If elected to the planning commission, it would be Kimberly Rosado’s first time holding public office. But the 61-year-old longtime Haines resident said she has a clear philosophy. 

“We will fail as a borough, we will fail as a city, we will fail as a state, we will fail as a nation if we don’t come together and talk,” she said. 

Rosado has been attending many of the borough assembly meetings and weighing in often since 2023 when many residents in Haines saw steep jumps in their property tax assessments. She started attending assembly meetings to question why her property value had doubled and found a like-minded group of people. 

“We formed a group and started meeting and started talking and we were from all walks of Haines, all political aspects, all differences … we had one common goal and we came together and we changed state law and we changed borough code,” she said. 

It was her first time weighing in on politics and Rosado said it felt good to effect real change. But, while she said she spends a lot of time on assembly businesses, she supports the work that incumbents Richard Clement and Gabe Thomas are doing. 

“I didn’t want to compete with that,” she said. 

Rosado said the planning commission caught her eye after it forwarded a proposal on accessory dwelling units to the assembly, and the controversy over an easement on borough property that would have allowed easier access to a composting facility but ran partially across cemetery land. 

Rosado characterizes that as giving borough land away and she wasn’t sure it was supportable in code. “It went through the planning commission, it went to the borough assembly and it just wasted a lot of time, I thought,” she said. “There was such a public outcry.” 

And on the affordable housing issue that accessory dwelling units was supposed to help tackle –  Rosado said she doesn’t see the planning commission being able to change the market forces at work that drive prices up. She thinks of her  own Porcupine Road cabin. 

“What is affordable housing? I know what it cost me and the time I spent paying from paycheck to paycheck to build this cabin,” she said. “I could never rent it out at an affordable price. I built it with lumber from mills in this town. I just don’t see the planning commission being able to change or fix… the cost of freight getting here and the cost of our property taxes.” 

But, she’s also interested in revisiting the code around accessory dwellings units if that’s needed to help refine proposals to allow people to build them. 

“If we want to do this, let’s see if we have a section of town where we can do residential areas with ADUs,” she said. 

And, when it comes to proactively tackling land-use issues, Rosado said she’s most interested in figuring out what kind of zoning changes could be made to help stimulate the local economy. 

“Our fishing is gone. What do we have? I’m not a big pro-mine, or against it. But I think there’s other things here that we can try to make some sort of economy, even if it’s not natural resources,” she said. “Whether it’s industry, schooling, the hospital. I think we need to back SEARHC for that hospital.” 

Rosado points to her own family as a driving force behind this need for change. 

“My son and his family left. I don’t want to see that happen to other families,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to hear families leaving and I know if there was an economy here it would be better.” 

Rosado describes a unique political path for herself. For a long time, she said, she didn’t consider herself to be on one side or the other of the political spectrum. 

“I voted for Obama both terms. I was never on the right or left, I always voted who I thought was best. Whoever I thought listened and I liked what they had to say. Then I had an awakening,” she said. 

That awakening, as she describes it, includes famed Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain whom she called her ‘rock star idol.’

“Kurt Cobain is my favorite, ok? And he predicted Trump as president. He thought Trump would be the best thing for our country because he wasn’t political. He was a businessman,” Rosado said. “I still feel like I’m in the middle, but … I’m a registered Republican right now because I felt like I just needed to be grounded and that’s where I need to make a decision at my age.” 

Politics aside, Rosado said she brings a willingness to communicate and compromise and a passion for research to the team of commissioners if elected. 

“I like to dig down deep. I haven’t listened to the news, probably for 20 years. I hear bits, I hear pieces, I might watch the news and I turn it off and I start researching and looking online and finding truth, finding facts,”she said. 

As a resident of the upper valley, Rosado is also aware of the kinds of decisions that get made in Haines that don’t necessarily have consensus in the entire borough.  “I see a disconnect,” she said. “We have four distinct areas that are all unique in their different ways. Lutak, Mud Bay, Haines proper and out here.” 

Clarification: There is no evidence supporting the widely-circulated claim that late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain predicted Donald Trump as president in 1993. The claim has been debunked since 2018.