Cemetery easement denied
The assembly voted Tuesday on an easement request that has brought a storm of controversy since it surfaced last month.
The easement would have allowed Takshanuk Watershed Council use of an existing driveway running to its new composting facility at Jones Point – a driveway largely on Jones Point Cemetery land, which is owned by the borough.
By the time Tuesday’s meeting started, every seat in the assembly chambers had filled. Members of the public who trickled in late spilled out into the hallway, with attendance exceeding the official fire marshall limit of 60 people in the room.
That led to lengthy public comment, almost all about the cemetery easement, rehashing many of the arguments laid out in previous discussions.
Two hours after the start of the meeting, once all members of the public had spoken, assembly members finally weighed in. Compared to the public discussion, debate before the final vote was extremely brief. Assembly members went around the dais once explaining their reasoning, and voted 4-2 to deny the easement with assembly members Craig Loomis and Kevin Forster in the minority.
The majority voting against the easement justified their votes mainly by the weight of the public outcry. “This is a vote to listen to the owners of this land who have clearly said, ‘We don’t support this,’” assembly member Cheryl Stickler said – a sentiment that was echoed by assembly member Mark Smith during the meeting, and Richard Clement afterward.
Opposition also included a July 8 letter from Richard Peterson, president of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida, opposing the easement.
Although public opposition to the easement was significant, it was by no means unanimous. In Tuesday’s public comment period, 15 spoke against the easement, while 10 spoke in direct support. Some struck a middle ground, like Craig Franke of Community Waste Solutions, who spoke in support of Takshanuk and its composting facility but said he would not comment specifically on the easement.
Clement, however, focused afterward not just on the number of commenters on each side, but the content of their testimony and membership.
“All the Native folks and the old, old timers, I wanted to show them some respect and show them we have their backs,” Clement said.
After the easement was settled, one more cemetery question remained on the docket: a request for longtime volunteer caretakers Roc and Diann Ahrens to act as “authorized agents” for the borough. The issue arose in mid-June, when the Ahrenses applied for a land use permit to construct a pavilion for the cemetery. The land use permit was denied because, borough officials said, the borough – and not the caretakers – own the cemetery.
Interim manager Alekka Fullerton said Tuesday that new buildings on borough land must go through the process of public meetings and assembly approval.
The Ahrenses said volunteers had already been arranged to make cemetery improvements “at no cost to the borough.”
In the end, assembly members and borough staff told the Ahrenses that while they could not circumvent that process, they would commit to hearing and putting into place the Ahrenses’ plans for cemetery improvements.
Many took time to recognize the Ahrenses decades of service. That included one comment from Stickler, during which both Stickler and Diann Ahrens became emotional.
“These are leaders who lead with service at the core of their hearts,” Stickler said of Diann and Roc Ahrens. “And I just thank you from the deepest part of my spirit for exemplifying that servant leadership.”
ADUs tabled
Accessory dwelling units have been a constant topic this spring and summer, pitched by advocates as a low-impact way of adding housing stock and reducing housing costs. The accessory dwelling unit proposal was first passed from the planning commission to the assembly in April.
But when it came time to vote on the measure over a month ago, the assembly decided to postpone and send it back to the commerce committee. After commerce committee discussion in June, the issue once again returned on Tuesday, and assembly members once again declined to take a definitive vote. Instead, the measure was postponed indefinitely.
It has been hard to pin down what assembly members’ exact views on the subject are, beyond assembly member Kevin Forster, who has been consistently supportive, and assembly member Gabe Thomas, who has consistently expressed reservations. Forster and Thomas briefly rehashed those arguments Tuesday.
First assembly member Smith, and then Stickler, made motions, which they later dropped, to send the legislation back to borough staff.
And while doing so, both Smith and Stickler expressed some support for the legislation, with Smith saying that he was “actually in support of this, but only if it applies to the whole town.” As written, the legislation excludes Mud Bay and Lutak from the ADU legislation. Smith declined to amend the legislation to get rid of the exclusion.
Stickler had strong words to support the need for housing, describing the town as “in a housing crisis.”
“Teachers can’t find housing, medical professionals can’t find housing. It’s serious.”
But Stickler said she was concerned adding accessory dwelling units to single-family zoning would be a violation of single-family zoning.
That was a change in tone from discussion at the June 17 commerce committee discussion, when she described the ADU measure as “a step forward that in the grand scheme of things will have significant benefits with minimal impact.”
Stickler said after Tuesday’s meeting she was heeding the advice of acting lands director Donna Lambert, who has advocated to postpone ADU measures until after the borough’s land-use code is rewritten.
