Mayor joining MARAD meeting over Lutak dock
During this week’s report from borough manager Alekka Fullerton, she said the Lutak Dock Liaison committee will be meeting with the Maritime Administration on Wednesday. Committee members are borough staff: clerk Mike Denker, Fullerton, facilities director Brad Jensen, planner Chen Wu, and harbormaster Henry Pollan. Fullerton told assembly members on Tuesday that this meeting was to understand the timeline of where the borough is currently with the Lutak Dock project.
Mayor Tom Morphet spoke up, first asking if any elected officials were joining the meeting, then requesting to sit in on the meeting. Assembly member Mark Smith said he was concerned about having an elected official join the meeting. Morphet said that he wanted to sit in on the meeting “unless somebody blocks me.” He said he wanted to ensure that the borough did not “drop a $25 million grant.”
After much back and forth between assembly members, the decision to allow the mayor to attend the meeting ended in a vote that came down to a 3-3 tie with Eben Sargent, Kevin Forester and Craig Loomis voting to allow Morphet to join the meeting, while Cheryl Stickler, Mark Smith and Gabe Thomas voted against it.
That tied vote meant Mayor Morphet got to vote to break the tie, and ultimately allow himself to attend Wednesday’s meeting.
H-1B Visa
Following the lengthy discussion about the upcoming meeting with MARAD, assembly member Smith brought up the question of vital employee borough planner Chen Wu’s H-1B visa status. For his visa, Wu needs an employer to sponsor the visa request. Smith questioned if it was the “tax payers responsibility” to pursue this.
Fullerton said that the borough wants to retain Wu, who has been the borough’s planner since August 2025.
Last September, the Trump administration raised H-1B visa costs from $5,000 to $100,000. That led to the Haines Borough School District losing its special education teacher, Stacey Spencer, earlier this year after her visa expired in December and the school district was unable to obtain alternate legal status that would have allowed her to remain.
The increase in fees impacted school districts across the state which have turned increasingly toward hiring foreign teachers due to staffing shortages and shrinking budgets.
In April, superintendent Lilly Boron said that nearly all of the district’s applicants for the upcoming school year would be required to have an H-1B or J-1 visa.
But on June 6, U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin ruled that the $100,000 fee was unlawful.
At the borough level, Wu’s job is at stake if the borough does not end up sponsoring his request.
Fullerton estimated that the cost for the whole process will be approximately $2,000, a fee she said Wu is prepared to pay.
Episcopal Church discussion
During public comments at the start of the assembly meeting, Sarah Chapell, Cindy Jones, Barbara Nettleton and Jim Stanford aired their frustrations over the borough’s appeal to remove the tax exemption from the parcel of land owned by St. Michael & All Angels’ Episcopal Church.
Nettleton and Stanford are both on the Board of Equalization. The borough is asking the superior court to overturn a decision the BOE made which allowed the property to be exempt from taxes. The disputed parcel is located at Mile 1 on the Haines Highway, and was purchased by the church in 2000. After the four voiced their concerns, borough finance director Jila Stuart clarified that the assessor was “not singling out the Episcopal Church.” She explained that assessor Martins Onskulis looked at all the exempt churches. Stuart said that while this one was appealed, it is not a unique situation.