to stand on its own. I think it needs to grow on its own. We have 237 airports in Alaska, which we own. The next highest state is Oregon with five, so it kind of puts it in perspective. So we have 237 airports. We’ve got 1000 miles of highways to maintain. The marine highway system needs to be on its own, be separate, and I know that when it was combined, it was for efficiency purposes. And I love efficiency, don’t get me wrong, but I think it kind of got lost into a bigger system, and it’s critically important not just to Southeast, but to all of Alaska, you know, to not have a connection into into Prince Rupert, that changed a lot of things in Southeast and in Alaska in general, so it’s time that it be it be separated and let it grow and become what it used to be quite honestly and I think it’s been held back not intentionally but I think it’s been held back because it’s big it’s part of a to me almost a stepchild in in this process, and not really the attention that should have received.

Dauphinais: So, when you were governor previously, you said if you had another term, that’s something that you would have liked to address. What are other things that maybe went unaddressed previously that, given the chance, you would like to address going forward?

Walker: Well, the rest of the fiscal plan. You know, when we were $4 billion in the hole, I called together several 100 Alaskans to the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a three-day summit on our fiscal situation. We all stayed in the dorms because it was cheaper. It was summer. We were available, and we came up with a fiscal plan. We took that and went out and had 500 town hall meetings around the state. And Randy Hoffbeck, my lieutenant governor candidate, was the captain of all that. And we then presented the fiscal plan, listened to what we heard, modified it, took it to Juneau, and presented it to the legislature. We got some of it through, not all of it through. We want to finish the fiscal plan, and that’s what we would have done the second term is finish the fiscal plan, so that we aren’t in the situation that we’re underwater financially, and that we’re underfunding education, underfunding every facet of governmental services you can name. So, really, it’s about finishing the job, and I think with our experience, having served once, having been there, we can hit the ground running on the fiscal plan and get that through, and get Alaska back on track financially.

Dauphinais: So it really sounds like getting the fiscal plan put in place is what would happen before anything else, like a day one priority.

Walker: Absolutely, it has to be. It has to be up front because everything else flows from that. I mean, if you don’t have the financial wherewithal to fix things, it’s hard to fix things without funding. As an example, our deferred maintenance, you know, it was 1.4 billion a few years ago. I haven’t seen any numbers since then, but I mean, deferred maintenance doesn’t get better with time. It gets worse with time. Deferred maintenance doesn’t have a real constituency. You don’t have ribbon cutting and golden shovels and handshakes and pictures that are on deferred maintenance. But it’s got to get done. But I want to do it in such a way that it’s done on bite sizes, so that in the local communities, the local contractors have the first opportunity to do that work, rather than bringing in a large outfit from Seattle or Portland or LA to do the whole thing. I want to make sure this is done so there’s a double benefit from that in the economy, the local community contractors, as well as just getting it done.

Dauphinais: What’s something that you are particularly proud of from your previous term as governor?

Walker: You know, I sort of went against the grain and accepted Medicaid expansion on my signature. I let the legislature have their opportunity to do it. They wouldn’t take it to the floor to vote. I gave them a special session. They wouldn’t, so I signed it myself, knowing I was going to get sued, also knowing I was going to win, and so I think the last number I heard was 70,000 more Alaskans have health care coverage because of that signature. So I was pleased with that. I was pleased that we created the governor’s Tribal Advisory Council, and to have a relationship with the tribes in Alaska that have never really had much access to administration, and so we brought them to the table. The 17 and let them select who they wanted at the table. We dealt with energy, we dealt with housing, we dealt with subsistence fishing, we dealt with all the issues that you know, and I think that was very productive to have that relationship with them. You know, I created a climate change action committee, which came out with a report about the impacts on Alaska from climate change and what and what some of the solutions are. I’m a big believer of ‘don’t just bring me the problem.’ You know, bring me your idea on the solution as well, and I learned that Governor [Wally] Hickel had that philosophy in his hotel, so that’s what they did. So we were aggressive in that regard, and we had a cabinet that I honestly didn’t know and didn’t keep score of what their political persuasion was. I didn’t care, I just wanted the best, and they were selected based not on who they knew, but what they knew. And when I interviewed them, certainly their resume was important. But I looked for passion. If they had the passion, that’s who I hired. I wanted people in those positions that had a real passion for what they’re going to do, and not just that they were qualified. So passion took precedence over anything else.