“Tonight, (Lambert) strongly stated that there were going to be conflicts and it was going to muddy (borough code) up.”
The assembly ultimately settled on tabling the issue, which means it will be postponed indefinitely. The assembly can choose in the future to take it “off the table” and bring it back into consideration. Assembly members Forster and Loomis voted against the decision to postpone.
If the assembly does wait until land use code is rewritten, it could be a lengthy wait. Lambert said on Tuesday that the process of rewriting could take two to three years.
Public Safety Updates
In one dramatic moment, long-planned changes to the Haines Volunteer Fire Department were nearly voted down by three assembly members, leaving others on the dais in visible shock.
The changes to the department, which create a full-time, paid chief position and introduce fees for ambulance service, have been on the agenda for weeks. But until Tuesday, there had been little debate, as no assembly members had expressed opposition.
That was true even up to the very start of voting to approve the changes, when Smith, Loomis, and Clement all voted no. That left it up to mayor Tom Morphet to break the 3-3 deadlock. Morphet voted yes, and the changes passed. But Forster, Thomas, and Stickler, who had voted yes, looked around in surprise and asked the no votes for their rationale.
All three had different reasons. Smith, who has been a vocal supporter of the ambulance fees included in the measure he voted against, said the vote was part of his program to reduce borough payroll. “Why would we pay for something we’ve been getting from volunteers?” Smith said.
Meanwhile, Clement said he had heard from constituents opposed to the changes, and Loomis said he thought the borough and department was “doing fine right now the way it is.”
Also included in discussion Tuesday was an update on the police department, which, like the fire department, is in a period of transition.
That has centered around a police chief search, which appeared to conclude last month when the borough agreed on a contract with Jimmy Yoakum, of Tennessee. Yoakum was set to start as chief June 16, but was unable to have his Tennessee police certifications transferred to Alaska.
The assembly approved a plan on Tuesday to hire Yoakum and send him to a training course in Fairbanks where he will receive the necessary certifications. That course, beginning in October, will run three months and will cost the borough between $13,000 and $14,000 in tuition, Fullerton said.
In practice, Yoakum will be part of the police force in town far sooner than October. Fullerton said she expects him to arrive in Haines next week, at which point he’ll assume “all administrative functions” of the chief.
Fullerton also said he will immediately be able to respond to calls as a trainee while he receives field training certifications from police sergeant Max Jusi. Fullerton said once that process is complete, even before he completes the Fairbanks program, Yoakum will be able to take on full policing duties.
New rates, new meetings,
The assembly approved a joint meeting with the planning commission on Aug. 11 at 6 p.m. at the Four Winds Resource Center, but only narrowly.
The meeting will center around a proposal made by Smith in April to put the borough-owned community center up for sale. Traveling to Mosquito Lake to hold the meeting was pitched by some, including Morphet, as a way to hear the voices of community members who might be affected by the sale of the building. Not all agreed with the plan.
Smith, Clement, and Thomas voted against holding the joint meeting, requiring a tie-breaking yes vote from Morphet to give the meeting a green light. Smith described the meeting as a “potential ambush” and said he expected “lots of emotional theatrics” from Mosquito Lake residents opposed to selling the facility.
Stickler quickly pushed back on that statement.
“These are constituents who pay tax dollars,” Stickler said. “I don’t view it as an ambush, I view it as an information-gathering session so that we can see things in three dimensions and see which parcels are being proposed for sale.”
Smith has pitched the sale as a way to increase borough revenue. That was a consistent theme elsewhere in the assembly agenda.
One major item was the introduction of a seasonal sales tax proposal, which will be up for public hearings at the July 22 and Aug. 12 assembly meetings.
The basic premise of the seasonal sales tax is to shift more of the sales tax take to summer months, when there is more tour-ist spending in town, while giving a corresponding tax break in the winter months. To go into effect, the voters would have to approve the change in October’s election. The question in front of the assembly right now is a matter of which proposal will be on the ballot for voters to decide on.
The proposal endorsed by a majority of assembly members last month bumps up the sales tax by 1% over current levels from April through September. Then, from October through March, the rate will return to its current level at 5.5%, but non-prepared food items will go untaxed.
Borough finance director Jila Stuart has projected the change to result in an additional $289,100 in revenue. If that comes to pass, it will be enough to fund the additional $270,000 in school funding the assembly added to the budget last month — an amount interim manager Alekka Fullerton said in her proposed budget the borough could not afford.
In one more revenue issue on Tuesday, the assembly voted to approve a 5% increase in harbor fees, as recommended by harbormaster Henry Pollan.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include copy-editing changes that were made in the print edition of the Chilkat Valley News, that, due to an editing error, did not make it into this edition.