Mayoral candidates faced off for the first time on Friday (9-13-24) in a forum held by the Sitka Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber’s candidate forums typically focus on issues of interest to the local business community- topping the list this year were childcare, workforce housing, and the visitor industry. 

Perhaps the most pressing and divisive issue the assembly will continue to grapple with from various angles is how the city continues to respond to increased tourism. But incumbent Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz does not support putting a cruise limit question out to voters, he said that’s largely due to the legal risk.

“Right now, the more that I’ve thought about this, I’ve realized that I have a fiduciary duty to the city, and if I was to put that ballot on there and then get sued, I think I’m in question of my fiduciary duty to the to the city,” he said. “I’ve also realized that industry, and I’m not talking cruise industry, but I think local businesses that are a member of the Chamber would sue. So that’s that’s an issue to me.”

His challenger, Leah Mason, felt it was time to put a ballot initiative out to the voters to decide, comparing it to a previous failed initiative to charge a fee for plastic bags in Sitka.  

“I think that that the community has been largely pushed out of this conversation, and it’s time that they did, and they can vote as to whether they want to take on that challenge,” Mason said.

Eisenbeisz is seeking his third term as Sitka’s mayor. Before that he served two terms as an assembly member. This is the first time Mason has run for public office, but she has served on several local committees and is the current president of Transition Sitka. 

Mason and Eisenbeisz also answered questions about how the city can work to alleviate the housing crisis, what the assembly can do to support the fishing industry and community garden initiative, and whether the candidates would support funding for a new police building.  They also discussed what the assembly could do to address the impact of the childcare shortage on Sitka’s workforce.

Mason said the response would really depend on what the community wanted from its childcare.

“If we go back to the past, we are looking at potentially licensing more people to take care of children in homes, that would free up people for the workforce. It would also employ more people,” Mason said. “However, if what you want is adequate preparation for schools, then you’re looking at a very different situation. How we want to go about sorting out what works for us again needs to be bigger than the small group of people who are trying to solve it.”

Eisenbeisz said the community at large should have a discussion about whether it wants to use some general fund money to subsidize childcare.

“Unfortunately, child care will need to be subsidized in order to continue at a rate that the community needs,” Eisenbeisz said. “Teachers don’t get paid well enough to do the job that they do, and you can’t charge enough tuition in order to pay those teachers, because then you wouldn’t have anyone in schools either.” 

Eisenbeisz and Mason spent just over an hour answering questions from the Chamber’s moderator and the audience. You can listen back to the full forum here.