Cell Towers
There’s no immediate end in sight for 5G cell-tower discussion, though the topic will start getting its own dedicated meeting time. The planning commission has scheduled a special meeting for July 10 to discuss two conditional use permit applications for new towers in the borough. One tower has been proposed for Main Street, next to the Haines School. The other tower is from company Atlas Towers, and does not yet have a proposed location.
Residents with concerns about the safety of the 5G waves continue to speak up, including assembly member Mark Smith. Smith directed borough staff this week to draft legislation changing borough regulations on cell-tower placement. While the final wording of that legislation has not been determined, Smith asked that it prohibit any new cell towers in the townsite, and within 1,500 feet of private property outside of the townsite.
It’s not clear if this proposal would be allowed. At a planning commission meeting in February, John Easton, a representative from communications company GCI, told the commission that “the FCC has complete control over regulating communications equipment,” and said that prohibiting towers on the basis of health concerns or prohibiting towers borough-wide would be illegal. However, as some residents advocating against 5G towers have noted, municipal-level restrictions on 5G towers do exist elsewhere in the country mandating setbacks from residences and schools.
In addition to the cell-tower special meeting, assembly members also encouraged residents to attend an upcoming meeting to discuss accessory dwelling units. That will be at the next commerce committee meeting on Tuesday, June 17, in the library.
“I got the feeling at the last assembly meeting that we didn’t hear from the proponents (of allowing ADUs) very well,” said commerce committee chair Richard Clement. “So I really hope people show up for a good discussion of that.”
New Legislation
Assembly member Craig Loomis proposed putting a seasonal sales tax proposal on the ballot for residents to vote on in October.
The broad idea behind the measure is to increase sales tax rates in the summer, and decrease sales tax rates by an equal amount in the winter. For year-round residents, the winter decreases would cancel out summer increases, meaning the total tax burden for individuals would be unchanged. But by shifting more of the taxation to months with more tourism and total purchasing, proponents say the change would increase revenue for the borough.
The assembly has talked about this issue for at least a decade, said mayor Tom Morphet. Recent proposals for a seasonal sales tax would have raised the areawide sales tax by 1% in the summer and decreased the rate in the winter by the same amount. This type of policy exists elsewhere in the region: Sitka, Skag
way, Ketchikan and Craig all have seasonal sales tax rates.
The assembly has scheduled a special meeting for June 22 at which it will try to write a new proposal for the ballot this year. They are racing against time, however, as ballot measures must go through a long approval process, including going in front of the assembly and receiving certification from the clerk. The last step, certification from the clerk, must happen at least 42 days before election day. That means the last assembly meeting to propose ballot measures is July 8.
Becky’s Place Contract
In addition to cell-tower legislation, Smith also directed borough staff to “negotiate a contract/arrangement with Becky’s Place similar to the arrangement the borough has with HARK (Haines Animal Rescue Kennel).”
Becky’s Place is a local nonprofit which provides “shelter and assistance to women, children, and men who have been subjected to domestic violence and/or sexual abuse,” according to its website.
Smith and others in the assembly argued that there was a consensus behind Becky’s Place as an essential organization.
“I have always identified Becky’s Place above the cut line,” said Smith. “We have an arrangement very similar for HARK. It’s a public safety issue.”
Assembly member Cheryl Stickler agreed, also invoking the animal shelter parallel. “The borough supports HARK, which is a shelter for animals,” said Stickler. “It is totally appropriate for the borough to support a shelter for families in need.”
The borough already does support Becky’s Place, or at least did this year, in the form of standard non-profit funding. Becky’s Place was one of the highest-funded organizations, receiving $24,000 from the borough. A contract would not be too much of a change from that number, with Smith proposing giving the organization $30,000, minus existing property tax exemptions. However, the assembly did not include any non-profit funding in the upcoming year’s budget, and multiple assembly members this year have said they want to cut back on the number of nonprofits receiving funding. Having a contract would insulate Becky’s Place from year-over-year uncertainty.
Some, including Loomis and Fullerton, have brought up differences between HARK and Becky’s Place. Before contracting with HARK in the early 2000s, the borough employed a dog catcher and ran a kennel of its own. HARK board member Chuck Mitman said the borough’s operation prior to the contract was less thorough than what HARK has in place now.
“They had two small kennels at the sewer plant and they would grab dogs and stick them in the kennel,” Mitman said. “Employees would watch the dogs for three working days and then shoot them. We didn’t have vet services here, so there were always puppies getting given away in front of the grocery stores each weekend.”