Dauphinais: When did you file to run?

Walker: You know, we filed on kind of the last day.

Dauphinais: That’s what I thought. Why?

Walker: It was intentional. We waited, we waited and we watched and we read to see who is going to talk about the fiscal, who’s going to talk about the hard stuff? And we didn’t hear much. We heard a lot of talking about build this, build that. You know, some people are coming out and saying, you know, vote for me. I’ll give you a full dividend. And no one is talking about the fiscal situation. And so we just said, are we going to really stand by and and let this go through and and not bring this topic out because we’re talking about it, others having to talk about it, and so so that’s why I mean it was it was we’re trying to be respectful the system and let it sort of you know time for somebody new this that new other thing but but we didn’t hear anybody talk about the fiscal and because that’s really our our specialty if you will. And I’m a resource development person. We have some ideas about that that I’m happy to discuss on resource development, how we can do it better, and how we can do it more aggressively, but certainly very responsibly. So, it was on the last day, but we’d been looking at it for some time and talking about kind of waiting for somebody to come out and carry this message. We didn’t see it.

Dauphinais: That does give you a limited time for campaigning. What is a message that you are hoping to get across in these next couple, you know, basically weeks?

Walker: So our message really is about solutions, and we really, you know, I think we say solutions, not slogans, because really, as an example, you know, a good politician would run from the hard stuff. We run to it, the Permanent Fund Dividend, as an example. You know, I reduced it in 2015 because we had a $4 billion hole in our budget, and we reduced the budget by a billion dollars. And before we did anything on the dividend, if we had continued to pay full dividends, the dividend program would not be in existence today, because it would have over overdrawn it, and now it wouldn’t be there. It just wouldn’t be there. There wouldn’t be a dividend today. So, I made that difficult decision. So we decided, all right, let’s start with the dividend. Let’s start with that. I mean, you’d think I would run from it, but nope. We run to it. So we’ve come up with a concept on the dividend. It’s a dividend from resources. In other words, all the resource revenue we received on taxation from oil, from gas, from mining, from timber, from fish, all goes into a pool, and 50% of that goes to the dividend, with a guaranteed floor of $1,000.

In other words, on the low years of oil prices, like when I was governor, it would be a you know a minimum of $1,000 dividend. But when oil goes to $100 or $110, like it is now, well, the dividend goes up because the revenues go up. So we would use the earnings from the dividend from the permanent fund on the steady-eddy kind of education forward funding, education, public services, public safety, public health, and then the volatile part over on the dividend part with the floor. So when oil goes to $100, you know fuel in Alaska goes to about $6, $7, $8, depending upon where you live, sometimes the highest $15, the dividend will go up that year because there’ll be more revenue from the resources that year. So, we think that’s better. We pulled that, and 67% of Alaskans said, “I like that idea. The revenues from resources create an alignment, and I think that’s important in Alaska. We have an alignment on that. So, that’s one of the things that we have spent time talking about on a permitting side to do resource development in Alaska, whether it’s mining or oil and gas, whatever. It takes 10 years to get a permit. In other states, it’s a matter of months, and the reason is that it’s just a long process in Alaska. So we are the owner of the resource. We’re an owner state. We’re owners of the land, other than of course a lot of federal land in Alaska, but we should be doing the permitting ourselves. We should begin the permitting process ourselves. So when someone comes in to lease a piece of property for development, they can go to work rather than waiting 10 years. The problem is with the 10 years, you only have a few companies out there that are large enough to wait that long to endure that risk. The biggest risk is not if you’re going to find something. Are you going to get the permit? So we should permit some of these things, and so that we don’t have to wait 10 years.

