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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10112021 City Council Minutes City of Seward, Alaska City Council Meeting Minutes October 11, 2021 Volume 41, Page 525 CALL TO ORDER The October 11,2021 regular meeting of the Seward City Council was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Christy Terry. OPENING CEREMONY Police Chief Alan Nickell led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. ROLL CALL There were present: Christy Terry presiding and Tony Baclaan Sue McClure Sharyl Seese John Osenga Liz DeMoss Ristine Casagranda comprising a quorum of the Council; and Janette Bower, City Manager Brenda Ballou, City Clerk Brooks Chandler, City Attorney Excused—None Absent—None CITIZEN COMMENTS ON ANY SUBJECT EXCEPT THOSE ITEMS SCHEDULED FOR PUBLIC HEARING —None APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND CONSENT AGENDA Motion (Baclaan/McClure) Approval of Agenda and Consent Agenda Casagranda removed Resolution 2021-117 from the consent agenda. Motion Passed Unanimous The clerk read the following approved consent agenda items: Resolution 2021-115,Authorizing The City Manager To Enter Into A Construction Contract With Global Diving & Salvage Inc., For The Replacement Of Sacrificial Anodes Cathodic Protection System On The Concrete Section Of The Seward Harbor Float System In Amount I L Not To Exceed$150,477.80,Which Includes A 10%Contingency,And Appropriating Funds. Resolution 2021-116,Authorizing The City Manager To Spend An Amount Up To$35,000 For City of Seward, Alaska City Council Meeting Minutes October 11, 2021 Volume 41, Page 526 The Installation Of Overhead Electric Power To The Scale House At The City Rock Quarry. Resolution 2021-118, Approving Amendment No. 1 To The Contract With Boyd, Chandler, Falconer&Munson For The Provision Of Basic Legal Services Through August 1,2023,For A Total Of$66,000 Annually. Resolution 2021-119,Approving Amendment No. 1 To The Contract With R&M Consultants Inc.For On-Call Engineering And Grant Writing Services Through December 31,2024,And Appropriating Funds In The Amount Of$25,000. Approval of the September 13,2021 City Council Special Meeting Minutes. Certify the October 5, 2021 Regular Municipal Election Results. Non-objection to the renewal of marijuana license#17758 for The Tufted Puffin, LLC. Appoint Dona Walker to the Historic Preservation Commission with a term to expire May, 2024. SPECIAL ORDERS, PRESENTATIONS AND REPORTS Proclamations & Awards National Coming Out Day Proclamation Wellness Week Proclamation Domestic Violence Awareness Month Proclamation Borough Assembly Report. Kenn Carpenter was not present. City Manager Report. City Manager Janette Bower reported there was a draft budget available in preparation for the work sessions that would start on Wednesday. There was no update on the Federal Infrastructure Bill at this time. McClure thanked administration and the Parks& Recreation Department for installing the Mary Lowell grave marker replacement. City Attorney Report.City Attorney Brooks Chandler said the last month had been fairly quiet;he had worked on some of the contracts on tonight's agenda.He had finished his initial review of the city code for the recodification project today. There was a drainage easement that he was working on,a sublease at the harbor,and some personnel issues which had been resolved.Legal fees for July were$8,898 and in August they were$11,870; beginning in November, his firm would be charging a flat monthly fee, and the bill would exceed that only when necessary for unexpected items. City of Seward, Alaska City Council Meeting Minutes October 11, 2021 Volume 41, Page 527 Baclaan appreciated receiving updates on the various projects, including the recodification project. In response, Chandler said the recodification project was a major deal and it took time. Other Reports and Announcements—None Presentations—None PUBLIC HEARINGS—None UNFINISHED BUSINESS—None NEW BUSINESS Resolutions Resolution 2021-117, Authorizing the City Manager to Enter into the Contract with LTAS Technologies Inc. for Short Term Rental Registration and Compliance Services through December 31, 2024, for a total of$6,500 Annually, and Appropriating Funds. Motion (Baclaan/McClure) Approve Resolution 2021-117 Bower noted that this vendor is commonly known as Harmari, and the Community Development Department had been using their services since 2018;it has previously cost$4,000 per year. The increase in the cost now is due to the city's interest in expanding the services. Casagranda had some concerns that short term lodging was being paid extra attention,more than other types of businesses. She appreciated that this software may have the capacity to streamline the process of permitting, but she didn't understand how it would be helping the city's processes. Casagranda noted that there was no city compliance officer for short term lodging, and she wasn't sure the city needed to have a vendor to address non-compliance because many citizens were willing to keep people honest by asking their own questions. She was more concerned that the city was spending time and energy on short term lodging, rather than spending time on solving