The Sitka Assembly has postponed a decision on whether to provide $275,000 in additional funding for Visit Sitka, the contractor that provides the city’s visitor services, until its next meeting.
The city pays the Sitka Chamber of Commerce around $575,000 a year – about half of that is “supplemental funding.” This year, the assembly initially withheld the supplemental money, as it discussed putting the contract out to bid in a “request for proposals’ or RFP.
When the Sitka Assembly met on Tuesday (6-11-24), Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz suggested they provide the supplemental money through the end of the calendar year to free Visit Sitka from budget uncertainty, while the group continues to consider how to update the contract.
“I feel like in order to support our business community, in order to keep things going as is right now, until the business community blows up our doors saying that Visit Sitka isn’t working for them, I would support the full funding amount through December,” Eisenbeisz said. “And if the assembly is unwilling or unable to do an RFP in the short amount of time, then the full funding, the $575,000 that they had asked for.”
Assembly member JJ Carlson said she still supported the assembly drafting a new contract and soliciting bids for providing the city’s visitors services.
“A lot has changed and transpired in the visitor industry over the last 10 to 15 years when we took a deep dive at this contract,” Carlson said. “When we discussed it a couple of months ago, we were seemingly an agreement as a group to continue to look into it, and I think now is the time for for us to reach a decision on them that point.”
Assembly member Chris Ystad said he wanted to hold off on a contract deep dive until the city hires a tourism manager- a brand new city staff position this summer. At that time, he thought roles might be redefined, which would help them shape a new contract.
“I’m not like, unhappy with Visit Sitka and the way they’re performing,” Ystad said. “They produce a lot of really great stuff that helps out, and they’re doing what we want them to do. So I’m not unhappy by any means. [But] I think things might be redefined here shortly with taking on a new tourism manager internally.”
With two assembly members absent, the group decided to continue the discussion at the next meeting when it will consider a funding appropriation to provide Visit Sitka with supplemental funding through the end of the calendar year.
In other business…
The Sitka Assembly awarded several fisheries enhancement grants at its regular meeting last night, splitting the available funds evenly between the three organizations that applied.
The Fisheries Enhancement Fund was established in 2006. Since then, a percent of fish box tax revenue collected from charter fishing customers is reserved to fund projects that are intended to bolster local fisheries. This year, the city had just under $48,000 available from the fund to disburse.
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association requested $20,000 for the Young Fishermen’s Initiative, a mentor program for aspiring commercial fishermen. The Sitka Sound Science Center requested just under $28,000 to support its hatchery operations. And the Sitka Tribe of Alaska requested $24,000 to support continued operation of the Redoubt Lake sockeye salmon weir.
Since the three requests, in total, exceeded the available money, assembly member Kevin Mosher suggested they split the funding evenly. The assembly unanimously approved the funding plan on first reading, awarding just under $16,000 each to ALFA, the science center, and Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