The other issue that brought me back into the race is the gas line. I’ve been working on the gas line for a long, long time, and we’ve been very close a number of times, very close. But then we have an election like we did in 2018, new governor, new plan, or other other political decisions that have caused it to not be built. We need it now. It used to be something that was sort of nice to have. We absolutely need it now, and you know it’s the largest stranded conventional gas in North America up on the North Slope. We re-inject more gas every day on the North Slope than they consume in California, Oregon, Washington combined. Largest 9.2 billion cubic feet a day. So we need to get that gas to market. We need to get it to Alaskans. And having worked on that before, I’m ready to pick it up where we left off. And you know whatever hand we’re dealt, we’ll play it. You know if this Glenfarne Group is the one, that’s great. We’ll help them every way we can. If they step away, we’ll find out if it’s economic. You know what I do differently than what’s being done now is on the gas line. I would make it much more transparent. I think Alaskans need to know sort of what the deal is, and so. So I would be much more transparent with a gas line.

Dauphinais: What does that transparency process look like? Look like. What does that mean to you?

Walker: That means making the contracts, if negotiated, public. That means if someone comes and says, ‘I need this concession,’ Alaskans should know what they’re going to get out of it. If you’re going to give something, you want to know what you’re going to get back, and so you don’t know that without seeing the contracts. There’s no reason not to make that available.

Dauphinais: Where can listeners learn more about you?

Walker: walkerhoffbeck.com is our is our website and everything we talk about we put on there and post that on there. We had a webinar recently, sort of a town hall meeting, if you will, and so that’s posted on there as well. So go take a look, and we hope that you recognize that our goals are absolutely not a political career or looking for a job. We’re looking to fix Alaska, and we believe we have the the background and the intestinal fortitude to do what’s best for Alaska.

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The Alaska Department of Health announced last week its intent to give nearly $75,000 to a Ketchikan nonprofit. The money will be awarded to social services organization Community Connections to help streamline workflow and scheduling in Ketchikan and on Prince of Wales Island.

The project is twofold. One portion of the money will go to improving scheduling and communication for wraparound children’s mental health services.

Max Mercer is the grants director at Community Connections. He says because their children’s mental health programming has so many moving parts, communication can get confusing.

“When the schedule changes because the kid is sick or the kid needs more help or the parents are late or the staff is late, or whatever, we’ve really struggled with communicating to all of those people who are this circle of wraparound supports around the kid,” Mercer said.

The plan is to hire a consultant to help coordinate scheduling and, hopefully, reduce the burden on administrative staff to allow for more reliable and consistent care.

The other piece of the grant will be used to hire a separate consultant to work on the nonprofit’s electronic health records system. Community Connections implemented the system in 2024. Operations Director Milbia Fuller says the system works, but they want it to be more useful. The goal is for it to aid in important decision making by communicating things like how much service each client gets or how much progress they’re making toward their goals.

“It’s always about how we can continue to provide quality services to people who need who need them, and also increase our caseload when we can,” Fuller said. “So getting this grant is going to help us optimize some of our systems and reduce that administrative burden on our teams so we can really focus on client care.”

This award is part of the first round of a series of funding announcements from the state’s Rural Health Transformation Program. Community Connections was just one of 19 projects across the state that will be awarded for improved healthcare access. More funding for projects will be announced every Friday, according to the Department of Health.

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Southeast Alaska is seeing some unseasonably warm weather for this time of year.

Communities in the southern part of the region are under heat advisories for parts of this week, with temperatures forecast in the low 80s. That includes the Ketchikan area and communities on Prince of Wales Island.

Haines and Skagway in Lynn Canal in the northern part of the region also have advisories.

“We are definitely under a period of unseasonably high temperatures,” said Brooke Sullivan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau. “Normally, we’re under all that overcast and rainy weather. Usually around this time of year we’re starting to transition into, you know, some cooler temperatures.”

Dry, warm weather is due to high-pressure systems and stagnant winds, according to Sullivan. The Lynn Canal area is influenced by high pressure out of Canada. For other areas, it’s periods of high pressure in the Gulf of Alaska lasting several days at a time.