long term affordable housing. Terry noted that this contract would become a budget item,and if future councils wished to stop using the services they could provide the vendor with 30 days' notice. In response to DeMoss, Bower said this service expansion was not fully implemented in 2020,as hoped.Bower explained that how it worked was the vendor's software"crawled"websites to find advertisements and then reported that information back to the city. Baclaan recalled hearing about when this software was first implemented,that the data was available to one employee only,and he believed the information had been used as a weapon against local business owners. He concurred with the suggestion that there was more attention being paid to City of Seward, Alaska City Council Meeting Minutes October 11, 2021 Volume 41, Page 528 short term rental businesses over other businesses. He wondered what the difference in permitting compliance was between 2019 and 2020;he didn't think that enough information had been provided to council to demonstrate the effectiveness of this program. Baclaan offered an illustration to make his point: in law enforcement, there were two choices — lead by education or lead by the gun. He believed it was more effective to lead by education. So he wondered if a similar approach could be used in this situation: educate the business owners why it was important for them to be properly permitted,and enforcing only when necessary. In that context,he wondered what the cost benefit of this program actually was. Seese also had concerns, and when she asked for information about how many businesses were actually found to be running illegally, she never received satisfactory answers. Motion to Postpone(Terry/McClure) Postpone Resolution 2021-117 to October 25, 2021. Terry wished to see more information about how this software had impacted compliance rates. Casagranda also wished to see more specific data when this came back. Motion to Postpone Passed Unanimous Other New Business Items All items were approved on consent. J INFORMATIONAL ITEMS AND REPORTS—None CITIZEN COMMENTS Cheryl Seese was the chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, and she brought a request from the commission to ask council to reinstate previous COVID-19 precautions. In particular, she wished that the use of Zoom would be reinstated for meetings. She didn't understand why Zoom was stopped being used at all. Lynda Paquette concurred with the request to reinstate Zoom meetings.She thought the city had disenfranchised some people when the use of Zoom was discontinued.She encouraged everyone to consider applying for the Port&Commerce Advisory Board because there were two openings. Norm Regis stated when charter businesses tried to go around the rules, other charter boat captains made the harbormaster aware. COUNCIL AND ADMINISTRATION COMMENTS & RESPONSE TO CITIZEN COMMENTS Bower appreciated the discussion on LTAS Technologies.She thanked Seese for her service, and congratulated Osenga on being re-elected. City of Seward, Alaska City Council Meeting Minutes October 11, 2021 Volume 41, Page 529 L DeMoss congratulated Osenga and Calhoon on the election. She thought all the candidates ran good campaigns and all were well-spoken. She congratulated Cindy Ecklund on becoming Seward's new Borough Assembly Representative, and thanked Seese for her service. Casagranda thanked the young people in tonight's audience for coming to the meeting.She appreciated council working well together and administration for being so prepared. Osenga thanked Randy Wells and Leighton Radner for stepping up and putting their names in the hat for this election. He congratulated Calhoon, and thanked Seese for her service. Seese brought fudge for everyone to share because tonight was her last council meeting.She congratulated Calhoon and Osenga on the election. McClure congratulated Osenga and Calhoon,and thanked everyone for running. She wished everyone a Happy Indigenous Peoples Day. Baclaan thanked administration for Resolution 2021-119 to obtain a resource for grant writing services. He announced his resignation from council due to a new job he accepted;he felt it was necessary to resign due to the demands of his new job. He appreciated everyone on council and all their time and energy. LTerry said Baclaan would be missed. She thanked Seese for her service and congratulated Calhoon on being elected, and Osenga for being re-elected. She appreciated Randy Wells and Leighton Radner for putting in as candidates. She thanked Alaska Waste for serving the city, and congratulated Cindy Ecklund and thanked Kenn Carpenter. She noted there would be two budget work sessions this week, Wednesday and Thursday, starting at 6:00 p.m. each night; the work sessions would be available on YouTube, in person, on radio, and on GCI channel 9. Halloween events would include the Halloween Carnival from 1:00-4:00 p.m. on October 30 at the cruise ship terminal, followed by Trunk or Treat at the Army Resort at 5:00 p.m. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:49 p.m. B en a J. Ballouu, 1 MC Ch ' Terry City Clerk ...•,•,••••.,, ayor .••y Of SEW''•. (City0.SF• '�•••• µPO T•.•'Q '•,� % L L 1 • I SEAL i • 3 ........ d ••........,