The assembly set aside $4 million last night (9-24-24) for the public infrastructure sinking fund– that’s money that will go toward future infrastructure projects.
City finance director Melissa Haley said to keep the fund steady, the assembly could transfer up to $7 million into the fund, but the city administrator suggested holding some money back, anticipating the costs of some current city projects may be creeping upwards.
“John [Leach] did have concerns that we might need some additional funding this year, particularly on some of our big, federally funded capital projects, we might need some additional funding to meet inflation costs. So we’ve had had, for example, our sea wall project. It’s it’s looking like those costs have increased,” Haley said.
Assembly member Kevin Mosher said the opportunity to transfer this money into reserves speaks to the economic activity that the community is experiencing as a result of increased cruise visitation.
“Sometimes it’s a real pain, downtown sometimes in summer, but it pays off,” Mosher said. “For me personally, I always want to try to do everything we can to make to meet the needs of the city without adding too much of a tax burden, keep the cost of government as low as possible. I see this as a way to do that.”
Assembly member Thor Christianson said while $4 million dollars sounds like a lot of money, it’s a small step when compared to the anticipated cost of future city projects.
“A lot of this is going to be used to leverage federal funding and a little bit of state funding and things like that,” Christianson said. “We’re making some progress, but we got a long ways to go, and it’s not unusual for us to have a surplus, you know, to but we definitely need to keep working away and kill a few alligators, figuratively.”
The assembly unanimously approved the $4 million transfer into the public infrastructure sinking fund. That money will be available for capital projects beginning in Fiscal Year 26.
In other business…
After months of searching, Sitka finally has a new municipal attorney. The Sitka Assembly approved the contract for Rachel Jones at its regular meeting last night.
Jones is a former Sitka magistrate. She attended the UC Berkeley School of Law, and has practiced law in Alaska and California. More recently she worked as the program manager for the Sitka Community Land Trust.
Human Resources director Josh Branthoover thanked the assembly for the role they played in the search for candidates.
After a nationwide search, we found our best candidate close to home, Rachel has been professional, courteous, timely and thorough at each step of the hiring process. As the CBS human resources director, I look forward to working with Rachel and supporting her as she takes on this vital role,” Branthoover said.
Jones’ salary will start at just over $162,000. The assembly approved Jones’ contract unanimously.