“We’re seeing that pattern persist, and don’t exactly have anything to attribute it to — not like any bigger cause or reason — but just this year, seeing high pressure lingering for a little bit longer into the season than normal,” Sullivan said.

Above average warm and dry conditions are expected to continue in the region for another three to four weeks.

“And then I think once we get into the fall, we’ll fall back into our pretty normal pattern where we start to see more atmospheric rivers back to our usual overcast, rainy conditions,” said Sullivan. “So at least we’re going to end the summer on a high note.”

While the weather is unusual in Southeast’s rainforest climate, Sullivan said the region is not yet considered to be in a drought.

The post Parts of Southeast Alaska under heat advisories this week appeared first on KRBD.

It was a rainy evening in Thorne Bay, on the eastern side of Prince of Wales Island. Rod Morrison, superintendent of the Southeast Island School District, walked up to a house and pointed to a newly constructed wooden deck by the front door. The aroma of freshly cut lumber filled the air. 

The deck, and nearby wheelchair ramp, is one of three that high school students recently built for the community’s teacher housing. They also constructed a food pantry, and a home deck in Naukati, a small town 40 miles northwest. 

Morrison said the eight-week summer construction class is one way the district is trying to prepare its students for the workforce. 

“You know, our students in Southeast Alaska, especially on the island, not all of them go to college, but they all go to the workforce,” Morrison said. “And it’s really important to us that the kids, when they leave our schools, can contribute and make a wage, and do what they’d like to do.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the construction industry has seen steady growth since the pandemic. But training opportunities for the trade, especially for those under 18 years old, are few and far between on the large, isolated island. 

It’s the first time the school district has had full-fledged career and technical education, or CTE, programming since they lost state funding for it almost a decade ago. They’re the recipient of two federal grants to fund teachers, materials, training opportunities and more. 

The push is part of a collaborative effort with three other school districts on the island to increase student access to CTE programming. They’re also partnering with tribally led entities, Sealaska Heritage Institute and Generations Southeast, to make these courses happen. 

Morrison said the construction class is the first step in building new career pathways for students on the island. 

“The idea is that Alaska’s workforce comes from the Lower 48,” Morrison said. “We want to help supply Alaska workforce with Alaskans.”

The new construction class provided high school students with real-world building experience. Students also learned basics, like rise and run, while constructing staircases and decks. 

Students even got paid an hourly wage. 

“I think it’s good for the kids to have something constructive to do during the summer,” said course instructor Daniel Nelson. “A lot of times on these small islands, the island doesn’t have a lot to offer for teenagers.” 

Nelson is an experienced construction worker and will soon be teaching several CTE classes on the island. 

“I think it benefits them with a 9-5 job, understanding what it takes to show up every morning, to be diligent, to work hard, and to understand what a job is going to look like after high school,” Nelson said.

Nelson, who was pretty hands off when students were building, said he wants them to walk away from the class knowing how to build a deck of their own. He said even if students don’t pursue a career in construction, the skills they learn is something they can add to their toolbelt. 

Many of the roughly half dozen students who enrolled in the construction course took a woodshop class last school year, where they learned how to use power tools. Others have prior experience in construction work and wanted to build upon those skills. 

But Tristan Dolan, a sophomore at Thorne Bay School, said he had no construction experience and wanted to learn something new. 

“I think my favorite thing about this class was just learning the overall idea of how it would go on a construction site, or like a part of it, and just seeing the overall idea,” Dolan said.

Morrison, the superintendent, said the new course provides a different medium to learn math. He said that’s beneficial to students who might otherwise be unmotivated in a traditional classroom setting. That, he said, can also build confidence. 

“You know, in my opinion, a lot of young people struggle with confidence,” Morrison said. “I think when you build something and you see it come together, there’s a sense of pride that happens with that.” 

Morrison said the district plans to ramp up the island’s CTE courses in the coming school year. The district is going to offer an electrical program where students can get their apprenticeship card with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. They also plan to offer courses in welding, scuba diving and other trades. 

Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.

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