As Fullerton pointed out Tuesday, the borough charter specifically outlines animal control as one of the powers of the municipal government. The HARK contract outsources those duties to an organization better able to take on the job.
It’s not as clear which borough duty Becky’s Place would fall under.
Assembly members and Fullerton seemed to agree that of all the borough powers outlined in the charter, Becky’s Place would most closely fit under “emergency medical services.”
The assembly agreed to postpone voting on the proposal until the new fiscal year.
Mayor Debate
Legislation, offered by assembly member Richard Clement, would have prohibited the mayor from participating in assembly debate, but was ultimately dropped. The proposal came after an assembly debate two weeks ago where mayor Tom Morphet spoke during debate on accessory dwelling units and Clement and Smith took issue with Morphet’s participation.
According to Haines Borough code, “the mayor may take part in the matters before the assembly but may not vote except in the case of a tie.”
Clement’s proposal sought to change that, but he said it was nothing personal against Morphet. “I would just like to see meetings continue to get tighter and shorter,” he said.
Ultimately, assembly members decided the change would be difficult, and potentially against state laws, and Clement withdrew his proposal. Clement said he would look for other ways to make meeting time more efficient.
Assembly compensation
A much-discussed proposal changing assembly member and mayor compensation passed unanimously.
When it was originally introduced by assembly member Mark Smith, the measure would have removed compensation altogether, as well as removing an option for the mayor and assembly members to receive health insurance from the borough.
During the last assembly meeting, the proposal was amended to give assembly members and the mayor the option of opting out of compensation, rather than being forced to do so. As amended, it still took away the health insurance option.
The proposal passed Tuesday with that amendment, and it remains to be seen just how many elected officials will opt out. Assembly member Kevin Forster has said that when he was elected last year, he asked to opt out, but was not permitted to. Assembly members receive a $4,550 stipend each year; the mayor’s stipend is $15,000.
Public Safety Updates
The assembly approved a new police chief hire on Tuesday, but only partially, and it is not yet certain if Tennessee police officer Jimmy Yoakum will end up with the job.
Yoakum has signed a contract with the borough and was confirmed by the assembly, which is generally the final step in the hiring process. Yoakum had originally planned to begin work in Haines next week.
Prior to the assembly’s vote on hiring Yoakum, Fullerton delivered news that Yoakum might face a long and potentially costly delay before starting the job. When police officers move to Alaska from out of state, they either have to go through the full state certification process, or have their prior training and certification approved by the Alaska Police Standards Council.
Even though Yoakum is a longtime law enforcement officer, Fullerton said it was not certain his Tennessee credentials would be approved by the council. Were that to happen, Yoakum would have to attend the full police training academy in Sitka. The academy runs a 17-week course, with the next session starting in July.
The borough would have to pay his salary for the duration of the course on top of the cost of the course. Fullerton said Yoakum is willing to attend the academy if needed.
The assembly’s conditional approval, which passed unanimously, says that if Yoakum’s Tennessee credentials are accepted, Yoakum will immediately become the new chief of the Haines Borough Police Department. He would be paid $125,000 per year. If the certification is denied, Yoakum’s hire will go back in front of the assembly, who will then decide whether to approve his hire, along with a trip to Sitka.
Next door in the public safety building, the borough is hiring for a full-time fire chief as part of the reorganization of the Haines Volunteer Fire Department. The current chief role, held by Brian Clay, is a volunteer position. Interviews of four candidates will happen Friday and will be conducted by an interview committee that includes borough officials and members of the Haines Volunteer Fire Department.
Small Tracts Update
About $2.5 million in state funding for a water main extension on Small Tracts Road has faced uncertainty, with the borough’s approval process for the project threatening to run past a state deadline. In early May, the CVN reported that the funding agency, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, needed assurance of the project going forward by the end of its fiscal year on June 30. Otherwise, borough officials said at the time, the Department of Environmental Conservation would pull the funding.
The problem was that the borough’s process for approving the project involves creation of a Local Improvement District (LID), a process allowing residents in the affected neighborhood to vote on the new water main and also agree to pay for a chunk of money needed beyond the state grant. Creation of a LID requires a public comment and assembly approval period that would have gone past the June 30 deadline.
Now it seems the borough has found a workaround. Rather than wait for a commitment from the LID to pay for the unfunded portion of the project, the borough will instead show the state commitment to moving the project forward by borrowing the funding from another source. The assembly Tuesday approved borrowing $335,000 from the Capital Improvement Project fund to dedicate to the water main project. The plan is for that money to then be paid back by homeowners.
A majority of residents have expressed non-binding support for the project.