Thor Christianson
Age: 58
How many years have you lived in Sitka and in Alaska? 58 years
Occupation: EMS Management
Family: My wife’s name is Jessica, and I have two daughters. Rita age 15 and Eir age 12 are my daughters. My mother Judy Johnstone also lives in Sitka.
.Community involvement, past and present:
Sitka Assembly, Sitka Fire Dept, Sitka Fine Arts Camp
Have you previously run for public office? When and what office?
Yes, for Assembly. I have served 4 terms
Previous government or other relevant experience:
I have served four terms on the Assembly from 1998 to 2006. 2010 to 2013, and 2019 to present.
Why are you running for a seat on the Sitka Assembly this year?
I think Sitka has a good working Assembly right now. We have managed to get a lot done in the last few years and I would like to see that continue. I have a lot of experience with the Assembly and I feel like I still have something to offer. There is a pretty steep learning curve on the Assembly, and think that it is good for the city to have someone who does not need time to get up to speed.
I have lived in Sitka most of my life and I am raising my children here. I want to do everything I can to make Sitka a viable place for my girls to live when they are adults.
What are your top two priorities if elected?
Right now, get the haul out built and continue to work to make our city government work better. I have a lot more than two priorities.
Ballot Prop 1:
Do you support Ballot Prop 1, which would establish a consumer sales tax on cannabis and cannabis products, and would direct that money to the Sitka School District’s Student Activities Fund? Why or why not?
I am ambivalent about this measure. I very much support funding student activities, which we have done last couple of budgets. I am a bit concerned that most of money raised by this comes from the existing sales tax, at least for the first few years it will not raise the amount that we are giving to the schools. The idea of “sin” taxes makes me a bit uneasy, but I can see the logic of the idea.
If the cannabis measure does not pass, are there next steps the assembly should take to bolster funding for student activities?
The Assembly has funded this the last couple of years, and unless there is a major change to the Assembly, I don’t see that changing in the near future. I think we need a change in the way we think about this making more of a core need rather than something that is a “nice to have” item.
Ballot Prop 2:
Do you support Ballot Prop 2, which would withdraw up to $8.1 million in proceeds from the sale of the Sitka Community Hospital building from Sitka’s Permanent Fund, to pay for a marine haulout? Why or why not?
Yes, very much so. I was instrumental in getting this plan put together. I have been working on this project for my entire term, and even before this on previous terms. We have tried a number of different ways to get a haul out built, from private industry, grants both state and federal and from a public private entity. Nothing has worked just because of the amount of money it takes just to get started. The sale of the hospital building presented us an unusual opportunity to get something built.
Sitka has to have a haul out if we are going to keep our fishing fleet competitive in Southeast Alaska. Right now boats are leaving Sitka to spend large amounts of money in other communities.
I am not too concerned about the permanent fund, because the benefit to the city of the permanent fund is the annual pay out to the general fund. Any activity at the haul out would be subject to the sales tax, and all of it would be new, because with no haul out now we are not seeing ANY sales tax from haul out related expenses, they are all going to Wrangel and Hoonah. This should greatly offset if not exceed the 340K we would get from the money in the permanent fund.
If the measure to fund the haulout is not approved by the voters, what steps– if any– should the assembly take to get a haulout built in Sitka?
Continue to apply for grants and hope. Be open to anyone who wants to try a private facility.
STRs and Housing:
Earlier this year, the Sitka Assembly rejected a measure that would have put a moratorium on new short-term rental permits for one year. Do you support that decision? Why or why not?
What should the assembly do to address housing shortages and affordability in Sitka?
I do not support it for now. This was a hard decision, I admit I was torn. In the end I felt like it was not the time for it because it did not allow any movement. A number of short term rentals fall off the books every year, in fact we are still not back to the number of them we had in 2019. I could see putting a cap on the number of short term rentals, but not flat moratorium. Too many people in Sitka use short term rentals as a way to make their house affordable.
Really the only way we are going to make a dent in housing in Sitka is to get more land on the market. I am working now on a plan to ask the state for capital funds to help pay for the cost of getting utilities to some of the land the city owns so we can get it on the market.
We can also do what I call whittle around the edges. We have made a good start by doing things like reducing setbacks and some other planning a zoning moves. We can do things like encourage apartments in houses by doing things like offering property tax relief for those units if they do not make them short term housing. We just need to be open to all ideas. Every little bit helps.
Energy and Infrastructure:
Sitka is carrying roughly $118 million in debt for the Blue Lake Dam expansion. But at the current rate of growth, including the expansion of Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center on Japonski Island, its estimated that the city could reach the limit of its hydroelectric capacity in 10 years.
What steps should the assembly take to make sure Sitka has sufficient energy infrastructure, while managing the city’s debt?
Tourism:
This year brought an unprecedented number of cruise passengers to Sitka. In anticipation of the record-breaking year, the assembly directed the planning commission to draft a short-term tourism plan months before the first ships docked this summer. Some of the most visible responses from the city include the closure of Lincoln Street on high traffic days, and installation of temporary bathrooms (Link to the full plan here).
What steps should the assembly take next to address the influx of tourism into the future?
The first thing we need to do is look at the last year. We are already set to do this this fall. In fact, doing that was part of the plan. This was the first season with this many people and we frankly did not have much time to plan for it. The expansion of the dock came a surprise to just about everyone.
We need to look at what worked, what did not, and how we can make changes to make things better. We are very limited in our ability to control the amount of people that come in either direction. We can however control how the people are moved around, and we do have funds from state tourism tax to make those moves. The legal restrictions on how we spend those funds make doing anything that does not directly result from the tourists hard to spend on things that are just for Sitkans, but we can look for things that benefit both groups.
Policy:
Is there an issue or proposal you want to bring to the table that the assembly hasn’t yet considered?
I would like to see more city land available for housing. This will not be easy, and we will have to look for help from the state/feds for funding the infostructure I am willing to put the work in. If we could open a large area in the benchlands for instance, we could have mixture of housing types that would benefit a large number of Sitkans. Maybe we could get the Sitka Community land trust involved.
By having the city involve in the planning of lots we put on the market we can realize benefits for more people than only relying on private developers.
Listen to our initial interview with Thor Christianson here
