Wilbur Brown is running for his third term on tribal council. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)
Wilbur Brown is one of five candidates running for four seats on tribal council, along with Bob Sam, Michael Miller, Nancy Douglas, and Wilfred S. Hanbury. Brown was first elected to tribal council in 2012 . He will be listed on the ballot as Wilbur G. Brown.
Three candidates are running for tribal council chairman. They are Michael Baines, Lawrence “Woody” Widmark, and Kathy Hope Erickson.
Good afternoon, I’m Wilbur Brown.
I’ve been living in Sitka for about 20+ years. I think I’ve been a real active member in the community along with my wife, my five kids, and my mother and my extended family.
I’ve worked in various jobs around the community, most of them in lead management. I’m a Veteran, a UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks) graduate, and I’ve been on the (STA) council for about six years. I am currently the ANB (Alaska Native Brotherhood) Camp #1 President, the ANB Grand Camp Second Vice President, and a Tlingit and Haida Delegate. I’ve served on many committees with the tribe and I’ve worked in various capacities with the tribe to ensure that we are serving our tribal needs.
Most currently, I am the Chair of the Sitka Tribal Economic Development Committee. I work with a great group of folks who are business members on the community. As the leadership for STE, we’ve done a lot to get STE back on solid ground. We won’t push a business forward until we have a solid business plan, we have a strong fiscal plan, and we believe in it. We’ve had some struggles, as we got started in the past year, to re-group our tribal enterprises businesses. Some of them were started without a strong business plan and without a solid financial plan. We’ve been able to shut some of those businesses down and re-start them back with a good solid plan going forth, so we would be conservative with your money as tribal citizens.
I have also been a Chair of the Sitka Tribal Health Committee. With that, I’ve been working to meet your health needs as well as your economic needs. I’ve worked with SEARHC (Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium). We’ve held our first annual health fair. With the health fair, we were able to reach some folks that would never attend any health fairs in the community. That was held down at the ANB Hall.
With the ANB Hall, we’re offering bingo, we’re doing community functions with the tribe, and we’re looking at collaborating more with our tribal entities in the community.
November 8th is our election. I really would appreciate your vote so I can continue some of this work that I’ve started. If you’re not going to vote for me, I really encourage you just to get out and vote. We have some really important things happening in our tribe and nationally. So please get out to vote November 8th.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 8th. Polls will be open for tribal citizens between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. at Sheet’ka Kwáan Naa Kahídi Community House. Voters must bring their state or tribal ID card. Absentee ballots are available at the STA Offices (456 Katlian Street) between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. through Monday, November 7th. For more information, contact STA’s Elections Supervisor Rose Demmert at 738-5450.
